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Techniques for Asking Questions

Beyond listening, asking good questions that elicit quality answers is also part of the research phase of making a decision. When interviewing key players in your information-gathering phase prior to making a decision, think about asking good questions.

Prepare before any discussion by thinking through what information you want to gather and developing potential questions that will elicit that information. Think about questions in two ways:

First, create questions in both a closed-ended response (yes/no) followed by questions that are open ended (allow the interviewee to respond with details). Start with the yes/no question. Once you get that response, you can ask the obvious: why or why not? Allow the respondent plenty of time to answer. Often, the longer the answer, the more details you’ll get.

For example: Are our customers returning Product X more often than others? Get yes or no. Then, follow up with more questions: Why do you think they are doing that? What are they telling you when they do return the product? Let your customer service reps talk, and listen closely.

Second, ask questions that follow the journalist’s tried-and-true key elements of information: who, what, where, when, why, and how—known as the five W’s. Who is doing this? What is the reason? Where are they returning the product? When do the customers seem to return them? How are the products coming back? Why do customers say they are returning the product?