Editor’s note: Pam Bruns is vice president, client services in the Chicago office of Ottawa-based Opinion Search.

As marketers race headlong into the global marketplace, researchers are finding themselves ever more drawn into familiar activities in unfamiliar lands. At the same time, U.S. researchers are commanded to do more with less, to create greater value for budgets that, in many cases, are barely sufficient to cover the basics. So what’s a researcher to do? Go to the source!

International/in-language telephone interviewing doesn’t have to be a frightening proposition. You just have to know a little about what you’re doing. Here are some things to consider and discuss with potential vendors that will help ensure that you have both a successful and a pleasant experience on your next (or first) in-language project.

What is the vendor’s experience with in-language interviewing? Find out how many in-language studies they’ve completed and in how many languages they regularly interview. Listen for things like specific languages in which they can interview. Let’s say that you are fielding a study in South America and the project includes Brazil. Do they proudly say that they can handle Spanish interviewing? Or, worse yet, “Brazilian?” Or do they know immediately that Portuguese is the spoken language in Brazil?

Does the vendor use second-language or native-speaking interviewers? Native speakers are what you want because they bring not just language skills but an understanding of the culture of these respondents.

Understanding the culture is critical. For instance, in the U.S., it’s customary to use an assumptive approach, launching straight into the introduction following “hello” and rolling directly through the introduction to the first question. However, in other countries, this is considered tremendously boorish. One does not simply take what they want. They say “hello” and perhaps even engage in a moment of small talk before asking for the respondent’s cooperation. While this may seem time-consuming, it’s the approach that works best in many countries. It’s also part of the reason why in-language interviews tend to run about 10 percent longer than the same interview conducted in English.

Likewise, there are gatekeeper issues to be considered even in consumer work. In Arab countries, for instance, it’s not uncommon for the man of the family to have to approve contact with female family members. While, again, this can slow down the interviewing process, a vendor who doesn’t understand this is not going to be successful in their attempts to interview respondents.

Finally, culture can direct questions. For instance, if you’re doing an elevator (lift) study in the U.K., you might not consider asking your questions of people who live or work on the first floor. However, what we know as the first floor is called the ground floor there. Their first floor is actually our second, so you’d be cutting out relevant respondents. Having native-speaking interviewers on a survey can help catch issues like this before analysis (or, worse yet, your client) schools you!

Does the vendor use a “one size fits all” approach? Are all Spanish-speaking interviewers put on all jobs with respondents who speak Spanish? Or does the vendor recognize the critical importance of dialects, accents and idioms?

Let’s just accept the fact that Hebrew, spoken with an Italian accent, or German, spoken with an Indian accent, is not pretty. Understand, too, that many Puerto Ricans do not respond well when approached by Cubanos.

But there’s a deeper reason for using region-appropriate interviewers. Take, for instance, the common Spanish words coger (to catch), pisar (to step on) and concha (seashell). Each of these has a vulgar meaning in Latin America. And, even if the translation isn’t vulgar, differing translations can obscure meaning and lead to unclear feedback from respondents. For instance, if you use the word coche in Spain or Central Mexico, they will understand that you are asking about an automobile. However, most other Spanish speakers will take your meaning as “baby stroller.” Clearly, this would be a bad thing if you’re interviewing about automotive tires and get responses on stroller tires.

To make the importance of dialects and idioms easier to understand, let’s look at an English-language example. If you were in England and a colleague said to you, “Fancy a shant?” you’d know exactly what they were talking about, right? Would it help if they asked you this at 5 p.m. on a Friday? Or would you just go back to your hotel and miss happy hour altogether?

My point is that even when you speak the same language there are idioms that can color or even obscure meaning. When meaning is unclear, what do researchers do? We probe and clarify, of course. But what are the odds of getting to the real reason behind a respondent’s comment if you don’t even understand the comment to begin with? If an Englishman claims to be “chuffed,” an Aussie ends a long complaint about poor service with “but she’ll be apples,” or a Canadian says “Bob’s your uncle” as part of his/her response, wouldn’t it be better to have an interviewer on the line who understands what the respondent is talking about so that the probing and clarifying is done on issues of importance to your client and her marketing efforts? The same is true for dialects, accents and idioms in nearly any language.

Who does their translations and what method is employed for this? The most certain way I know of to get solid translations that will meet your needs is to do two things: One, use a native-speaking translator from the same region as that in which you’ll be interviewing. And two, do a back-and-forth. In other words, have one translator translate the survey into the appropriate language and have a second, equally-qualified translator who has never seen the original instrument translate it back to English. If what you get back meets your informational needs, you’re good to go. If not, well, back to the drawing board. Is this an expensive way to go, translating twice? Yes. But it’s the single most effective way to ensure that your meaning translates and respondents are answering the questions you’d intended to ask them.

What are their monitoring and supervisory practices on this type of project? If they don’t immediately volunteer that they have in-language staff handling this work, run! Never are you more vulnerable to the standards, practices and ethics of your supplier than when you can’t monitor the interviews yourself. And, unless you’re multilingual, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to handle this function personally - which makes it even more critical that someone who speaks the language is acting as an ombudsman for you in this regard. Think about it, would you field out a study in English if you were unable to monitor/supervise and the vendor would not do it for you? Of course not! So why drop your standards simply because the interviewing is being conducted in a different language?

Lose control

When you do not speak the language(s) in which the interviews are being conducted, you lose control. Make up for that loss by selecting a vendor that gives you the greatest degree of control, information and transparency. Ensure that you and your vendor share a common language and common standards. And, perhaps most importantly, while international interviewing definitely brings with it its own set of unique challenges, don’t assume that you have to drop your standards to accomplish the project.