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You hang up on Zoom after a 30-minute customer interview. How do you know if you’ve done a good job? Most people get distracted with feelings. They're all, "Wow, that felt great!" or "Ugh, that was awkward." But your feelings are false, and can lead you astray. You might have an awkward interview and learn a ton, or a super comfortable chat that stays surface-deep. The real key to a deep customer call isn't how you feel about it—it's the quality of data you collect. So, after your next interview, forget about how it feels and ask yourself this instead: "What concrete, actionable data did I actually collect?" Good data isn't fluffy opinions or wild "what if" scenarios. What you want is: 1. Actual actions your customer took 2. Behaviors you could see if you were a fly on their office wall 3. Real events that went down, past or present 4. Preferences and feelings they've had (not the imaginary future ones) Why does quality data matter so much? It's not about being a data nerd. It's that your credibility is at stake. If someone asks, “Why did you do X?” and you don’t have a good reason... They’ll assume it was random. Any success will be considered a fluke. Any failure will be your fault. But when you've got solid customer data backing up your choices? You're not just guessing—you're making moves based on real intel from real customers. So the next time you wrap up a customer call, don't get hung up on whether it was smooth sailing or choppy waters. Ask yourself: "What real, reliable data did I manage to collect?" That's how you know if you've struck gold or if you need to dive back in for another round.

An Answer to an open discussion on Navigating difficult customer interactions and discuss them in interviews. Listening is more than just hearing words; it's about understanding the customer's perspective. Show empathy and acknowledge their feelings without interrupting. This approach can turn a negative experience into a positive one for the customer. In an interview, illustrate your listening skills by describing a specific situation where you paid close attention to a customer's concerns and how this led to a successful resolution. My Take Aways: I always have a pattern L.A.M.A that I always advise my agents. First and foremost is Listening - is not only hearing words but finding a queue of the ticking clock of seconds to calm your mind and be prepared to answer back, and second on the list is Acknowledging - When the interviewee, have given you the time to answer back his question, you have to acknowledge and show that you completely understand the question. M- Make a statement - That is where your composed mind and simplified answer to the question comes in, You will now convey what you have understood the question giving your side of the coin. Lastly, A- Ask probing questions that's when you are going to ask probing questions for a resolution of a certain issue.  Team Sai-

You don't need a script to do a customer interview. You need a goal. And, key guiding questions. And the ability to probe. Because, once it's clear about what you're trying to achieve from the conversation, you can work backwards to figure out what key questions to ask. Here is an example: Scenario: high customer churn rate. The goal: find out why they churned (to ultimately reduce churn) Key guiding questions: - what were their expectations, why? - what were they looking to achieve, why? - how did we fail to meet their expectations, why? - what can be done to improve? These questions don't need to be phrased and asked verbatim. They need to be asked when appropriate, and in a way that follows the natural flow of a real conversation. Your job is to probe in such a way that you get answers to key guiding questions, which will ultimately reveal why the customers churned, and if/how to prevent churn. How to probe (some examples): - Can you explain why, specifically you had that expectation? - Could you describe why achieving that outcome is important? - Where exactly did we fall short? - Why is that an issue? - For instance...? or Can you give me an example? - What if you had this...? - What would you say would need to change in order to achieve that outcome? - Why do you think so? - So to clarify, you mean...? The purpose of probing: reveal hidden insights that answer your key questions in a specific way, and address your goal. The best part about it: you don't need a script. TL;DR: - Approach customer interviews with a genuine desire to understand - Always have a clear obvious goal for every customer interview - Scripts are limiting and overrated - Get rich, actionable insights via probing

🎈 Here's a vital part of your success, when running B2B customer interviews. Ask one question at a time. It's a natural tendency to combine questions. Here's an example, "What made our solution stand out, and what were you using before?" ^Those are two questions. Here's why it matters 1. Clarity and Focus: When you ask a single question, people can focus on one idea. Multiple Qs at once, get interviewees unsure of which question to answer first, leading to incomplete or less detailed responses. 2. Depth of Insight: By asking one question at a time, you encourage people to explore thoughts and experiences in more detail. 3. Avoids Overwhelming Them If questions cover different topics, or require people to recall different pieces of info, they often provide surface-level answers to each question, rather than thoroughly addressing any of them. 4. Facilitates Better Follow-ups One Q at a time means you can gauge the interviewee's response fully, and then decide on appropriate follow-up questions. This keeps the conversation more dynamic and adaptable, leading to a more natural flow and the discovery of unexpected insights. It's not easy though. It takes practice, but if you can nail this, it will change the game on extracting insights from customers

How to Motivate Your Customers to Share Thoughts About Your Product? Imagine not needing to ask your customers to participate in interviews. Instead, feature requests and insights are coming in. You just need to grab them and prioritize. Let’s discuss how to do that and how to motivate your customers to share thoughts about the product you're working on: 1. Make giving feedback easy. Implement a simple form on your website and within your product for users to share their thoughts. Include fields such as the user’s role, optional email (for those who wish to leave it), and the reason why the feature is important. Having an email opens the possibility for further dialogue with the user to gather more insights. Isn’t that marvelous? 2. Leverage your Sales, Customer Success, and Support teams. If customers are hesitant to share feedback, despite frequent interactions with your colleagues, request their help. Ask them to inquire and gather insights, then send that information into a designated tool or form. Tools like airfocus are ideal for this purpose. Remember to convert feedback into opportunities and incorporate them into your roadmap. 3. Amplify your customers’ voices. Consider all the insights shared by customers and prioritize accordingly. If you spot a quick win that fits within your capacity, add it to the backlog or roadmap and communicate the change upon implementation. One of the biggest challenges is having a perpetually full roadmap with no room for user feedback, creating a seemingly endless loop. I’ll address this in the next post, so stay tuned.

My worst customer interview was over in ten minutes. An epic fail. "Good value for the price." "It's easy to use." "Yes." Just superficial answers that barely scratched the surface. The customer wasn't opening up. And I wasn't getting anywhere. One of the hardest things about talking to customers? Customers often aren't really clear on WHY they made a buying decision. In many cases, the buying process takes place below the level of conscious thought. Before we ever get to the point of actually making a purchase, we go through a whole journey: - experiencing pain points - passively looking around for solutions - experiencing a trigger event that leads to actively buying All at a subconscious level. Understanding these subconscious processes are the key to compelling buyer insights – but our conscious mind has a hard time accessing them. And that can be a major challenge when you're running customer interviews. When you’re doing interviews, your customers will often give you clear, confident answers. They’ll tell you they signed up for Pied Piper because they got incredible pricing. Or because it had must-have security features. Or they needed to upgrade because their team was growing. That might be the truth. And it might not. In a customer interview, probing questions can help you dig beneath the surface when your participant gives you a superficial answer. I ask these questions to dig deeper: 👉 “Tell me more about that.” 👉 “Why was that important?” 👉 “Can you unpack that for me?” 👉 “Seems like there’s a story there.” 👉 “Can you share a little bit about that?” 👉 “What were you thinking at that point?” 👉 “Why did you decide to do it that way?” 👉 “Can you walk me through that process?” Or just… silence. Waiting for your participant to say more can be one of the most effective interview moves of all. When you give participants time to think and respond, you'll start to uncover killer voice of customer data. And that's the starting point for messaging that gets customers to choose you.

Day 9: Tips for conducting effective customer interviews. Conducting effective customer interviews is essential for gathering valuable insights that can drive product development and improve customer satisfaction. One key tip is to prepare a structured set of open-ended questions that encourage detailed responses - Voice of the Customer. This allows customers to express their thoughts and experiences more freely, rather than confining them to simple yes or no answers. Additionally, it’s important to create a comfortable and welcoming environment for the interview, as this helps to build rapport and trust. Ensure that you actively listen to customers and show genuine interest in their feedback, which can lead to richer conversations and deeper understanding. Another important aspect of effective customer interviews is to pay attention to non-verbal cues. Body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions can reveal important insights that might not be articulated verbally. During the interview, take notes or record the conversation (with permission) to capture nuances that may be useful for later analysis. Don't hesitate to ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into specific topics that arise during the discussion. This can unlock further insights that may not have been initially considered. Lastly, always conclude the interview by thanking participants for their time and insights. This not only shows appreciation but also leaves the door open for future interactions. Following up with a brief summary of key points discussed can reinforce a positive relationship and demonstrate that their feedback is valued. By employing these strategies, businesses can conduct customer interviews that yield meaningful and actionable insights, ultimately leading to enhanced products or services. #cx #customer #customerexperience #customerfeedback #voiceofthecustomer

Customer interviews can be hit or miss. You might go in with a ton of questions, hoping to find the magic key to your next big product, but sometimes you just leave feeling like you wasted their time and yours. The truth is, good customer interviews aren't about fancy scripts or stuffy rooms. They're about connecting with people and getting useful information that you can actually use. Here are some tips that helped me go from feeling awkward to really understanding what customers need: 1. Stop fishing for compliments! We all love to hear nice things, but in customer interviews, that doesn't get you anywhere. Instead, ask questions that get to the heart of their problems. For example, instead of "Do you like our idea?" try "Can you tell me about a time you ran into this specific problem?" Then follow up with, "What would have helped you most in that situation?" By focusing on their experiences, you get the information you actually need to build things that solve their problems. 2. Look for commitment. This could be in the form of them paying you prelaunch showing their need for the idea. Monetary commitment is not the only thing you can look for. Maybe they connect you with a big decision-maker at their company. That's a huge win! Or, maybe they're willing to try out your rough, unfinished prototype. That shows real dedication! These things show they are not just talking, they're actually willing to put their money where their mouth is (or, as the case may be, their time). 3. Ditch the interrogation, have a conversation. Nobody enjoys being grilled! Make the interview feel like a friendly chat. Ask them about their work, how they do things, and the challenges they face every day. This genuine interest will help them relax and open up, sharing insights you might miss in a formal setting. Think of it as a two-way street. You're there to learn from them, and hopefully, they're excited to share their experiences and help you create something awesome. By following these tips, you can turn your customer interviews from one-sided question sessions into powerful tools for uncovering problems, getting people on board, and building solutions that truly make a difference. So get out there and crack the customer code!

To create effective personas or user profiles, the most important factor is to deeply understand your potential or existing customers. Defining personas based solely on assumptions or perspectives, without actual user opinions and experiences, can lead to significant risks. Customer interviews are more than just conversations. They offer an opportunity to clearly identify the problems and needs users are experiencing and to explore customer behavior patterns, motivations, and challenges in detail, thereby gaining valuable insights. Feedback from existing customers is particularly crucial as it reflects their real experience with your product or service. One of the most important elements in customer interviews is active listening. Active listening involves more than just hearing what someone says; it requires a proactive attitude to fully understand what they are conveying, including their thoughts and emotions. It is important to provide space for interviewees to express their thoughts fully and to deepen the conversation with follow-up questions. Additionally, it is essential to avoid interpreting their words through your own biases or preconceptions and to approach their feedback with an open mind to accurately grasp their true intentions.

Make your customer interviews count. I wrote about the value of using customer interviews to inform your messaging in a prior post (linked in comments). Understanding your customers goes beyond knowing which needs you can satisfy. You also have to position your solution favourably among their perceived alternatives. Here are three question categories we use for customer interviews at Sarris Marketing, with example questions for each: 1️⃣ Motivation and Awareness: What would drive them to seek your solution? ❔ What might be happening at work that would motivate you to seek a service like ours? ❔ What positive outcome do you seek when these things are happening? 2️⃣ Experience and Differentiators: What have they liked and disliked about past experiences? ❔ Think about times in your career when you’ve worked with a service like ours. Can you recall a distinctly positive experience? What about a distinctly negative experience? ❔ What did you like about the positive experience? What did the vendor do that made you feel good about working with them? ❔ What about the negative experience? What did they say or do that annoyed you, disappointed you, or made you regret working with them? 3️⃣ Summary and High-Level Messaging: Get THEM to summarize how they view your service. ❔ How would you define the “main job” that we do for our customers? ❔ How would you define the market category that we’re in? The answers to these questions will help you a lot. They will help you keep your understanding of your customers (and your business) grounded in reality.