Table of Contents
Customer Interviews
Customer Interviews
Learn how to plan, schedule, and conduct moderated 1:1 interviews — all in one place.
What are Customer Interviews?
Customer Interviews are one-on-one, moderated sessions that help you deeply understand your users — their needs, motivations, and behaviors. Conducted over video, phone, or in person, they go beyond surface-level feedback to uncover the “why” behind decisions and experiences.
Customer Interviews bring every step of this process into one place — from recruiting and scheduling, to running sessions, capturing recordings and transcripts, and synthesizing insights. Whether you’re validating new features, exploring pain points, or running continuous discovery, interviews give you the qualitative depth to make smarter, user-informed decisions.
Why It Matters
- Hear the “why,” not just the “what.” Understand motivations behind user behavior to make confident decisions.
- Simplify operations. Scheduling, invites, reminders, and incentives run in one flow.
- Share knowledge fast. Automatically capture recordings, transcripts, and tags for quick synthesis and sharing.
Common Use Cases
Use Case | Description |
Pre- and Post-Launch Validation | Conduct interviews before launch to validate assumptions and test prototypes; follow up after launch to measure satisfaction, adoption, and usability issues. |
Persona Deep Dives | Target specific audiences (by role, industry, or demographic) to understand motivations, workflows, and challenges that inform product strategy or marketing messaging. |
Journey and Experience Mapping | Combine interviews with behavioral or quantitative data to uncover why users behave the way they do across their journey, improving UX and retention. |
Usability Testing with Context | Run live sessions where participants interact with prototypes or new features while explaining their thought process. Useful for identifying friction and improving usability. |
How to Set Up Customer Interview Study
Step 1: Create Your Study
- Navigate to Studies in the left-side menu.
- Click New study and select Interviews.
- Add core study details:
- Title and research goal
- Participation limit
- Participant segments (optional)
- External recruitment (optional)
- Incentives (optional)
- Screener (optional)
- Consent form
- Custom study attributes
- Automatic slot release settings
- Participant language preferences
- Review your plan, then click Next.
Step 2: Set Up Your Screener (Optional)
- Add multiple-choice, text, or scale questions using the screener editor.
- Apply logic under Preferences or view full rules under All Logic.
- Review and click Next.
Step 3: Configure External Recruitment (Optional)
If using User Interviews for sourcing:
- Enter participant count, request title, description, and recruitment criteria.
- Review and click Next.
Step 4: Set Up Your Calendar
Use the calendar setup to define when, how, and with whom Customer Interviews are scheduled.
For a deeper walkthrough of scheduling options, see the Scheduling in Great Question article.
Configure Event Details
Under Event details, choose:
- Duration of each interview
- Location (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, In-person, or Custom link)
- Whether Livestream should be enabled
Learn more about livestreaming in the Livestream Overview article.
Choose a Scheduling Style
Under Attendees, select how interviews should be scheduled:
- Standard 1:1 — One participant meets with one moderator
- Collective — Multiple moderators attend the same session
- Round Robin — Sessions rotate automatically across multiple moderators
In this section, you’ll also:
- Assign moderator(s)
- Configure scheduling conflict settings
- Add observers (if applicable)
Set Availability
Under Availability, define:
- The date range interviews can be scheduled
- Available days and hours
- The time zone sessions should be conducted in
To the right, you’ll see connected calendars for moderators. You can:
- Add availability directly to the calendar grid
- Switch between calendar views to adjust availability more easily
Adjust Additional Options
Under Additional options, fine-tune scheduling behavior:
- Daily or weekly booking limits
- Buffer time between interviews
- Minimum and maximum scheduling notice
- Enable waitlists or allow time proposals
Step 5: Review and Publish
Check all sections for accuracy. When ready, click Create to publish your study.
Managing Your Study After Publishing
After publishing your Customer Interviews study, there are several areas you may want to configure or monitor before and after inviting participants. These actions fall into three categories: Setup, Execution, and Results.
Setup
These areas help you fine‑tune your study before inviting participants.
Plan
Return to the Plan step anytime to adjust details such as participant limits, incentives, study attributes, or segments.
Screener
You can edit screener questions or update logic if your qualification criteria change.
Calendar
Manage your calendar set-up and make any adjustments necessary.
Incentives
Manage incentive settings and make any adjustments necessary.
Emails
Customize participant-facing communications—including screener invitations, study invites, task reminders, and completion emails.
Pages
Update the Landing Page and Screener Disqualification Page to ensure participants receive the correct instructions and messaging.
Automations
Enable automatic reminders to streamline participation:
- Send invitation reminders to candidates who do not respond after 24 hours.
- Send interview reminders to candidates 24 hours before their scheduled interview.
- Mark participations as completed 24 hours after their interview.
- Create an internal calendar event for new bookings.
Notifications
Choose which email alerts you want to receive related to this study.
Execution
Once the study is live, these sections help you manage participants and monitor activity.
Participants
Add candidates, track their progress, and take actions such as inviting, removing, or reviewing participant status. This is where most post-publish activity takes place.
Recruitment Requests
Manage recruit requests and make any adjustments necessary.
Stats
View email performance metrics such as delivery, opens, and clicks.
Screener Responses
Review individual or aggregate responses to your screener questions to determine eligibility.
Interview Guide
Craft the questions that you want to ask in your interviews.
Results
Once participants complete the study, use these areas for analysis and insight generation.
Tags
Apply or edit study-level or global tags that help categorize key findings.
Synthesis
Group your highlights and observations into themes to begin your analysis.
Repository
Access all recordings, transcripts, highlights, reels, and assets associated with the study.
How to Troubleshoot Customer Interviews
Issue | What's Happening | How to Fix It |
Participants can’t schedule an interview | The moderator’s calendar isn’t connected or availability wasn’t set. | Go to Settings → Integrations and ensure your Google Workspace or Microsoft calendar is connected. Then, under Calendar → Availability, set available times and date ranges. |
No available time slots showing | Duration, buffers, or booking limits conflict with availability. | Check your Duration, Buffer, and Daily/Weekly booking limits. Use Troubleshoot mode in the scheduling tool to pinpoint blocked slots. |
Calendar warning appears | The selected moderator’s calendar has conflicts or no connected provider. | Open Calendar → Attendees, ensure a connected calendar is selected, and toggle Check for conflicts on. |
Participant received wrong timezone or time | Timezone mismatch between moderator and participant. | In Calendar → Availability, confirm the correct timezone for the moderator. Participants always see times in their local timezone. |
Transcript missing after recording upload | The transcription is still processing or failed due to file issues. | Wait a few minutes — long videos take longer to process. If the issue persists, re-upload the recording or contact [email protected]. |
Moderator or observer didn’t receive calendar invite | They weren’t listed as attendees during scheduling. | Reopen the study’s Calendar tab → Attendees and confirm both moderator and observers are selected. Save changes to re-trigger invites. |
Participant didn’t receive invite email | The email bounced, went to spam, or automation wasn’t enabled. | Confirm the Participation invite was sent (Stats tab). Resend if needed and advise the participant to check spam/junk. |
Participant can’t join session link | The meeting link was deleted, or integration was disconnected. | Reconnect your meeting provider integration and update the Location field in Calendar → Event details. Reinvite the participant if necessary. |
No-show or participant didn’t attend | Participant forgot or timezone confusion occurred. | Enable reminder emails in your study’s Automations tab, and shorten the maximum scheduling notice window to reduce drop-offs. |
Incentives not sent after completion | Automation not enabled or participant not marked as completed. | Verify the participant’s status = Sent Thanks, and that Send incentive automatically is enabled in Plan → Automation. Send manually if needed. |
Still need help?
Reach out to us anytime in the app or email us at [email protected]!
