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Mall intercept interview

Learn how to conduct a mall intercept interview, what are the benefits and points to consider before interviewing mall visitors.

Mall intercept interview

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What is mall intercept interview?

A mall intercept interview is a research method in which mall visitors are stopped for conducting an interview. Often, respondents are given a free sample of a product or reward for their participation. Mall intercept surveys target audience from different demographics and collect feedback at the point of experience.

Mall intercept interviews aim to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data for market research. To achieve this goal, interviewers ask a wide variety of questions, such as:

Earlier the data collection through an interview in the mall was done by a person using pen and paper. But nowadays, it is done using iPad, iPhone or Android devices.

Mall intercept interviews steps

  1. Screen participants

    Before the interviewer speaks to the potential respondents, one must first choose people who meet specific criteria. For instance, a study about children’s clothing might need the interviewer to reach out to the kids and young adults.

  2. Stop mall visitors

    The mall visitors are stopped and politely asked if they would like to answer a few questions for a survey.

  3. Survey on the spot

    Once it is determined that a person meets the needs of the mall intercept interview, the interviewer will ask a set of questions. However, the respondents can also be requested to answer the survey questionnaire on the kiosk devices.

  4. Invite participants to a research facility nearby

    This step is optional. Depending on the requirements, the participants are either surveyed immediately or invited to the research facilities located in separate areas of malls.

Benefits of mall intercept interviews and surveys

  • Generally, it is easier to convince someone to participate in a survey face-to-face as compared to the same over the phone or email.
  • Mall intercept interviews allow interviewers to make sure they are interacting with a real person. Also, the researchers can conduct the surveys at different hours of the day to ensure an accurate sample audience.
  • The memory of the experience is still afresh in the brain while the shoppers are just leaving the store. This means the data collected by the intercept interviews in the mall is highly accurate data.
  • Respondents can ask for more information if they do not fully understand the question. This is not possible in case of online interviews and surveys. Similarly, interviewers too can ask open-ended questions to get a detailed response.
  • Mall intercepts interviews can engage consumers during the actual act of shopping. This gives a chance to understand their thought process and what drives them to make a purchase.
  • Interviewers can verify the demographics of the people they speak with. For example, age, gender, language, and location can be confirmed before starting the survey. A good interviewer asks the sensitive questions carefully or avoids them completely, depending on the situation. This cannot be achieved through the online interviews.

Points to consider while conducting a mall intercept interview

  • Populations in the mall under-represent people from lower-income and elderly sections, and can create sampling bias. To minimize its effect, researchers should conduct intercept interviews outside other public locations too, such as food outlets and grocery stores.
  • Beyond basic demographics, identifying target participants require screening via questions too.
  • Survey results might get affected due to the interviewer bias. For instance, interviewers might feel more comfortable with the people who agree with them and be less friendly with the people who disagree with them.
  • The interviewer should be considerate of the respondent’s time and so the surveys should be short and crisp so that they can be answered quickly.
  • Mall intercept research involves convenience sampling and hence the results cannot be generalized to larger populations.