Editor’s note: Rhoda Schild is a "smart, creative, dictator-like, obsessive and unrelenting" field director and president of Rhoda Schild, Inc., New York.

A client has one agenda for their focus groups: respondents must arrive promptly, must pass the re-screen test, and must speak articulately, intelligently and generously on the subject matter. So why is this simple task done so poorly, so often, and how does a client get to hedge their bets?

As a client, recognize that no one has a database loaded with every fact and that people and data change daily; that a great deal of elitist, professional and business recruiting is done anew through revived contacts, not through the Internet and not through a computer print-out. An effective facility or service knows their recruiter’s strengths and uses them accordingly, and knows that recruiting is telephone work, that gender can bias respondents, that the better the screener, the better the recruit, and that many recruits are perfected because the field director is smart, creative, dictator-like, obsessive, unrelenting, totally aware of the recruiting process and knows the only task is to fulfill the client’s exact needs. If you feel your service does not have these traits, walk away.

  • Who do you call? Make contacts in advance, so when you have an overnight rush from hell you already have a relationship with a competent facility or service. An established relationship sprinkled with trust guarantees the arduous and the impossible. Once you have a tip-top team, never let them go and be aware that recruiting of this caliber is costly - this is not a time to stint on money.
  • For very difficult recruits, be leery when your supplier says cheerfully, "No problem!" You may not like it, but appreciate when a supplier speaks apprehensively about a difficult, low-incidence job, asks a zillion questions and says honestly and nervously "I’m not sure we can complete this in your time frame." If this recruit comes in, it’s to your benefit; if it fails, you’ve been fairly apprised. If your supplier offers a contingency plan, listen to it. It may be a dumb idea, it may not.
  • A large Midwest facility eager for work takes on a job with high-end automobile executives. The client hints price is an issue and promises an excellent list with 800 names, the field director -- enthusiastic and new to the industry -- bids low, trying to please both her client and her boss. Two days into the recruiting process it becomes apparent that a major convention coincides with the client’s date. The eager-to-please field director, too timid to tell the client, insists the recruiters continue calling another day. And, 270 calls later, only nine respondents are recruited for four groups. A fiasco. The field director at last informs the client. The client is forced to change the date, possibly the time; there are added charges, incurring anger from everyone. Now, even if the group is recruited successfully, nothing can make up for the effort expended nor the disharmony incurred.

The moral for facilities:

1. Be up-front with clients.

2. Tell them the bad news with the good.

3. Speak up early rather than late, thus avoiding added charges.

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A 25-year-old New York City health insurance salesperson, after being screened for a group, is told he will be paid $100. He shouts to the recruiter, "I got $200 for my last panel. My time’s worth more than $100 for two hours!"

In his dreams. Is he lying? No. Someone wrongly bid this incentive. Because of his grandiosity, here’s where an overzealous incentive fee loses this respondent and possibly anyone else from this firm.

Have confidence you’re dealing with a supplier that knows the market, knows the correct incentives, prices a group competitively. Paying exorbitant incentives is as foolish as paying miserly ones.

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For a laborious recruiting job that isn’t working, when you do reevaluate, change your M.O. and halt the useless dialing. When you as the client trust that after the recruiters have gone above and beyond and still come up empty, a change must be made.

1. Recognize the facility is your ally not your enemy.

2. Up the incentives.

3. Change the length of the group; change the time of the group; allow the respondent to select the time.

4. Lessen or get rid of past participation.

5. Go off the list.

6. Ask for referrals from the chosen list.

7. Have the moderator go to the respondent.

8. Consider a telephone interview.

9. Announce the name of the company.

10. Change everything that impedes the recruit while still keeping the vital specs intact.

Do these changes sooner rather than later. Send the client screeners in advance. Make certain the client knows all the difficulties.

As a client, appreciate that ultimately, excellent recruiting is done by wheeling and dealing, coercing and charming, flattering and stroking. If you, as a client, do not get that impression when hiring your supplier, go elsewhere for your recruiting.