People on the list had used the card once or twice and thenstopped using it. Rather than interview them in a group or an in-personinterview, where they might have been reluctant to discuss their cardusage, appointments were made with them to discuss telephone card usage ingeneral. The interviewers were then able to ask some questions about theirrejection of the card. The responses enabled the company to make decisionsrelating to the continuation of the test market. Telephone depth interviews do not take the place of focus groups.
Focus groups are also important when the client needs to see and hear therespondents first-hand.
However, telephone interviews should notbe rejected out of hand. Under the right circumstances, they can be avaluable addition to the consumer research repertoire.