At Impact, we’re always looking for ways to make qualitative research more insightful and engaging for both our clients and the participants. One approach that has consistently delivered great results is our use of WhatsApp in qualitative studies.

Our approach to using WhatsApp in research:

One of the biggest strengths of WhatsApp is its flexibility. We typically use it to complement traditional qualitative methods, adding context, warming up participants, and capturing deeper reflections before and after interviews or group sessions.

Here’s how we bring WhatsApp into our research:

1. We start by carefully designing a sequence of tasks tailored to the research objectives. As part of these tasks, we can ask participants to send photos, voice note reflections, short selfie videos, video tours or written responses. For example, they might record a voice note explaining their feelings about a product they’ve just used, snap a photo of their dinner table and a written message to discuss their meal, or share a video tour of their home.
2. Each task is crafted to be short, engaging and open-ended, encouraging creativity while keeping participants focused.
3. Throughout the task period (usually a few days), we maintain in touch with participants, sending new tasks, answering questions and gently nudging where needed. This helps build trust and maintains momentum.
4. Once tasks are completed, we aggregate all the rich, multimedia content. We also look beyond what participants say to how they say it e.g. tone of voice, facial expressions and context.

Benefits of using WhatsApp:

• A natural warm-up before interviews: WhatsApp is a fantastic way to ease participants into the research process, particularly ahead of depth interviews or focus groups. It encourages them to start thinking about the topic in a relaxed and informal way.
• Keeping momentum in reconvened or multi-stage studies: WhatsApp works brilliantly for in-between tasks; these activities help participants stay connected to the research topic between the interviews.
• A space for post-session reflection and depth: After a focus group or interview, WhatsApp offers a valuable channel for follow-up exploration.
• High engagement and participant enjoyment: Participants consistently tell us they enjoy the WhatsApp experience. It feels more like a chat than a research task, casual, interactive and easy to fit into their day. This leads to stronger engagement, high completion rates and low dropouts.
• Bringing clients closer to real lives: For our clients, WhatsApp helps them connect with real people, not just personas or data points. Instead of just reading a summary or a transcript, they get to see and hear directly from participants.
• Taking outputs a step further: The outputs from WhatsApp go far beyond standard quotes or bullet points. We curate a mix of photos, voice notes, videos and written reflections that together bring the consumer story to life. The outputs are perfect for stakeholder engagement and internal storytelling.

Our clients who have benefitted from WhatsApp:

Find out more:

WhatsApp has become an essential part of our qualitative toolkit at Impact because it consistently delivers deeper and richer insight. By doing research with participants in a space they already know and trust, we unlock unfiltered stories, authentic emotions and real-life context that bring research to life.

Curious about how WhatsApp could elevate your next research project?

Get in touch with Tom Chedzoy-Gould, Managing Director at tom.chedzoy-gould@impactmr.com

We’d love to explore how this approach can work for you.