WRITTEN BY DARIUS LATHAM, FLUVIO CONSULTANT
Listening to and learning from customer input and feedback is integral to the success of any product-led growth organization. And for product marketers specifically, quantitative or qualitative customer inputs allow for more data-backed decisioning. This is why capturing the voice of the customer is truly valuable to product marketing and the broader organization that we regularly interact with. And one way many PMMs like to do this is by interviewing their target audience.
Nowadays, many PMM teams are finding it increasingly difficult to land interviews from customer feedback requests - let alone sufficient response rates that can confidently yield prescriptive recommendations for internal stakeholders. Many people have attributed this to “feedback fatigue” or “feedback overload” - the notion that customers are being bombarded with requests for feedback (e.g. via forms, requests for interviews, etc.) from so many products that they simply ignore or delete all of them.
So how can you make your customer interview requests, specifically, more appealing?
Below are a few examples (not all-encompassing) of things you can begin doing to increase the chances of your customers responding to your interview requests:
Incentivize - I’m sure this sounds like a no-brainer, but providing an incentive to a customer for their time should always be considered. I know we all wish it was the social norm for customers to willingly provide feedback, but unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Feel free to test which type of incentive is more appealing to your customer base - whether it is a financial or a non-monetary gift.
Be Strategic, Not Frequent - Sometimes we think “the more often, the better my chances,” but when reaching out to customers, that’s rarely true (see feedback fatigue). Don't solicit feedback at every point of the customers' journey - think strategically about at which points or after which user milestones you have the best strategic opportunity to receive valuable insights from speaking with customers.
Be Upfront and Transparent - When reaching out to customers for interview requests, always be transparent about the intention and goals for the conversation, the amount of time it will take, and how both parties can or will benefit from the time. This gives the customer a clear understanding of how their time will be spent and also gives them the opportunity to think specifically about their experience with your product and what they may want to share.
While these tactics can definitely help increase the chances of landing a customer interview, unfortunately, many customers may still decide not to engage or respond.
So what can you do to supplement your customer interviews, if you have a low response rate to your interview requests?
Survey - Some organizations choose to prioritize customer interviews over surveys, but we recommend developing a strategy that employs them both to gain a broader perspective and understanding of your target customers. Surveys can be less time-consuming and provide a more convenient way for customers to provide feedback.
Note: Always make sure the survey form has an easy-to-follow user interface and does not have too many questions.
Competitor and Market Research - No matter your intended goals for leveraging inputs from customer interviews, conducting competitor and market research in parallel is never a bad idea. In doing so, you open the opportunity to potentially learn more about what tactics your competitors are employing to position themselves and may learn new strategies or marketing ideas that benefit your existing customers and attract new ones.
There is nothing like speaking to your customers and hearing directly from them their motivations, desires, and aspirations with your product or service. No matter how difficult it can be sometimes to land customer interviews or to receive continuous product feedback, continue testing and experimenting with ways to hear the voice of your customers.
Learn how Fluvio leveraged customer
interviews with stack overflow
“Fluvio took two weeks to focus on onboarding. During this time, they read up on research, studied documents and assets that our team provided, interviewed internal cross-functional stakeholders from our Sales, Product, Marketing, Research and leadership teams, and even interviewed a few of our customers to get a thorough understanding of the industry, internal and customer perspectives. This thorough process allowed them to identify areas of opportunity and quickly get started on actionable work that would benefit our business.”