>Introduction to Intercepts, In-person Interviews and CAPI
>Intercepts, In-person Interviews and CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviews) are conducted by interviewers going to locations where respondents are apt to be found, and requesting their participation. They are commonly used to gather data from respondents that would be difficult to find by any other method. Common examples include customers of specific restaurants and stores, or a businessperson in a trade show. Intercepts are often conducted in malls where it is easy to find potential respondents and easy to visually screen potential respondents by age or other characteristics.
CAPI or manually collected intercept surveys can often be fielded quickly. It is relatively easy to gather national data using the large number of available field service locations. Since intercepts are in person, almost anything can be tested: visual communications, video, and even food taste and texture. However, people are generally less patient in person than by other modes of surveying, so intercept surveys are generally shorter than other types of surveys and the amount of information you collect is less.
For more complex information gathering, it is common to screen a respondent then invite him/her to an adjacent facility for more precise interviewing. Intercepts can be completed on either paper forms that are data entered at a later time or with laptop/handheld computers.
Go to the Respondents
If you want to know what customers think about a specific location, you can randomly select a sample and screen people based on if they have visited that location. But a much easier way to conduct the research is to go to the location and survey respondents there. This is especially true when you are dealing with difficult to find respondents or a small number of people.
The Problems with in-person Interviews
When surveys are conducted out in the field, it is more difficult to monitor and control the quality of interviewing. So it is important to verify the quality of the data that is collected. Costs are also a consideration. The cost of project management, on-site interviewing and respondent incentives are generally higher than for other methods, making this approach relatively costly.
Finally, this approach can be intrusive since respondents are interrupted and asked to participate. Generally, people don’t like to be solicited in person while they go about their business. So, this type of data collection must be done carefully, especially if your company’s name is associated with the survey.
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If would like to conduct in-person interviews, but don’t have the capacity to send interviews around to different locations, there are plenty of companies around the country who specialize in this type of data collection. Every major (and probably minor) city in the US will have a facility who can collect this type of data for your company. Many have multiple locations in different cities if you need some sort of national representation.
