With face-to-face research becoming viable once again, here's some guidance on how to ensure you get great outcomes as safely as possible.
Published 23 April 2021
Last updated 23 April 2021
Lockdown restrictions are cautiously being eased across England and, as a result, face-to-face research and data collection activities that were stopped in their tracks last year are becoming viable options once more.
In particular, viewing facilities have reopened as of 29 March 2021 and will allow for focus groups to meet and depth interviewing to take place on a limited basis where no other alternative methodology is appropriate.
There are published processes and guidance available on safer working to ensure that these activities can resume with participants’ and researchers’ safety at the top of the agenda.
The Market Research Society has published a great resource on undertaking face-to-face data collection in halls, venues and viewing facilities, which you can view here, so when you are planning your research and thinking about the methodologies you need, please keep viewing facilities in mind.
To support the industry and ensure great outcomes for your face-to-face requirements you can plan and share your pipeline with CCS. We have some pointers on what useful questions to ask when developing your plan in our earlier blog here.
By sharing your thinking with us, we can let our research suppliers know what may be coming up. Any field work takes time to prepare with suitable resourcing, so sharing a pipeline in advance can ensure suppliers are in the best possible position to deliver the best service and outcomes.
We’re here for you
The Research & Insights team at Crown Commercial Service are here to help you with your research objectives.
If you have any queries, questions or comments, please get in touch with us via email.