Advantages

 Accurate screening. Face-to-face interviews help with more accurate screening. Te individual
being interviewed is unable to provide false information during screening questions such as
gender, age, or race. It is possible to get around screening questions in online and mobile
surveys.Online and mobile surveys that offer incentives may actually encourage answer
falsification. Individuals may enter incorrect demographic information so they are able to
complete the survey and gain the incentive. The answers the individual provides may all be
truthful, but for the purpose of data analysis, the data will be inaccurate and misleading.
 Capture verbal and non-verbal ques. A face-to-face interview is no doubt going to capture
verbal and non-verbal ques, but this method also affords the capture of non-verbal ques
including body language, which can indicate a level of discomfort with the questions. Adversely,
it can also indicate a level of enthusiasm for the topics being discussed in the interview. Let’s
discuss an employee job interview, for example. Capturing non-verbal ques may make the
difference between selecting an employee that is less skilled, but displays a tremendous amount
of enthusiasm for the position. Capturing non-verbal ques is not possible in online or mobile
surveys.
 Keep focus. The interviewer is the one that has control over the interview and can keep the
interviewee focused and on track to completion. Online and mobile surveys are often completed
during time convenient for the respondent, but are often in the midst of other distractions such
as texting, reading and answering emails, video streaming, web surfing, social sharing, and
more. Face-to-face interviews are in-the-moment, free from technological distractions.
 Capture emotions and behaviors. Face-to-face interviews can no doubt capture an
interviewee’s emotions and behaviors. Similar to not being able to capture verbal and non-
verbal ques, online and mobile surveys can also not capture raw emotions and behavior.

Disadvantages

 Cost. Cost is a major disadvantage for face-to-face interviews. They require a staff of people to
conduct the interviews, which means there will be personnel costs. Personnel are the highest
cost a business can incur. It’s difficult to keep costs low when personnel are needed.
 Quality of data by interviewer. The quality of data you receive will often depend on the ability
of the interviewer. Some people have the natural ability to conduct an interview and gather
data well. The likelihood of the entire interviewing staff having those skills is low. Some
interviewers may also have their own biases that could impact the way they input responses.
This is likely to happen in hot-topic opinion polls.
 Manual data entry. If the interview is administered on paper, the data collected will need to be
entered manually, or scanned, if a scannable interview questionnaire is created. Data entry and
scanning of paper questionnaires can significantly increase the cost of the project. A staff of data
entry personnel will need to be hired. Additionally, data entry can prolong the analysis process.
 Mobile surveys on iPads, tablets, or other mobile devices can cut-down on manual data entry
costs and information is ready for analysis.
 Limit sample size. The size of the sample is limited to the size of your interviewing staff, the area
in which the interviews are conducted, and the number of qualified respondents within that
area. It may be necessary to conduct several interviews over multiple areas, which again can
increase costs.