Pitching Customer Interviews, Without the Fluff

Why do leaders hesitate to green-light customer interviews even when everyone agrees they matter? In this episode, we share a fast path to buy-in: lead with business outcomes, start with a small pilot, and turn qualitative insights into measurable ROI. Instead of pitching interviews as an activity, we frame them as a strategic move to reduce churn, fix onboarding friction, and prioritize work that grows loyalty and revenue.

Most importantly, we show how to speak leadership’s language — tying interviews to metrics like time-to-value, adoption, cancellations, and expansion revenue — and how to keep executives engaged with quick updates and short video clips that make customer emotion impossible to ignore. Clear ask, clear scope, clear outcomes. Then scale once the foundation is in place.

Liked what you heard? Subscribe, share with a teammate who needs a pilot plan, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Got a question for a future episode? Leave a voicemail at askjeannie.vip.

Resources Mentioned:
Get our Customer Interview Guidebook -- bit.ly/ciguidebook
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.com

Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)

Episode Transcript

Jeannie Walters (00:00):
We're customer experience people.
Of course we want to talk tocustomers.
So why don't our leaders letus?
That's one of the questionstoday on the Experience Action
Podcast.
Let's get into it.

Listener Question (00:12):
Hey Jeannie, it's Krystal.
I really believe in the powerof talking to customers, but how
do I bring that up at work?
What's the best way to pitch acustomer interview initiative to
my team or leadership?

Jeannie Walters (00:23):
What a great question, Crystal.
And I love the way you'rethinking about this.
Because a lot of times we saythings like, oh, we should just
interview customers.
We should just talk tocustomers.
But really, there's a lot moreto it than that.
And we, as customer experienceleaders, often have to make the
case for this.
So today I want to think aboutthe appropriate way that we can

(00:45):
get that buy-in from leaders sothat we can set up a regular
customer interview program.
These programs can provide somuch insight.
We often don't get thatemotional resonance from surveys
that we get when we are sittingacross from a customer, when we
are watching their facialexpressions and their body

(01:07):
language.
So customer interviewsabsolutely have a place in most
programs, but honestly, I don'tsee it happen enough.
So let's talk about why we wantto do this.
The first thing we want to dois lead with that why.
If we are making a case for ourleaders, we want to make sure
that we are explaining thebusiness impact of this customer

(01:30):
interview program and not justtreat it as an activity.
It's not about the what, it'sabout the why.
So as you are framing this, youwant to frame it as a smart
business move.
You might say things like, youknow what, we make a lot of
decisions based on assumptions.
A few quick customerconversations can really

(01:53):
validate our direction and mostimportantly, help us avoid
service issues and wastedeffort.
Getting in front of some ofthose issues can actually help
reduce cost, reduce resources,all sorts of things, but we have
to make that case.
We want to tie this to realoutcomes like reducing churn,

(02:14):
maybe getting higher customeradoption rates, maybe we want to
improve loyalty.
All of those things can play apart here, but we need to build
that case.
And the next thing I highlyrecommend is to start small.
Propose a pilot because it'snot just about the act of
interviewing and gathering thoseinsights.

(02:35):
We have to make sure that wehave the right process, systems,
people, tools in place so thatwhen we get those insights, we
can turn those into impact.
If we don't have that back-endprocess figured out and we
interview dozens and dozens ofcustomers, all we have are
insights that we can't doanything with.

(02:56):
We want to show impact.
So think about proposing apilot that has a smaller scope,
requires less time, fewerresources, fewer scheduling
issues with customers, all ofthose things.
But then do a low-lift versionof this.
So instead of interviewing 50customers, maybe you interview

(03:19):
five.
This is about getting theprocess right and also showing
that even if we interview fivecustomers, we will find insights
that matter.
And if you find that maybe youdidn't, maybe the process isn't
set up for this, that is still alearning for you.
Then you can start thinkingabout what do we need to make
this work in the future andstart putting that into your

(03:41):
plans, your budgets, yourstrategy.
It is a win-win.
Even if the pilot istechnically a fail, all that
means is that you learned fromit and now you know how to build
a proper program.
Because the thing aboutcustomer interviews that I
usually see cause some angstthat people are not expecting,

(04:01):
scheduling in today's world,it's a bear.
It just is.
We also have to think about howcan we make this valuable to
the customer without influencinghow they behave and what they
share with us.
So it really does take somecareful consideration and
thoughtful planning to get thesedone right.

(04:21):
We also want to think aboutthat back-end situation of what
do we do with the insights thatwe've gained?
Who do we share that with?
How do we make sure that we'returning those insights into
action?
Are we summarizing?
Are we using AI?
All sorts of things to reallythink through when you are
developing your own customerinterview process.

(04:42):
We also want to speak theirlanguage.
What I mean by that is we wantto talk to our leaders about
translating these insights intoreturn on that investment.
We want to make sure that weare linking these interviews
with measurable goals.
We want to interview fivecustomers to learn about

(05:03):
specifically how they feel aboutthe onboarding process because
we think there are ways toimprove onboarding, to reduce
the time to usage, and toimprove the employee experience
and reduce the number ofcancellations.
We want to get into what arethe levers that we're pulling

(05:23):
and what will that do for ourorganization.
So we want to fix some frictionpoints.
We want because we know thatwill help us retain more
customers.
We want to uncover unmet needsbecause we want to create more
revenue streams for ourorganization.
Speak their language.
Their language is ROI, returnon investment.

(05:46):
All right, we also want toconnect to what's already
happening.
This is not necessarily acompletely separate program that
we're introducing.
This is something that iscomplementary.
We want to make sure we aregiving context to the surveys
that we already have going out.
We want to make sure that ourNPS program has not just the

(06:08):
written verbatim that peopleshare, but those are validated
with customer interviews so wecan get richer, more qualitative
feedback that we can use.
We want to make sure that weare gathering these insights
while we're developing productplans or marketing plans.
We are getting in front ofthose issues that could happen

(06:30):
simply by checking in withcustomers.
And finally, I want toencourage you as CX leaders to
be specific.
Ask for exactly what you want.
Because I work with CX leadersall the time.
And one thing I've found aboutcustomer experience people, and
you know what, I'm guilty ofthis too.

(06:50):
We want everybody to be happy.
We want to show empathy, wewant to understand, we want to
show compassion.
And so sometimes what thatmeans is that we're not as
direct about what we need as wecould be.

So ask directly (07:02):
can I pilot interviewing five customers, 20
minutes?
I will handle the scheduling,and then we will summarize what
we learned and present it to youto see if there is more here to
develop.
Be very direct about whatyou're asking for.

(07:23):
And then don't be shy aboutsaying this is what we're
learning along the way.
Keep your leaders informed.
This is something I see againand again.
We are asking for things, werun off, we plan, we've got all
these things going on.
Our leaders have completelyforgotten about it, and then we
come back and our report mightsay, we tested this and it

(07:46):
didn't work.
And they're thinking, well, whydid we do that then?
We need to keep them informedalong the way.
Here are the challenges we'rerunning into, here are the
opportunities.
Everybody is on the same team,but sometimes we get stuck in
our own silos.
It's super important to keeppeople not only informed, but

(08:06):
engaged with the insights thatwe are gathering through
customer interview programs oranything we're doing as customer
experience leaders.
So I encourage you to pilotthis, figure out if this would
work for you, and don't be shyabout asking for what you need.
I know you've got this.
Thanks for joining me, anddon't forget you can leave me a

(08:28):
voicemail at askjeannie.vip.
Thanks everybody.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience, check out freeresources at
experienceinvestigators.com,where you can sign up for our
newsletter, our year of CXprogram, and more.

(08:49):
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.