Whether it’s a car crash (hopefully of the non-injurious variety) or some awkward moment captured in a reality TV show, disasters of any scale are hard to look away from. In the world of marketing research, focus groups offer the most opportunities for things to go compellingly wrong. The act of gathering a bunch of strangers together in a room for a few hours of conversation is fraught with potential problems. Personality conflicts, participant inattention and plain old chaos (no, I’m not referring to the goings on in the back room) are just a few of the bugaboos that can rear their heads during the group interview process.

How to handle difficult focus group respondent types and the unrest they cause is the subject of Robert Kahle’s book Dominators, Cynics, and Wallflowers. In this slim (134-page) but substantive volume, Kahle counsels readers on what to do if they suddenly find themselves faced with potentially problematic participants.

Interspersed in his concise explication of the various troublesome respondent types are real-life examples from veteran moderators of Groups Gone Bad that make the book hard to put down. (These anecdotes are called War Stories. Hmm…where do you suppose the idea for that title came from?) Respondents brandishing guns, drunken doctors, Phil the joker - these are just some of the characters whose exploits are detailed in the book. Following each tale are helpful tips on how to defuse the aforementioned situation.

Six of the types Kahle discusses are sometimes difficult: Wallflowers, Followers, Co-Moderators, Blatherers, Proselytizers and Jokers. Four are always problems: Dominators, Cynics, Hostiles and Intoxicateds. While bad seeds like the Intoxicateds or the Hostiles might be easy to spot right away, the others won’t make themselves apparent until after the discussion has started. For some types, the ever-popular “Participant X, you have a phone call” trick is the best way to remove the offending person from the group. But for most others, the moderator has to find a way to roll with the (hopefully proverbial) punches. Group dynamics being the fragile things they are, the moderator who is burdened with a disruptive participant faces a difficult task. You need to shut down that person, or at least lessen their impact, without coming off as a bully or otherwise casting a pall on the rest of the proceedings.

Kahle draws from his own and other moderators’ experience to offer ways to handle problem respondents, suggesting statements the moderator can make to the group and ways to use body language to help take away the respondent’s power to disrupt. If faced with a Blatherer, for example, Kahle suggests using the following to address the group: “We have a lot to cover today, so I will act like a traffic cop trying to keep our discussion moving and focused. If I cut you off, please understand that I mean no disrespect, but am just trying to stay on topic and let all of you have a chance to voice your opinions.”

So effortless

Good moderators are like professional golfers in that they make things look so effortless. Just as weekend duffers see golf pros and think they could wield a 7-iron with the same flair as Phil Mickelson, a lot of marketers watch a skilled moderator in action and think to themselves, “How hard can moderating be? Any idiot can do it!” Well, as Kahle’s book shows, only an idiot would think it’s easy to keep a focus group moving constructively forward while covering each of the client’s discussion topics, handling missives from the back room and identifying and neutralizing problem respondents.  

 

Dominators, Cynics, and Wallflowers (134 pages; $34.95), by Robert Kahle, is published by Paramount Market Publishing (www.paramountbooks.com ). Readers who buy the book through Paramount also receive a set of six laminated 6x9-inch reference cards listing the various problem respondent types and strategies for dealing with them.