Glossary

Customer interview

A conversation designed to understand a customer’s experiences, needs and decisions.

Why it matters

Before you change an offer, it helps to understand how people choose, what gets in their way and what they do instead. A customer interview gives you room to explore those details in the person’s own words.

Start with a decision you need to make. Speak with people who have relevant experience, including those who chose another option or stopped buying. Ask about specific events rather than relying only on what someone thinks they might do.

A simple example

Illustrative example, not client research

A community training provider could interview people who recently considered a course before deciding whether to add evening sessions.

Reconstruct a recent decision

Ask the person to walk through the last time they looked for a course, from the initial need to their final choice.

Follow up on when the schedule mattered and what happened when a session did not fit.

Explore what they did instead

Ask which other options they considered, including postponing training or learning another way.

Look for what made an alternative workable before assuming that an evening course would solve the problem.

These are proposed interview topics, not participant responses. Get informed consent, agree how notes or recordings will be used and protect personal information. Check emerging explanations across different relevant experiences.

An interview is not a sales pitch

The aim is to understand the person’s experience, not persuade them that your idea is good. Leading questions and early explanations of your proposed solution can make agreement easier than an honest account.

A few interviews can reveal useful patterns and exceptions. They do not, by themselves, tell you what proportion of the market shares a need or prove that people will pay for a new offer.

Before planning an interview

Which business decision should this conversation help you make?
Whose experience are you missing, including people who did not choose you?
Which recent events can you ask about without suggesting an answer?

Customer research: Gathering and analyzing information about customers to understand their needs, behavior and experiences.
Qualitative research: Research that explores experiences, motivations and meaning through material such as interviews and observations.
Quantitative research: Research that uses numerical data and statistical analysis to measure patterns, differences or relationships.