I've started getting 7k steps a day which basically amounts to an extra 45 minutes of walking just after dusk. I prefer reading paper books for certain profound things to take my time with it but since i have this 45 minutes of walking a day i've started listening to audio books as well.
I read Deploy Empathy: A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers by Michele Hansen a few weeks ago and it was eye opening. I thought I would share some insights with you that might be helpful if you ever find yourself in this kind of a situation.
The situation this book covers is exclusively: interviewer behavior in a customer interview. Customer could refer to a paying customer, a prospective customer, or someone cancelling their contract.
In daily conversation, especially on a team or with a friend, it is polite and genuine to share your opinion, even in small subtle ways. If say something clearly wrong, and you don't correct me, it might open a pandora's box of second guessing. Better to just say what you mean, offer what you have, and if it's ignored, at least you offered.
A customer interview is not the same kind of conversation. Everyone is best served by centering the thoughts of the customer, even if they are wrong. A striking example given in the book is what to do if a customer mispronounces a word: you must mispronounce it the same way. Why? Isn't that disingenuous? Isn't it helpful to correct them or just say the word normally (the way i say it)? In everyday conversation, it is better to speak in your own voice and pronounce words correctly, but in a customer interview it is a distraction to the customer. Let's not ignore the possibility that you are wrong! Maybe it is a regional pronunciation. There are many possibilities and all of them are distractions from the objective of the customer interview.
This kind of inert language devoid of any potential subtext or insinuations has a few other notables.
- refrain from using the word I, or introducing your own experiences or opinions
- the customer will likely try to ask your thoughts on something, anything. it's normal and if anything, rude not to do so. but you should tactfully return to their opinions. be more interested in them than they are in you.
- don't characterize the customer's experience in any kind of way, particularly negatively
- use language like "you think" or "it is" instead of "you feel"
- don't use "you were confused by..." instead use "it was confusing" or better yet "it was complicated to". "confused" is an emotion, "complicated" much less so
- don't volunteer information
- if the customer complains your product doesn't have Feature X but it DOES have Feature X: you cannot correct them on the call.
- if it's critical information, send the customer an email after the call. ex: "oh i wish we could afford the next service tier but it's $500/mo" but the next service tier is only $250, definitely let them know
- voice only, camera off
- in the theme of not distracting the customer: video is a distraction. you may be heads down taking notes all meeting or your face may betray how painful a piece of feedback was, and they will stop sharing as freely. Not to mention no video is one less barrier for the customer: better to have a voice only call and a customer with a bad hair day than a no-show.
- ask to record. obvious but essential
All of these behaviors feel very strange to me and I caution against using them in any other circumstance besides a customer interview. Deploy Empathy doesn't describe a "better way of speaking." It's language for a specific type of setting only. That being said, you have to practice it sometime. I suggest trying it out with a friend, just definitely let them know afterwards that you were practicing something from this book you read about customer interviews.
I highly recommend if you ever think you'll be talking to customers.