How to Conduct Customer Interviews for Brand Insight
I recently sat down with a founder who was convinced his target market was “sophisticated, urban millennials who value minimalism.” He had spent £15,000 on a stark, monochrome visual identity and a website that looked like an art gallery.
One week into our engagement, I forced him to pick up the phone. We called five of his actual paying customers.
The result?
His buyers were actually stressed, middle-aged suburban parents who bought his product because it was “durable” and “idiot-proof.” They didn't care about minimalism; they cared that it didn't break when their toddler threw it across the room.
The “sophisticated” branding was actually alienating his primary source of income.
This is why we conduct customer interviews.
Most brand strategy is built on fiction. Entrepreneurs sit in a room, dream up a “user persona” based on people they wish would buy from them, and then burn cash trying to court these imaginary friends.
If you are not communicating with your customers systematically, you are delusional. You are betting your business on a hypothesis that you have refused to test.
This guide is the antidote. We are going to strip away the corporate buzzwords and look at the forensic process of extracting truth from human beings.
- Speak with real customers, not imagined personas, to avoid costly brand misalignment.
- Use Jobs to be Done to uncover why customers "hire" your product, not just feature preferences.
- Follow The Mom Test: ask about customers' lives first, avoid pitching or mentioning your idea early.
- Recruit the right mix: happy, churned and near-miss customers to reveal triggers, gaps and friction.
- Record, transcribe and code interviews; extract language, anxieties and journeys to guide brand decisions.
What are Customer Interviews?
Customer interviews are structured, one-on-one conversations designed to extract qualitative data about a user's behaviours, motivations, pain points, and worldviews. Unlike focus groups (which are prone to groupthink) or surveys (which lack nuance), interviews allow you to understand the context behind a purchase decision.
They are the primary mechanism for validating your target audiences before you commit to a visual or verbal strategy.
The Three Core Components:
- Discovery: Identifying problems the customer actually faces, not the ones you assume they have.
- Validation: Testing whether your proposed solution actually fits into their life.
- Language Extraction: Learning the specific words, slang, and metaphors your customers use, so you can reflect them back in your copy.
Note: A customer interview is not a sales call. If you try to sell during the interview, the data is contaminated. You are a researcher, not a pitcher.
The Strategic Framework: Jobs to be Done (JTBD)
Before you write a single question, you need a mental model for what you are looking for. At Inkbot Design, we rely heavily on the Jobs to be Done (JTBD) framework.
The premise is simple: People don't buy products; they “hire” them to make progress in their lives.
Professor Clayton Christensen famously illustrated this with fast-food milkshakes.
The data showed that half of all milkshakes were sold before 8:00 AM. Why? Interviews revealed that commuters needed something to do with their hands while driving, something that wouldn't make a mess (like a doughnut) and would stave off hunger until lunch.
They weren't hiring a “dessert”; they were hiring a “morning commute companion.”
If you ask a customer, “Do you like the chocolate flavour?”, you miss the point entirely. You should be asking, “What happened this morning that made you come here?”
JTBD Interview Script Generator
Don't ask “Do you like my logo?” Ask the questions that reveal why people actually buy. Enter your details below to generate a psychological interview script.
*Pro Tip: Record the interview. Listen for emotional words they use to describe their pain.*
Turn These Insights into a Brand StrategyThe “Mom Test” Protocol
Most entrepreneurs fail at interviews because they fish for compliments. They ask, “Is this a good idea?”
As Rob Fitzpatrick details in The Mom Test, if you ask your mum if your business idea is good, she will lie to you because she loves you. Your customers will do the same because they want to be polite.
The Golden Rule: You are not allowed to mention your idea during the first half of the interview. You must only talk about their life and their problems.
The Mom Test
Everyone is lying to you. Their polite compliments are killing your business before it even starts. This book is the fix. It’s the tactical playbook to stop seeking approval and start finding the brutal truth. Master the Mom Test to validate real problems and force hard commitment before you waste another dollar on a bad idea. Stop pitching and start listening.
As an Amazon Partner, when you buy through our links, we may earn a commission.
Phase 1: Recruitment (Finding the Right Humans)
You do not need hundreds of people. The Nielsen Norman Group has demonstrated repeatedly that 5 to 8 interviews per user segment are sufficient to identify 85% of core usability and motivation issues. After that, you hit the point of diminishing returns.
However, you must speak with the right five people.
1. The Current Happy Customer
These people validate your value proposition. They tell you exactly why you win.
- Goal: Find out what the “trigger event” was that made them buy.
2. The Churned Customer (The Most Valuable)
This is painful but necessary. These people fired you. You need to know if they fired you because your product broke, or because they were never the right fit to begin with.
- Goal: Identify the gap between expectation and reality.
3. The “Near Miss” (The Window Shopper)
People who inquired or added items to their cart but didn't make a purchase.
- Goal: Identify the friction points or “anxieties” that stopped the transaction.
How to Get Them on the Phone
Do not automate this. Send a personal email.
“Hi [Name], I'm the founder of [Company]. I'm not trying to sell you anything. I saw you cancelled last week, and I'm trying to learn how we can do better. Could I steal 10 minutes of your time to ask about your experience? I'd value your brutality.”
People love being asked for their opinion, especially if you promise not to sell to them.
Phase 2: The Interview Script
Do not stick to a rigid script like a robot; instead, use a “discussion guide.” Here is the structure we use when auditing brands for our Digital Marketing Services.
Part A: The Context & Worldview
Start broadly. You want to understand their daily reality before they encounter your brand.
- “Tell me about how you currently handle [Problem X]?”
- “What is the most frustrating part of your day regarding [Topic]?”
- “How much money/time are you currently losing because of this?”
What we are looking for: The intensity of the pain. If they say the problem is “annoying,” that's a hobby. If they say it's “critical,” that's a business.
Part B: The Trigger Event
Every purchase has a catalyst.
- “Take me back to the day you decided you needed to solve this. What happened?”
- “Was there a specific moment where you said, ‘I can't deal with this anymore'?”
Why this matters: This helps you determine where to allocate your marketing budget. If the trigger is “my boss yelled at me,” your branding needs to speak to anxiety and security.
Part C: The Search & Consideration
- “How did you look for a solution?”
- “What other companies did you look at?”
- “Why didn't you pick them?”
Unique Attribute: This is where you get real competitor intelligence. You might think your competitor is the other agency down the street. The customer might tell you your competitor is “an Excel spreadsheet” or “hiring an intern.”
Part D: The Usage & Outcome
- “Now that you're using [Product], what can you do that you couldn't do before?”
- “How do you describe us to your colleagues?”
Phase 3: The Art of the Question (Technical Nuance)
The quality of your insight is determined by the quality of your question. Bad questions lead to “false positives”—data that looks good but leads to bankruptcy.
The “Why” Laddering Technique
Methodology derived from the “Five Whys” (Sakichi Toyoda). When a user provides a surface-level answer, you must dig deeper.
User: “I want a faster website.”
Interviewer: “Why is speed important for you right now?”
User: “Because my customers are complaining.”
Interviewer: “What happens when they complain?”
User: “I feel like I'm looking unprofessional in front of my board.”
Insight: The motivation isn't speed (technical); it's status and reputation (emotional). That is a branding goldmine.
The Question Audit Table
| The Wrong Way (Amateur) | The Right Way (Pro) | Why? |
| “Do you think you would pay £50 for this?” | “When was the last time you paid for a tool like this? How much was it?” | Hypotheticals are lies. Past behaviour is the truth. |
| “Is our dashboard easy to use?” | “Show me how you would find the monthly report.” | “Easy” is subjective. Observation is objective. |
| “What features do you want us to add?” | “What are you currently using Excel to hack together because our tool doesn't do it?” | Users are bad at designing features but great at describing hacks. |
| “Do you like our new logo?” | “What words come to mind when you look at this?” | “Like” is irrelevant. You want semantic association. |
Phase 4: Execution Mechanics
1. The Silence Value
In British culture, specifically, we tend to dislike silence. We rush to fill it. As an interviewer, you must suppress this instinct.
When a customer finishes a sentence, count to four in your head. Often, they will feel the awkwardness and add a “P.S” to their thought.
- “It's just too expensive… [Silence]… honestly, though, it's mostly that I don't have the budget authority until Q3.”
Boom. You just learned the real objection isn't price; it's the fiscal cycle.
2. Recording & Transcription
Do not take notes verbatim during the call. It breaks eye contact and rapport. Record the call (with permission). Use tools like Otter.ai or Descript to generate a transcript later. Your brain needs to be 100% focused on active listening and spotting emotional spikes.
3. Neutrality is Key
If they say your product is rubbish, do not get defensive.
- Bad: “Well, actually, you can do that if you click settings…”
- Good: “That's interesting. Tell me more about why that was confusing.”
Phase 5: Synthesising Data into Brand Strategy
You have 10 hours of audio. Now what? You need to code the data to find patterns that inform your market segmentation.
Step 1: Semantic Analysis
Review the transcripts and highlight specific words that customers used to describe their problems.
If 4 out of 5 customers use the word “overwhelmed,” your brand voice cannot be high-energy and chaotic. It must be calm, ordered, and reassuring. This directly impacts your typography and colour palette.
Step 2: The Psychographic Profile
Move beyond demographics. We don't care that they are “Male, 35-45.”
We care about:
- Anxieties: What keeps them awake at night?
- Aspirations: Who do they want to become?
- Reference Points: What other brands do they trust?
If they trust brands like Patagonia or Tesla, they value innovation and ethics. If they trust IBM or HSBC, they value stability and legacy. This dictates your design direction.
Step 3: Mapping the Customer Journey
Use the data to build a Customer Journey Map.
Plot the emotional highs and lows.
- Pre-purchase: Anxiety, confusion.
- Purchase: Relief, excitement.
- Usage: Frustration (if UX is bad) or Empowerment.
Your brand touchpoints must align with these emotional states. A “funny” 404 error page is great for a lifestyle brand but disastrous for a banking app where the user is panicking about a lost transfer.
The Consultant's Reality Check
In my years consulting for SMBs, the biggest mistake I see isn't failing to interview—it's confirmation bias.
I once audited a client who sold high-end coffee equipment. He was convinced his customers were “coffee geeks” who cared about barometric pressure and extraction ratios. He conducted interviews, but every time a customer mentioned “convenience,” he ignored it. He only wrote down the technical comments because they validated his ego.
When we re-analysed the data, we found that 70% of his buyers were actually wealthy professionals who just wanted a machine that “looked good on the counter” and “made coffee fast.” They didn't care about the science.
He was marketing to engineers. He should have been marketing to interior designers.
By shifting the brand visuals to focus on aesthetics and simplicity rather than technical specs, sales increased by 40% in three months.
The Lesson: If the data contradicts your gut, trust the data. Your gut is usually just your ego in disguise.
The State of Customer Interviews in 2026
The landscape of qualitative research has undergone a significant shift in the last 24 months.
AI Sentiment Analysis
Tools like Gong and Chorus are now standard in the B2B sector. They don't just transcribe; they analyse sentiment, talk-to-listen ratios, and objection handling. For 2026, relying solely on manual notes is archaic. AI can spot patterns across 50 interviews that a human brain might miss.
Asynchronous Video Interviews
Platforms like VideoAsk enable you to send questions, allowing users to record video replies at their own convenience. This is less intrusive than a live Zoom call and often yields more honest, thoughtful answers because the user is in their natural environment, not “performing” for an interviewer.
The Death of the “Gift Card” Incentive
In 2026, offering a £20 Amazon voucher often attracts professional survey-takers—people who conduct interviews for a living and provide fake answers. The best incentive today is access.
- “Help us shape the product roadmap.”
- “Get early access to the new feature.”
This filters out people who are only concerned with the money, not the actual problem.
Technical Deep Dive: From Interview to Visual Identity
How do you translate a conversation into a logo? It seems abstract, but the connection is direct.
1. Colour Psychology:
If interviewees constantly use words like “safe,” “trusted,” and “solid,” you are looking at Blue (trust) or Green (growth). If they say “disruptive,” “loud,” or “different,” you might look at Yellow or Red. (See our guide on Psychographics vs Demographics for more.)
2. Typography:
Did they speak in short, punchy sentences? (Sans-serif, bold, geometric). Did they use elaborate, formal language? (Serif, high contrast, elegant).
3. Imagery:
If your customers are conducting the interview from a chaotic, messy home office, avoid using stock photos of pristine, empty white desks. It feels inauthentic. Use imagery that reflects their reality—a “lived-in” aesthetic that signals empathy.
The Verdict
You can spend £50,000 on a rebrand, or you can spend £0 on ten phone calls. The latter will almost always yield a higher ROI.
Customer interviews are the difference between a brand that looks pretty and a brand that performs. They bridge the gap between your assumptions and the market's reality.
It is uncomfortable. It is time-consuming. You will hear things about your product that hurt your feelings. But that pain is the feeling of your business getting stronger.
Next Steps:
Don't overthink the script. Open your email marketing tool, find the last 5 people who bought from you, and send them a personal note today asking for 10 minutes.
If you need help translating those raw insights into a cohesive visual identity that converts, that is where we come in. Request a quote and let's build a brand based on evidence, not guesswork.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How many customer interviews should I conduct?
For most qualitative research, the industry standard is 5 to 8 interviews per user segment (Nielsen Norman Group). This typically reveals over 80% of core insights. After conducting 10 interviews, you will likely encounter diminishing returns, where new data confirms previous findings.
How long should a customer interview last?
Aim for 30 to 45 minutes. Less than 20 minutes is rarely enough time to get past surface-level pleasantries and into deep psychological motivations. Anything over an hour risks fatiguing the interviewee.
Should I pay customers for interviews?
For B2C, a small incentive (gift card or discount) is common but can attract low-quality participants. For B2B, incentives are often insults. Instead, offer them value—like early access to features, a donation to charity in their name, or simply the chance to be heard.
What is the difference between a survey and an interview?
Surveys answer “What” and “How many” (Quantitative). Interviews answer “Why” and “How” (Qualitative). Surveys are good for validating what you learned in interviews, but you should never start with a survey because you won't know which questions to ask.
Can I interview friends and family?
Generally, no. This is known as “The Mom Test” failure. Friends and family will lie to protect your feelings. You need unbiased feedback from people who have actually paid (or refused to pay) for your product.
How do I record the interview legally?
In the UK (and most jurisdictions), you are required to obtain consent. A simple “Do you mind if I record this so I don't miss anything?” at the start of the call is usually sufficient. Tools like Zoom have built-in consent notifications.
What if the customer complains the whole time?
This is a goldmine. A complaining customer is a passionate customer. Listen actively, refrain from interrupting, and avoid defending the product or its features. Their complaints highlight exactly where your “product-market fit” is broken.
How do I analyse the data without special software?
You don't need expensive software. A spreadsheet works fine. Create columns for “Pain Points,” “Motivations,” “Key Phrases,” and “Feature Requests.” Copy-paste relevant snippets from your transcripts into these columns to spot recurring themes.
Should I interview churned customers?
Absolutely. They provide the most critical data. Learning why someone fired your product is far more valuable for growth than hearing why someone likes it. It reveals the “leaky bucket” in your business model.
How often should I conduct customer interviews?
It is not a one-time event. You should conduct a “sprint” of interviews (3-5 calls) every quarter, or whenever you are about to launch a new feature or enter a niche market. Continuous discovery keeps your brand aligned with shifting market needs.
