Audio Interview was extremely disappointing

mackedymac

Today I ordered an audio interview for $30. The donor spent a chunk of time at the beginning reciting height, hair color, skin color, weight, parents ethnicity, and what he was studying - all of which are found on the profiles. What a waste of time.

THEN the interviewer asked almost the same questions that are on the short profile/essay and the donor proceeded to give answers from the profile. A good deal of the "interview" was word for word from the profile! Another big portion was slightly paraphrased from the profile. In an eight minute piece there was maybe, MAYBE two minutes of new information.

Last week I ordered a video (audio and visual) from PRS. It was several minutes shorter but the interviewer asked almost entirely new questions. It was the opposite of the CCB experience. I felt like I actually learned something new and valuable about the donor in less time and for less money.

I was planning on ordering many more audio interviews to help me make my donor decision but based on this experience I am reluctant to do so. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars to hear donors read or re-state their profiles and essays! I think this whole process is stressful and expensive enough as it is and I feel taken advantage of.

I'd love to know, from CCB personnel and other clients if this is the general format for audio interviews.

greta

I don't know CCB's general policy, but from the audio interviews I purchased I think there was some overlap with the written info (as well as new information, for example talking more about family members, from what I recall). Despite this, I found the audio very helpful in assessing the donor's social/interpersonal skills. I was able to eliminate one that sounded too "flat" and liked others better based on their conversation skills and general cheerful sounding attitude. Just my two cents. I only bought the audio for donors I was seriously considering based on liking the other information I had received.

cryo-admin

Hi Mack -

I apologize for your disappointment. The interviews are more intended for uses like greta suggested than gaining significant new information. That said some are certainly better than others. Feel free to contact me directly and I am happy to send you a replacement audio of another donor.

FYI... we are currently working on a way to offer a flat fee for access to all the info on all the donors. It probably won't be ready until the middle of the year, but we realize the piece by piece donor info model is not ideal for most clients and are doing our best to make it more user/pocketbook friendly.

Regards,

Scott
CCB

cryo-admin

If you look at the description of the Audio Interviews on the website, it gives you a sample of what to expect...

http://www.cryobank.com/Donor-Search/Sample-Donor-Information/Audio-Interview/

Regards,

Scott
CCB

tjmoors

Hi Scott,

Personally I've never had a problem with the majority of donor audio interviews I have purchased, but there is one audio interview that stood out to me because it was terrible. The audio interview for donor 11443 is off-putting because the man doing the interview sounds like he is mad and rushing and the donor sounds bored and uninterested.

cryo-admin

Ooooh. That's not good. I'll look into it.

Thanks,

Scott

tjmoors

Thanks for always responding promptly, Scott. I like that the California Cryobank has high standards in everything they do, and I think the audio interview might hinder the sales of that particular donor. Once I heard his interview, I crossed him off my list ASAP.

mackedymac

Thanks Scott. I have listened to one other which was much better - the interviewer asked interesting new questions.

I do have one other I'd like to listen to, so I will contact you directly with the info on the one I thought was not well done and the one I'd still like to hear.

mackedymac

Scott, at the time that I last wrote I thought I'd be able to click on your name and send you a direct message. That didn't work, so I used the contact form for the site and asked that the message be forwarded to you. Hopefully you'll get it, if not let me know if there is something else I need to do.

cryo-admin

sbrown@cryobank.com. I should get your contact form, but feel free to email me directly anyway.

Regards,

Scott

sea1913

Hi Scott - I know this is an old thread, but I had a question about the interviews too. Is there a reason why the interviewers ask different questions? i.e., the questions asked across donors are inconsistent. My hypothesis was that the interviewer might be trying to strike up a conversation, but they ask the questions as written on the page, so there's not much dialog.

The main reason I ask is that I have an individual preference to want to hear the Open donors say why they want to be an Open donor. It really helps in my selection. For other people it may be something else, but being able to know a question will be asked really helps.

The majority of the interviews are just fine and helpful, so this doesn't apply to all. Some of them just cause me to immediately cross a donor off my list.

Thanks for any insight!

cryo-admin

Hi sea -

I love that suggestion. I will pass it on to our Donor Coordinators.

Our goal is to get the guys to relax and just talk. Each Coordinator has their own style that helps them best accomplish this.

Some Coordinators are more conversational, while others use a set of questions. We hope the variety makes it more interesting for the listener and also allows our Coordinators to deliver better interviews because they are more comfortable themselves.

I find that sometimes it isn't just what a donor says, but how he says it that is most interesting. Some guys who might not come across so great on paper you suddenly love when you actually hear them; others you just can't connect with once you hear them even if you thought they could be "the one" after reviewing all the other materials. To me, the Donor Conversations are the most "personal" way to look at donor.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Scott
CCB