Your buyers don't want to hear from you, they want to hear from their peers. Sorry, it's the truth.
According to Forrester only 29% of buyers completely or somewhat trust salespeople and marketers. 90% of buyers completely or somewhat trust their peers though. Which is why you see a rise in communities and dark social. Aside from organic peer recommendations, one of your best ways to build trust is through the voices of your customers. In fact, that same Forrester report states that 85% of buyers completely or somewhat trust customers of vendors.
It's not quite 90%...but it's a whole lot better than 29%.
Once you select your customers and are ready to interview them here is a list of questions for you to make sure you get the most out of the interviews. Pick a few from each category below and build a set of 12-15 questions.
This question serves to set the stage. It’s always a great idea to allow the interviewee to introduce themselves and their workplace. This, in turn, will establish their credibility and let them start the interview process with some readily known information to ensure their comfort.
It is always wise to start off interviews by gaining insight on your interviewee’s company and successes. This helps to establish your interviewee’s ethos and center them as an expert in their industry.
How does your interviewee’s role contribute to their company’s accomplishments? What daily activities does your interviewee partake in that make your product or service necessary? Questions like the one above help to establish the journey that your interviewee goes through and create a clear story for your prospects to follow. And don’t be afraid to ask follow up questions. According to The Harvard Business Review, follow up questions are helpful because “they signal to your conversation partner that you are listening, care, and want to know more.”
Give your interviewee multiple opportunities to establish themselves as an expert in their own growth and success journey. Some interviewees can get nervous or unsure of themselves in an interview setting. Having questions like this on deck will not only help your prospects see you aligned with successful companies, it will also help your interviewee as they gain the confidence to share their expertise.
Any time an interviewee can show a genuine joy or interest in what they do- let them. This ultimately helps for a more passionate delivery and keeps the energy up throughout the process.
It is always a great idea to establish what your company does for the interviewee in their own words. Let the interviewee set the stage and address the connection your companies have with each other in a genuine way.
When your interviewee gets to explore the trust factors that matter to their customers they are, in turn, establishing how important it is to be trustworthy and have trustworthy partners.
There are ample opportunities here to understand how your interviewee maintains trust and why that’s important to them. Questions like these help to establish how high the stakes are for your interviewee- when we hear about the lengths they go to in order to build connections with their customer base we are more inclined to believe that they wouldn’t enter into partnerships lightly. These questions help to highlight your interviewee as a thoughtful force who will go out of their way to maintain relationships with companies who are equally as attentive as they are.
Now that we have established our interviewee as an expert in their industry we get to explore why they, as an expert, would find value in your company’s products and services.
A lot of times prospects are unsure of the tangible ways they can use certain goods and services. When a question like this is asked, our interviewee get to highlight the thought processes they had while choosing your product. This way, prospects can see themselves in the interviewees' response and find commonality in their journey.
A lot of prospects will have similar hiccups on their growth and maintenance journey so it’s always a good idea to establish what brought your interviewee to you. The more your prospects see themselves in this journey, the easier it will be to convince them to trust you.
What did your interviewee’s life look like before you were in it? What problems did you help solve? This question is also helpful because it gives the interviewee a chance to reflect on how far they have come.
Allow your interviewee to address how they explored other options. It will highlight what set your company apart and why it was chosen.
This question helps your prospects understand the specific ways your company addressed and resolved the challenges faced by the interviewee. It also helps to establish your partnership as you both navigated these issues together to a successful conclusion.
Again, a lot of customers will have similar journeys when it comes to solving their problems and increasing their growth. This question allows you to get insights into the ultimate decision to partner with your company and the factors that influenced it.
This is a particularly advantageous question because it offers your interviewee the opportunity to “zoom out” and see the bigger implications of your company’s impact on their success. According to The Entrepreneur “Your prospects will take anything you say about yourself with a whole shaker of table salt. But people will believe anything someone else says about you by default.” This is why it’s so important to give your interviewee multiple ways to sing your praise in both general and specific ways.
Create a good balance of questions that touch on the tangible benefits of your company as well as the personal ones. With this question, we are encouraging the interviewee to share their experience working with your company, creating a personal connection.
Questions that offer a “before and after” lens for the interviewee to reflect on are always solid choices. They highlight the changes in approach or strategy resulting from the partnership and establish that the partnership has brought growth and success.
This question asks the interviewee to describe any actions taken by your company to facilitate a smoother process for them.
The interviewee's experience during the implementation phase gives both you and your prospects vital insight into the setup process. This helps you determine any blind spots that require attention and gives your prospects an idea of what to expect when partnering with you.
Your questions should allow for opportunities for your interviewee to identify the unique qualities that set your company apart from others.
In a data driven world, numbers are king. And, according to The Harvard Review, it can be really hard to measure expert performance. That’s why, if you can, you should encourage your interviewee to look up any applicable data before the interview so they can be prepared for questions like these. Having strong evidence of the measurable improvements your company has made will reflect positively on both your company and the interviewee.
Questions like this give the interviewee the opportunity to highlight how your company enhanced the interviewee's deliverables, demonstrating added value. Again, if the interview has any data driven talking points to share, this is a great opportunity for them to do so.
This question helps gauge the interviewee's overall experience and highlights the company's ability to deliver quality results. It encourages the interviewee to share any unexpected positive experiences or results, which can build trust and credibility for your company.
This question delves into the interviewee's initial expectations and whether your company met or exceeded them. It provides insights into the alignment of expectations and actual outcomes, demonstrating your company's ability to understand and fulfill customer needs.
This question explores the adaptability and versatility of your company's solutions. It allows the interviewee to discuss any innovative or unexpected ways they've found value in the product or service, showcasing the company's flexibility and value-added capabilities. Questions like these might also help showcase unique or creative ways your solutions can be used outside of their original intent.
By asking about the impact on development and growth, this question focuses on tangible business outcomes. It emphasizes your company's role in helping the interviewee achieve their objectives and quantifies the company's contribution to their success.
This question targets specific departments or functions, highlighting the practical benefits of your company's offerings. It demonstrates the company's ability to address specific business needs and improve various aspects of the customer's operations. Be sure to cater this question to your solution’s specific usage for best results.
This question assesses the strategic impact of working with your company. This is another great opportunity for the interviewee to compare their situation before having your company’s influence to after. It shows how the company's solutions can influence a customer's decision-making and potentially lead to strategic changes or optimizations.
When doing an interview- it’s always crucial to collect some solid, succinct sound bites.This question allows the interviewee to summarize the primary advantage of partnering with your company. It can serve as a concise, compelling statement that highlights the company's unique value proposition.
This question validates the company's responsiveness to customer needs through concrete examples. It demonstrates that your company is willing to go the extra mile to meet evolving requirements, strengthening their reputation as a flexible and accommodating partner. This question assesses the company's ability to accommodate changes and respond to customer needs. Real-life examples provided by the interviewee can help illustrate your company’s adaptability.
This question evaluates the overall customer experience and satisfaction with your company's team. It emphasizes the company's commitment to providing support and clear communication during the collaboration. Assessing the customer's experience with the company's team underscores the importance of exceptional service. It showcases your company's dedication to providing stellar support, reinforcing their commitment to customer satisfaction.
This forward-looking question underscores your company’s potential to contribute to the interviewee's future success. It positions the company as a strategic partner in the customer's growth plans, highlighting their long-term value. Having a forward-looking question like this one encourages the interviewee to discuss future plans and how your company fits into their growth strategy.
This question addresses the consequences of not working with your company and can lead to some very poignant responses. This question emphasizes the company's value in mitigating risks or challenges for the interviewee's business. By addressing potential risks and challenges, this question underscores your team's role in mitigating these issues. This question is great because it highlights the company's value proposition by emphasizing the negative consequences of not partnering with them.
This question is similar to question 30 “In your opinion, what’s the biggest benefit of working with {{COMPANY_NAME}}?” Where it differs is in the subtle distinction between recognizing output and appreciating the overall impact your company has had on the interviewee. As the customer survey site, FreeOnlineSurveys, recommends: “Remember to tailor questions to different types of testimonials, conduct interviews effectively, and craft compelling statements.” It’s also great to get several versions of answers because the answers could surprise you.
This question leverages the interviewee's insights to showcase your company by inviting the interviewee to share those insights for potential customers. This question showcases your company's versatility and its ability to provide value to a broader range of businesses. It positions the company as a solution provider with broad applicability, appealing to a diverse range of potential customers.
This question leverages the interviewee's recommendation to persuade potential customers. Utilizing the interviewee's approval to influence your prospects is a persuasive strategy as it highlights the positive experiences and benefits associated with your company, encouraging others to consider your company as a reliable partner.
This direct question prompts the interviewee to provide a clear endorsement of the company's suitability and effectiveness. It serves as a powerful testimonial of the positive impact of partnering with your company.
Encouraging the interviewee to identify potential referrals and articulate their reasons for recommending your company reinforces the company's credibility and trustworthiness. It extends the endorsement to a broader audience, strengthening your company's reputation and getting your prospects excited about working with you.
This open-ended question allows the interviewee to provide additional insights, anecdotes, or sentiments about their experience. It fosters authenticity and can lead to compelling testimonials that capture the full depth of their relationship with your company. It’s a great way to wrap up a positive and effective testimonial interview. Be sure to “Make a plan and a process for collecting testimonials from every happy customer” as Caelan Huntress suggests, because it will streamline your processes and get you ample amazing results.
Feel free to use these questions to build your set of interview questions. Or reach out to us at Testimonial Hero and work with our dedicated Creative Producers to come up with the perfect question set for your customer interviews. Everything from the question set, to conducting the interview, to editing the final videos is something we'll take care of.
