Intercept interview
An intercept interview is a short interview with people approached in the moment, in a public place such as a store, a mall or a station, or while using a website or app. It reaches people close to the experience being studied.
How it works
Interviewers stop people who fit a quick screen and ask for a few minutes, often right after a relevant action: leaving a checkout, finishing a transaction, visiting a branch. Mall intercepts were long a staple of market research because participants could see and handle products. Online, the same idea appears as a pop-up that invites visitors into a survey or interview.
Intercepts capture fresh, contextual reactions and reach people who would not join a panel. Their samples are non-probability, because they depend on who happens to be there and agrees, so results describe those people rather than a population. They suit questions about a moment that has just happened, such as a checkout or a branch visit.
A worked example
A grocery chain intercepts 150 shoppers leaving 3 stores after a checkout redesign. Asked about the new self-checkout, 62 percent call it faster, but 41 of the 150 say they needed staff help at least once, most often with produce codes.
Related
Automate this in Pulse
The two or three questions an intercept asks at the shelf can serve as the screener of a Pulse study, so only shoppers who bought the category that day go on to a full interview.