Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Input On Pricing For Qualitative Interviews

Posted by Anonymous on 3/25/2008 at 9:12 AM ET 250 Points
Hello,

For those of you who are research providers or consumers, I'd be very interested in hearing what you think is the "going rate" for outsourcing qualitative, in-depth interview research.

Specifically, what would you expect to pay to hire an experienced research professional to conduct 60 in-depth interviews via telephone in the course of 6 weeks or so? The interviews would be conducted among business professionals (and occasionally executives) and would last 30-45 minutes, on average. The discussion guide used consists of open-ended questions with probes (not a telephone survey with lots of rating or multiple select options).

I realize that budgets typically are determined in advance. However, given your experience, what do you think is a reasonable price for...

1. Full-service (consultant develops discussion guide, recruits and conducts interviews, analyzes data and delivers report/presentation)

2. Piecemeal:
-Recruiting
-Conducting interviews

Also, if you have hired consultants, do you tend to like a per-interview flat rate, or time-based quote?

My experience typically has been in full-service, but I'm now seeing more demand for "ad hoc" project work, with a wide variety of price points.

Thanks very much for any insight you can provide!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 3/25/2008 at 10:31 AM Accepted
    Hi BluGlobe -

    There is usually a "per complete" rate, but it ranges - I would suggest you get some actual bids from some providers. Also, you don't mention whether or not you have a client-provided list, although it sounds like you don't since you are asking for recruitment.

    Full service for this type of project might range anywhere from $20K - $25K, with the majority being recruitment/interviewing. I don't think you'd save all that much by doing it piecemeal, and you would probably lose on some quality and value, since it really helps to have a trained/experienced moderator to prepare the discussion guide and prepare the report. The price will also depend, to some degree, on more specifications about your audience.

    Here's a pretty good article about IDIs - it's a bit old but may help you to decide if this indeed is the right approach for this project and some things you might want to consider:

    https://www.quirks.com/articles/a1998/19981211.aspx?searchID=9843454&sort=9

    Good luck!
  • Posted on 3/25/2008 at 11:35 AM Author
    Thanks, jrussell and jlevin!

    To clarify, I am a research provider, and I am working on subcontracting with other providers. The $20-25k range you mentioned is in line with my experience - that's what my former firm charged for full-service (with clients' own lists).

    I'm working on getting my head around current rates for outsourcing qualitative data collection, since I'd like to offer this expertise as a contractor for "overflow" work that research and marketing firms are doing for their clients.

    For example, in my old firm, we paid an experienced contractor $250 per interview to conduct the interview and send the recording to our transcriptionist (recruiting was separate). We quoted flat-rate projects that typically equated to between $900-1,200/interview all-in (mostly senior-level business execs).

    I recently heard of a firm paying interviewers $30/per or $50/per interview (dependent upon level of business contact) for both recruitment and conducting. This range also was cited by a marketing search firm that was looking to place "senior" interviewers. This may be (I hope!) the bottom of the scale, but I'd love to fill in other points on the curve for my own understanding of the market.

    Thanks very much for your input, and I'd love to hear more!
  • Posted on 3/28/2008 at 4:45 AM Accepted
    Hello BluGlobe,

    Our research company based in Vancouver always makes a clear distinction between costs of recruitment and the costs of interviewing.

    The researcher is not involved in recruitment at all; this allows us to keep the costs down by utilizing base-pay staff for the recruitment stage. This way we can quote with confidence per complete, usually $120 - $150 for 30 minute interview, plus $30 - $40 per hour for recruitment.

    The other components, research design, analysis, reporting obviously vary considerably from project to project, but is often ballparked at half the cost of conducting the interviews ($60 -$70 per interview).

    Hope this helps,
    Luke Zukowski
  • Posted on 3/28/2008 at 7:31 AM Author
    Thank you, Luke! This is very helpful.

    Thanks also to jlevin and jrussell for your thoughtful comments and link to the article.

    I feel much more confident in my price points for qualitative research now.
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