If you’ve conducted an audit in the past you know the pros and cons of both a Face-to-Face audit and a questionnaire.



The questions you need to ask yourself before you start out with an audit are as follows :
 





     
  1.  
  2. What is the purpose of my audit?




    3.  
  3.  
  4. Who is my target audience?




    5.  
  5.  
  6. How large is this group?




    7.  
  7.  
  8. Is it very diverse?




    9.  
  9.  
  10. How much time do i have?




    11.  
  11.  
  12. How complex do i want this to be?




    13.  
  13.  

 


I’m sure you might put together a whole host of other questions as well, but these 6 should cover the basics when deciding upon a method.



While there is no doubt that a Face to Face audit would generate a huge amount of information it also raises the question of how much time you have to spend. Setting up meetings with a large number of people, expecting them to adhere to the schedule and then filtering out the noise in a face to face meeting all take time. In most instances this is something an auditor doesn’t have the luxury of.



A Questionnaire would be a likely alternative to someone who does not have the time to spend with face to face audits.



So how do you decide between the two? Simply put, factor in what you want to achieve, and how much time you have, not to mention the size of your target group. If its simple information you want then a questionnaire is definitely the way to go, a face to face audit wouldn’t actually be very much more effective in a case like this.