Chapter 01: How to have deeper customer conversations

The four questions that can structure your conversation are as follows:

• When did you last use (product/service)?
• What prompted you to use (product/service)?
• Walk me through the experience of using (product/service)
• Tell me more about that. (Comment you found interesting)

It can be helpful to identify people who have recently used your product or service, so that they are more likely to remember the experience.

Invite them to chat through your normal channel, be that email, messenger, or meeting them in person.

In the invite, tell them that you are wanting to understand their experience of using your product or service, so you can make it better for them.

By the way, if you don’t have a product yet, you can use the same question set, just replace the your ‘product’ with the ‘problem’ you are interested in learning about. For example: “When did you last experience (problem)?”

During the conversation, if anything they say that stands out to you as something that challenges what you think about them or their experience, highlight it (or note it down). You may want to record the chat (ask them if they are ok with that, and that it is a recording just for you to remember what they said).

So after the chat, you’ll have a set of highlighted quotes from what your customer has said.

Keen to read more? Chapter 02: Examples of Customer Needs