Customer Case Study Interview Prep
Pre-interview questionnaire sent. Interview conducted and recorded. Draft case study with quotes. Customer review and sign-off. Published case study with cross-promotion.
Before you start
- Customer success agreement (legal sign-off on case study use)
- CSM/AE relationship with the customer
- Standard case study format documented
- Customer profile (company, industry, use case, results)
- Pre-interview questionnaire responses
- Internal data on the customer's outcomes
The steps
- Confirm legal sign-off on case study use — Verify the customer signed an agreement or has approved verbally with documented confirmation. Don't run a case study without explicit permission — even well-meaning publication without consent damages the relationship.
- Pull internal data on the customer's outcomes — From CRM, product analytics, and CSM notes: what specific results did they achieve? Time saved, revenue impact, productivity gains? Actual numbers, not estimates. The story needs concrete data.
- Send a pre-interview questionnaire — Send 5-7 short questions: their before-state, their evaluation criteria, what changed after implementation, specific metrics they measure, and a quote on the most significant change. Lets them prepare and gives you raw material.
- Build the interview question set — 20-30 questions structured around: before, evaluation, implementation, after, future. Questions should pull stories, not just stats. 'Walk me through the day you realized X' beats 'Did you save time?'.
- Coordinate logistics with the customer — Confirm: date, format (video preferred for B-roll), length (45-60 min), who else from their side joins. Send: question list 24h ahead, recording consent, dress/setting notes if video.
- Conduct the interview — Lead with: 'tell me about your role and what you do.' Warm-up before specifics. Listen 80%, ask follow-ups. Pull stories with 'tell me about a specific time'. Don't over-coach the answers — authenticity > polish.
- Compile transcript and draft case study — Within 5 business days: transcribe, structure into the standard case study format, pull 2-3 quotes for headlines, send draft to the customer for review. Quote-pull is the key skill — find the lines that capture the whole story.
- Final review and publish — Customer reviews and signs off on draft. Address any factual corrections. Publish in the case study library, link from related landing pages, and amplify on social and email. Send the customer a thank-you note with links.
If it goes wrong
Customer reads the draft and asks for major rewrites
Pre-share the structure before drafting. Avoid surprises. If they push for marketing-speak, push back — authenticity is what makes case studies work.
Outcomes can't be verified with internal data
Don't use unverified claims. Either get verification or focus on qualitative outcomes that the customer is comfortable stating.
Case study published, customer leaves company shortly after
Keep the case study live — it's their story while they were there. Don't pull unless the customer explicitly requests removal.
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