Understand why your customers buy, stay and leave

Teams know what customers do from their data. They rarely know why, because interviewing customers one by one takes weeks that nobody has.

No credit card50 free respondentsGDPR & CCPA compliant

Customer research asks your customers directly about their needs, their decision process and their frustrations, so product, marketing and service decisions start from their words.

SmartInterview interviews hundreds of customers at once with AI follow-up questions, and codes what they say into themes you can count and quote.

Why customer research matters

Retention, positioning and roadmap decisions all depend on knowing why customers act as they do. Behavioural data shows the pattern, customer research explains it.

  • Find the real reasons behind churn
  • Learn the words customers use to describe their problem
  • Identify segments with different needs
  • Prioritise the roadmap on what customers value

How it is done today, and with SmartInterview

TodayWith SmartInterview
Customer interviews booked one by one, ten done in a monthHundreds of customers answer at once, each probed by AI follow-up questions
NPS tracked monthly while the reasons behind it go unreadOpen answers coded into themes with counts, each linked to its verbatims
Churned customers are never asked why they leftA short survey to churned customers, the AI asks what would have kept them
Typing on mobile, customers write three words and leaveCustomers answer by voice in their language, answers transcribed and coded automatically

What you can learn from customer research

Needs and jobs to be done

What customers are trying to achieve, what they use today and where it falls short, in their own words.

Purchase and churn drivers

Why they chose you, what nearly stopped them, and why some of them leave, measured and explained.

Segments that behave differently

Groups of customers with different needs or satisfaction levels, so one answer does not hide another.

How customer research works

  1. 1

    Define your research objective

    Name what you need to understand: onboarding, churn, satisfaction, purchase drivers or unmet needs.

  2. 2

    Create the survey

    Describe the goal. The questionnaire mixes closed questions with open ones the AI will probe.

  3. 3

    Recruit respondents

    Invite your customer list, or a segment of it, by email or with a link in your product.

  4. 4

    Analyze quantitative and qualitative insights

    Read the themes, their frequency per segment and the verbatims that explain them.

Example studies

Retraites Populaires insurance study
Customer story

Retraites Populaires: brand perception for a third-pillar offer

Read the customer story →

Challenge

Retraites Populaires wanted to understand how its third-pillar pension offer and brand were perceived.

Research design

Survey on usage, expectations and brand perception, with AI follow-ups on open answers.

Respondents

Around 600 respondents.

Business decision

The results informed the brand positioning of the offer.

Key insights

  • Expectations and perceptions of the offer were mapped
  • The drivers of positioning were identified

Customer research topics teams search for

Jobs to be done interview questions

Ask about the last time the customer switched products: what triggered the search, what they tried, what almost stopped them and what progress they wanted. Focus on past behaviour, not on opinions about the future.

Voice of the customer program

A voice of the customer program collects feedback continuously from surveys, support tickets and reviews, and routes the themes to the teams who can act. Recurring surveys coded with the same codebook show which complaints grow or fade.

Customer satisfaction survey questions

Start with an overall satisfaction question, then ask about the moments that matter, such as onboarding, delivery or support. An open question after a low score, probed by SmartInterview's AI, tells you what to fix.

NPS follow-up question

The score alone says little; the follow-up asking why the respondent gave it is where the value is. On SmartInterview, a vague answer such as 'it's fine' triggers another question asking what exactly works or does not.

Customer segmentation research

Segmentation research groups customers by needs, behaviour or attitudes rather than by demographics alone. Survey a sample large enough to read each group, then describe each segment in its own words with the themes from its open answers.

Customer journey research

Ask customers to describe each stage, from first hearing about you to renewal, and where they felt friction. Mapping the themes to stages shows which moment of the journey loses the most people.

Onboarding feedback survey

Survey new customers a few days to a few weeks after they start, while the experience is fresh. Ask what they expected, what was harder than it should have been, and whether they reached the result they signed up for.

Customer advisory board vs survey

An advisory board gives depth from a handful of engaged customers, often the most loyal ones. A survey with AI follow-up questions also hears from the quieter majority, so the roadmap is not set by the loudest accounts.

Pricing

Choose your respondent volume

Pro and Ultimate prices update instantly as you change the number of respondents per month.

300 respondents / month
CHF 79
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  • 50 respondents
  • Automated survey design
  • AI-powered analysis & dashboard
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starting at 150 respondents

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  • Access to 300 respondents per month
  • Up to 3 members
  • Email invitations
  • Client / externals collaboration
  • AI-powered analysis of open-ended responses
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ULTIMATE

CHF149/ month

starting at 500 respondents

  • Everything in Pro, plus:
  • Access to 500 respondents per month
  • Up to 5 members
  • Qualitative interview transcription
  • Advanced coding & categorisation
  • Company branding
  • Remove SmartInterview branding
  • Executive report with results (PDF)
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Whether you collect one respondent this month or ten next quarter, you only pay for what you use. Your respondent credits are valid for 3 years.

Frequently asked questions

Customer research is the study of your customers' needs, behaviour, motivations and satisfaction, through surveys and interviews, to inform product, marketing and service decisions.

Surveys, in-depth interviews, usability tests, analysis of support tickets and reviews, and behavioural analytics. Surveys with AI follow-up questions combine survey scale with interview depth.

For understanding reasons, 15 to 30 in-depth answers per segment usually reveal the recurring themes. For measuring, plan a few hundred.

Survey recent churned customers and at-risk customers, ask what triggered the decision and what would have kept them, and code the answers into themes.

What problem they were solving, what they used before, what almost stopped them from buying, what they value most, and what they would change.

Yes. Import your contacts or share a link in your product. Your own customers are usually the fastest and most relevant sample.

Yes, when customers consent to take part. SmartInterview is GDPR and CCPA compliant.

The first 50 respondents are free. Paid plans start at CHF 45 per month for 150 respondents per month.

A study can be live the same day. Themes build as answers arrive, usually within a few days.

Ask your customers this week

Bring the question you keep debating and the customer list you already have.

No credit card50 free respondentsGDPR & CCPA compliant