Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
By Michelle van Schouwen
Focus groups are fantastic for getting insights from potential customers or stakeholders. If you are introducing a product, creating a logo, or changing your business strategy, vetting your ideas with a group of “real people” is a definite plus. In the past, focus groups were typically done in research centers or at least in a corporate meeting room somewhere. But that is changing fast. Welcome to video conference focus groups.
Advantages and considerations…
-Using Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or a similar service often makes conducting a group easier and less expensive. You will still pay the participants for their time, but you won’t need to rent a venue or pay other location-based costs.
-An online focus group can allow you to consult with a geographically diverse set of participants.
-It may be easier to find participants when they don’t have to travel to come to the session. Depending on your focus, you may be able to target them on LinkedIn or other professional or consumer social media sites, by advertising for them, or via personal connections.
-Unless you are truly versed in conducting such groups, you should have an experienced facilitator conduct the session, and typically that person should be impartial (e.g. someone from outside the company)!
-Even your facilitator can work from anywhere. You may choose to hire someone who is not local, broadening your options.
-As with traditional focus groups, you and the facilitator will develop many of the questions in advance, but will also want to be prepared for the discussion to go in “surprise” directions, which may be permitted as long as they are useful.
-The technical communication parameters should be established prior to the session, and clearly conveyed to participants.
You can use the “Chat” feature of your professional video conferencing tool, allowing participants to message the group as a whole, use emojis to express a response, or message the facilitator directly.
You can mute participants during an introduction, then unmute for discussion.
You can easily record the meeting. Participants should agree in writing to the recording prior to being hired.
-While an in-person group can pose advantages if participants need to touch, smell, or taste a product, you can often work around this problem. If you need to provide participants with product samples, in many cases they can simply be shipped to them.
Video conferencing overall provides so many opportunities to meet, get work done, and save time. It follows that moving to video conferencing for your focus group research is one more way to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your business processes.
____________
Michelle van Schouwen is principal of Q5 Analytics, providing advocacy and communications for climate change mitigation and adaptation. For 32 years, Michelle was president of van Schouwen Associates, LLC (vSA), a B2B marketing company. In 2017, she sold vSA. Michelle is available for speaking engagements on topics including her work on climate crisis mitigation and Florida coastal water issues. She speaks to business and student groups about marketing launches and entrepreneurship and works with start-ups to support their development.
