Doing as he is told
in this country
we expect commerce and industry, local and national government
to take account of the differing needs
and tastes
and opinions of the people.
We expect
those who influence the lives of 64.1 million citizens to base their work
on facts
to find out
what people really think and feel and prefer
to help people
in management
make decisions
never appear to be bored by anything a respondent says
nothing is more likely to irritate a respondent than the suspicion that
you are uninterested in their opinions.
Obtaining a full answer
to an apparently straightforward question
is not always the simple matter it may seem.
Respondents tend to answer questions
indirectly or go off
at a tangent
they
give answers so vague that they hardly qualify
as answers
or be so hesitant about expressing a definite
opinion that
they will say don’t know rather than say what they really think.
They may also say don’t know out of apathy
or laziness
use vague ambiguous
adjectives
like nice or good
or say
I like it
and give no reason
as to why they like it.
In all these cases make another attempt to get a fuller answer.
