APPENDIX B
STRUCTURED INTERVIEWING OF CUSTOMERS
‘‘Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.’
Bill Gates
In this appendix:
In Chapter 5, and in more detail in Appendix A, a structured interviewing programme of customers was recommended as the most methodical way to obtain much of the information needed to derive your firm’s competitive position.
Here’s how to do it:
- 1Select a representative range of customer interviewees.
- 2Prepare your storyline.
- 3Prepare a concise questionnaire.
- 4Interview them, through email, telephone or face-to-face.
- 5Thank them and give them some feedback.
The interviewees
The interviewees should represent a broad cross-section of your business. You should select three to six customers from each of your main product/market segments, as well as, or including, the following:
- ■your top six customers in terms of revenue
- ■long-standing customers as well as recent acquisitions
- ■customers who also use, or used to use, your competitors, so they can compare your performance from direct experience rather than conjecture
- ■customers with whom you’ve had problems
- ■would-be customers, currently using a competitor, but on your target list
- ■former customers who switched to a competitor.
That sounds like a lot, but you’ll be selective. Aim for two, perhaps three dozen in all.
The storyline
Here’s your opportunity to put a positive light on your business. Compare these two storylines:
- 1‘Sorry to waste your time, but can I ask for your help in figuring out how well our firm performs?’
- 2‘As you know, our firm has been rather busy over the last couple of years. But we thought we should take some time out to ask some of our most important customers how their needs may be changing over time and to what extent we can serve those needs better.’
Guess which line will get the better response and put your business in a favourable light? The first storyline conveys a negative, defeatist impression and is all about your firm and its possible deficiencies. The second leaves a positive impression and is all about your customer’s needs. Stick to the second!
The questionnaire
The questionnaire needs care. It must be taken as a guideline, not as a box-ticking exercise. It stays with you, and it doesn’t get handed or emailed to the interviewee. It’s a prompter to discussion, no more. It needs to be simple. And concise.
It should be in four parts:
- 1The storyline.
- 2Customer needs – which, how important, now and in the future?
- 3Performance – how your firm and your competitors rate against those needs.
- 4The future – how you can better serve your customer’s needs.
The storyline
The storyline should be written out at the top of the questionnaire and memorised. It must be delivered naturally and seemingly spontaneously. Stick in the odd pause, ‘um’ or ‘er’ to make it seem less rehearsed.
Customer needs
These are the main questions to put on your questionnaire:
- ■What are your main needs and your main criteria in buying this service? What do you expect from your providers?
- ■How important are each of these needs? Which are more important than others? How would you rank them?
- ■Will these needs become more or less important over time?
- ■Are any other needs likely to become important in the future?
You should allow the customer to draw up their own set of needs, but it’s best to prepare your own list to use as prompts, in case your customer dries up, or they miss an obvious one.
Performance
Here are some performance-related questions:
- ■How do you think our firm meets those needs? How do we perform?
- ■How do other providers perform? Do they better meet those needs?
- ■Who performs best against each of the most important needs?
Again, you should allow the customer to select who they think are the alternative providers of your service, but you should include a prompt list of your main competitors – which you may or may not choose to use. No need to alert your customer to a troublesome competitor that they’re not yet fully aware of!
The future
What should we be doing to better meet your needs and those of other customers?
The interview
Interviews are best done face-to-face. Then you can see the nuances behind the replies – the shifting glance, the fidgeting, the emphatic hand gestures. But they are the most time-consuming, unless you happen to be seeing your customer as part of your service delivery anyway.
If the interviews are done over the phone, they are best scheduled in advance. You can do this by email or with a preliminary phone call. After you’ve delivered the storyline, then add: ‘I wonder if you could spare 5 to 10 minutes to discuss this with me. I know you’re very busy, but perhaps we could set up a time later in the week for me to give you a call.’
The call itself must be carefully managed. Don’t launch into the questionnaire without a warm-up. Ask the customer how they are doing, how their work is, how their family is, whatever. Then gently shift to the storyline: ‘Well, as I was saying the other day . . . ’.
After you’ve finished the structured interview, don’t forget the warm-down at the closing. Return to one of the topics you discussed at the outset and gently wind down the discussion, not forgetting to thank them sincerely for giving so freely of their valuable time.
The thanks and feedback
A few hours, a day, a couple of days or a week later – whenever you feel it’s appropriate – thank your customer again, officially. By letter is best, but that may feel overly formal for you in this electronic world. Email is probably fine, but use your judgement.
The email should be cheerful and full of sincere gratitude. If possible, it should contain a snippet of information that could be of interest or use to your customer. One or two sentences should suffice. It could pick up on one aspect of the discussion and compare what another customer had to say on the same thing. You could give them an indication of the results of your survey: ‘Interestingly, most customers seemed to think that track record was their most important need,’ or ‘Encouragingly, most customers seemed to think we were the most innovative service provider!’
That’s structured interviewing. Now all you have to do is compile the results, whether on a piece of paper, on an Excel worksheet, or simply in your head, and feed them into your ratings against each key success factor – for your firm and for each of your main competitors.
The intriguing thing then is to compare these customer-derived ratings with your first-draft, do-it-yourself ratings. You may be in for a surprise!