A good interviewer is a person, who has to be multi-faceted. He is a “jack of all trades” because his role is very complex and challenging.
If you are researcher, there is a strong chance that you would get that opportunity to be an interviewer, once at least, because it is an integral technique of data collection. It surely requires some homework and preparation from your side before you venture into the field with the cap of an interviewer:
List down the cooperation and involvement you expect from your respondents: You have to identify your respondents, with their availability and schedule. You must know who will be the best people to interview, according to what kind of expectations you have from them, and what is your objective of the research.
Ways to motivate respondents to perform well: As an interviewer, first of all, you go to take the work seriously so that your respondent also absorbs and depict seriousness of similar intensity in their work. Remember, only when you are convinced about the importance of your research, that you can convince others.
Have clarifications ready for all concerns: You should be prompt enough to handle all questions that come up from respondents, instantly. You can be prepared for some questions and some may come to you unanticipated. Your candid, spontaneous and prompt response is sought here.
Have parameters ready to assess quality: While you are in the process of interviewing, not all respondents would be authentic and genuine, in the same degree. Some may give you casual answers and others may be more focused. Ignoring casual and non-serious responses is imperative for the quality outcome of a research. While in the process of interviewing, the interviewer must be ready, and smart enough to assess the quality of the responses, either through the body language or seriousness in responses given by the respondent.
Bring consistency for quality: Doing interviews is not a one day process, and requires consistency in effort and motivation throughout the endeavour, despite challenges of poor, uninterested respondents and other distractions that may come in the way throughout the process in terms of time, money and quality of responses.