Establishing a comfort level
Editor's note: Jim Eschrich is president of Catalyst Qualitative Services, Inc., Lenexa, Kan.
There are a lot of interesting new ways to engage research respondents. Many seem as attractive as a shiny new toy, and can bring variety to the moderator growing weary of repetition, and in need of stimulus.
But the fact remains that establishing and maintaining rapport is the foundation upon which all interactive research is based. It is the most important aspect of a moderator's job.
Basically consumer research involves conversing freely with people. It is all too often focused on subjects that normal people don't talk about in their everyday life. The moderator's job is to unearth attitudes, values, motivations, and behaviors in relation to certain subjects - often in spite of respondents' contention that they've never thought about it, they have no opinions, or they have nothing of value to report.
Rapport is the medium that makes research work. A moderator develops a free and easy sense of discourse about anything with respondents. These strangers meet and are helped to a common ground through the ease of rapport. In a comfortable, non-threatening, lively place, they can talk about anything at all - about sausage, insurance, tires, baked goods, magazines.
Rapport means a relationship marked by harmony, accord, or affinity. It comes from the French word rapporter, meaning to bring back, and, more remotely, from the Latin aportare, meaning to carry. Its etymology offers an interesting root word metaphor that ties rapport to bridge-building, creating back-and-forth, reciprocal relationships through external support.
In research the moderator is the bridge builder, and rapport is the bridge between people's everyday lives and the client's business interest. Sometimes it seems like helping people hop over a stream; sometimes it's like a tri-span trestle in a strong wind.
One fallacy, in my opinion, is that rapport either exists or it doesn't - there's really nothing the moderator can do. Not true. There's a lot a moderator can and should do. This may be obvious to regular practitioners, but it doesn't hurt to preach to the choir about the ways and means to establish and maintain rapport with respondents.
Here are some things that I do, as I focus on rapport.
Warm up
Ask personal questions during warm-up. Get to know them as people first, then as consumers. Ask about their kids, applaud their anniversaries or birthdays. Inquire about the schools they attend, the courses they're taking. Get personal. Also follow up on a statement by a respondent. I recall a woman who simply said she was a computer software programmer, taking college courses at night. I asked what field she was studying. Only then did she reveal that she was studying to be a teacher, an ambition that she had always harbored. She was three years into the program, and was planning on a complete career change when she graduated the following year. This revelation went a long way toward modeling open disclosure and comfort in personal discussion.
Include yourself
By the same token, it helps to include personal information in the first round of introductions. If you expect revelations from them, you should reveal a bit about yourself. I usually say where I'm from, that I'm married for 10 years, and that I have two girls aged eight and four and reside in Kansas City. If I've asked for some background information that I expect from them, I'll reveal it as well - whether I've been in a hospital recently, or bought a new car, or whatever single fact that I've used as an ice breaker. It's a simple method, but it breaks down the artificial barrier between moderator and respondent.
Ask for help
Don't be afraid to ask respondents for assistance in the process of the research. It helps rapport if they're up and moving around, and feel comfortable in the space. Ask them to pass out stimulus, keep time, pin things to the wall, or take notes. This small involvement opens the two-way involvement in the relationship.
Getting help can also keep it light. You are often unfamiliar with the local community and its attractions - ask advice, be a tourist, request help. Putting yourself in a dependent relationship gives respondents a sense of knowledge, confidence, and leadership that may ease the transfer to the topic at hand.
Check for comfort
Make sure that respondents are physically comfortable. Inquire if the temperature in the room is adequate; get soft drinks, pass around cookies. Allow respondents to move chairs so they are relaxed without interfering with others. The key is to ask and then do something about it - adjust the temperature, close the curtains, or whatever is appropriate.
Raise topics
Raise topics for discussion in addition to asking probing questions. Saying "Tell me about..." gives the respondent a chance to frame an answer in his or her own experience. The response can be a story, a personal experience, an attitude, advice, or a thought. It's open-ended and simply invites discourse, rather than being pointed and confrontational. Questions are important, but when initially raising an unfamiliar topic, they may seem confining. Respondents sometimes seem to feel that there are right or wrong answers to questions, and so they hesitate to embarrass themselves. There is no judgment associated with "Tell me about..." It's simply curiosity and inquisitiveness.
Join the group
Feel free to sit among the respondents, becoming one of them. It can break down the formality of the situation to take an empty seat next to someone talking as you move about the room. This simple act can go far to break down the artificial barriers between the strangers in the room.
Listen
Listen to the content of their comments, and reference things respondents have said by name. "Fred, wasn't it you who said that you had a good experience with Fleck Insurance?" Nothing shows that you are actively listening more than playing back specific content to the person who said it - for clarification, or as a counterpoint.
Also, listen to all they say. There may be important signals in a preface like "I'm not sure, but..." before an explanation. You might focus on the preface and explore - "Joan, you began with the phrase, 'I'm not sure.' That interests me. What part of this are you unsure about? What could someone do to reassure you?"
Encourage and protect
Encourage and protect respondents who dare to stray from consensus. Often in our warm-ups we encourage diversity of opinion. It's a lot to ask of a group of unfamiliar strangers who aren't there to be confrontational (well, they're not all there to be confrontational - some usually fill that role to the hilt!). They're not there to be criticized or ignored. We are asking them to step out of the bounds of normal propriety and stick to their guns on an unpopular opinion rather than safely staying quiet. This can be the most important aspect of rapport-building, and the trickiest. It takes special tact to encourage diversity of opinions. Sometimes I look for body language - if I see someone slightly shaking their head, or looking down, or somehow sending a signal that they do not agree with what others are saying, I'll pursue it: "Mary, you look like you may disagree. Do you have a different point of view?" Even if Mary agrees, you've given credibility to other opinions, and you've validated your initial request for unique points of view.
Lighten up
Lighten things up with humor. Laughter is energy. It goes a long way to helping break the ice and pick up the pace. Encourage humor from others, and enjoy yourself as well. Self-deprecating humor can be more successful than focusing on any of the respondents.
Use body language
Show that you're interested in what they're saying. Reinforce the importance of each person's contribution by the way you hold and position yourself. Lean forward, nod your head, turn your entire body toward the speaker, giving them your full attention.
It's about the subject matter
One caveat: It's not all about you, it's about the subject matter. You're the bridge-builder to get to their values and attitudes; you shouldn't color the content. The tips and checkpoints for rapport that I've presented above are not meant as a means to focus on the moderator. Rather, the intention is always to focus on the subject at hand, to gather the right respondents in a comfortable environment to reveal obvious and discover not-so-obvious, subtle opinions and reactions. It's a human interchange, and the best way to conduct a realistic interchange is to be human yourself. Involve yourself, engage yourself, listen actively, encourage dissent, focus on results, and enjoy the process.
With effective rapport, you can often watch the discussion take on a life and energy of its own. Some of the peak moments in moderating for me have been without me - watching a group manage itself, and carry on a pointed, energetic, focused conversation about the subject. All I have to do is keep them on schedule and get them out on time.
The bottom line: research is better when people are talking to someone who cares, someone they can trust, someone with whom they have a sense of rapport.