Previous Newsletters have described the downside of employing confrontational interviewing / interrogating techniques while offering more effective and ethical approaches. As a student of the process, you already understand that it is an art not a science and that you learn by doing. Herein below find some additional approaches, and if you currently are employing one or more of these techniques, look at this as validation of your own methodology.
Relationship building is the best first step to a successful interview / inquiry / legal proceeding. In fact, more than 50% of the success rate is directly attributable to your personality and your ability to relate. But what do you do after you build the rapport? Certainly, each event / each encounter is different, and no one technique works all of the time. Feel free to experiment and test these suggestions, add them to your toolbox if they work for you and then employ when you think that the time is right:
- A good interviewer is an effective listener! Paying close attention to responses will provide you with the most accurate and complete information. Get in the habit of allowing the applicant / claimant / witness to complete his / her entire answer without interruption and / or interjecting the next question.
- As often as possible, ask short, simple questions, such as, “what happened next?” Most people speak at a speed of about 125 words per minute which is extremely slow compared to what the brain can handle. To be a good listener and to aid in maintaining your own concentration, use this extra time to think ahead of the talker, to formulate ideas on where the talker is headed and then to connect that information with what already has been said.
- Be aware that the more suggestive the question asked, the more you are influencing a person’s response. Instead, ask a person to describe an event or something about themselves in their own words, and they will provide their best understanding of what they know. Patiently listen to their complete explanation, and then ask passive, short, follow up questions triggered by your careful listening. Follow this strategy, and you should be able to obtain the most accurate and complete information.
There are many other effective approaches and ethical interviewing techniques; more will be presented in the coming months so please watch for them. In the meantime, “play” with what has been presented by practicing on friends, associates and family members. Remember that you learn by doing!
Research North, Inc. (RNI), is a professional private detective service providing support to the business community, the insurance industry and individuals in Michigan and Wisconsin since 1981. The company also offers pre-employment background checks to small and medium sized businesses through a subsidiary called Backgroundcheckswork.com that is fully staffed by professional investigators who are retired from law enforcement.
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