Customer interviews before a website project: what to ask

Key takeaways

Customer interviews before a website project tell you how buyers found you, what they needed to know and what nearly stopped them, which no analytics report can. Interview five recent customers per main buyer type for 20 to 30 minutes each. Ask about what they did, not what they would like, and record their exact words for the website copy.

• Interview 5 recent customers per buyer type, 20 to 30 minutes each.
• Include at least 1 who nearly chose someone else.
• Ask what they did and felt, not what they want on a website.
• Record exact phrases: they become headlines and FAQ questions.

Why interview customers before a website project?

Interview customers before a website project because they know things about your buying journey that you cannot see: where they looked first, what they compared, what almost put them off and why they chose you. Analytics shows what visitors did on the site; interviews show why, and what happened off it. The GOV.UK Service Manual makes user research a core part of designing any service for the same reason.

• How to design a website around your customer journey
• Customer journey mapping for small businesses in one day

Who should you interview?

Interview recent customers, ideally from the last three to six months, so the journey is fresh. Choose five per main buyer type and include at least one who nearly chose a competitor and, if possible, one who enquired but did not buy. Nielsen Norman Group's finding that five users reveal about 85% of usability problems is a useful guide: the sixth conversation rarely changes the picture.

• Recent: bought within the last 3 to 6 months.
• Representative: your most valuable or most common buyer types.
• Mixed: at least one near-miss and, ideally, one lost prospect.
• Not friends or family who would have bought anyway.

• Lost deals: what buyers who chose someone else can teach you

What questions should you ask?

Ask questions about past behaviour in the order the journey happened. Start with the trigger, move through searching and comparing, and finish with the decision and what happened after. Avoid asking what they would like on a website; people are poor at predicting that, but good at recalling what they did.

• What was happening when you first started looking?
• Where did you look first, and what did you type or ask?
• Which other businesses did you consider?
• What did you need to know before you got in touch?
• Was anything hard to find or unclear on our website?
• What nearly stopped you, or made you hesitate?
• Why did you choose us in the end?
• Who else was involved in the decision?
• What happened after you got in touch? Was anything slow?
• How would you describe what we do to a friend?
• What would you have searched for if you had not known our name?
• Is there anything you wish you had known earlier?

• Jobs to be done: design pages around what buyers need done

How do you turn interview answers into website changes?

Turn answers into changes by grouping them by journey stage, highlighting repeated themes and exact phrases, and asking what the website should do about each. A question three customers asked becomes an answer on the service page. A phrase they used becomes a headline. A hesitation becomes proof or reassurance near the button.

• A customer journey map template for website planning
• Answer buyer objections on your website before they ask

What about privacy and consent?

Tell interviewees why you are asking, how long it will take and how you will use their answers. If you record the call, ask permission first and store recordings securely. Under UK GDPR, notes that identify a person are personal data, so keep only what you need, delete recordings once summarised, and do not quote customers by name on the website without their agreement.

• What a UK website privacy policy must include

When are interviews not enough?

Interviews are not enough on their own because people remember selectively and rationalise decisions after the fact. Check what they say against analytics, recordings and your enquiry data. If customers say they read your case studies but GA4 shows nobody visits them, the truth is somewhere in between and worth testing.

• User testing for small business websites
• Session recordings: watch real journeys without guesswork

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see in interview notes: customers describe the service in different words from the business. A firm sells 'facilities management' while customers say 'someone to sort out the building'. The website ranks for the firm's term and misses the buyers' one.

Moving customers' words into headlines and page titles connects the site to how buyers search and talk. Across our client work we have seen a 2.4x enquiry rate from conversion changes of this kind. Global Bridge Labs (GBL) quotes customers before it writes copy.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Customer interview checklist

• Pick 5 recent customers per buyer type, including a near-miss.
• Book 20 to 30 minutes and explain the purpose.
• Ask permission before recording.
• Ask about past behaviour in journey order.
• Capture exact phrases and repeated questions.
• Group findings by stage and turn each into a page change.

• Turn the questions customers ask into your website journey

Next step

Customers are often more candid with someone outside the business. We can run the interviews for you and hand back the themes, phrases and page changes.