Article · ~15 min read

How to Conduct Customer Churn Interviews: A Step-by-Step Guide

Adam McQueen · Klue Free Intermediate

Talking to a rival's customers is really the win-loss and churn interview discipline, and this guide from Klue (a competitive intelligence company) breaks down exactly how to run those conversations so people open up instead of clamming up. It gives you a 12-part question flow that moves from their original buying story to why they switched, which keeps the chat about their experience rather than feeling like you are digging for dirt on a competitor. Treat it as a starting point for your own script, not a rigid form.

• Frame the conversation around the person's own buying and usage story, not around your competitor, so it never feels like an interrogation or a sales pitch.
• Ask about the switch and the trade-offs (what they gained, what they gave up) to surface the honest gaps a rival's marketing hides.
• When someone blames price, keep digging: cost is usually a symptom of a deeper problem they had not fully named.