8 (More) Ways To Maximize The Value of Voice In Your Research

People don’t always say what they think. If you want to better understand people, better predict behavior, and tell the story in the data in a compelling way, you need to go beyond the words they use.

The use of voice in market research has rapidly expanded due to its ability to quickly and easily deliver longer, richer answers and new ‘System 1’ insights. Now, voice is increasingly a part of a savvy researcher’s toolkit.

Previously, we shared ‘8 Ways to Maximize the Value of Voice in Your Research’ with tips on how to get most value from voice in research. In this post, we’re sharing new learnings to help researchers get more, and richer, spoken responses and to make analysis faster and more efficient.

1. Recognize that everyone interacts with technology via voice.

People use their voice to interact with technology every day: smart speakers, mobile phones, etc. People are comfortable using their voice via familiar icons that prompt to do so.

But, likely because voice response is new for some, researchers may overthink what is needed to get voice responses. Time invested in writing complex instructions, creating ‘special’ icons, and wording that unintentionally makes responding via voice seem unusual are likely reduce the response rate.

An example, a recent survey that got a lower than typical voice response rate said, ‘You may speak your response or type as you usually would do.’ That likely caused people to be less uncomfortable with using their voice to respond. Your voice add-on’s standard settings and standard wording to invite people to respond via voice are likely to have become the default because they work well in the field.

2. Start with a voice-friendly sample.

Ask your sample provider to screen for candidates who are willing to respond verbally and/or offer an additional incentive for completing the survey by speaking their responses.

Your voice software may enable you to set a limit on voice responses so you don’t exceed your incentive budget.

3. Use instructions

Use instructions, in both the invitation email and in the survey itself, to encourage voice responses and to reduce the likelihood that a respondent might feel self-conscious about doing that.

For example, you may say that the survey offers the ability to respond via voice because you really want to hear what people have to say. And, you may suggest that people take the survey in a quiet setting where they will be comfortable speaking their answers.

4. Give people the option to talk or type while using visual cues to encourage talking.

Even though researchers gain from spoken insights—typically 4.5x longer responses and the ability to understand the emotion behind what people say—it’s typical to give people the option to talk or type as they may be taking a survey in an environment where it is uncomfortable for them to speak.

Even when people say upfront they want to respond via voice, if a text box is visible along with a talk icon people are more likely to type than when it isn’t, likely because seeing the text box is a familiar visual cue to type. If your voice software offers the option, lead with the ability to respond by speaking and don’t display the text box unless the respondent clicks an option to type. You may even display the typing option in a lighter-colored or smaller font.

5. When creating your questioning strategy, take advantage of voice so you don’t miss out on potential next-level insights.

Go deeper on closed-ended questions and questions that may be answered in a single word by making the next question an open-ended question that gives the respondent the ability to speak and expand on the previous answer.

For example, a follow-up question in a recent study revealed that a message wasn’t well-received not because of the entirety of the message, but because it referred to ‘clients’ when ‘partners’ was preferred.

6. Ask questions in ways that encourage people to talk and to be more spontaneous/less inhibited as the speak.

In the previous post, we gave some tips for encouraging people to talk, such as saying, ‘Respond as if you were telling a friend.’ You may want to be even more creative with your prompts. For example, you might want to ‘game-ify’ the response by saying something like, ‘You’ll have up to 1 minute to respond, see how many points you can cover.’

7. Deliver results faster by minimizing data prep time.

Especially for qualitative research, tagging is essential for understanding responses by topic or other items of interest. But, tagging time affects analytical time, especially when project timelines are tight.

Examples of time-savers are the ability to upload metadata keywords or phrases that are relevant to the industry or topic as tags, automated tagging capabilities that go beyond simply tagging nouns to find adjectives that provide via next-level insights that enable an understanding of the ‘why’ behind the affinities and preferences, tagging by the sentence as well as by the word, and, for IDIs, the ability to automatically exclude what the moderator says or to tag the next section based on what the moderator says.

Clever questioning strategies can also facilitate fast, accurate tagging. If you’re presenting a series of message alternatives, packaging options, etc. and want to vary the presentation order, employ a simple question-asking strategy such as assigning codenames, using the phonetic alphabet (i.e., ‘alpha,’ ‘bravo,’ etc.), or using a different keyword by option (e.g., ‘alternative,’ ‘treatment,’ ‘example,’ etc.) to make it easy to identify which alternative the subsequent response relates to.

8. Create ‘highlight reels’ (aka ‘sizzle reels’) that take advantage of having audio and video responses that emphasize important findings and bring key points to life.

Clients like to hear or, especially, see people answer questions or comment on a brand, topic, policy alternative, etc. Including actual responses makes presentations much more impactful and memorable. And, the impact of an audio or video response may be increased by showing a transcription (translated if needed) and emotion scores in sync with the person speaking.

To deliver meaningful insights you need to better understand people. By using the tips above and the ones in the earlier post when you put voice to work you’ll do that better and faster—and deliver more value to your clients.