“Excuse me? Hi. I’m ____ and I’m doing an interview for _____. May I present you with the following question?”
Do it right. Do it well. You have a subject to interrogate. Now what?
- Encourage him to elaborate. If you’re asking a question about something and you feel like she’s not telling all that she’s thinking encourage her to give further details.
- Ask additional questions. You don’t have to stick with the main idea. Try to branch out. If she particularly enjoyed something about the product, ask her what it is she liked about it.
- Branch out. Request recommendations for people to interview. Ask your friends to If you’ve asked surveyed your friends, survey their friends. If you’ve surveyed their friends, survey their family.
- Don’t spill out all your questions at a time. Hi, I’m Bob and I’m doing this survey for this and this magazine. Will you tell me your opinion about this and what you think about that and possibly your name and whether you prefer direct or anonymous quoting or… No. One thing at a time. If you just pour out your needs, people will evaluate whether or not it’s worth answering, then reply.
- Vary your systems. You don’t have to stick to email if you don’t want to. IM surveying and telephone calls are okay. You can holler at your neighbors too! Asking your flowers would be silly, but as long as they give good feedback…
- Ask for contact information. Not all people will respond positively to this, so you might want to leave it until last. Having a list of contacts is good if you need to ask additional questions later, or if you need to burn something.
