Also.. after going through your questions and you have ‘run out’ of things to say. Start over and do it again. The customer will enjoy now answering things as they have been through them once.

I agree that devices shouldn’t be hidden to be sneaky or subversive. The focus of the interviewer should be on the participant not the recording device, an additional team member should be responsible for the camera, audio, note taking, etc.

In my experience, most accurate data comes from the naturalistic experience, why enthnography is a valuable customer research method. Yes, the participants need to provide consent. After that, they should be so engaged in the interview that they are not aware of the video and audio recorder.

Yes, someone hanging out and asking direct questions may not be a regular occurrence. That’s why by focusing on an engaging interaction – not the recording devices, prevents self-conscious, data-damaging behavior.

This opinion of not focusing on the equipment is seconded by
Tod Maffin, Freelance radio producer for the CBC

Treat Your Mic Invisibly: At first, don’t shove the mic in their face. Rest it against your cheek, as if you’ve forgotten about it, for the first couple of questions then, if they’re giving you good tape, move it closer while maintaining solid eye contact with them. Never acknowledge the mic by looking at it. Move it as little as possible. The conversation should be with you, not the microphone. When people focus on the fact that they’re being recorded, they don’t speak naturally. Or at all.

Second, newcomers to interviewing think that the process is naturalistic. It isn’t – being interviewed is NOT what normally goes on at the breakfast table or the sales desk or wherever you are conducting your research. What you are doing is creating an artificial experience – a piece of theater. In my experience, the video camera, obvious but not played with, is an important prop in that theater. It justifies the “performance” (in sociological terms) that you are asking the research participant to engage in. It’s NOT normal, there isn’t normally a person asking direct questions and hanging out, and the camera can help shift the experience to a professionally valid one from a creepy intrusive one.

(yeah, there’s a lot of other things you have to do to ensure that, but the camera CAN help).

That doesn’t mean play with the camera and look at the camera and ignore the person, but neither do you need to conceal it or mislead the participant.