When was the last time you had a conversation with your client that was related to their experience with you?

Understanding your tribe is a key component in building a strong brand.

When you know how your target market thinks, feels and acts (and their motivation for acting in a certain way), then you’ll be able to connect your why with their why and understand how you fit into their view of the world.

And ideal client interviews are THE BEST way to get into the heads of your clients.

In this article, I explain why I LOVE ideal client interviews, and how you should go about doing some of your own.

Why should you do client interviews?

Let’s start with why we do client interviews.

Because it can be incredibly tempting to take the easy way out and just send surveys instead (side note – I’m not against surveys – I just think there’s a time and a place for them and I’ll explain why in a moment).

But when you take the time to do a client interview, you’ll find that –

You’ll get much better Psychographic Data

Psychographics are the beliefs, feelings, opinions and attitudes – that make our tribe who they are.

The psychographics are the underlying and harder to pinpoint motivations that help your audience to make decisions about everything. Including your brand.

I prefer client interviews to surveys because it’s hard to get accurate psychographic data in a survey format.

Surveys are often multiple choice. And if you do have a question set where people need to type out their answer, you’ll likely find that only your very best clients and customers will take the time to fill them out – so why not have a conversation with them instead!

Getting detailed responses to psychographic style questions will help you nail your marketing message, because you’ll truly understand how your customer thinks and feels – not just based on what they’re willing to write as a response in a survey.

You’ll create a connected conversations that can go anywhere

Unlike a survey which can be a bit impersonal, doing an interview is a great way to create connection.

People always give you more when they speak, rather than when they write. Conversations flow, your interviewee will get comfortable with you and be willing to share everything.

Unlike surveys, conversations also give you the opportunity to follow interesting ideas to their conclusion. A survey is a one-sided delivery with no room to pivot. A conversation gives you the chance to explore new things with your interviewee if they come up.

If you get a somewhat unfinished answer to a question, or the interviewee says something you haven’t heard before, you can ask them to tell you more about it.

It creates a back and forth. And it gives us the chance to really listen to what our customers have to say, rather than just having them check some survey boxes.

You’ll discover client language

People will tell you things in spoken words, that they don’t know how to articulate in written words.

This is because most of us are much better at saying what we think, than writing what we think. Not all of us have the right words when it comes to writing them down – we tend to become much more formal, and not use the language we would use in everyday conversation, because that’s how most of us have been taught to write.

I also find that when you’re trying to ask questions that require a written text response, people will sometimes tell you what they think you want to hear, instead of what they’re actually thinking or feeling.

When you get your clients to use their own language by speaking to you, you’ll be able to implement that language into your marketing message, making your tribe feel more connected to your brand, and inspire them to take action.

When is it okay to do a survey?

I’ve made it clear that I love client interviews.

So, do I think it’s ever okay to do a survey?

Yes – absolutely.

I’m not saying that you can’t ever do surveys. They certainly have their place when it comes to client research. And I do them myself.

They are great for when your questions are clear cut and short answer and you’re just trying to get some guidance on an idea. They’re also good when you have a really big audience as you can reach more people, more easily.

If you do choose to do a survey, then make sure you also do some client interviews.

For purposes of your brand story strategy, interviews are going to give you such richness of perspective. And this will make your brand story more powerful.

And combined with a survey, you’ll get a great spread of data to draw on – even if you only interview 2 or 3 clients.

What Questions Should I Ask in a Client Interview?

You should ask anything you want to know, and anything that you don’t know but should know.

Be creative with your questions, and make sure you dig down into the psychographics of your ideal client.

If you want some help working out what you should ask, you can download my Understanding Your Tribe workbook, to learn the 15 Questions you must answer about your ideal client.

My Tips for Successful Ideal Client Interviews

Now that we’ve covered the Why? of doing client interviews, here’s my tips for getting them right.

Tip #1 | Interview between 2 and 4 clients

Lots of people avoid client interviews because they’re time consuming.

And I get it – you’re busy and it can feel overwhelming to think you need to interview 10, 20, 30 or 100 clients.

But in my experience, this simply isn’t necessary for small and medium businesses.

You can certainly do more if you’d like to, but between two and four people will give you a great perspective on who your Tribe are, and how they see the world.

Even if you only do ONE, you’ll have a much better perspective than if you speak to no one.

Tip #2 | Don’t really know who your “ideal” client is yet? No problem.

If you have no idea who your ideal customer is yet, then interview the people who:

Have purchased the most from you
Have sent you the most referrals, or
You’ve had the most fun working with.

Tip #3 | Record your interviews

If you can, record your interviews so you don’t have to worry about taking notes.

This allows you to engage in the conversation and follow interesting comments instead of being too busy taking notes to listen.

Tip #4 | Talk to someone who DIDN’T choose you.

If you’re feeling really brave, talk to the customer who hasn’t purchased from you in a while, or who chose a competitor.

Knowing why they didn’t purchase from you (or why they stopped) will give you keen insights to help shape your ideal client persona.

Tip #5 | Interview regularly

You should do ideal client interviews on a regular basis.

Especially if you notice a significant change in your customer base or if you haven’t interviewed them in more than two years.

Ideal Client Interviews are the BEST.

They are the best way to get to know your client. They are the best way to create connection. They are the best way to find more of your tribe.

And they are the best way to build a strong brand with messaging that connects to the people you wish to serve.

If you haven’t done any ideal client interviews (or if it’s been a while), put it to the top of your marketing to-do list TODAY so you can harness the power of knowing your tribe.

Want to have me as your wing woman when it comes to client interviews?

I think your tribe is so important, that the Tribe module takes up two weeks of my Brand Story Strategy Workshop.

If you’d like my support, along with my grab sheet of ideal client interview questions and all the tips and tricks for using the information you gather to build a stronger brand, you can find out more about the Workshop and register here.