Course 3.1: Customer Interviews | 15 Tips for Conducting Better Customer Interviews: Tips 1-5

3.1.  15 Tips for Conducting Better Customer Interviews: Tips 1-5

So now that we’ve talked about how to set up interviews, let’s talk about how to do them, with 15 tips based on my experiences conducting customer interviews.

Tip Number 1: Research the person you are interviewing.

Take 5-10 minutes before the interview to look through your subject’s LinkedIn. Keep an eye out for mutual connections or anything that sticks out to you. You might find some last-minute questions to include in your script. Every time I’m doing a customer interview, I have the person’s LinkedIn profile open on my computer.

Another thing I like to do is to write the person’s name on a sticky note and put it up near my computer screen.

I do that because I want to refer to the person by name when I can.

But sometimes, I’m doing blocks of interviews where I’m talking to 2 or 3 people in a row.

I figured out this trick after calling people the wrong names a few times because I was so deep in the interviews. Learn from my mistakes.

Tip #2: Make sure your team members are prepared for the interview.

We talked about this earlier but I want to reiterate it here. It will be greatly impactful for you to involve your team in these interviews. Make sure you are all on the same page before you get started. You are leading the conversation, so ensure your team knows not to speak up in the middle of the interview.

If they have questions they want to ask, try to collect those before your interview starts.

If someone on your team has a question to add, I recommend you have them write it down or Slack it to you so one person is running the conversation.

However, you can leave 3-5 minutes before the wrap-up and open the floor for anyone on your team to ask a follow-up question.

Tip #3: Be prepared and be on time

Now, it’s only minutes away before your interview begins.

Are you well prepared?

Write up a checklist to review -- is your customer’s LinkedIn profile up?

Is their name on a sticky note in front of you?

Are you set up to record the conversation -- provided that the subject permits you?

Your subject is giving you 30 minutes of their day. They are doing you a favor, so it’s important that you give them the courtesy of showing up prepped and on time.

Tip #4: Briefly Introduce yourself and explain goals

Okay, now that you’ve got everyone on the call, start with a brief introduction. Explain your goals for this conversation.

30 minutes is shorter than you’d think! So keep it short but make it strong. This will set the tone for the rest of the interview. For example, I’d say “Thank you for agreeing to this interview today.

As I mentioned in my email, we are working on developing a new content publishing platform and I reached out to you, John, because it sounds like you use something similar in your current role.

I’ve got some questions here for you, but I’m most interested in learning how you’re currently managing content creation, how you arrived at your chosen solution, and what you wish was different about your current process.”

Now the stage is set.

Tip #5 Ask for permission and record the interview

Now, this is a big one -- record your interview. Recording helps you be a more active listener since you can go back and take notes later. But you cannot record without permission.

Some companies have rules that prevent their employees from being recorded. Always ask before you hit Record. You can say something simple like “Do you mind if we record this? It would only be used by our team internally for reference purposes. So we are not distracted by taking notes.”

If your subject says “No”, just do your best to jot down notes during the interview.

When the interview is finished, take a few minutes afterward to review what you’ve written down.

If you have other team members on your call, they can take notes for you and compare afterward.

Ensure you collect and summarize notes right away. If you have a few back-to-back interviews set an hour after to go over your notes and summarize while they are fresh in your memory.

The longer you wait, the less you’ll remember as every interview starts blending together.