Case Study Interviewing: Coaxing Info from an “Undertalker”
If you’ve done your share of case study interviews, you’ve encountered one of the trickiest subjects:
The person who answers each question with as few words as possible.
He parcels out words carefully and stingily as if each one costs a dollar to use.
It’s not that your subject is being deliberately evasive or isn’t happy with the product or service; it’s usually just the personality. Most likely, he’s just not comfortable being interviewed.
How do you deal with an "undertalker?"
1. First, consider whether this person is actually your best interview subject. If he’s the only person who can really speak to the topic, then proceed. Sometimes, it makes sense to interview someone else or more than one subject to get strong details and engaging quotes.
Some companies even choose case studies based on how vocal the customer is about the product or service.
2. If you are interviewing the undertalker, reassure him that you’ll make this as easy as possible, and that nothing will be published without his prior review.
3. Finally, gradually ease the information out.
You may need to ask each question several different ways to get the answer. It helps to be as specific as possible – especially with getting measurable results.
Think of yourself as a detective searching for the answers you need.
Sample interview excerpt:
Interviewer: At what points are you realizing time-savings with the solution?
Customer: It saves us quite a bit of time throughout the day.
Interviewer: What are some of the daily tasks that the solution streamlines for you?
Customer: It really helps by automating administrative tasks.
Interviewer: Which administrative tasks does it automate?
Customer: The process of converting quotes to orders.
Interviewer: How did you handle this process before, and how do you do it now with the solution?
Customer: Before, we typed the information twice.
Interviewer: How long did it take before to convert a quote to an order?
Customer: It took about 15 minutes per order before.
Interviewer: How long does it take now?
Customer: It’s instant. We click a button and it converts the quote to an order.
Interviewer: About how many orders do you process per week or month?
Customer: About 30 a month.
Interviewer: So, you save nearly a full workday just on that one administrative task now? That’s great.
Each question gets increasingly more detailed until the customer finally offers some specific information.
Sometimes you just have to keep asking to get what you need. However, pay attention to the customer’s responses and ease up if it seems as though he is frustrated with the line of questioning or doesn’t know the answers.
You may not have powerful or colorful quotes, but you’ve got solid information with which to build an effective case study.
How do you handle undertalkers?
6 Ways to ‘Place’ Prospects in Your Case Studies
Storytelling in business is powerful – but only if it resonates with your audience.
That was one of the messages on a free story telecall put on by Michael Margolis of Get Storied last week.
Michael recently released his insightful book, Believe Me, on the power of using story in reinforcing your vision, brand and leadership.
"It’s your responsibility to tell a story that people can locate themselves into," he said. "How do you get people to identify with your story, to locate themsles in that story and feel like they’re a part of it?"
In customer case studies and success stories, it’s about reflecting some of the traits of your prospective customer in the story you’re telling.
As we’ve discussed before, you have to mirror the audience and the customer you’re featuring in some way. In other words, the customer needs some sort of apples-to-apples association from your case study.
But that doesn’t have to mean the exact same kind of company/organization.
Here are six different ways to help your audience better identify or place themselves into a customer story:
Same industry – Many prospects want to know that you are familiar with their type of business.
Same size – Small biz prospects may feel better seeing other small businesses with your solution, while large businesses identify with large businesses.
Same title – Quote someone with a title similar to the person who might read/view your customer story.
Same "pain" – We all feel a connection with those going through something we’re going through. Share a customer case study that touches on the same problem the prospect has.
Same goal – We can understand and rally around others that have the same goals we do. Match your prospect’s goal with the goal set out (and achieved) by a current customer. One customer might use a piece of software to achieve regulatory compliance while another might want it mainly for productivity gains.
Same geographical area – What your audience respond better to a customer in the same city, region or country?
You can use one or more than one way to line up with your audience. Just make sure you do it somehow.
Any other ways you would add?
Case Study Interviewing – Team up for One Power Interview
If you’re making full use of a customer’s success story, you’re telling that story in multiple places – case studies, success stories, press releases, videos, webinars, white papers, and more.
Most likely, more than one person is involved in creating content with the customer’s story. If you’re not careful, the customer will be asked the same questions again and again.
That’s why it’s critical to approach the customer in an organized way with the goal of minimizing the customer’s time. Ideally, that means one "power" interview to get all the details you need.
Right now, I’m working on a case study project where the customer will also be featured in a white paper. Instead of two separate interviews, the white paper writer and I are teaming up for a single interview to collect all the information we need for our respective projects.
The alternative – two separate interviews in a single week, with duplicate questions – would likely be very annoying for the customer.
To take best practices a step further, retain the raw transcript, audio or video for any future uses of the customer’s story to ensure you don’t need to engage more of the customer’s time unless absolutely necessary.
In short, always make sure you’re gathering the customer’s story with an eye toward broader usage. When possible, knock it out with one power interview.
For other ways to keep customers happy during the case study process, check out Michele Linn’s great recent post, Handle with Care: 10 Tips on Interacting with Case Study Customers.
Cap Your Interviews with This Question
If you cook, you know that the ingredients matter. Use the highest-quality ingredients and the end product tastes better than it would with lesser-quality materials.
The same goes for a customer case study. The better the information you gather in the interview, the stronger the story.
That’s why my interviews are typically very thorough. Yet still, at the end, I always ask one question to make sure that I haven’t missed anything.
"Is there anything else that you would like to add that we haven’t talked about?"
It’s the catch-all question to make sure that no stone has gone unturned.
About 50 percent of the time, the person will mention something else, or cap our conversation with an excellent summary quote. No matter how thorough the interview, there’s always a chance the customer might add a final thought, which will make your story even stronger.
Are you asking the questions that will yield a 5-star case study or success story? Learn more about interviewing and writing cases that get results in the upcoming teleclass, "Writing a Compelling Case Study – Start to Finish."
How to Keep it Real – Authenticity in Customer Stories
These days, potential buyers believe other satisfied customers more than anything else. If that happy customer happens to be a friend or other contact, that’s best. But customer stories are a close second.
As managers and creators of customer stories, it’s our job to help keep customer success stories and case studies high up on that list of trusted sources. That means keeping them real and believable.
I occasionally see companies taking shortcuts for one reason or another. They’re too busy to reach out and engage the customer, and pretty sure they know what the customer would say, so the customer isn’t interviewed. Or, the customer is too busy at the time.
It’s hard to fake customer stories based on real customer interviews and insight. Stories lack the customer’s real voice and authenticity, and all start to sound the same. The quotes I create to put words in customers’ mouths are never as colorful as what the actual customer might say.
Keeping customer stories believable depends on making the effort to get actual customer information as often as possible.
Here are tips for keeping customer stories real.
- Get the customer’s buy-in, The first step in creating authentic customer stories is getting the customer on board. Sometimes organizations tip-toe around happy customers, not wanting to upset the delicate balance. If you find reasons and angles for the story that interest the customer, it’s a much easier sell.
- Interview the customer, You might think that all the information you need can come from internal account and sales reps, but you never know. In interviews, I often find rich information from customers that no one else knew. Maybe it’s the first time the customer has been asked a certain question.
- Interview the customer LIVE – I’ve seen companies ask customers to fill out written questionnaires about their experience. The approach lacks an interactive element that drives better information. Try to get the customer on the phone.
- Get real customer quotes, If at all possible, collect quotes directly from the customer. Even if the rest of the story was pieced together from internal contacts, reach out to the customer, even by email, for a few comments.
It takes some extra time and effort to make stories authentic, but it’s worth it to get firsthand information and preserve the integrity of case studies and success stories.
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