The success of your project is all about the timing!
We often get asked to recommend times for focus groups or depth interviews.
This all depends on the type of person you are wanting to include in your project.
We recommend that for most projects, they are in the evening, once people have finished work, had dinner etc… 7.30pm in the evening, on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Most people have finished work, and have come to terms with the reality that the weekend is over. They are not distracted by Friday social commitments, and most have had a meal and put young children to bed.
In an ideal world this is a great time but we realise you often need to conduct two groups in one night so having one group on at this time doesn’t always work out.
So we do recommend a 6pm group and then another one running straight after this one finishes but do factor in a 15 minute break (or more) in between groups.
Many clients think that running day time sessions should be ok with many people now working from home. We find day recruitment is traditionally harder when looking to fill projects which require a broad spectrum of demographics. During the day, you often compete with work commitments, last minute meetings popping up, deadlines to meet and the dreaded inbox filling up with emails vying for their attention. We often get last minute cancellations when we run day time sessions.
Evening time slots work well for both consumer and business respondents.
There are some demographics that require specific timeslots:
Teachers – in most cases they can start groups at around 5:30pm.
School Students – 4:30pm onwards (allowing them time to get home to conduct an online session or get to a venue straight after school. Most students finish anywhere from 3pm – 3:40pm – each school is different so you need to allow them time to get out of school and get to the venue for the research project. Weekend groups are also an option. We recommend a Saturday afternoon – anywhere from 2pm – 5pm OR a Sunday morning – 11am onwards. Many students have sporting commitments on a Saturday morning (and at other times on a weekend).
Retired / Over 65’s – in most cases the best time to run sessions with this age bracket is from 10:30am – 4pm but if you are wanting some that are working then it may be best to run sessions slightly later in the day so that those who are working can attend sessions too. It all comes down to the type of people you want in the project.
Nurses / Hospital staff – most shifts in a hospital run from 7am – 2pm / 2pm – 10pm / 9pm – 7am approx. It is hard to find a suitable time – we recommend running sessions in the evening or running a session between 10am – 12noon or the evening.
Cafe workers- Shifts can vary for cafe workers but generally the evening sessions work well for this demographic. Sessions running from 6pm onwards work well.
Tradies- evening groups work well for tradies. Generally, tradies will work until around 4pm so evening sessions work well. We recommend running sessions from 5pm onwards.
Focus People want the best respondent turnout for your project and the timing of your session is a crucial factor in getting the best result.
If the timing isn’t suited to the demographic it makes recruitment much harder.
If you require any further information about session times and scheduling, please don’t hesitate to contact us at quotes@focuspeople.com.au.
We are always happy to give some additional advice on session timings for your project.
