"Who hired that moderator?"      "Why isn’t he probing?"     "She doesn’t understand our issues at all!"

• Get together with a few colleagues and meet the moderator in person. Present a potential research project, or even one you’ve conducted in the past, and ask how he would handle it. Pay attention to how he handles your small group discussion: does he probe for more information? Does he make everyone feel like their opinion is valued? Does he understand the marketing issues behind the need to conduct the research?

• Ask if she’s a member of the QRCA – the Qualitative Research Consultants Association. The QRCA is an organization comprised of the best moderators in the country. Moderators who are committed to continually educate themselves and improve their skills. There is simply no way that non-members can duplicate the huge pool of knowledge and expertise that is available to QRCA members. And ask for an example of something she’s learned recently thanks to her membership in QRCA.

• Ask for some anecdotes – some examples of how he has handled various research problems in the past. How does he deal with difficult respondents? How would he conduct research with a target market whose members are all in competition with each other? When does he think it’s appropriate to use projective techniques?

• Read a sample of her writing. If a "genericized" report isn’t available, how about some other sample of her writing and analytical skills, such as a white paper or a newsletter?

Do all of the above, and you’re sure to feel more comfortable when you hire a new moderator. In fact, next time you need a moderator, we invite you to try the above on one of our Bureau West Research Group moderators. We’re all QRCA members, and we’d be glad to meet you in person to show you what we know about moderating, research and marketing.

But before we meet in person, here’s something even easier: click here to read some anecdotes that illustrate how we work.  Or sign up for our "Research Tidbit" email newsletter. The newsletter keeps you up-to-date with what’s new and interesting in marketing and research – and it’s a great sample of how we think. We send the newsletter out approximately once a month – whenever we find information we feel might be useful to our clients. Click here to read a sample or simply fill in your name and email address below.

And don’t worry – we’ll never give your email address to anyone else, and if you ever want us to stop sending you the newsletter, just send us an email, and we’ll stop!

To learn more, or if there’s any way we can assist you with your research needs, please call Jay Zaltzman directly at (818) 752-7210 or send an email to: info@bureauwest.com .