COVID-19

A Call to Arms. Deciphering the Language of Limbs

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A Guide to Conducting Research in the Age of Covid-19: Part 5

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D./CEO

You open your front door to retrieve the newspaper at daybreak, and as you look down at the welcome mat where it is usually waiting—you sense something hurtling at high speed toward your head. Without thinking, your arms raise like Shaq and block it. Thwack! The tardy paperboy just threw a Hail Mary right at your noggin. Hmm…maybe it’s time to go digital.

But I digress. Despite being our external defenders, arms can carry on quite a conversation too. In our last blog, “Talking Torsos and Other Noisy Body Parts: How to Decipher Body Language Below the Neck”, we provided 10 tips on how decode Torso Talk. Today, limbs have the limelight.

Joe Navarro indicates that there is much to detect when you observe arms. Among them:

  1. STIFF ARMS: A clear sign of tension.
  2. CROSSED ARMS: Not necessarily blocking behavior, but often a form of pacification.
  3. CROSSED ARMS WITH PRESSED FINGERS: Sometimes people grip and squeeze their upper arms in an attempt to deal with stress.
  4. PARTIAL ARM BARRIER: Grabbing one arm and crossing the torso is either an attempt to maintain distance or a sign of insecurity.
  5. ARMPIT EXPOSURE: A sign of comfort (could be risky behavior in balmy environs).
  6. ARM SPREADING: Bosses are famous for placing their arms on or over the arms of their chair – a territorial display and sign of confidence.
  7. NODDING WITH CROSSED ARMS: An attempt to curb their enthusiasm. This is not necessarily bad news; this person just needs more time to cogitate.
  8. ELATION/TRIUMPH DISPLAYS: When their teams score, fans instinctively raise their hands in a gravity-defying display of elation. We don’t need to be told to do this. Arms up in the air is a good sign.[2]
  9. CROSSED ARMS/HEAD LEANED BACK: If you see someone respond to your proposal in a closed body position with folded arms and their head leaned back, this means no.
  10. ELBOWS ON THE ARMS OF A CHAIR: Placing one’s elbows on or over the arms of a chair is another sign of comfort.

 

Now that the arms have articulated, their Southern cousins want in on the act.  You guessed it. Those hammy hands. Stay tuned for our next blog on what a person’s hands can convey.

As a body language master and qualitative moderator, I can tell you that in-person interviewing yields significantly more information than remote methods for those who can decipher the cues, but phone and video remain powerful alternatives for quickly collecting many types of data—especially now.

Download our more in-depth comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of remote interviewing.For additional information on COVID-19 visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Coronavirus information page.

Most Communication is Nonverbal. Are you fluent?

[2]Joe Navarro. “The Dictionary of Body Language.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-dictionary-of-body-language/id1281489160

Even During a Pandemic, No Man is an Island: How Remote Interviewing is Helping Clients (and Saving Market Research)

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A Guide to Conducting Research in the Age of Covid-19: Part 2

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D./CEO

In our last blog “Now is Not the Time for Radio Silence with your Customers” we posited that now is the time to reach out to your customers.  Like a well-designed questionnaire, our Covid-19 blog series will move from the general to the specific regarding the conduct of research in today’s environment. Our focus today is remote interviewing.

So, your exploratory focus group study that was planned for May just got canceled. Your ad agency just finished the campaign executions that you were going to test via one-on-one in-person, in-depth interviews, but now all of the focus group venues you planned to visit are closed.

(Expletive deleted)! Now what?

Fortunately, there are a variety of excellent remote qualitative interviewing methods that have been appropriately and successfully used for many years. Pigeonholed by some as alternative low-budget data collection methods for those who can’t afford to fly moderators around, these services now are the lifeblood of the market research industry. Ironically, these non-traditional qualitative platforms have earned newfound respect for keeping qualitative research very much alive (and powerful!) these days. And with the newest video tools now available, you don’t lose important body language signals in responses (assuming you have a high bandwidth connection).

As a body language master and qualitative moderator, I can tell you that in-person interviewing yields significantly more information than remote methods for those who can decipher the cues, but phone and video remain powerful alternatives for quickly collecting many types of data—especially now.

Conducting qualitative research remotely via the popular virtual platforms shown below can yield an amazing depth of context for many of your objectives.

Collecting information via these platforms provide the following benefits:

  • Lower cost than in-person
  • Unlimited geographical reach
  • Improved feasibility
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Better response/show rates
  • Live video feed
  • More organic respondent experience
  • Real-time communication
  • Limitless, geographically-dispersed observers
  • Expedited project timelines
  • Digital stimuli
  • Unobtrusive note-taking
  • Mitigation of “group think”
  • Unlimited recording/transcribing

 

Of course, there are tradeoffs with any type of methodology. Such is the case with remote interviewing. For example, it may be more difficult, if not impossible to read facial micro-expressions and other body language cues with choppy internet service. However, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages of utilizing this approach.

Download our more in-depth comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of remote interviewing.

Stay tuned for our next blog on what you can learn from someone’s voice during phone interviews or video chats.

For additional information on COVID-19 visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Coronavirus information page.

Now is NOT the Time for Radio Silence with your Customers

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A Guide to Conducting Research in the Age of Covid-19: Part 1

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D.

As companies continue to grapple with Covid-19, the market research industry has hit a brick wall. Like a beachball at a rock concert, the fundamental question now being bandied about in global market research departments is “should we be conducting research during a pandemic?”

The answer is yes. And no.

As focus group facilities and UX labs sit empty and idle, quantitative, web-based research is still being conducted. But should it? And, if so, under what circumstances?

Recent communications from sample suppliers indicate that survey response rates are up over 10% for studies currently in the field. Generally that would be good news. But like the rest of us, consumer and B2B research participants have been fundamentally altered by this pandemic—so, would their opinions be different now than prior to this catastrophe? Most likely. Why does this matter? If you are conducting studies involving normative data, for example—these types of studies would likely result in analytical blips.  For example, right now is probably not the best time to ask why a consumer would purchase one brand over another, as supplies are constrained, and channels exist in a somewhat altered state.  Given this, it is likely better to wait the virus out than to collect this type of information.

On the other hand, now is also the time to be reaching out to your customers. Why? Because their working environments have radically changed for the foreseeable future. Their decision-making processes, needs, purchase barriers, mindset, and the way they use products have all morphed. Case in point? Zoom; the company is struggling to serve unanticipated meteoric demand as the consumer platform of choice for social distancing mitigation, not to mention distance learning plans across the nation.

As Geoffrey Moore, Chairman Emeritus at our partners, The Chasm Group, has advised, never waste a crisis. Other clients have taken notice and are now asking their customers the following:

  1. How has your environment suddenly changed?
  2. What are the new or increased challenges you are facing due to the current situation?
  3. Will this change how suppliers are evaluated and chosen?
  4. How have service and product needs changed and how can they best be served now?
  5. How, if at all, has your brand been affected?
  6. Who is losing or gaining share of mind?
  7. What are the new services and or products that have suddenly emerged as needs to be filled?
  8. To what extent do you expect these changes to remain once this crisis has run its course?

 

To this end, here is how we are serving our existing customers during this ever-evolving crisis:

  1. Telephone interviews with existing customers to provide rapid feedback
  2. Web-based surveys designed to understand changing environments and perceptions
  3. Mixed-mode research to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative feedback
  4. Creating communities or advisory feedback systems for ongoing checkpoints and discussions

 

As a body language master and qualitative moderator, I can tell you that in-person interviewing yields significantly more information than remote methods, but phone and video remain powerful alternatives for quickly collecting many types of data—especially now.

Merrill Research provided critical data and guidance for clients during the Semiconductor and Home PC Meltdown (1985-1986), the 1990-1991 Recession, the Early 2000’s Recession, and The Great Recession (2007-2009). We can help your company stay agile during these uncertain times. Contact Merrill Research today. Stay safe.

Stay tuned for our next blog on remote interviewing techniques available during these challenging times.

For additional information on COVID-19 visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Coronavirus information page.

Qualitative Market Research and COVID-19

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M&M’s are out. Purell is In.

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D.

As a supplier of face-to-face qualitative research for more than three decades, we have yet to see anything make owners and managers of focus group facilities and UX labs cringe as much as COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Some of our clients are nervous, too. During these times, businesses are doing double duty helping their employees and clients remain reasonably safe while still remaining productive.  

To help one of our clients, we put together a remote interviewing readiness plan that essentially addresses the pros and cons of conducting research in-person versus on the phone. We decided to share it, in hopes that others find it as useful as our client did.

Staying Prepared During COVID-19

While many of you may already know about remote qualitative interviewing solutions, we wanted to share this with those who may be wondering how research can be conducted in times like these. Fortunately, there is much that can be done to save or start projects that involve face-to-face interviewing. Investments in qualitative research such as new product development, strategic communications, and countless other objectives can be salvaged or initiated with these approaches. More on that later, but first a look at the COVID-19 readiness of our go-to recruiters across the country.

We called upon or heard from a variety of US focus group facilities and UX labs to assess their COVID-19 readiness in an informal poll. While the facilities we work with have always been good about sanitization after face-to-face sessions—they have doubled down on making sure their facilities are super sanitized. Here are a few of their efforts:

  • Heightened sanitization practices and associated facility/lab staff training per CDC recommendations
  • Increased participant incentives to help stave off cancellations
  • Hospital gloves used when cleaning and handling food
  • Serving only food that is individually wrapped—nothing communal like bowls of M&M’s
  • Masks provided for clients upon request

 

While most facilities and labs report business as usual, exceptions are typically due to travel bans. When these bans impact clients, the result is often postponement of research sessions.  At this point, travel bans have impacted clients based in Asia more than those in Europe. And when travel bans impact moderators, local moderators have been stepping in to conduct sessions while their grounded counterparts observe via video conferencing.

What we’re seeing at Merrill Research, is that facilities and their clients are pivoting to other forms of data collection. Most notably: telephone interviews/audits/surveys, virtual/remote focus groups or online bulletin boards, and online surveys.

Still Gathering Quality Information Even if it’s not In-Person

As a body language master and qualitative moderator, I can tell you that in-person interviewing yields significantly more information than remote methods, but phone and video are excellent alternatives for collecting many types of data—especially now.

So, what can you learn from a person’s voice alone? Plenty.

  1. Tone of voice can indicate anger, frustration, surprise or happiness
  2. Audible sounds such as gasps can signal fear or exhaling can signal stress
  3. Pregnant pauses can indicate uncertainty or deception (depending on context)
  4. When a person’s voice becomes high-pitched it can signal discomfort, anger or deception (again, depending on context)
  5. Uptalk (ending sentences as though they are questions), can signal lack of confidence or uncertainty

 

Download our PDF for an overview of remote/virtual methods of collecting information remotely in the current environment.

Meanwhile, let’s all hope the worst thing that happens to the state of in-person qualitative research is that millions of M&Ms go stale. For additional information on COVID-19 visit the CDC Site.

Merrill Research.