Audience research
Part of What customer success software audience research means for UK retention teams
Before you book customer interviews for customer success software
A pre-interview checklist for customer success software customer interviews, covering audience criteria, question design, UK consent rules and a scoring rubric.
What to take away
- Most teams book interviews before writing down who counts as a customer for the software decision, so the sample drifts to whoever answers email fastest.
- Set inclusion criteria first: contract type, renewal window, seat count and whether the contact touches retention work weekly.
- UK data protection duties apply across the United Kingdom, so check consent wording and retention periods before recording starts.
- Score every interview against the same rubric so themes can be compared rather than remembered.
- Treat interviews as one input into wider audience research, not the whole evidence base.
Decide who counts as a customer before you invite anyone
Most teams open a calendar link and hope. That produces a sample skewed towards friendly accounts, which then shapes a shortlist built on weak evidence.
Customer interview inclusion criteria
- Contract value band
- Renewal window
- Seat count
- Integration dependencies
- Record exclusions too
Write the criteria down. Typical filters cover contract value band, renewal window, seat count and integration dependencies. For example, a team might interview only accounts renewing in the next two quarters with more than 25 seats.
Record exclusions too, because excluding a segment is a decision other readers should see. The audience research guide shows how these segments feed a wider research plan.
Match the interview to the decision you are making
Buying software, renewing a contract and changing internal process are three separate conversations needing different people.
Match interview to decision
Purchase decision
- Who to interview
- Budget holder and daily user
- Why
- Approval and daily use
- Risk if mixed
- Commercial questions half answered
Retention decision
- Who to interview
- Account owner
- Why
- Renewal and churn risk
- Risk if mixed
- Commercial questions half answered
For a purchase decision, speak to the budget holder and a daily user separately. For retention, speak to the account owner; mixing both in one call leaves commercial questions half answered.
Buyer personas for customer success software help, because they force you to name the role you are recruiting and what it can approve.
Build questions that survive a procurement review
Ask about past behaviour, not future intent. "Walk me through the last time you renewed" produces usable detail. "Would you buy this?" produces politeness.
Keep the guide to eight or twelve questions and leave room for follow-ups. Test the wording internally before the first external call.
Revenue operations staff are useful interviewees when software touches billing or renewals, because they see where handoffs break. HubSpot's guidance on growing sales and getting paid faster is a reasonable primer on where those handoffs sit.
Handle consent, recording and retention properly
Tell participants what you will record, where it is stored and how long you keep it, and confirm consent in writing as well as on the call.
The Data Protection Act 2018 sets the UK statutory framework for personal data, including interview notes and recordings. Confirm your lawful basis first.
Anonymise quotes as you write them. If a quote identifies an account through a distinctive detail, cut the detail.
Score each interview against the same rubric
Free-form notes are hard to compare across twenty calls. Use a fixed rubric and score straight after each session.
| Criterion | What to look for | Score (1 to 5) |
|---|---|---|
| Retention relevance | Does the account's renewal or churn risk connect to the software decision? | |
| Decision influence | Can this person approve, block or shape the purchase? | |
| Process detail | Did they describe a specific workflow rather than a general opinion? | |
| Evidence quality | Are there artefacts, dates or examples behind the claims? | |
| Segment fit | Does the account sit inside your stated inclusion criteria? |
A low segment fit score usually means the recruitment list needs revisiting, not that the findings are wrong.
Plan who analyses the notes and when
Agree the analysis session before fieldwork starts. Two people coding the same notes separately, then comparing, catch more than one person summarising.
Tag findings by theme, then count how many accounts raised each one. A theme raised once is a story; one raised across several accounts is a pattern worth acting on.
Strategy and planning training, such as the CIM's strategy and planning courses, can help whoever owns the research plan set objectives before recruitment begins.
Common questions
How many customer interviews are enough?
Enough to hear themes repeated without new categories appearing. For a narrow segment that often happens within eight to twelve conversations.
Should I record calls?
Only with clear consent and a stated retention period. Notes taken live are acceptable if participants decline, and the same data protection rules apply either way.
Can I interview prospects as well as customers?
Yes, if you label them separately. Prospect views shape acquisition questions, customer views shape retention questions, so mixing them unlabelled distorts the sample.
Does geography change the questions?
It changes the compliance framing. Consent wording, storage location and retention periods need checking against the rules where the participant sits.
