Critical Incident Technique - a qualitative approach

I took an advanced research method course last semester. One of the new approaches I learned was the critical incident techniques. I used this approach evaluate the service quality in the public library from user’s point of view using the critical incident technique (CIT). I recruited eight participants, 4 female and 4 male who are the frequent public library users. Participants were asked to report positive and negative incidents or situations in relation to the services provided by their local public libraries, geographically located in Oregon, South, Dakota, Washington DC, Kansas, Vermont, and Missouri.

Of the eight participants that took part, there were 19 positive and 16 negative incidents. The incidents are grouped, categorized, and then assessed with the use of the conceptual themes of SERVQUAL, a model that has been used by many libraries for evaluating their public services.

From my experience, this approach is easier than survey - you need to design a questionnaire and respondents in many ways are limited to answer the pre-designed questions.