Interviewing customers about how they decided to use you

4 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

Ten conversations with recent customers will tell a small business more about its own marketing than a year of analytics. The response rate is high, because people are pleased to be asked and the request is flattering. The information is first-hand rather than inferred. And it costs two hours. There is no other research available at that price.

Almost nobody does it. The reasons given are time and awkwardness, and the real reason is usually that nobody has ever suggested it as a normal business activity. Treated as a standing habit rather than a project, it becomes the most reliable source of marketing information a small business has.

1. Interviewing customers about how they decided works because they will tell you

The premise.

Recent customers answer readily, at length, and honestly. The barrier is entirely on your side and it disappears after the first call. Most people are pleased that somebody wanted to know.

2. Ask soon after the work is finished

The timing.

Within a few weeks, while the decision is still recallable. Six months later the answers describe the delivery rather than the decision. Memory of a buying process decays quickly and is rewritten by what followed.

3. Start at the beginning of their story

The opening question.

"Can you take me back to when you first thought about this?" Open, chronological, and it produces the sequence rather than a set of opinions. Then keep asking what happened next until they reach the point of buying.

4. Ask what they did, not what they thought of you

The framing.

Actions are recalled accurately and opinions are shaped by politeness. What they searched, who they asked, what they looked at, in what order. Opinions offered to a supplier are almost always kinder than the truth.

5. Ask who else they considered

The competitive information.

Who else, and what decided it. Customers answer this freely and it identifies your real competitors, which are frequently not the ones you assumed. It also tells you what those competitors are saying, secondhand but usefully.

6. Ask what nearly stopped them

The most valuable single question.

Every win had a moment where it might not have happened. That moment is your weakest point and the customer remembers it clearly. Twenty answers list your process faults in order of severity.

7. Do not defend anything

The discipline.

If they describe something that went badly, note it and move on. Explaining ends the flow of information and converts an interview into a conversation about you. You can address it afterwards, separately.

8. Take notes verbatim

The record.

Their phrasing, not your summary. The words customers use are directly reusable in your material and a paraphrase loses exactly what made them useful. Write while they talk rather than reconstructing afterwards.

9. Do a few every quarter, permanently

The habit.

Three or four calls each quarter keeps the picture current as your market and your customers change. This is more useful than a large one-off study. Put it in the diary rather than relying on remembering.

Be careful about turning it into a sales call. If the conversation becomes an opportunity to mention another service, people stop giving honest answers, and the information is worth considerably more than the occasional additional sale. Say at the outset that you are not selling anything.

Conclusion

Ring ten recent customers and ask what actually happened.

Do it within a few weeks of the work while the decision is fresh, open by asking them to go back to the beginning, ask what they did rather than what they thought of you, find out who else they considered and what decided it, ask what nearly stopped them, resist defending anything they raise, record their exact phrasing rather than a summary, and make it a standing habit of a few calls each quarter.