Interview/Focus Group 'Housekeeping': What to Include

Make sure people know they are being recorded

The software does make it obvious that recording is occurring and in most cases participants are told that they will be part of a recorded interview or focus group as part of the recruiting process.  It is however important to reiterate this before an interview or focus group as a final compliance.

Recommend everyone muting 

Muting has become standard in most online meetings.  Things like feedback/echoing and background noise from participant houses are greatly reduced when participants mute.  In order to make sure everyone knows how to mute and unmute, it is recommended that you have people mute before introductions and then practice muting and unmuting themselves before the group or interview gets into full swing.

If you do not want people to mute their lines when not speaking,  the best thing to do is request that people use headphones.  When people are not using headphones what can happen is that the microphone on a webcam/computer can pick up speaker sounds on the same computer and produce an echo.  The best way to prevent this is to have everyone in the group use headphones.

Tell people how to reach the help desk

Every group has a '?' (question mark) button in the navigation pane.  Clicking this button gives the tech support options available to that group or interview.  Groups/interviews with concierge support will have a support desk member in the activity already and when this is clicked they can direct message that support person. 

If there is no support person assigned then the participants get the following options when clicking this button:

• Live Support - this is a link that takes you to our support chat where you can type to a support desk member
• The phone numbers that they can call in to reach the help desk
• The [e-mail] email address