First Federal Bank of Bakersfield

In 1974 the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed to protect women from being discriminated against with respect to any credit transaction, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or age. In 1980, “women’s banks” opened their doors catering specifically to target and promote their services to women. First Federal Bank of Bakersfield is a small, personal bank that is interested in developing a program for this purpose. Before going through this process the executives had questions and concerns on several issues. What are the financial needs of women in the area? Are their needs being met at their current bank? Would First Federal be able to develop a plan to help the women in the area? With these questions and a few more that need to be answered the executives decided to develop a research study to help answer these questions to see if they would be the right bank for women.

“Small companies will conduct telephone interviews or surveys to determine interest in a new product, and to measure the customer’s satisfaction of existing products.” (Suttle) The advantages of using telephone interviews rather than personal interviews or mail questionnaires are that the person conducting the interview will have full control over the interview. Telephone interviews are cost-effective and may only take five to 10 minutes for the interviewee. Since First Federal has set a limited amount of time for this research to be completed telephone interviews are the fastest way.

Just like any other research process telephone interviewing also has disadvantages over personal interviews and mail questionnaires. One of the major disadvantages is that the interviewer cannot see the non-verbal communication with the interviewee when asking questions. Non-verbal communication can show the interviewer who is confident in their answers and who is just answering these questions to get it done and over with.

Another communication method...