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26+ Best Case Study Questions for Customer Interviews

Updated July 2024 : Case studies are a critical element of most SaaS marketing strategies. But what case study questions do you ask in the customer interview to ensure you elicit the details AND emotion you need for an authentic and compelling story?

In research we conducted this year, SaaS marketers ranked case studies the #1 most effective marketing tactic to increase sales—ahead of general website content, SEO, blog posts, social media and other marketing tactics.

But gathering the insights, data and customer quotes that make a case study resonate takes some finesse. This is why it’s so important to develop a set of relevant case study questions for interviews with customers.

Get 26 case study questions, PLUS 19 bonus questions for use case, adoption and switcher stories. Download the cheat sheet now .

What case study interview questions should you ask?

In this post, we share the 26 powerful case study questions we use when conducting a case study interview.

We also included favorite case study interview questions and hot tips from customer marketing and advocacy practitioners in our industry:

• Natalie Gullatt , Customer Lifecycle and Growth Manager, Artera 
• Cecilia Wainio , Customer Growth, Jitterbit
• Helen Feber , Founder, Referential
• Luis González , Head of Global Customer Advocacy, Alteryx
• Deirdre Puleo , former Content Strategist, Wix 
• Kaily Baskett , Director of Revenue Growth, SlapFive
• Jeff Ernst , CEO, SlapFive
• Gabriela Contreras , Independent Marketing Consultant
• Erin O’Quinn , Senior Manager, Customer Marketing, VMware by Broadcom
• Cassie Stevenson , Global Customer Advocacy Lead, Qumulo
• Cindy Aitken ,  Director, Customer Marketing, Collibra
• Diana Yanez-Pastor , Independent Customer Advocacy Marketing Consultant

With these insight-eliciting case study questions in your back pocket, you’ll be able to uncover nuggets of gold that will help you create a customer story that really resonates with your prospects and leads.

Also learn how to conduct a good case study interview

In this post, we also cover tips for conducting a great case study interview, as well as some common interview mistakes to avoid.

Before the case study interview

Find a convenient time for the interview, prepare your case study questions in advance, should you send the case study questions to your customer ahead of time, make your customer comfortable, 26 case study questions for interviews with customers, bonus case study interview questions, an email interview won’t cut it, take notes and record the interview, watch out for these 4 common interview mistakes.

Get a cheat sheet with 26 case study questions, PLUS 19 bonus questions for use case, adoption and switcher stories. Download the cheat sheet now .

Keep in mind that there are 3 important phases to any case study:

• Before: What were the customer’s pain points, challenges, priorities and aspirations before they found you?
• During: Why did the customer choose your solution? How did the implementation go? How are they using your solution?
• After: What can the customer do now that they couldn’t do before? What impact has your solution had on their business?

The best case studies draw readers in by walking them through these phases by using customer quotes and details that bring the story to life and make it more compelling.

Your customers are busy—and they’re doing you a big favor by participating in the case study—so be as flexible as possible when you’re scheduling the case study interview. And while you’ll likely want to talk to them for hours, be respectful of their time and ask for 30 minutes.

You’ll probably have just 30 or 40 minutes to capture your customer’s story so be thoroughly prepared before you even schedule the case study interview.

Hot tip: How to prepare for an interview

Here are three things you should do before each interview: 1. Ask the CSM or account manager about the account. 2. Review the account details in the CRM or customer management tool. 3. Customize your interview questions to ensure they align with the story you’d like to tell, your company’s goals and the customer’s success.

This is hotly debated amongst customer marketing and advocacy professionals. 

Some people worry that sending the case study interview questions in advance will result in less candid and natural responses. 

Others argue that it’s important to provide the case study questions for interviews with customers ahead of time so they have time to think about their responses and dig for metrics.

So, we did a quick poll and here’s the consensus:

I think we can all agree that we want our customers to be at ease during the interview. At the very least, that means sending the metrics-related questions ahead of time. 

Want to scale your case study production? Partner with Uplift .

Before the interview starts, it’s important to make the customer feel comfortable and explain the process—what to expect during the interview and after. Make sure the customer understands that they have complete control over what’s included in the final draft.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to tell us your story. Once we write the story, we’ll send it to you to review. We won’t publish anything you’re not 100% happy with. Are you okay if I record the call?”

Introductions and warm-up

1. Can you briefly tell me about yourself and your role? 

2. What is most meaningful to you about the work you do? 

Case study question #2 makes the story more personal and the answer often aligns with the company’s strategic initiatives.

3. What are you most proud of with this implementation/solution?

Case study question #3 helps put the interviewee into a positive mindset and you can sometimes get great intel that enables more detailed discussion—and this can lead to a more attention-grabbing story.

4. What keeps you up at night as it relates to your job?

Case study question #4 is one of my favorites because leaders who want to drive transformation will obsess over it. They don’t “turn off” ideating at 5pm. They think about it while they’re driving, doing chores… and trying to fall asleep. So for me, this question allows me to get to the core of their thinking—and you’ll often get the most human answer.

5. What was going on at your company that sent you looking for a solution like [company name]? 

5a. Follow-up: Why was this such a big problem for you and your company? 5b. Follow-up: What was the consequence of doing nothing?

Case study question #5 is a non-threatening way to ask what wasn’t working, and helps bring context to the conversation.

Case study question #5b usually uncovers a longer-term or more critical potential problem and helps get to the root of the ‘so what’ of challenges.

6. Before you landed on [our solution], how did you try to solve the problem?

6a. Follow-up: Why didn’t those solutions work?

7. What criteria did the new solution need to meet?

8. What were the top 3 things you wanted to achieve with the new solution? 

9. What are the 3 biggest reasons you chose [our solution] over competitors and the option of doing nothing? 

9a. Follow-up: Did anything else impress you at this early stage?

Emily Amos, CEO & Founder, Uplift Content

Hot tip: Get better answers

Use rapid framing to elicit prioritized responses. Don’t ask: Why did you purchase this solution? Instead ask: What are the top 3 reasons you purchased this solution from us, instead of another vendor?

10. When you first started working with [company name], how did you come up with the implementation plan?

11. What was the implementation process like? 

12. What challenges did you hit along the way and how did [company name] help you through it?

Case study question #12 is great for building trust. It’s also the #1 most frequently asked question on customer reference calls by a wide margin.

13. What changes did you notice early on? How did things progress?

14. Can you tell me about how you’re using [our solution] and how it’s helped you? 

15. Was there anything that surprised you or stood out to you about [our solution]?

16. How has [our solution] made your job easier? 

16a. Follow-up: What about your department or other departments? The company as a whole?

17. What has your personal experience been like working with the [solution/team]?

18. If you couldn’t use our solution ever again, what would that be like? 

Case study question #18 can lead to some great sound bites.

Hot tip: Create distance

Say to your customer: “Assume I know nothing.” This encourages the customer to provide more context, which is where the golden nuggets really come out. 

19. What would you consider to be the biggest success of your relationship with [company name]?

20. What can you do now that you couldn’t do before? 

Case study question #20 is great for eliciting before/after context.

21. Where have you seen the biggest increase/impact?

21a. Follow-up: Can you quantify those results? For example…

Case study question #21a helps you encourage the interviewee by mentioning specific metrics or outcomes. 

22. What have these results meant for your business? 

22a. Follow-up: Were you expecting to see the type of results you experienced?

Case study question #22 gives the interviewee an opportunity to explain how the results are personal and meaningful.

23. How has [company name] evolved with you? How has it managed to remain your ideal solution both then and now?

23a. Follow-up: Can you think of an example of how working with [company name] has changed your thought process, strategy or the way you do business?

Case study question #23 can open up unique avenues of questioning and capture the dynamic nature of the relationship between you and your customer.

24. What unexpected benefit did you find or what did you learn along the way that you’ll take with you through your career?

Case study question #24 is great because it gets the customer excited about what they do.

25. If another company asked you if you would recommend working with us, what would you say and why? 

Case study question #25 is helpful because it gets the interviewee to provide quotes that summarize the company’s value props succinctly.

26. Is there anything you wish I’d asked?

Case study question #26 can give you some of your best quotes.

Do you want your case studies to have a particular focus? Do you want to tell a:

• Use case story?
• Adoption story?
• Competitive steal story?

Do you want to create:

• Customer-led blog posts providing advice or best practices?
• Customer-led blog posts providing thought leadership?
• Video stories?

If you answered yes…

…you need specific case study interview questions.

We created a cheat sheet with the 26 case study questions above, PLUS 19 additional questions for stories with a specific storyline or focus.

Download the interview questions cheatsheet – with the 19 bonus questions.

Don’t settle for a case study interview done by email. Not only are people more candid in conversation, but you’ll also be able to ask spur-of-the-moment case study questions and explore ideas as they’re presented.

Here are the 4 best ways you can conduct your case study interview:

• face-to-face (this is the best and most personable choice; try to arrange this if your customer is in your region)
• phone interview
• repurposing webinar

A recording and transcription of the case study interview will ensure accuracy and give you peace of mind. Down the road, you can also use the transcript for other marketing activities, such as grabbing testimonials and pull quotes, writing blog posts and more.

Use an app to record phone calls, or use Zoom or Google Meet to record video calls. Make sure you have permission to record the conversation.

Learn how to write a SaaS case study in 9 steps.

1 . Using yes/no questions

Does your list have any yes/no questions? If so, be ready with follow-up questions. Better yet, revise the case study question so it’s open-ended to elicit a more thoughtful response.

2 . Not pushing for numbers

Don’t be afraid to ask for numbers, concrete examples or more information. You need these for a quality case study and this is your chance to get them. Don’t be afraid to repeat case study questions or rephrase them to make sure you get what you need.

3 . Not allowing the conversation to flow

You don’t need to be rigid about asking every single question on your list. The best insights are often unexpected so allow the conversation to flow a little—but don’t get too far off-topic or you’ll run out of time.

4 . Not listening to your customer

Don’t think you already have all the answers. Go into the case study interview with an open mind and be ready to listen.

Scale your case study production

We write case studies for high-growth SaaS companies like ClickUp, WalkMe and Lean Data.  Check out our case study writing service .

26 Case Study Interview Questions to Help You Uncover Gold Get the powerful questions we use in interviews, plus 19 bonus questions for use case, adotpion and switcher stories.

As the founder of Uplift Content, Emily leads her team in creating done-for-you case studies, ebooks and blog posts for high-growth SaaS companies like ClickUp, Calendly and WalkMe. Connect with Emily on Linkedin

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50+ Case Interview Questions and Examples From Top Firms

Discover over 50 case interview questions and examples from top consulting firms. Prepare effectively for your next interview with expert insights and tips!

Posted August 22, 2024

Featuring Manali P.

Beyond the Case: Ace Your MBB Behavioral Interviews

Starting tuesday, september 24.

9:00 PM UTC · 30 minutes

Table of Contents

Let’s face it, consulting interviews can be intimidating, especially with their complex case questions. These questions are designed to assess your problem-solving skills, analytical ability, and strategic thinking, crucial competencies for success in the consulting world. Recognizing the types of case interview questions and mastering them can significantly elevate your chances of landing your dream job in prestigious firms like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain.

This article serves as a comprehensive guide to mastering case interview questions, providing insights into the most common consulting case interview questions and detailed case interview examples from top consulting firms. From McKinsey case interview questions to unique challenges posed by firms like Deloitte and Accenture, we've got you covered. We will also share tips on how to ace your case interview and how to prepare for different types of case interview questions effectively.

By the end of this article, you'll have a well-rounded understanding of what to expect and how to showcase your problem-solving prowess when it matters most. Let’s begin!

List of Case Interview Questions, Practice Cases, and Examples

In preparing for your consulting interviews, it's crucial to familiarize yourself with the most common types of case interview questions. On this list, we will provide sample questions from the top consulting firms.

McKinsey Case Interview Examples

To excel in McKinsey case interviews , it's crucial to practice with specific examples that mirror the real challenges you might face. Here are some detailed scenarios from McKinsey to guide your preparation:

1. Beautify Case

Sample Question #1 : Beautify is excited to support its current staff of beauty consultants on the journey to becoming virtual social media-beauty advisors. Consultants would still lead the way in terms of direct consumer engagement and would be expected to maintain and grow a group of clients. They would sell products through their own pages on beautify.com, make appearances at major retail outlets, and be active on all social media platforms.

What possible factors should Beautify consider when shifting this group of employees toward a new set of responsibilities?

Sample Question #2 : One of the key areas that Beautify wants to understand is the reaction of current and potential new customers to the virtual social media-beauty advisors.

Imagine you are a current Beautify customer and you mostly shop at your local department store because you enjoy the high-touch service offered by in-store consultants. What features would make you consider switching to a mostly virtual sales experience?

See more questions here .

2. Diconsa Case

Sample Question #1 : What should the team investigate to determine whether the Diconsa network could and should be leveraged to provide a range of basic financial services to Mexico’s rural population?

Sample Question #2: The team has estimated that it currently costs a family 50 pesos per month in transportation and food to make the journey to collect benefit payments. The team also estimates that if benefits were available for collection at local Diconsa stores, the cost would be reduced by 30 percent.

Twenty percent of Mexico’s population is rural, and of that number, half currently receive state benefits.

You can assume that Mexico has a population of 100 million.

You can also assume that families in Mexico have an average four members, and that this does not vary by region.

If every family could collect state benefits at their local Diconsa stores, how much in total per year would be saved across all Mexican rural families receiving state benefits?

3. Electro-Light Case

Sample Question #1: What key factors should SuperSoda consider when deciding whether or not to launch Electro-Light?

Sample Question #2: SuperSoda executives believe that the company's position as a top-three beverage company gives it strategic impetus toward achieving the desired market share. However, they ask the team to outline what would be needed to achieve the target 12.5 percent share of the electrolyte-drinks market. What would SuperSoda need to do to gain the required market share for Electro-Light following its launch?

4. National Education System Transformation

Sample Question #1: What issues would you want to investigate in diagnosing the current state of the Loravian school system?

Sample Question #2: One of the clients at Loravian’s educational department mentions neighbor country “C” as an example, because it’s outperforming all of Loravia's economic peers and neighbors in the international assessment. She believes that the more concentrated school structure in this country is a big reason for better outcomes in the international assessment. She suggests that having larger, less fragmented schools allows for more effective teacher selection and training, leading to improved education outcomes for students. Finally, she shares that 15 percent of Loravia's population is currently attending school.

What would be the reduction in the total number of schools in Loravia if it were to achieve the same average school size as neighbor country C?

5. Talbot Trucks Case

Sample Question #1: What information would you want to collect to understand the attractiveness for Talbot Trucks in producing and selling eTrucks in Europe?

Sample Question #2: After running focus groups with Talbot Trucks’ customers, the team concluded that the total cost of an eTruck needs to be the same as a diesel truck to be considered attractive to customers. Currently, a Talbot Trucks diesel truck costs €100,000.

Assuming that the figures above do not change, what is the maximum price Talbot Trucks can charge for its eTruck so that the total cost of ownership is equal to that of a diesel truck?

6. Shops Corporation Case

Sample Question #1: What types of factors would you want to explore to understand how Shops Corporation might improve its diversity within senior leadership?

7. Conservation Forever Case

Sample Question #1: What factors could the team consider when choosing one of the three specific geographies on which to focus the conservation efforts?

Sample Question #2: The director of CF likes these initial projections, but is not convinced that the assumptions are realistic. They tell the team, “According to your model, there are three levers we need to focus on to generate revenue from ecotourism in Peru: number of visitors, length of stay, and spending amount. What are your best ideas for how to maximize each lever? And how about some ideas outside of the constraints of this model?”

Your team is meeting in ten minutes to generate ideas in preparation for a workshop with leaders from several coastal communities, and you are jotting down some notes.

What ideas do you have to generate revenue linked to ecotourism?

McKinsey offers case interview examples that cover various industries and problem-solving scenarios, helping you prepare for any interview question. Engaging with these cases will not only boost your confidence but also enhance your ability to approach complex business problems with innovative solutions.

BCG Case Interview Examples

At BCG , the case interview process is designed to simulate the real-world problems that client teams face, allowing you to demonstrate your problem-solving abilities and specialized skills relevant to the role. Embracing the challenge with enthusiasm will not only make the experience rewarding but also provide a true taste of consulting life at BCG. Here are some of their case interview examples:

Here are a few examples of common case questions:

• Should a company enter a new market?
• Should a company pursue a new product line?
• How can a company improve its profitability?
• How can a company reduce costs?
• How can a company improve its customer satisfaction?

Read: How to Prepare for Boston Consulting Group Management Consulting Case Interviews?

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Bain Case Interview Examples

During your preparation for Bain case interviews, it's essential to delve into specific examples that reflect the real challenges you may encounter. Here's are five examples of practice cases and mock interview tips provided by Bain to guide your preparation:

• Coffee Shop Co. Practice Case
• FashionCo. Practice Case
• Associate Consultant Mock Interview
• Consultant Mock Interview
• Written Case Interview Tips

Read : Bain Case Interviews: A Comprehensive Preparation Guide

Deloitte Case Interview Examples

Deloitte provides a rich array of materials and interactive case studies designed to prepare you for the rigors of their case interviews. These examples reflect real client engagements, offering insights into the complex problems you may face and the analytical, creative, and strategic thinking required to solve them.

Deloitte Case Examples

Footloose Case Study sample questions:

• How big is the work boot market (expressed in euros)? Does Duraflex get more of its revenue from work boots or casual boots?
• Explain why Badger is outperforming Duraflex in the work boot market.
• What changes would you recommend to Duraflex’s work boot strategy? Why? Would you recommend they introduce a sub- branded boot line?

Engagement Strategy: Federal Agency V sample questions:

• To begin an engagement strategy, how might you establish a baseline to measure employee engagement against?
• What characteristics would you look for in external organizations to use as potential benchmarks?
• What are the various populations of the workforce and how would you engage them?
• How will you use Deloitte’s relationship with, and institutional knowledge, of Agency V to develop your deliverables?

Recreation Unlimited sample questions :

• What are potential reasons for Recreation Unlimited's poor eCommerce performance relative to competitors?
• In order to win digital customers, Recreation Unlimited wants to find ways to improve and differentiate their digital customer experience. What are some potential ways to improve the customer experience and how does improving customer experience create value for the customer and value for the business?
• As part of the digital strategy that Recreation Unlimited is considering, they are debating whether to improve the website experience or increase digital marketing. Since they are not sure they will have the budget for both, they want you to help them decide. How would you approach this question?

Strategic Vision: Federal Benefits Provider sample questions :

• What steps should the Deloitte team take to develop a 10-year strategic roadmap for the Agency?
• What are the components or metrics of a business case that should be considered to justify the development of a 10-year strategic roadmap?
• In building the 10-year strategic road map, the Deloitte team realizes there are several key challenges that pose impediments to implementing the Agency’s vision. What is the cost of each challenge to the Agency?
• Leaders in the various departments remain skeptical that the 10-year vision can positively impact their unique operations, while employees are largely unaware of the 10-year vision initiative. How might Deloitte develop an impactful change management strategy to institutionalize the goals of the 10-year vision and ensure buy-in across the Agency’s diverse workforce?

Talent Management: Federal Civil Cargo Protection Bureau sample questions:

• What data would you want to have to be able to move forward?
• What immediate steps would you take to review screening processes and training procedures?
• How would you incorporate things like job descriptions and competencies in your review in order to build a new human capital strategy?
• How will you engage and develop leadership given the Chief Administrator is new to the role and has a different background?

Click here to practice a consulting case interview.

Read : Best 30 Free Resources to Get into Management Consulting

Accenture Case Interview Examples

Accenture's case interviews serve as the final hurdle to becoming a consultant at the firm. These interviews are uniquely structured to assess a candidate's ability to solve complex business problems. The format includes both interviewer-led and candidate-led cases, providing a comprehensive evaluation of your problem-solving capabilities.

Learn more about Accenture’s Case Interview Workbook here .

OC&C Case Interview Examples

OC&C , a globally recognized but relatively smaller strategy consulting firm, is known for its rigorous case interviews that reflect real-life client challenges. These interviews are designed to assess a wide range of skills, from analytical thinking to business acumen, tailored to the firm's focus on private equity clients and seven key industries.

1. Leisure Clubs Case sample questions:

• What factors might you analyze to determine what is going to happen to demand for leisure clubs?
• What is likely to happen to demand for leisure clubs?
• What is the critical issue for our client?

2. Important Whisky in an Emerging Market Case sample questions:

• What information would you require to help explain the slowing down of growth?
• What is driving profitability down?
• What are the potential strategic options?

Oliver Wyman Case Interview Examples

Oliver Wyman's case interviews are designed to uncover how you approach unstructured challenges and evaluate data to build comprehensive solutions. The firm encourages candidates to think critically and creatively, using logical components to break down complex problems.

See how Oliver Wyman can help you with interview preparation by explaining conversational and case interviews, as well as sharing interview tips and explaining what the role of the case interview is.

A.T. Kearney Case Interview Examples

A.T. Kearney's interview process is notably rigorous, tailored to assess a wide range of abilities from analytical thinking to strategic problem-solving. Take a look at A.T. Kearney’s case example and case book to help you how to prepare effectively:

• Promotional Planning Case example
• Consulting Case Book and Tips for Interviewing

Strategy& / PWC Case Interview Examples

Strategy& / PWC focuses on executive-level strategic issues, such as capability identification, market positioning, and operational efficiency. This branch's case interviews are designed to simulate real business challenges, helping to prepare candidates for the demands of strategic consulting roles. Here's a closer look at the types of questions you might encounter:

Sample Question 1: Market sizing

• Estimate the size (by value) of the UK grocery retail market

Sample Question 2: Market sizing

• Estimate the size (by value) of the UK retail cooking sauces market

Sample Question 3: Interpreting information and drawing conclusions

• Look at the chart on the following slide
• Interpret the meaning of the chart
• How are things changing? Who's winning and who's losing?
• Given your knowledge of the UK grocery market, why might this be?

Learn more about case interview preparation by reading through Strategy& / PWC’s presentation .

L.E.K. Consulting Case Interview Examples

The case interview process at L.E.K. Consulting is rigorous – designed to evaluate a candidate's ability to solve complex business problems. The interviews are structured across multiple rounds, each focusing on different aspects of your analytical and strategic thinking abilities. Here's what you need to know to prepare effectively:

• Interview Preparation
• Market Sizing Case Example Video Walkthrough

Roland Berger Case Interview Examples

The case interviews at Roland Berger are designed to evaluate your ability to display key personality traits, with a notable preference for candidates who have international experience, as this is explicitly stated by the firm. Roland Berger has provided two case webinars on their website. Each example provides a case scenario, problem, and tips on how to answer the questions.

• 3D Printed Hip Implants Case / 3D Printed Hip Implants Case 2 sample questions:
• Based upon the explanation process: Which are the most important costs to consider?
• Is additive manufacturing of the hip implant – based upon the given information – lucrative?
• Which measures could increase the economic feasibility of the product?
• Transit Oriented Development Case / Transit Oriented Development Case 2 sample questions:
• How would you split the 416 stations between little, medium, and large revenue potential?
• How can the public transport operator of Munich increase its revenue through focusing on its existing rail stations?

Capital One Case Interview Examples

The structure of a Capital One case interview typically involves three key sections: outlining the business situation and framework, tackling quantitative questions, and formulating a recommendation based on your calculations. Expect scenarios that might not strictly adhere to the MECE principle (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive), which is often a staple in consulting case interviews. This approach reflects the real-world ambiguity you might face in business situations, requiring a flexible and adaptive problem-solving strategy. Here's a video walkthrough on everything there is need to know about Capital One case interview:

• Strategy Analyst - Case Study Guide

EY Parthenon Case Interview Examples

EY-Parthenon case interviews are designed to mimic real-life challenges, providing a glimpse into the practical work of a consultant. The interviews are candidate-led, similar to styles seen at BCG or Bain, and focus on several key areas including analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and effective communication. The EY-Parthenon behavioral interview questions are comparable to those you would encounter in interviews for other top-tier management consulting firms. Be prepared to answer the following questions:

EY-Parthenon Case Interview Behavioral/FIT Questions

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why are you interested in consulting, and why specifically EY-Parthenon?
• Describe a time when you worked on a team project. What was your role, and how did you contribute to the team’s success?
• Can you provide an example of a challenging problem you faced at work and how you solved it?
• How do you handle tight deadlines and pressure? Can you give an example?
• Tell me about a time when you had to influence someone to achieve a goal.
• How do you prioritize tasks when you have multiple projects to manage?
• Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult team member. How did you handle it?
• What is your greatest professional achievement so far?
• Give an example of a time when you had to learn something new quickly.
• Why do you think you would be a good fit for EY-Parthenon’s culture?
• Tell me about a time you failed or made a mistake. How did you handle it?
• Can you provide an example of a project where you demonstrated leadership?
• How do you handle feedback and criticism?
• Are there any questions that you have for me?
• Your answer for this question must be a resounding “YES”. The more you have questions for them, the better because that shows that you’ve researched the company. You may ask about a particular previous project they did or something in particular to their operations.

Online Case Interview Examples from Consulting Clubs

Mastering the case interview is essential in consulting, and consulting clubs are key in this preparation. NYU, Duke, and Kellogg Consulting Club, for instance, provide free various interview cases, both individual and group, that mimic real consulting challenges.

• NYU Stern MCA 2020-2021 Casebook
• Columbia Business School 2021 Casebook
• The Duke MBA Consulting Club Casebook 2021-2022
• UCLA Case Book 2019 – 2020
• Darden School Of Business 2021-2022 Casebook
• Kellogg Consulting Club 2020 Casebook
• Cornell MBA Johnson Consulting Club Casebook 2020-2021
• Notre Dame Casebook 2022
• FMS Consulting Casebook 2021-22
• INSEAD Consulting Club Casebook 2021
• IIMC Consulting Casebook 2021-22
• IIM Lucknow Casebook 2022
• Harvard Business School Management Consulting Club Case Interview Examples
• Berkeley Haas School of Business Consulting Club Interview Preparation Guide and Case Interview Examples 2019

How to Ace Your Case Interview

To excel in your case interview, it's crucial to demonstrate a blend of problem-solving skills, analytical ability, strategic and logical thinking, and comfort with ambiguity. These elements are essential as they reflect real client projects that you might handle at firms like Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Read : The 15 Most Common Consulting Interview Questions — With Answers

Step-by-Step Approach to Case Interviews

• Understand the Issue : Start by clarifying the case question. Ensure you fully grasp the problem before proceeding.
• Develop a Framework : Articulate a framework and initial hypothesis to explore. This helps in structuring your response and guides your analysis.
• Analytical Execution : Engage in logical storytelling. Walk the interviewer through your thought process and explain your assumptions. Take notes and structure your analysis clearly.
• Recommendation and Next Steps : Conclude with a strong recommendation based on your findings. Outline the next steps and expected results or impacts.

Read : Mastering Consulting Cases: A Step-by-Step Approach

Tips on How to Prepare For Your Case Interview

To excel in your case interview preparation, it's essential to engage in extensive practice with a variety of case types. Successful candidates often practice with dozens of case interview scenarios, treating the preparation process with the same rigor as studying for finals or the GMAT. Here are key steps to enhance your preparation:

• Diverse Practice Cases : Ensure the practice cases you use cover a broad spectrum of problems, including profitability, market sizing, and business expansion scenarios. This variety prepares you for any curveballs and helps develop flexibility in applying different frameworks.
• Quality of Practice Materials : Select high-quality practice cases from trusted sources. The content and structure of these cases should closely mimic the types of cases presented in actual interviews at top consulting firms.
• Framework Mastery : Rather than memorizing frameworks, focus on understanding and adapting them to fit different case scenarios. This approach helps in crafting tailored solutions during your actual interview.
• Time Management : Practice managing your time effectively during mock interviews. Top consulting firms like Bain appreciate candidates who can efficiently organize and analyze information under time constraints.
• Engage with Realistic Simulations : Participate in mock interviews and case sessions that simulate the actual interview environment. This practice helps you refine your problem-solving approach and improve your communication skills under pressure.
• Continuous Learning and Adaptation : Stay informed about new trends and changes in the consulting interview landscape. Engage with resources that provide updates and insights into evolving interview formats.

Personalized Coaching : Consider working with an experienced coach who can provide personalized feedback and guidance. Coaching can significantly enhance your performance by focusing on areas that need improvement.

Practice with Experts from Leland

Through an extensive exploration of the various aspects of case interviews across prestigious consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture, and others, it's evident that thorough preparation and an adaptable mindset are critical for success.

Leland offers comprehensive case study interview preparation tailored to help you excel in consulting case interviews. Our experienced consultants provide personalized coaching, realistic case simulations, and strategic feedback to enhance your problem-solving skills and boost your confidence. With our expert guidance, you'll be well-prepared to tackle any case interview challenge and make a lasting impression.

What questions should you consider asking during a case study interview?

• In your case study interview, it's crucial to ask insightful questions to understand the context fully. Consider asking about how the interviewee discovered your company, the timeline of their engagement, their initial experiences with your company, the challenges they aimed to address, and whether they considered any competitors or alternative solutions.

What strategies can enhance your performance in a case interview?

• To excel in a case interview, start by taking a moment to organize your thoughts before responding. Structure your response logically, guiding the interviewer through your thought process and clarifying any assumptions you make. Maintain composure and treat the interview as a professional conversation, which can help alleviate pressure.

How can you excel in a case study interview?

• To perform well in a case study interview, make sure to take detailed notes throughout. Even if you are not familiar with the industry, focus on demonstrating your analytical skills and how you approach problem-solving. Communicate clearly and ensure you have a thorough understanding of the problem you're asked to analyze.

What types of questions are typically asked in case interviews?

• Case interviews generally include questions from nine key categories, such as framework or issue tree questions, market-sizing and guesstimate questions, valuation inquiries, brain teasers, chart interpretation, value proposition analysis, informational queries, and mathematical problems.

Preparing for consulting recruiting and/or case interviews? Here are some additional resources to help:

• Top 3 Tactics to Ace Your Case Interview
• A Comprehensive Guide to McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group
• From No Offers to Multiple Offers - How to Take Your Casing to the Next Level
• Soft Skills for Consulting: Why They Matter and How to Develop Them
• Five Tips to Break Into Management Consulting

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10 Best Case Study Interview Questions to Ask

Ask these 10 interview questions to get valuable case study insights.

When you’re striving to improve your product, brand, or marketing, conducting case study interviews with your customers can provide invaluable insight into your business. Yes, customer case studies can provide content that your sales and marketing teams can use in order to attract additional attention from prospective clients. But they can also give you fresh insight into your business’s strengths and weaknesses so you can identify opportunities for growth, particularly if you ask the right case study interview questions.

If you’ve never done a case study before, you may be struggling to wrap your head around how to approach this process—how do you write case study interview questions that are productive and impactful? Read on to learn what you need to know in order to conduct a great case study interview, even if it’s your first time.

What is a case study?

One of the most difficult tasks of a business is proving to potential customers that you really can do all you say you can, so that they feel confident in signing on to work with you. One of the best ways to go about showcasing your professional skillset and attracting new business is through case studies—in particular, by interviewing former or existing customers in order to simultaneously conduct market research and generate marketing materials.

The kind of customer interviews conducted for the purpose of business case studies can be tricky to execute. You want to learn about what went great in your collaboration, while also soliciting feedback that could help steer the improvements you foster within your own company. How do you do both of these things at once?

Plainly put, it’s no small feat. There are many challenges in conducting these kinds of interviews with customers, including:

• Limited staff resources: Your staff members are busy people—finding time for them to plan, structure, and conduct these types of case study interviews can be tricky .
• Difficulty scheduling time with willing customers: Your customers are equally busy individuals—and it’s even harder to sell a customer on carving out their time for work like this than for your own staff members.

While there are certainly hurdles involved in getting this information collected, the effort can really be worth it in the end. The insight customers are able to share with you as a business owner is priceless—and the fact that these case studies can also become impactful marketing tools is an added bonus. But in order to make things easier on yourself and more efficient, preparing carefully constructed, highly targeted case study interview questions is essential.

How to write the best case study questions

How do you actually write a case study interview question that’s sure to get at the heart of a customer’s most honest feedback, while also serving as a testimonial your marketing staff can use to generate new interest in your business? It’s a tricky task to take on, but not an impossible one. Here are some things to keep in mind as you set out to establish a set of case study interview questions that work well for your company.

First, you want to structure your case study interview like a conversation—while you’re looking for thorough information, you don’t want your customer to feel like they’re involved in an interrogation. The fact that they’re willing to participate in the interview is a sign that they valued your product, service, or collaboration. They’re doing you a favor by supplying this information for your company, so you want to capture the essential information in as few questions as possible—but you also want to ensure the questions you ask are succinct, friendly, and flow naturally from one to another.

Strive for open-ended questions that give customers the opportunity to expand on the parts of their experience that they remember most fondly. While you’re looking for specific information, you also want your customer to feel they have room to share what they found important about working with you.

To give you a sense of what kinds of questions you should include in your survey, here are the top 10 best case study interview questions to ask in 2023:

• What problems were you facing before you chose to work with us?
• Out of the many businesses available to help, what made you choose ours?
• How long have you been using our product/resource/service?
• How many people on your team are involved with our product/resource/service?
• How has our product/resource/service helped to improve your initial problem?
• Can you provide a measurable example of how the problem has improved?
• What concerns did you have about our product/resource/service initially? How do you feel about those concerns today?
• Have any new concerns or issues arisen since you started using our product/resource/service? How could we improve, if so?
• What features or developments could make our product/resource/service even more useful or beneficial for your company?
• Would you recommend our product/resource/service to a trusted peer in your industry? Why or why not?

When approaching a case study, you should always start with a genuine desire to hear feedback from your customers and provide improvements to their issues wherever possible. Spend sufficient time carefully defining your goal, crafting a collection of succinct questions that help you get to the information you need quickly, and preparing appropriately to execute the interview. While your customers are eager to share their positive experiences with you, it’s important to respect everyone’s time along the way.

If you’re looking for a way to circumvent some of the hurdles that come along with differences in time zones or geography in this kind of work, consider a tool like Voiceform. By asking case study interview questions through Voiceform, you can interview a number of customers simultaneously, allowing them to engage the questions at a time that is most convenient to them. Plus, you’ll have access to insights that will make market research and creating marketing materials easier than ever. When you’re ready to begin, start your trial with Voiceform or book a demo !

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5 great customer experience case studies.

Home » 5 Great Customer Experience Case Studies

Exceptional CX Strategies in action are vital for organizations aiming to thrive in the competitive market. By focusing on customer needs, these strategies transform standard interactions into memorable experiences that foster loyalty. In this section, we explore five outstanding case studies that showcase innovative approaches to enhancing customer experience.

Each case demonstrates the importance of understanding customer insights and adapting services accordingly. These exceptional CX strategies not only drive satisfaction but also contribute to sustainable business growth. Through analysis of these real-world applications, we aim to inspire a fresh perspective on elevating customer experience to new heights.

Exceptional CX Strategies: Companies Leading the Way

Exceptional CX strategies often emerge from companies that prioritize customer-centricity. These organizations recognize that understanding customer needs and preferences is essential for offering unmatched service. They continually analyze feedback and insights to tailor experiences that resonate deeply with their audience. By fostering a culture of empathy, these companies empower their teams to think critically about customer interactions, leading to improved outcomes.

Moreover, their commitment to exceptional customer experiences does not end at mere satisfaction. These leaders actively engage customers in meaningful ways, ensuring they feel valued and understood. Innovative touchpoints, personalized communications, and seamless service integration help create lasting relationships. These strategies not only drive loyalty but also inspire advocates who share their positive experiences, further enhancing brand reputation and visibility. Through these exceptional CX strategies, companies are setting benchmarks in customer service excellence that others aspire to achieve.

Case Study 1: How Company A Transformed Customer Engagement

In the pursuit of exceptional customer experience (CX) strategies, a leading organization revolutionized its approach to customer engagement. Recognizing the growing competition and the importance of customer feedback, they prioritized understanding the voice of their customers. By analyzing customer sentiment, the organization gained actionable insights into preferences and pain points. This not only enabled them to tailor their offerings but also created a more personalized interaction with customers.

The transformation began with mapping the customer journey, allowing the organization to identify key touchpoints for improvement. This strategic move had a dual benefit: it bolstered customer satisfaction while also increasing market share. Enhanced engagement strategies, including personalized communication and targeted promotions, ensured that customers felt valued and understood. This case study highlights the significance of exceptional CX strategies, illustrating how a company can thrive by truly listening to its customers and adapting to their needs.

Case Study 2: The Impact of Personalization at Company B

At one organization, a robust personalization strategy significantly improved customer experiences. By using data analytics, they crafted tailored interactions that resonated with individual customer preferences, which fostered stronger connections and increased customer loyalty.

The implementation of personalized recommendations based on past behaviors was a game-changer. This approach not only enriched the shopping experience but also boosted conversion rates. Additionally, effective communication channels, such as targeted emails and customized offers, ensured customers felt valued.

Furthermore, by continuously analyzing customer feedback, they adapted their strategies to better meet evolving needs. This responsiveness illustrated the importance of exceptional customer experience strategies, ultimately establishing a competitive edge in their market sector. Engaging their audience through personalized experiences was integral to their overall success, demonstrating how critical tailored interactions are to achieving superior customer satisfaction.

Implementing Exceptional CX Strategies: Insights from Leaders

Implementing exceptional CX strategies requires a deep understanding of customer needs and behaviors. Leaders in customer experience consistently rely on data-driven insights to refine their practices. By utilizing customizable insights, organizations can pinpoint specific pain points and desires directly related to their target audience. This tailored approach allows companies to focus on areas that truly matter to their customers.

Effective CX strategies emphasize the importance of context in understanding customer feedback. Moreover, presenting evidence for insights ensures teams recognize the origin of their data, fostering a culture of trust and accountability. This blend of analysis and transparency not only guides decision-making but also enhances overall customer satisfaction. Leaders demonstrate that the journey towards exceptional CX hinges on active engagement, adaptability, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. Ultimately, successful implementation of these strategies can transform a standard experience into one that’s memorable and meaningful.

Case Study 3: Company Cs Omni-Channel Success Story

To achieve exceptional customer experience, one company successfully integrated its online and offline strategies. This omni-channel approach ensured that customers enjoyed a seamless experience, regardless of the channel they chose. The company focused on understanding customer preferences through deep insights, which allowed them to tailor their services effectively. This attention to customer needs fostered loyalty and increased engagement.

Furthermore, by utilizing data analytics, the company gained valuable insights into purchasing behavior. This enabled them to personalize marketing efforts and improve product recommendations. As a result, customers felt understood and appreciated. These exceptional CX strategies led to higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction scores, proving that an omni-channel strategy can significantly enhance the overall customer experience.

Case Study 4: Streamlined Customer Support at Company D

In one organization's journey towards exceptional CX strategies, they focused on enhancing their customer support process. By incorporating a sophisticated yet user-friendly support system, they allowed customers to easily access help through various channels. This multi-channel approach significantly reduced customer wait times, resulting in faster resolution of queries and complaints.

To further streamline the support experience, the company implemented a ticketing system that prioritized urgent issues. They trained their teams to swiftly address pain points identified through user feedback. As a result, customers felt their concerns were valued, leading to increased loyalty and satisfaction. By continuously monitoring support metrics, the organization ensured that their strategies evolved based on real-time data, laying the groundwork for a consistently positive customer experience. This journey serves as a compelling example of how focused strategies can transform customer interactions.

Case Study 5: Company Es Loyalty Program Innovation

The loyalty program introduced focused on creating rewarding experiences that cater directly to customer desires. By harnessing insights from customer feedback, the program was designed to evolve continuously, meeting changing preferences. This innovative approach ensured that members felt valued and heard, resulting in enhanced engagement and satisfaction.

Key elements of this exceptional loyalty program included personalized rewards based on individual spending habits, milestone bonuses that celebrated customer loyalty, and exclusive access to special events. Each component aimed to foster an emotional connection between the brand and its customers, ultimately driving long-term loyalty. These exceptional CX strategies not only increased participation but also fostered a community around the brand, encouraging customers to share their experiences. As a result, the loyalty program became a cornerstone of the overall customer experience, empowering customers and motivating them to build a lasting relationship with the brand.

Conclusion: Lessons Learned from Exceptional CX Strategies

Exceptional CX strategies reveal the profound impact of understanding customer needs. Through these case studies, we identify that proactive engagement and feedback mechanisms are essential. Listening actively enables businesses to adapt swiftly, enhancing overall customer satisfaction.

Moreover, crafting personalized experiences fosters loyalty. By mapping the customer journey, organizations can pinpoint critical touchpoints that need improvement. These lessons illustrate that a committed focus on customer insight not only addresses existing concerns but also anticipates future needs, ensuring long-term success in a competitive market. Adopting these strategies can position any business as a leader in customer experience.

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3 Powerful Customer Case Study Interview Tips

Your customer said “yes” to being part of a case study, so now it’s time for the interview. But how do you make the most of that interview so you get the best possible customer success story? It all comes down to following these customer case study interview tips based on my years of interviewing experience.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve conducted hundreds of case study interviews and learned a few tricks to help make your interviews go smoothly, and more importantly, ensure you get the best possible outcome from speaking with your customers. (After all, you want a case study that supports your sales and marketing and doesn’t fall flat!)

Interview Tip #1: Set Expectations Upfront to Put the Customer at Ease

When a customer agrees to an interview for a case study , it’s usually because they’re a superfan of your product or service. That doesn’t mean they’re completely comfortable with the interview process or how you’ll be using the information you’re gathering.

The first few minutes of the interview should be used to put the customer at ease and set expectations for what’s going to happen during the interview and afterward.

Here are some specific things to cover:

• How long the interview is scheduled for and that they have enough time available.
• What they can expect during the interview. Let them know there are no wrong answers and that it’s a conversation with you.
• What you’ll be doing with the information once the interview is done and what the next step will be.

Interview Tip #2: Ask Leading Questions

Prior to the interview, you’ll want to spend some time crafting your case study questions and preparing an interview guide to help keep you on track. But what happens when you’re in the interview asking all the right questions and not getting the answers you want?

When the customer is giving answers that lack detail or don’t provide the information you need to create a compelling case study, it can be frustrating. You may even be tempted to decide that this customer isn’t a good fit or that their story isn’t worth pursuing.

After doing hundreds of case study interviews, I can tell you that this is rarely the case. (I can count the true number of “lemon” interviews on one hand.) Sometimes, your customer is going to be off their game or not be clear on what you’re asking. It’s up to you as the interviewer to ensure that you’re going the extra mile to get the information you need from them. When it comes to customer case study interview tips, here’s my number one. Ask leading questions. 

Instead of saying something like, “Tell me about the results you got from our product,” ask a question that gets to the heart of the results you want to showcase such as “I know you’ve been able to save money with our product and increase your revenue. Can you share the details of how you did that?”

At points during the interview, you may need to rephrase your question or pose it in a different way to help the customer open up and share the information that you really need.

Interview Tip #3: Lose the Script to Pursue the Story

Every great interviewer knows that while being prepared is key, they also know that sometimes you’re going to need to let go of the story you thought you were going after in pursuit of something else.

Oftentimes in an interview, you’ll go into it with a specific idea, and over the course of your conversation, the customer will say something that’s absolute gold in passing. When this happens, be okay with going off script and following a new line of questioning.

Many times, those moments when you decide to see if there’s another angle to take in the interview, an even better customer success story is found. You just need to be willing and able to ask new questions on the fly to see if there’s more to it.

Want More Customer Case Study Interview Tips? 

We’ve got you covered. Getting started with customer success stories is easy when. you hire an expert team that specializes in creating compelling case studies for B2B companies. We take care of every step of the process so you have high-quality customer success stories that generate leads and support your overall sales and marketing efforts. Click here to learn more.

17 Customer Experience Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Learn what skills and qualities interviewers are looking for from a customer experience analyst, what questions you can expect, and how you should go about answering them.

If you’re looking for a job that will have you interacting with customers all day, then a customer experience analyst job may be a great fit for you. As a customer experience analyst, you’ll be responsible for understanding customer needs and desires and then translating them into actionable plans for your company.

To land a job as a customer experience analyst, you’ll need to be able to answer customer experience analyst interview questions that will test your skills in this area. In this guide, we’ll provide you with some tips on how to answer questions about your customer service experience, your understanding of customer needs, and how you would go about improving customer satisfaction.

Are you familiar with the concept of the customer journey?

What are some of the tools and methods you use to collect customer feedback, how do you prioritize customer experience improvement projects, what is your process for conducting a customer experience audit, provide an example of a time when you had to present your findings to upper management., if you had to choose one area of customer experience to focus on, what would it be and why, what would you do if you noticed that two departments were working at cross purposes and causing problems for customers, how well do you understand the products and services that you analyze, do you have any experience working with customer support teams, when analyzing customer feedback, how do you determine if the problem is widespread or isolated, we want to improve our customer service reputation. what is one strategy you would use to do this, describe your experience with data visualization tools., what makes you stand out from other candidates for this position, which industries do you have the most experience working in, what do you think is the most important skill for a customer experience analyst to have, how often do you recommend performing customer experience audits, there is a new management team in place and they want to make significant changes to how the company operates. how do you handle this situation.

The interviewer may ask you this question to see if you have experience with customer journey mapping. This is a common practice in the industry, and your answer should show that you understand how it works. You can describe what a customer journey map is and give an example of one you’ve created before.

Example: “Customer journey mapping is a process where businesses analyze their customers’ experiences from start to finish. I’ve used customer journey maps for my previous employer to help us identify areas we could improve our customer service. For instance, we mapped out the entire customer journey when a client called into our call center. We found that many clients were calling because they couldn’t find certain products on our website. By improving our search engine optimization, we reduced the number of calls by 10%.”

Interviewers may ask this question to see if you have experience using customer feedback tools and methods. They want to know that you can use the company’s existing resources, as well as your own knowledge of other tools and processes for collecting data. In your answer, explain which tools you’ve used in the past and how they helped you collect information about customers’ experiences with a business or organization.

Example: “I usually start by surveying customers through email or phone calls. I find these two methods are great ways to get quick feedback from customers who are willing to take a few minutes to respond to my questions. I also like to use social media channels to gather feedback because it’s easy to reach large groups of customers at once. For example, when I worked at XYZ Company, I noticed many customers were talking about our brand on Twitter. So, I created a survey asking them what they liked most about our products.”

Interviewers may ask this question to assess your ability to manage multiple projects at once. Use your answer to highlight your organizational skills and how you plan out your work schedule.

Example: “I start by looking at the customer satisfaction scores for each department I analyze. Then, I look at which departments have the lowest scores and decide whether they need improvement or not. If a department has low scores across several metrics, then I know that it needs improvement. From there, I create a timeline of when I can complete each project based on my availability and other responsibilities. I also make sure to communicate with my team members about any changes in their assignments.”

This question can help the interviewer understand your analytical skills and how you apply them to a specific task. Use examples from previous experiences to highlight your ability to analyze data, identify trends and make recommendations for improvement.

Example: “I start by identifying the customer’s journey through the company’s website or app. I then look at each step of the process and evaluate it based on key performance indicators like time spent on site, pages visited and number of purchases made. Next, I compare these KPIs with industry benchmarks to determine if there are any areas where the company is underperforming. Finally, I create a report that includes my findings and recommendations for improving the customer experience.”

This question can help the interviewer understand how you communicate your findings and recommendations to others. Use examples from previous work experience or school projects where you had to present information in a clear, concise way that was easy for others to understand.

Example: “At my last job, I worked with upper management on a regular basis to discuss our customer satisfaction surveys. We would meet once a month to go over the results of the surveys we conducted among customers who visited our locations. I always made sure to include all important data points and graphs so they could easily see any trends or patterns in the survey responses.”

This question is a great way to see how the candidate prioritizes their work. It also shows you what they think is most important in customer experience analysis. When answering this question, it can be helpful to explain why that particular area of customer experience is so important and how it impacts your company’s overall goals.

Example: “I would choose customer satisfaction because I believe it’s one of the best ways to measure whether or not customers are getting value from our products and services. If we’re able to improve customer satisfaction, then we should see an increase in sales as well as referrals. This will help us achieve our goal of increasing revenue.”

This question can help interviewers assess your problem-solving skills and ability to work with others. In your answer, try to show that you are willing to collaborate with other departments and understand the importance of working together.

Example: “I would first meet with representatives from both departments to discuss what they do and how their actions affect customers. I would then create a plan for each department to ensure that they’re working toward the same goals. For example, if one department was trying to reduce customer wait times while another was adding more products to its website, I would find ways to balance these two objectives so that we could improve our customer experience without sacrificing sales.”

This question can help the interviewer determine your level of expertise in customer experience analysis. Use examples from past experiences to show how you’ve analyzed products and services, including their features and benefits.

Example: “In my last role as a customer experience analyst, I was responsible for analyzing the company’s website and mobile app. I reviewed each page on both platforms and looked at the navigation, search functions and overall user experience. I also examined the checkout process and compared it to industry standards. After reviewing these areas, I found that our website had several issues with its design and usability. I worked with the development team to make changes to improve the website.”

This question can help the interviewer understand your experience working with other teams and how you collaborate with others. Your answer should include a brief description of what you did to work well with other teams, including any specific examples of how you helped support their efforts.

Example: “I have worked with customer service teams in my previous role as a customer experience analyst, but I also had the opportunity to lead a team of customer service representatives when our company was experiencing high call volumes. In both cases, I used data analysis to identify trends that could improve the quality of customer service calls. For example, we found that many customers were calling about shipping issues, so we created an online FAQ page for this issue to reduce the number of phone calls.”

This question can help the interviewer understand how you apply your analytical skills to customer feedback. Use examples from past experiences to explain how you use data and information to make decisions about customer satisfaction.

Example: “When analyzing customer feedback, I first look at the overall sentiment of the comments. If there are a lot of negative comments or customers who have similar complaints, then it’s likely that the problem is widespread. However, if most of the feedback is positive but there are isolated issues, then I would investigate further to see if there is a pattern among those comments. In my last role, I noticed that many customers were complaining about shipping times. After looking into the issue, I found that our shipping department was understaffed during the holidays. By identifying the root cause of the problem, we were able to hire more employees and ensure timely delivery for all customers.”

This question is an opportunity to show your analytical skills and how you can use them to improve a company’s reputation. When answering this question, think about the strategies you’ve used in the past to help companies increase their customer satisfaction ratings or other metrics that indicate positive experiences with customers.

Example: “I would start by analyzing what our current reputation is. I’d look at reviews on social media, third-party review sites and any other sources where we’re mentioned. Then, I’d analyze our customer service team’s processes to see if there are any areas for improvement. For example, maybe we have too many representatives who don’t know how to solve certain problems. Or maybe we need more training for frontline employees so they can better handle common issues.”

The interviewer may ask this question to learn more about your experience with data visualization tools and how you use them. Use your answer to describe the types of data visualization tools you’ve used in the past, what you like about each tool and any skills you have that allow you to create effective visualizations.

Example: “I’ve worked with several different data visualization tools throughout my career as a customer experience analyst. I started out using Microsoft Excel for many of my projects, but I found it difficult to work with large datasets because Excel doesn’t support Pivot Tables or PowerPivot. So, I learned how to use PowerPivot to import large amounts of data into Excel so I could analyze it effectively.

I also use Tableau when working with clients who prefer to see their data visually rather than in numerical form. I find both tools useful depending on the project.”

Employers ask this question to learn more about your qualifications and how you can contribute to their company. Before your interview, make a list of the skills and experiences that qualify you for this role. Focus on what makes you unique from other candidates and highlight any transferable skills or certifications you have.

Example: “I am passionate about customer service and enjoy helping customers find solutions to their problems. I also have five years of experience as a customer experience analyst, so I know how to use data to improve customer satisfaction. In my previous position, I helped increase sales by 20% through analyzing customer feedback.”

This question can help the interviewer understand your experience level and how it relates to their company. It’s important to be honest about your experience, but you should also highlight any skills that make you a good candidate for this role even if you don’t have direct experience in customer service.

Example: “I’ve worked primarily in retail, although I do have some experience working with customers online as well. My previous employer was looking to expand our online presence, so I helped create an actionable plan to improve our website based on customer feedback. This led to increased sales and more positive reviews.”

This question can help the interviewer determine if you have the skills and abilities they’re looking for in a candidate. Use your answer to highlight one or two of the most important skills, such as communication, problem-solving and data analysis.

Example: “I think that the most important skill for a customer experience analyst is strong analytical skills. This role requires someone who can collect and analyze large amounts of data to find trends and patterns. I also believe that strong communication skills are essential because this job involves working with many different departments and employees. Strong communication skills allow me to clearly explain my findings and recommendations.”

Interviewers may ask this question to assess your knowledge of the frequency with which you should perform customer experience audits. Use your answer to highlight your ability to analyze data and make recommendations based on those findings.

Example: “I recommend performing customer experience audits at least once a year, but I also think it’s important to conduct them more frequently if there are major changes in the company or its products. For example, when my previous employer changed its shipping policy from free two-day delivery to overnight shipping for all orders over $100, we needed to do an audit to ensure that our customers were still satisfied with their shopping experiences. We found that although some customers were disappointed about the change, most understood why the company made the decision.”

This question is designed to assess your ability to work with a team and implement change. It also shows the interviewer how you react to new leadership in an organization. Your answer should show that you are willing to collaborate with others, adapt to change and learn from it.

Example: “I would first meet with the management team to understand what changes they want to make. I would then create a plan for implementing these changes. For example, if the company wanted to increase sales by 10%, I would start by analyzing customer data to see where we can improve our service. Then, I would develop strategies for improving each area of concern. Finally, I would present my findings to the management team and help them decide which strategies will be most effective.”

17 Student Advocate Interview Questions and Answers

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What Is a Case Study?

What is a case study interview, how to prep for a case study interview, case study interview example questions, during the case study interview.

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Table of Contents

A case study interview isn’t your average interview. While most interviews ask you to give examples of how you use your skills on the job, in a case study interview, you’ll use those skills in front of the interviewer to solve a real-life problem.

It’s like auditioning for the school play. But instead of showing you can sing and dance, you’re using a case interview to show how you provide innovative solutions to pressing business problems. Not sure how to get ready for this kind of interview? We’ve got you covered. This guide explains how to prep for a case study interview.

Case studies are used across a variety of industries — everything from business to medicine. They are an in-depth examination, analysis, and critique of a real-world scenario the company experienced. People discuss the situation and explore what they learned while forming new solutions to try when they face a similar situation in the future and hope to improve their performance.

For example, doctors and nurses use case studies to improve how they diagnose and treat patients. Using real patient information, the medical team analyzes the case to see what the team may have missed and why they missed it. Learning from these errors helps the team better prepare for similar cases in the future to improve patient care.

While many industries use case studies to iterate and improve their performance, not every company uses case study interviews. This type of interview is very common at consulting companies (no matter what kind of consulting it is). But it’s not unusual for companies outside of consulting to use case interviews for marketing or operations roles.

In a case study interview, you’re given a real-world situation the company has faced and are tasked with analyzing it and suggesting a course of action.

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Skills you’ll build: Prioritizing, planning, data analysis, error spotting, communication, strategic thinking

Businesses use case study interviews to assess your abilities in real-time. While you’ll probably draw on a variety of skills, most case study interviews assess:

• Strategic thinking
• Analytical skills
• Common sense

The advantage of a case study interview is that the interviewer can evaluate your ability in each of these areas and see how you’ll actually use them on the job.

What Is a Fit Interview?

Some people use “case study interview” and “fit interview” interchangeably. While a fit interview and a case study interview both ask behavioral interview questions , they are not the same thing.

A case study interview assesses your ability to do the job. It primarily evaluates how you approach business problems and use your skills to solve them. A fit interview is about company culture fit. The interviewer asks questions that assess how well you’ll fit into the company, like asking you questions about what motivates you or how you lead .

Fit and case interviews are important parts of the evaluation process. Getting the job done is just as critical as getting along with coworkers and supporting the company’s mission. Depending on where you interview, you may have one fit interview and one case study interview, or the fit interview may be a smaller part of the case study interview.

What You’ll Learn in a Case Study Interview

A case study interview allows the hiring manager to see your skills in action and how you approach business challenges. But it also teaches you a lot about the company (even if you’re doing most of the talking).

In a sense, you’re behaving as an employee during a case study interview. This gives you a peek behind the curtain, allowing you to see the company’s inner workings, like how they approach business problems and what they expect from you and your performance.

For example, you may offer a novel approach to solving a problem during a case interview. How does the interviewer react to it? Are they impressed? Surprised? Is there a scowl or frown on their face? Their reaction gives you insights into how the company will likely receive your solutions.

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Skills you’ll build: Critical thinking, creativity, brainstorming

Depending on the specific company, you may have the case study interview questions in advance, but you may not. Whether you do or don’t, here’s how to prepare for a case study interview.

Conduct Deep Research

Good interview prep for any interview means researching the company. That includes things like learning more about the company’s mission and the challenges the industry faces. But when you’re preparing for a case study interview, your research needs to go deeper. 

When you answer a case study question, your answer has to be specific to the company’s clients or business objectives. For example, if you’re interviewing for a role in strategy consulting , your answer shouldn’t focus on aspects of human resources consulting (unless it’s particularly relevant).

Your research needs to include the kinds of clients the company works with and what types of problems the company solves. For example, the company may only consult for Fortune 100 companies that need accounting advice. Keep these facts in mind as you prepare for the interview.

Case Study Interview Formats

There are four types of case study interview formats:

• Candidate-led: The interviewer asks you a specific question (or gives you a prompt), and you walk the interviewer through a detailed answer.
• Employer-led: The interviewer leads you through a series of specific (and predetermined) prompts and questions, no matter your answers.
• Presentation: You’re given a problem in advance to create and present a detailed case study.
• Video: Similar to a presentation case study interview, you’ll create a video presentation of the case study.

Most companies will tell you in advance which style of case study interview you should prepare for. But if they don’t, reach out to your recruiter or check the company’s website. Many include the essential details you need to prepare for the case study interview.

Seek Out Company-Specific Tips

Speaking of companies and their websites, not only do many companies that use case study interviews tell you the format, they often include helpful tips and tricks to help candidates prepare. This includes what to expect, what the company is looking for skill-wise, and what kinds of responses they want. They may even have a few practice questions and videos you can use to help you prep.

Unlike other common interview questions , it’s not as easy to prepare an answer to case study interview questions. Even though you know it’s a case study interview, you don’t necessarily know the specifics of the case or what problems you’ll be asked to solve.

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That said, it’s likely your case study interview questions will cover one or several of these concepts:

• Entering new markets
• Increasing profits
• Cutting costs
• Turnarounds
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Pricing strategy
• Developing new products
• Industry analysis
• Competitive response

While there are many ways to answer case study interview questions, a few basic prep tips can help you get ready for every question.

In addition to what you usually bring to a job interview , make sure you bring a notepad and pen or pencil to a case study interview. Taking notes will help you better understand the questions and formulate your answers. It also gives you a place to calculate numbers and figures if you need to. Not every case study interview allows calculators, so you’ll need to be ready to do your calculations manually.

Ask Specific Questions

As you’re working through the case study, you can and should ask any clarifying questions you need. The interviewer wants to hear specific, detailed answers that solve the problem. So, whenever you’re unclear, ask a follow-up question to not only get what you need but to give the interviewer what they need. 

That said, your question(s) should be very specific. You need to verify exactly what the interview is asking so you can create an appropriate answer. Say the interviewer gives you a broad question: The client’s revenue is falling. How do you help them increase it? You can follow up with a very specific question or two to make sure you understand what the interviewer is asking:

You’re asking how I would help the client raise revenue, correct? Are you also asking how I would help them increase their profit and cut costs?

>>Related: 5 Top Questions to Ask in an Interview (and Why You Should Ask Them)

Talk Them Through It

A big part of the case study interview is seeing you in action. However, in this case, “see” really means “how you think.” Since the interviewer can’t hear your inner monologue, you’ll need to practice thinking out loud.

While the interviewer wants to hear your solution, they also want to hear how you got there. That means talking through your entire thought process. Instead of saying, “I’d do X,” you have to explain how you arrived at your decision while you’re getting there.

Because not everyone thinks out loud, it may feel unnatural to you, and you likely won’t be expected to do it on the job. But it’s crucial to practice this skill — and it is a skill — because the interviewer is expecting you to do it in a case study interview.

Want to give a case study a shot? Try out a Forage consulting virtual simulation program and gain the skills you’ll need to ace a case study interview.

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Customer Success Interview Questions And Answers for Managers & Specialists

Do you know what the fastest-growing job is right now?

Every year LinkedIn publishes statistics about the most promising and emerging job trends. According to the reports from 2019 and 2020, customer success manager is one of the hottest positions. 

Companies need more customer success managers than scrum masters! But hiring a good one can be a challenge.

We prepared some tough interview questions for a customer success manager to help you choose the best person for the job (or get it if you are a candidate).

In this article:

• Interview questions for regular and managerial customer success positions
• Examples of good answers that can help you land the job
• What skills are the most important for customer success and CSM roles

See how to enhance your performance as a customer success agent with AI chatbots

If you want to learn more about the job position and customer success philosophy, you can visit:

• What Is a Customer Success Manager? [All You Need to Know]  
• Customer Success Essentials [Metrics, Stories, & More]

Before we dive in, let’s see what all this “customer success” fuss is about. Does it differ from customer support?

Traditional customer support focuses on solving customers’ problems. It is reactive and usually related to the technical aspects of a product. Customer success specialists and managers, on the other hand, are proactive. They focus on helping customers achieve their business goals.

Customer success experts need to have a deeper understanding of contexts in which clients use a product or service. They don’t want short-term gains. Instead, their role is to look at the big picture and build long-term customer relationships.

Here is a selection of the most important questions that you should ask your customer success manager (CSM) candidates and other customer success professionals.

Customer success interview questions and answers:

• Why are you a good fit for this role?
• Have you ever gone above and beyond for a customer?
• How would you deal with a customer who is wrong and insists on something?
• What does our product do exactly? Have you tried it?
• Is customer success a philosophy or methodology? How would you define it?
• What would you do to increase our customers’ loyalty?
• What is the toughest customer problem you have ever handled?
• What skills do you hope to improve in this role?
• If you had to handle multiple problems at the same time, what would you do?
• What would you do if a customer misused our product to gain profits in an unethical way?
• What is your management style? (For customer success manager positions)
• What would you do if two of your teammates got into a conflict?
• What tools would you use to monitor and improve customer success rates?

Each question has been designed to test a specific skill or knowledge of your candidates.

If you are looking for interview questions for customer success managers that are more general you can also check out: Top 18 Customer Service Interview Questions & Answers

1. Why are you a good fit for this job?

Skill: Self-presentation

This is a very general question but you should ask it at some point nonetheless. It gives your candidate an opportunity to fill in some core details. Do they have the necessary experience? What personality traits or achievements do they value in themselves?

If they are struggling with presenting their strengths, it may be a problem. A customer success professional must be able to convince customers that your products are the best choice. If they can’t even present and “sell” themselves, it’s not a good sign.

Example answer

I’ve been working in this sector at a similar job for several years. My role wasn’t managerial but I had an amazing opportunity to work with awesome leaders. I learned many things from them. And it turned out that working with customers is something that I really enjoy. Every case offers a slightly different challenge. And figuring out the best way in which customers can apply our solutions gives me a lot of satisfaction. After I joined the previous team, we managed to increase our NPS from 49 to almost 60.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Be careful not to brag too much. This may seem exaggerated or dishonest. Focus on your results. But if you want to mention how good you are at something, try to quote a happy customer or a teammate. Otherwise, it may sound like just your opinion about yourself and not a fact.

An extra follow-up question for recruiters: Have you ever received negative feedback about the quality of your work?

2. Have you ever gone above and beyond for a customer?

Skill: Customer focus

If you want to make customers happy, you should always show that you are willing to go the extra mile. Some companies make it an official rule. You can even find it in Disney’s customer service training manual .

If your candidates care about customer satisfaction, they shouldn’t have any problems with describing at least one situation that proves it. You can ask some follow-up questions about the final outcome of their actions too.

Questions of this sort work really well with the STAR methodology:

• Situation (circumstances)
• Task (what had to be done)
• Action (step by step description of the actions taken)
• Result (what was the end result)

( S ) One of the customers at my previous job wanted to integrate our app with a third-party solution. At that point, the integration was not possible. ( T ) But the customer really had to connect the tools. ( A ) I decided to personally walk the customer through using Zapier. It took some time but we’ve managed to set up an advanced workflow. ( R ) It worked like a charm. The customer keeps the whole configuration to this day and even bought a higher plan.

What you should pay attention to as candidates: Make sure that the situation you describe is aligned with the company’s values. Being helpful and going the extra mile is usually appreciated. But don’t confuse it with the lack of assertiveness. Be prepared that recruiters may challenge you and ask if it was the right call.

Extra follow-up question: What was the most unpleasant interaction with a customer that you have ever had?

3. How would you deal with a customer who is wrong and insists on something?

Skill: Conflict resolution

Some customers are more difficult to cooperate with than others. Usually, they just want things to work according to their plan. And the fact that their plans are sometimes ludicrous is an entirely different matter.

The way your customer success job candidate answers this question is critical. If they immediately start to argue or try to prove customers wrong, they are likely to make them churn. You can learn more about difficult or angry customers here . A good CSM candidate knows that a frustrated customer is not necessarily a lost customer.

Well, I’ve noticed that there is no point arguing with them. Instead, I try to understand their position and ask additional questions. If I’m challenging their views, I try to soften the blow as much as possible. I’d say something along the lines of “Yes, I understand you. I too find it confusing. This feature is not very intuitive.” It allows the customer to keep their face. Then, I’d try to shift the focus of the conversation towards helping them achieve their initial goal. If they were wrong, let’s start from scratch and find a new solution.

What you should pay attention to as candidates: Recruiters ask about difficult customers to get more insights about your composure. A good candidate for a CSM job will never try to prove that the customer is wrong just for the sake of it. The goal is to make them realize the mistake on their own. It requires patience and tactfulness. Try to convince your recruiter that you understand this role.

Extra follow-up question: Did it ever turn out that the customer was right after all?

4. What does our product do exactly? Have you tried it?

Skill: Technical knowledge 

A good customer success manager should be curious enough to try out your products. Or at least have a good understanding of what they do. If they didn’t have the opportunity to use them yet, the way they justify it will also give you some insights.

If you want to test their ability to summarize and explain complicated problems, you can also phrase this question differently. For example, you can try something like: My grandma is not good with computers—how would you explain our product to her?

Tidio is a customer service tool that allows you to add a live chat widget to your website . It gives you the possibility to chat with visitors and customers in real-time. It is much more convenient than writing emails—both for customers and support teams. I’m not a very technical person, but I managed to set it up without any problem in minutes. I see a lot of potential in this software.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: You are not applying for a product manager position but having a general idea shows that you did your homework. Recruiters may also want to check if you can explain complex matters in simple words. Your role is to communicate it in an illustrative way. Use analogies and comparisons to other products if you can.

Extra follow-up question: Do you have any suggestions on how we could improve it?

5. Is customer success a philosophy or methodology? How would you define it?

Skill: Persuasive speaking

This question may seem slightly academic and pretentious. But a customer success specialist should be able to adapt to a variety of situations. If someone invites them to give a lecture on customer success at a reputable university, they should be able to handle it.

By asking this theoretical question, you’ll learn a lot about their communication skills. Being down-to-earth and pragmatic is much more useful on the customer service frontline. But a true professional should also know how to project authority. If it means using fancy words, so be it.

I’d lean towards philosophy. It’s not just about the things you do. It’s more about the way your whole company thinks about customers and their obligations to them. Obviously, these shape the attitudes of employees and approaches to the customer. In turn, it affects good practices and specific processes and procedures. But at the highest level, customer success is a state of mind.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Don’t try to memorize complex definitions. Nobody will expect you to recite them. And it’s way too easy to get stuck if you forget specific wording. You’ll get a better grasp of the terminology by reading articles about good customer service .

Extra follow-up question: What is the difference between customer success and customer service?

6. What would you do to increase our customers’ loyalty?

Skill: Problem-solving

The role of a CSM requires creativity and logical reasoning. Working with customers is not a type of job that’s based on following commands and not showing any initiative. Customer success experts must be resourceful and full of ideas. And customer churn is something that should always be at the back of their minds.

They need to improvise and solve difficult problems that require creative thinking. That’s why they should be able to convince you that they know what they are doing and it makes sense.

I don’t know your exact metrics but I’d try to identify the key moments when we are losing users. Do they abandon shopping carts? Cancel their orders or subscriptions? Leave because they don’t know how to use the tool? The simplest way to find out would be to add a very short pop-up or chatbot survey to collect feedback and ask them for the reasons. Then we can address specific pain points one at a time and see if there is any improvement.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Your familiarity with techniques for building customer loyalty reveals very much about you. Convince them that you know what you are talking about and that you understand how specific strategies work. Learn more about their advantages, disadvantages, and different ways of building customer relationships .

Extra follow-up question: How would you measure the effectiveness of your work?

7. What is the toughest customer problem you have ever handled?

Skill: Customer relationship management 

The answer to this question will show how your candidate handles difficult situations. Apart from understanding the needs of customers, customer success professionals must be problem-solvers.

Do they approach challenges heads on? Or do they seek help from others? How do they cope with stress? Are they able to remain calm in every situation? This question is a great opportunity to discover some insightful tidbits about them.

One of our customers had very limited technical knowledge. She drew a very complex workflow and described the whole process in detail. But she had problems with configuring everything on her own. At some point, I took over and set up the whole thing but she kept asking for additional things and updates over the following weeks. That’s when I realized that it’s not worth the effort and I had to give up. It was a tough choice. But I was forced to handle the problem by not handling it anymore. I knew I shouldn’t get involved in anything like that ever again. Instead, we prepared a selection of knowledge base materials and redesigned our support policy. We decided to encourage customers to do things on their own and instruct them. But never set up anything complex for them. They will never become fully activated if they don’t use the tool on their own.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Customer happiness writes white. But “bad” experiences give you an opportunity to finally say something really exciting. Try to recall several tough situations with some juicy details before your interview. But also remember that the story should demonstrate you can make good choices while working under pressure.

Extra follow-up question: Have you ever acted out of character to satisfy a customer? What were the results?

8. What skills do you hope to improve in this role?

Skill: Personal and professional development

Asking this question will help you learn about their aspiration and self-consciousness. In today’s workplaces, continuous development is essential. Improving skills and learning new things is a constant part of the job.

A good customer success specialist or manager should be aware of areas they need to work on. Are they good active listeners? Do they want to practice their communication skills? Maybe they want to learn some hard skills to get a better understanding of the product?

Since much of the interaction with customers happens in a written form, I’m trying to perfect my writing skills. I’m currently reading a book about technical copywriting. Explaining how a piece of software works via email or live chat can be difficult. But I believe I’m getting better at it. I was also hoping to discover how process management works in your company.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: You can try to mention some of the brands, tools, methodologies, or institutions that your recruiters could recognize. For example, if you are hoping to learn more about Scrum, don’t hesitate to mention it. Just don’t overdo it with the name-dropping.

Extra follow-up question: Have you ever invested time, effort, or your own money into learning something completely new?

9. If you had to handle multiple problems at the same time, what would you do?

Skill: Task prioritization and time management

Customer success jobs require good work organization and flexibility. Usually, teams are understaffed and this means that they need to juggle between many cases each day. Choosing which ones require their attention at any given time is a skill. And an important one too.

A good candidate should prove that they know how to prioritize tasks and align them with the business goals of your company.

I would go through them one by one and not try to do everything at once. The most natural thing to do would be to prioritize tasks by the amount of time they require, their urgency, and overall importance. However, evaluating them can also be time-consuming and ineffective. That’s why it is better to do it in real-time. In my previous job, we designed a system of tags and labels. It used to automatically organize task priority in our customer database software . And if someone was busy they could assign it to a different agent with one click.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Many employees take on too many tasks. Therefore, the ability to delegate tasks or schedule them over time is critical. Especially for managerial positions. You’ll be better off if you admit that sometimes it is impossible to handle everything all at once.

Extra follow-up question: Do you know or use any good time-management techniques?

10. What would you do if a customer misused our product to gain profits in an unethical way?

Skill: Emotional intelligence

This question is tricky and there is no right or wrong answer. But probably your candidates are not expecting it. Ask it to see what values they put first.

Working with customers involves helping them with things you don’t approve of personally. A real professional should be able to know when to hold their judgment and when to intervene and in what way.

Do you mean like an online casino? It depends. If something was illegal, I’d definitely inform the customer or consult our legal team. But as long as they are our customers and want to use our tool, I wouldn’t try to moralize. I’m there to serve our clients and help them achieve their goals. If they meet our terms and conditions, who am I to judge? On the other hand, it may also mean that maybe we should specify in what circumstances our products can be used or not. In some cases, it may harm our reputation and, in the long run, we should ban them from using our software.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: A professional employee of a customer success team knows that they should keep their personal opinions to themselves. Recruiters may be examining if you can take an adequate distance. Or intervene if the situation at hand calls for it.

Extra follow-up question: Have you ever had a customer try to trick you into giving them a discount?

11. What is your management style? (For customer success management roles)

Skill: Team management

There are many approaches to management and different companies need different leaders. However, there are still some types of management that could be considered good or bad.

A good manager should be able to organize, inspire, consult, and communicate. Clear vision and hands-on approach help. Conversely, bad managers don’t know their goals, can’t share their ideas with the team, and want too much control over their subordinates.

I think my approach to leadership evolved over time. Initially, I wanted to micromanage everything and sometimes I wanted to have too much authority. It doesn’t work in the long run. I’ve learned to trust my team and focus on the outcomes. Many times, it turned out that other members of my team are doing great without my input. Instead of hijacking every meeting, it is better to observe, suggest, and experiment. I don’t believe in bossing people around. It is better to become their partner and help them develop their natural skills.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Goal-driven managers who trust their team are better leaders than control freaks. However, you should also inform your recruiters that you know where to draw the line. Managers who expect great business results only because they keep their team happy usually end up disappointed.

Extra follow-up question: What would you do to keep your team’s morale high and motivate them to work?

12. What would you do if two of your teammates got into a conflict?

Skill: Team player

People are only people. Sometimes they get on each other’s nerves or try to assert their position too much. In the end, everyone wants to work in a friendly and peaceful environment.

Conflict management is a skill that is helpful both in dealing with customers and your coworkers. An answer describing a real situation would be great. But if your customer success candidate can’t think of a real-life incident, it doesn’t need to be a bad sign.

This is something that actually happened. Two of my teammates got into a fight over a neglected customer case which backfired. They tried to put blame on each other and it escalated. The only way was to intervene and I happened to be an accidental mediator. We had a meeting and talked the matter through. I listened to their positions and tried to focus on investigating what went wrong communication-wise. I tried to justify what happened and ultimately we decided to blame the tools that we use. We focused on improving the process and now we joke about the incident.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: Don’t make your ex-coworkers look bad. Describe the situation in a way that shows that you understand their motivation or feelings.

Extra follow-up question: Describe a good experience you had while working as a member of your team.

13. What tools would you use to monitor and improve customer success rates?

Skills: Technical know-how

This question will tell you a lot about the candidate’s hands-on experience. If you know the same tools and platforms, it will give you an instant common ground. You can discuss different features, compare their usefulness, talk about pros and cons.

If their answers make sense it is a quick test to check if they know their line of work. It is hard to make this sort of stuff up, so you will know that the candidate worked with the tools or not.

Sometimes developers invent different names of programming languages and ask if someone has used them. It is an instant lie detector. You can try something similar. Just invent a name of fictional CRM software or a customer success metric. But double-check if it really doesn’t exist!

In my previous company, we used HubSpot as our CRM and handled most of our customer interactions there. However, I think we should create a custom dashboard in Airtable. It gives more flexibility and is more appropriate for our volume of customers. And I would also use Tidio for automated FAQ, customer feedback, and live chat. We can integrate it with Airtable and sync our data across all teams. For example, a customer request can be instantly sent to Airtable.

What you should pay attention to as a candidate: It is OK to use different tools or not recognize some of them. You can try to turn this into a conversation and ask about solutions currently used by your interviewers. Show that you understand that each company develops its own workflow and you are not intimidated by learning how to use new CSM software .

Extra follow-up question: If the company were on a tight budget, how would you reduce the costs while keeping the same quality of customer experience?

CSM interview questions: key takeaway

Customer success roles are booming right now. There has been a 34% annual growth in job openings, according to LinkedIn. As SaaS companies put more and more focus on customer retention, customer success teams are becoming extremely important.

But a great customer success manager is a difficult catch. A thorough CSM interview process is critical. And the right questions will help you screen out those who aren’t cut out for the customer success manager’s job.

At the end of the day, you are looking for specific customer success skills.

You should come up with customer success manager interview questions that examine:

• Emotional intelligence and empathy
• Problem-solving skills and resourcefulness
• Familiarity with the SaaS industry work culture
• Expectation and relationship management
• Communication and persuasiveness
• Knowledge of upsell techniques
• Ability to cooperate with other team members

Similarly, if you are applying for a customer success job you must be prepared for an interview that tests these very qualities.

If you want to test some of those skills during the practical part of your interview, we recommend role-playing activities. You can use our free live chat tool to arrange a mock conversation and analyze conversation transcripts afterward.

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Kazimierz was one of the original authors of Tidio Blog. His primary objective was to deliver high-quality content that was actionable and fun to read. His interests revolved around AI technology and chatbot development.

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Never Leave Your Customer Without an Answer

• Find a Workshop
• Useful Tools
• Questions & Answers
• The 25 Most Important Customer Experience Questions Answered

This is a great customer experience summary from Christopher Koch at SAP.

Yes, we’ve done the work so you don’t have to. Our eyes still glowing red from the pain of poring over the arcane verbosity of dozens of academic research papers (though a few interesting books helped ease the inflammation; some are noted below), we’ve compiled a list of what we think are the most important questions to ask about the customer experience and, based on our research, come up with the clearest, simplest, and most complete answers to those questions. Please let us know if you agree.

Q. What is customer experience and why does it matter?

Many experts like to say that customer experience is any interaction that customers have with a company. But some interactions matter more than others. The ones that matter the most have a measurable impact on the answers to these two questions: What do your customers think about you? What do your customers do based on their perception of you?

Q. Why these two questions?

Because customer loyalty is the closest thing to a holy grail in customer experience and these two questions represent the two components of customer loyalty: “attitudinal loyalty,” which means having a favourable mental impression of a company, and “behavioural loyalty,” which means that they don’t just like you, they buy from you – and keep buying from you. Research shows that attitudinal loyalty plays the biggest role in customer loyalty. If customers have a positive emotional outlook towards the customer experience, especially when measured against a competitor, they are more likely to buy from you and become loyal (repeat purchases). Research shows that customers’ evaluations of their experiences mirror the emotions they display during the interactions they have with companies as well as the feelings they experience after the encounter. If those emotions are negative, you can kiss sales and loyalty goodbye.

Q. Isn’t customer experience just another name for customer service?

No. Customer service is just one slice of the customer experience. Customers only contact customer service when they have a problem. As authors Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine put it in their excellent book Outside In, “Equating customer service with customer experience is like saying that a safety net is a trapeze act … If the performer has to use the net then something is wrong with the show.”

Q. So what should be my goals for improving customer experience?

You want them to like you, really like you. A positive attitude toward your company and its products or services has direct ties to customer loyalty and satisfaction. So any efforts that you make to improve customer experience should be considered in terms of how they make customers more satisfied and more loyal. If they are more satisfied with the experience you offer leading up to the sale than competitors, they are more likely to buy from you. If they feel more loyal, they are more likely to buy from you repeatedly.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that satisfaction does not necessarily lead to loyalty. For example, a customer could be satisfied with her experience with you but if a competitor offers something comparable or better she may buy from them next time. Customer experience efforts should drive towards making you customers’ preferred choice. (This distinction between satisfaction and preference is what has helped Frederick Reichheld make millions with his Net Promoter Score methodology.)

Q. But what if my company only sells to a customer once or infrequently? Why should I care about experience and loyalty?

Because even a single positive experience can be expressed in other ways besides repeat purchases. For example, happy customers can give you positive recommendations on websites or in social media or by recommending you to others via word of mouth.

Q. How do I know whether my customer experience needs improvement?

You can’t necessarily trust your customers to tell you. Few will take the time to complain or fill out a survey (especially online); they’ll simply go to a competitor, or worse, social media to complain. Better to ask these questions:

• Is our market share slipping?
• Is it costing more to acquire new customers?
• Are we losing existing customers more rapidly (churn)?
• Are we getting fewer recommendations and favourable reviews online and in social media?
• How much pain would our customers have to go through to switch to a competitor (switching costs)

Getting the answers to these questions will not only help determine the current quality of the customer experience but will also form the basis of a business case to do something about it.

Q. How much do my actual products and services factor into customer experience?

Less and less, unfortunately. You know the drill: product cycles are getting shorter and automation and globalisation have made it much easier for competitors to crank out “good enough” substitutes.

But even for highly complex products and for services, the quality of the customer experience often matters more. Research has found that in some cases, customers would rather buy an inferior (though good enough) product that comes with a superior relationship than a better product that does not.

Q. What are the most important components of the customer experience?

It’s not so much the individual components themselves, such as a Web site or a call centre (though those are certainly important); it’s more about whether the individual touch points contribute to creating a positive impression in customers’ minds. Here are the building blocks for creating that impression:

Trust. This is the foundation of a positive customer experience. If customers don’t feel that they can trust the interaction points (say a Web site) or the company behind them, they will be less likely to purchase.

Research says that trust consists of two main components:

• Confidence. Customers must believe that the company has the ability to provide a quality product or service
• Benevolence. Customers must believe that the company is willing to consider customers’ self-interest above their own
• Low effort and sacrifice. Customers want their interactions with companies to be free from delays and extra effort

Another issue is the tradeoff between what customers want and what companies are actually capable of providing. In their book The Experience Economy, authors B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore call this “customer sacrifice.” If the gap between what the customer wants and what the company offers is too great – for example, a cable TV customer has to subscribe to 10 extra channels she doesn’t want to get the one she does want – the experience generates negative emotions.

Positive emotion. Emotion shows up again and again in the research as being the most important factor in the customer relationship. Positive emotions are necessary to build satisfaction and long-term loyalty while negative emotions can destroy in a few moments relationships that companies have invested years in building.

Personalisation. Though this is a relatively new and controversial area, research shows that personalising the customer experience in the right ways creates positive emotion and leads to more satisfaction and loyalty.

Q. How good does my customer experience need to be?

In any relationship with a company, customers expect – or at least hope – that their interactions will require as little effort as possible to get what they want. This means that companies have to make the experience smooth, reliable, and efficient. If, for example, customers are shuttled among three different departments (all asking for their customer numbers) before they can accomplish a typical transaction, then the experience generates a negative emotion (frustration is the one that researchers agree is most common) and leads to reduced sales and loyalty.

However, some researchers believe that customers’ perceived effort isn’t just about what they have to do, it’s also tied into how they feel. In their book The Effortless Experience, authors Mathew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick Delisi found that only 35% of customers’ perceived effort had to do with exertion; 65% had to do with their emotional reactions during and after the encounter. So easy must go hand in hand with enjoyable.

Q. How do I determine how much I can or should spend to improve customer experience?

If, through competitive analysis and surveys of customers, it’s clear that your customer experience lags behind your competitors then improving customer experience should be considered part of the cost of doing business. Customers can research you and your competitors much more easily now through the web and social media. The holes in your experience will be revealed, causing negative emotion and an exodus to competitors.

Of course, a grocery chain doesn’t have the same profit margins as a luxury hotel chain. However, even companies with limited budgets can try experimenting with small pilots to see how changes in the customer experience impact sales, satisfaction, and loyalty. The percentages of extra revenue, improved loyalty, and increased profits gained from the pilots can help determine the budget for customer experience improvements.

Q. Where should I begin to improve the customer experience?

Removing the bumps in the road that cause customers to expend extra effort is the best place to start. Research by the Corporate Executive Board outlined in the book The Effortless Experience found that moving customers from rating the experience “below expectations” to “meets expectations” gave companies as much economic value as customers who said their expectations were exceeded. So just fixing the existing potholes in the experience will go a long way.

To do this, companies need to look outside by surveying customers about their experiences. Companies also need to look inside by surveying employees (and partners and external providers), about the frustrations they encounter in trying to accomplish their roles in the customer experience.

Q. What role should employees play?

Employee emotions are as important as customer emotions in the customer experience. Employees and managers who feel unable to do their jobs as they perceive they should be done – and feel powerless to change the situation – become unhappy and less able and willing to put out the effort it takes to keep customers happy. Rather than speak up about problems, they simply focus on doing what they are told, what research company Forrester calls a “culture of compliance.”

Yet let’s not be too hard on employees and managers here. An individual employee or manager may not be able to tell where the bumps in the road are. Employees may be happy and feeling confident about their contributions while being completely unaware that they are in fact causing problems further down the line because they are isolated from the rest of the experience process and can’t see the negative impacts.

Q. So how do I identify where the problems are in the customer experience?

Most companies begin by mapping out the customer experience both in terms of how customers interact with the company and the internal processes designed to make the experience flow smoothly. You also have to capture all the processes that happen outside your company, with partners and outsourcers. Having a holistic view can reveal where failures are occurring and form the basis of the case for change.

To create the map, you need your most knowledgeable process participants; ideally, those who have unbroken visibility out to what customers experience, as well as to the internal processes and experiences of employees and managers. Where the line of sight is broken, bring in people who can fill in the gaps. This is best done as a group exercise using the proverbial whiteboard and sticky notes, so that everyone has the opportunity to comment and contribute to determining where the problems are and debunking myths about where people might have thought the problems were, but weren’t.

Of course, this all presumes that the different areas involved in the customer experience in your company are even speaking to one another, much less willing to collaborate on fixing problems. Old habits, old grudges – and old silos – die hard. There should be a high-level executive leading the customer experience change effort, one who is a charismatic convincer (and decider), and who has a direct mandate from the CEO to get everyone to play nice with each other.

Q. What is the role of digital in improving the customer experience?

Digital channels and processes play the most important roles in pursuing the goals of speed and convenience and reducing customer effort. Of course, fixing existing problems with the digital experience (not just for customers but also for employees) is easier said than done because it is expensive and time-consuming. Many of the systems that customer service representatives use in call centres, for example, are as old as a greying dad – even a few grandfathers.

Why we are still on hold

And this is the rub. It’s one thing to identify potholes in the customer experience, it’s quite another to fix them. The reason that customers must be put on hold and transferred to different departments and asked for their identification information again and again is usually that the systems that serve these departments were developed in the mainframe era when the concept of integration – and more importantly, the technology to accomplish it – simply did not exist.

Customisation has created a nightmare

To make matters worse, companies have layered customisation on top of customisation over the years to make these systems more able to talk to one another and to company networks, databases, and the internet. They’ve made huge investments just to attain the level of mediocrity we all endure today.

New technologies will help – eventually

The good news is that technology has finally caught up with the customer experience problem. Cloud technologies make application integration easier and in-memory databases have the power to hold massive amounts of information from multiple systems together in real time; that would have seemed like science fiction to mainframe developers of the sixties and seventies.

However, we are still in the early wave of the transformation. Companies remain cautious about discarding old systems that work well in favour of new technologies that are less proven. And though companies have a lot of freedom to make changes in their website experiences, the best Web site is only as good as the data behind it. Customer experience executives would do well to make the CIO their best friend right now.

In the meantime, companies do what they have always done. They pave the potholes in the customer experience with people. People fill the experience potholes – and pay the price.

Companies use people to try to ameliorate the long hold times and the call transfers that stem from having to navigate among different archaic systems and process workarounds. It’s an extremely difficult job and it’s why call centre turnover rates are so high.

Q. What is “emotional labour?”

Most people who work directly with customers these days have been trained to suffer. Researchers have even developed a term for it: “emotional labour.” Studies have shown that employees expend a lot of mental energy in the customer experience, such as having to express happiness when they don’t feel it and having to suppress anger and other inappropriate behaviours when customers treat them abusively.

The toll of this emotional labor can become so high that employees can suffer from researchers call “emotional exhaustion,” which expresses itself in burnout, feelings of low accomplishment, and a kind of emotional numbness in which employees are no longer able to summon the positive attitude and empathy that are so necessary to a successful customer experience.

Q. So does that mean I should be looking for a certain type of person to fill roles in the customer experience?

For those who interact directly with customers, yes. Research says that extroverts do better in customer experience roles because they are more naturally inclined to want to interact with others. But these extroverts should also have the ability to do three things: Regulate inner emotions Tolerate ambiguity Enjoy helping others In combination, these factors give employees extra endurance when it comes to dealing with people and more ability to suppress inappropriate behaviour (even when customers deserve it).

Q. How should I train employees to act during the customer experience?

Even the best employees can burn out if they are forced to adopt what researchers call “surface acting,” in which employees have to put on the proverbial smile and feign emotions that they aren’t feeling during an encounter with customers. Part of the stress is that customers can sometimes detect the falseness of employees’ emotions, which research says causes customers to react negatively.

Instead, companies should focus on training employees to offer two things:

1. Treat customers with empathy. This means hearing customers out and treating them with dignity and respect at every point in the interaction and acting to defuse emotional tension – without having to put on false emotions such as a painted on smile.

2. Offer customers justice. Employees need to get on the same wavelength as the customer to determine what would constitute a just outcome for the experience in the customer’s mind and then weigh that against the limits the company has set on the experience and come to a mutually agreed upon resolution.

In part, this depends on the degree to which employees are allowed to exercise their own independence and judgment. But it also depends on the preset outcomes that the company builds around the experience. For example, are customer service representatives given the freedom to send a replacement product for one that is one month – or one year – past warranty? Companies need to constantly revisit these outcomes to maintain a good balance between giving employees the power to give customers experiences that lead to positive emotions while not breaking the bank.

Q. To what extent should I try to replace the human customer experience with a digital one?

There’s clear evidence that digital contributes a lot to make the experience easy and fast, especially in transactional types of relationships such as buying a book on Amazon, which customers like. Digital is also great for information-intensive experiences, such as complex products and services that require customers to do a lot of research before buying. And of course, digital experiences are much cheaper for companies, though most surveys show that companies do a poor job of managing them — especially when it comes to coordinating across digital and human channels.  Indeed, a good customer experience can rarely be completely online or offline. Increasingly, it’s the coordination of the two that matters most.

Digital may be great for easy, but we still need humans for when things become hard – such as when that product that was so easy to order online breaks offline. Research shows that customers place a high value on the quality of the relationship they have with companies. In that regard, there is no replacement for human-to-human interaction – at least not until virtual reality hits the mainstream (which could be sooner than you think). Until then, careful placement of a pleasurable human interaction into the customer experience when competitors are trying to pave everything over with digital can have a major impact.

An example is ING, the Dutch bank that entered the U.S. market in the nineties with an online experience only – no branches. But in 2001, the company decided to create a human experience, not with a traditional bank branch but with a café in New York City. Instead of serving up deposit slips, employees serve coffee, treats (sales of which help defray the costs of running the offices), and financial planning advice. The original café was a big hit and ING (whose U.S. online business was purchased by Capital One for $9 billion in 2012) began building cafes in major metro areas around the country. Capital One has continued the expansion plan while other banks have been shutting down branches or imitating the approach.

Q. What if I don’t have the resources for a “delight-the-customer” approach to customer experience?

Companies that invest in delighting the customer without first making sure they are at least meeting the expectations of the vast majority of customers are probably wasting their money. Getting a free gift card for a restaurant is meaningless if the food and service aren’t so hot to begin with.  Plus, giving stuff away or sending your employees out on time-consuming missions to bring smiles to customers’ faces is expensive – 10-20% more, according to executives surveyed by authors Mathew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick Delisi in The Effortless Experience.

The first priorities should be to drive down customer effort and sacrifice.

However, delighting the customer does not necessarily need to be focused on going above and beyond the call of duty. There are less expensive ways to do it (see the “customer experience as theatre” examples below).

Q. Okay, let’s say customers say the experience is easy and fast. Is that really enough to build loyalty over the long term?

Given the current sorry state of the customer experience in most industries, yes. But let’s assume for a moment that you are the world’s master of easy, fast, reliable, and convenient. What happens when a competitor catches up? What’s next?

Some researchers argue that there are two other ways to differentiate your customer experience that are harder for competitors to match:

Customer experience as theatre Personalisation

Q. What is customer experience as theatre?

Author B. Joseph Pine II says that Best Buy’s Geek Squad has taken the classic military motif of the uniform a step farther by adding a dose of humour and humility. The Geek Squad purposely dresses its employees in an outfit that still gets nerds hung from their underwear in gym lockers around the world: white button-down shirts, thin, clip-on black ties, black pants, and white socks.

Each employee also gets a titanium badge designed to look just like a policeman’s badge. The geek squad drives Volkswagen Beetles painted black and white to look like extremely awkward and ineffective police cars. It is the nerd as the anti-hero hero, here to save the day for you and your computer.

Theatre need not cost much.

Through this minimalist and, Pine is careful to point out, inexpensive, bit of theatre, the Geek Squad, which Best Buy bought when it was a tiny startup, has grown exponentially and become a household brand name. Is it because of the name and the uniforms, or is it simply because the Squad offers better service and is tied to Best Buy, which has long been a household brand? Impossible to tell, but once again, the clip-ons haven’t hurt.

Pine, who is the co-author, with James H. Gilmore, of The Experience Economy, believes that any company, with enough creativity and a good employee screening and training program, can create the same kind of differentiated experience. “Whenever employees are in front of your customers, those employees are acting,” says Pine. “They need to act in a way that engages the audience. And it does not require any expenditure. It requires that you direct your workers to act, that you give them roles to play and you help them characterise those goals on the business stage.”

Though he acknowledges that he has nothing beyond anecdotal evidence to back up his theory, Pine argues that performance is a way to stand apart in a crowded field and create customer preference rather than mere satisfaction.

Q. What about personalisation? Can that create a differentiated customer experience?

Personalisation is controversial but holds promise because it can be another form of easy. Though we usually think of customisation as adding more, it can also mean simplifying the experience by removing everything except what the customer truly wants. This is particularly true on the web, where websites and e-commerce portals overstuffed with offers and information can trip that magic switch of frustration that kills sales and loyalty.

Sweeping away the noise and personalising a Web site to a customer’s tastes – we will look back on Amazon’s recommendation engine as the stone-age prototype for this sort of thing – can reduce customer effort and sacrifice. Research has shown that offering relevant information and simplifying the experience results in more customer trust and satisfaction and more sales.

More importantly, as databases become ever-more fast and powerful, we can add a powerful new aspect to the digital customer experience: learning. At the core of recommendation engines like Amazon’s and Netflix is machine learning – the ability to memorise your actions and preferences and use algorithms to serve up personalised offers.

However, personalisation treads on the same dangerous turf as efforts to “delight” the customer. It can be complex and expensive. And if it only leads to satisfaction rather than a positive preference for the brand, that money may be wasted. Indeed, one research study found that for customers that were already satisfied with their experience, personalisation had limited benefits. Only in instances where the customer had a high degree of trust in the company but low levels of satisfaction did personalisation make a significant difference. Therefore, it’s best to start with a pilot project to see if personalisation will make a difference before investing too much.

Q. Personalisation also raises issues of privacy, right?

In order to make recommendations and personalise web pages, companies need to gather information. And as we’ve all learned, various companies and governments have stepped all over people’s privacy in order to gather data about them.

Businesses need to build a customer experience model that helps individuals understand the data that companies want to collect about them, the methods the companies will use to make behavioural predictions, and the trustworthiness they can expect from those predictions.

Here are five ways to use Big Data to be cool, not creepy.

Articulate “What’s in it for me?” Research has found that the majority of consumers in the United States and the United Kingdom are willing to have trusted retailers use some of their personal data in order to present personalised and targeted products, services, recommendations, and offers. But the value has to be crystal clear, no matter who’s tracking the data. For example, insurance provider Progressive and Tesla Motors have convinced car owners to have devices installed in their vehicles that track where and how they drive. In exchange, customers potentially get lower car insurance rates (an average 10% to 15% reduction on premiums) or improved service, such as supercharger stations near their most frequent routes.

Be transparent about the data relationship. Slapping a dense data use policy written in legalese on the corporate Web site does little to enlighten customers. Instead, companies should think about the customer data transaction – what information the customer is giving them, how they’re using it, and what the result will be – and try to describe it as simply as possible.

Let customers learn about each other. In 2011, Procter & Gamble created a “Mean Stinks” campaign for Secret deodorant that encouraged girl-to-girl anti-bullying posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The pages let participants send apologies to those they had bullied; view videos; and share tips, tools, and challenges with their peers. Besides helping girls, it drove a 16% market share increase in the Secret deodorant line.

Experiment and build trust. Building a Big Data strategy that improves customer experience takes time and continual tweaking. Google’s Autocomplete isn’t always on point. Amazon’s suggestions sometimes go astray. But as customers build up a history of experience with a brand, they see that data is used for their benefit more often than not. They develop a trust in the exchange of data for value. They see where it came from. And they forgive the missteps.

Make the distinction between little data and Big Data. “I steer companies to really focus on leveraging the data that customers give them in the normal process of doing business first and think about the third-party stuff later,” says Elea McDonnell Feit, assistant professor of Marketing at Drexel University. “At least 80% of the value you can generate from customer data comes from using the information customers reveal about themselves directly to you.”

Q. Do some customers deserve more personalisation than others?

Given that personalisation can be complex and expensive, it could pay to segment customers into those most likely to respond to personalisation.  Some companies have created composite personas of customers to do more broad-brush personalisation that doesn’t cost as much as one-to-one efforts. For example, you could create a set of categories across the customer base based on past purchase history and other data and create separate customer experiences for each category.

Q. How do I determine the ROI of customer experience improvements?

Unfortunately for customers (and in the long run, companies, too), there’s really only one measure that matters: switching costs. If there are no viable alternatives in the market, or if switching to a competitor would cost more than the product or service itself or involve so much customer effort that it doesn’t seem worth it, customer experience becomes less important to revenues. Research shows that customers who perceive high switching costs are more likely to stick with a company that provides a less-than-stellar (but acceptable – again anger and conflict trump all other factors) experience, thereby reducing the potential returns from investing in improving that experience.

But even companies with high switching costs or lack of competition neglect customer experience at their peril. Cable companies, for example, are feeling the pain today as disruptive pay-per-view entertainment options such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime lure away cable customers who have long wished for an alternative but have had no other choices – until now.

Loyalty over time matters.

But let’s assume that you are in a competitive industry. The most important impact that a good customer experience has is in customer loyalty. Because it costs more to acquire new customers than to maintain relationships with existing customers, most experts point to loyalty as the decisive metric. More specifically, they cite lifetime customer value – usually computed as the revenue from each customer over the length of the relationship.

Author Frederick F. Reichheld puts a finer point on the metric in his book The Loyalty Effect, saying that companies should measure the lifetime profit per customer minus the cost of acquiring them in the first place. The problem here is that few companies even measure revenue per customer over time, much less take it to Reichheld’s ideal level. And not all researchers agree with Reichheld that profits matter more than revenues.

Three other metrics to consider

In their book Outside In, authors Manning and Bodine modelled three areas where companies can benefit from improved customer experience that is slightly easier to measure: 1. More incremental purchases from existing customers 2. Higher retained revenue as a result of reduced churn 3. New sales driven by word of mouth They found that in the hotel and wireless industries, small improvements in customer loyalty led to major gains – in the billions – in revenue because competition in those industries is so intense and switching costs are so low. However, even in less volatile industries where switching costs are higher, such as health insurance, Manning and Bodine saw opportunities to gain revenue in the tens of millions by improving the customer experience.

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Neil ran his first SAP transformation programme in his early twenties. He spent the next 21 years working both client side and for various consultancies running numerous SAP programmes. After successfully completing over 15 full lifecycles he took a senior leadership/board position and his work moved onto creating the same success for others.

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• Case Interview: A comprehensive guide
• Pyramid Principle
• Hypothesis driven structure
• Fit Interview
• Consulting math
• The key to landing your consulting job
• What is a case interview?
• Types of case interview
• How to solve cases with the Problem-Driven Structure?
• What to remember in case interviews
• Case examples or building blocks?
• How do I prepare for case interviews
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• How we can help

1. The key to landing your consulting job.

Case interviews - where you are asked to solve a business case study under scrutiny - are the core of the selection process right across McKinsey, Bain and BCG (the “MBB” firms). This interview format is also used pretty much universally across other high-end consultancies; including LEK, Kearney, Oliver Wyman and the consulting wings of the “Big Four”.

If you want to land a job at any of these firms, you will have to ace multiple case interviews.

It is increasingly likely that you will also have to solve online cases given by chatbots. You might need to pass these either before making it to interview or be asked to sit them alongside first round interviews.

Importantly, case studies aren’t something you can just wing . Firms explicitly expect you to have thoroughly prepared and many of your competitors on interview day will have been prepping for months.

Don’t worry though - MCC is here to help!

This article will take you through a full overview of everything you’ll need to know to do well, linking to more detailed articles and resources at each stage to let you really drill down into the details.

As well as traditional case interviews, we’ll also attend to the new formats in which cases are being delivered and otherwise make sure you’re up to speed with recent trends in this overall part of consulting recruitment.

Before we can figure out how to prepare for a case interview, though, we will first have to properly understand in detail what exactly you are up against. What format does a standard consulting case interview take? What is expected of you? How will you be assessed?

Let's dive right in and find out!

Professional help

Before going further, if this sounds like a lot to get your head around on your own, don't worry - help is available!

Our Case Academy course gives you everything you need to know to crack cases like a pro:

Case Academy Course

To put what you learn into practice (and secure some savings in the process) you can add mock interview coaching sessions with expereinced MBB consultants:

Coaching options

And, if you just want an experienced consultant to take charge of the whole selection process for you, you can check out our comprehensive mentoring programmes:

Explore mentoring

Now, back to the article!

2. What is a case interview?

Before we can hope to tackle a case interview, we have to understand what one is.

In short, a case interview simulates real consulting work by having you solve a business case study in conversation with your interviewer.

This case study will be a business problem where you have to advise a client - that is, an imaginary business or similar organisation in need of guidance.

You must help this client solve a problem and/or make a decision. This requires you to analyse the information you are given about that client organisation and figure out a final recommendation for what they should do next.

Business problems in general obviously vary in difficulty. Some are quite straightforward and can be addressed with fairly standard solutions. However, consulting firms exist precisely to solve the tough issues that businesses have failed to deal with internally - and so consultants will typically work on complex, idiosyncratic problems requiring novel solutions.

Some examples of case study questions might be:

• How much would you pay for a banking licence in Ghana?
• Estimate the potential value of the electric vehicle market in Germany
• How much gas storage capacity should a UK domestic energy supplier build?

Consulting firms need the brightest minds they can find to put to work on these important, difficult projects. You can expect the case studies you have to solve in interview, then, to echo the unique, complicated problems consultancies deal with every day. As we’ll explain here, this means that you need to be ready to think outside the box to figure out genuinely novel solutions.

2.1. Where are case interviews in the consulting selection process?

Not everyone who applies to a consulting firm will have a case interview - far from it!

In fact, case interviews are pretty expensive and inconvenient for firms to host, requiring them to take consultants off active projects and even fly them back to the office from location for in-person interviews (although this happens less frequently now). Ideally, firms want to cut costs and save time by narrowing down the candidate pool as much as possible before any live interviews.

As such, there are some hoops to jump through before you make it to interview rounds.

Firms will typically eliminate as much as 80% of the applicant pool before interviews start . For most firms, 50%+ of applicants might be cut based on resumes, before a similar cut is made on those remaining based on aptitude tests. McKinsey currently gives their Solve assessment to most applicants, but will use their resulting test scores alongside resumes to cut 70%+ of the candidate pool before interviews.

You'll need to be on top of your game to get as far as a case interview with a top firm. Getting through the resume screen and any aptitude tests is an achievement in itself! Also we need to note that the general timeline of an application can differ depending on a series of factors, including which position you apply, your background, and the office you are applying to. For example, an undergraduate applying for a Business Analyst position (the entry level job at McKinsey) will most likely be part of a recruitment cycle and as such have pretty fixed dates when they need to sit the pre-screening test, and have the first and second round interviews (see more on those below). Conversely, an experienced hire will most likely have a much greater choice of test and interview dates as well as more time at their disposal to prepare.

For readers not yet embroiled in the selection process themselves, let’s put case interviews in context and take a quick look at each stage in turn. Importantly, note that you might also be asked to solve case studies outside interviews as well…

2.1.1. Application screen

It’s sometimes easy to forget that such a large cut is made at the application stage. At larger firms, this will mean your resume and cover letter is looked at by some combination of AI tools, recruitment staff and junior consulting staff (often someone from your own university).

Only the best applications will be passed to later stages, so make sure to check out our free resume and cover letter guides, and potentially get help with editing , to give yourself the best chance possible.

2.1.2. Aptitude tests and online cases

This part of the selection process has been changing quickly in recent years and is increasingly beginning to blur into the traditionally separate case interview rounds.

In the past, GMAT or PST style tests were the norm. Firms then used increasingly sophisticated and often gamified aptitude tests, like the Pymetrics test currently used by several firms, including BCG and Bain, and the original version of McKinsey’s Solve assessment (then branded as the Problem Solving Game).

Now, though, there is a move towards delivering relatively sophisticated case studies online. For example, McKinsey has replaced half the old Solve assessment with an online case. BCG’s Casey chatbot case now directly replaces a live first round case interview, and in the new era of AI chatbots, we expect these online cases to quickly become more realistic and increasingly start to relieve firms of some of the costs of live case interviews.

Our consultants collectively reckon that, over time, 50% of case interviews are likely to be replaced with these kinds of cases . We give some specific advice for online cases in section six. However, the important thing to note is that these are still just simulations of traditional case interviews - you still need to learn how to solve cases in precisely the same way, and your prep will largely remain the same.

2.1.3. Rounds of Interviews

Now, let’s not go overboard with talk of AI. Even in the long term, the client facing nature of consulting means that firms will have live case interviews for as long as they are hiring anyone. And in the immediate term, case interviews are still absolutely the core of consulting selection.

Before landing an offer at McKinsey, Bain, BCG or any similar firm, you won’t just have one case interview, but will have to complete four to six case interviews, usually divided into two rounds, with each interview lasting approximately 50-60 minutes .

Being invited to first round usually means two or three case interviews. As noted above, you might also be asked to complete an online case or similar alongside your first round interviews.

If you ace first round, you will be invited to second round to face the same again, but more gruelling. Only then - after up to six case interviews in total, can you hope to receive an offer.

2.2. Differences between first and second round interviews

Despite case interviews in the first and second round following the same format, second/final round interviews will be significantly more intense . The seniority of the interviewer, time pressure (with up to three interviews back-to-back), and the sheer value of the job at stake will likely make a second round consulting case interview one of the most challenging moments of your professional life.

There are three key differences between the two rounds:

• Time Pressure : Final round case interviews test your ability to perform under pressure, with as many as three interviews in a row and often only very small breaks between them.
• Focus : Since second round interviewers tend to be more senior (usually partners with 12+ years experience) and will be more interested in your personality and ability to handle challenges independently. Some partners will drill down into your experiences and achievements to the extreme. They want to understand how you react to challenges and your ability to identify and learn from past mistakes.
• Psychological Pressure: While case interviews in the first round are usually more focused on you simply cracking the case, second round interviewers often employ a "bad cop" strategy to test the way you react to challenges and uncertainty.

2.3. What skills do case interviews assess?

Reliably impressing your interviewers means knowing what they are looking for. This means understanding the skills you are being assessed against in some detail.

Overall, it’s important always to remember that, with case studies, there are no strict right or wrong answers. What really matters is how you think problems through, how confident you are with your conclusions and how quick you are with the back of the envelope arithmetic.

The objective of this kind of interview isn’t to get to one particular solution, but to assess your skillset. This is even true of modern online cases, where sophisticated AI algorithms score how you work as well as the solutions you generate.

If you visit McKinsey , Bain and BCG web pages on case interviews, you will find that the three firms look for very similar traits, and the same will be true of other top consultancies.

Broadly speaking, your interviewer will be evaluating you across five key areas:

2.1.1.One: Probing mind

Showing intellectual curiosity by asking relevant and insightful questions that demonstrate critical thinking and a proactive nature. For instance, if we are told that revenues for a leading supermarket chain have been declining over the last ten years, a successful candidate would ask:

“ We know revenues have declined. This could be due to price or volume. Do we know how they changed over the same period? ”

This is as opposed to a laundry list of questions like:

• Did customers change their preferences?
• Which segment has shown the decline in volume?
• Is there a price war in the industry?

2.1.2. Structure

Structure in this context means structuring a problem. This, in turn, means creating a framework - that is, a series of clear, sequential steps in order to get to a solution.

As with the case interview in general, the focus with case study structures isn’t on reaching a solution, but on how you get there.

This is the trickiest part of the case interview and the single most common reason candidates fail.

We discuss how to properly structure a case in more detail in section three. In terms of what your interviewer is looking for at high level, though, key pieces of your structure should be:

• Proper understanding of the objective of the case - Ask yourself: "What is the single crucial piece of advice that the client absolutely needs?"
• Identification of the drivers - Ask yourself: "What are the key forces that play a role in defining the outcome?"

Our Problem Driven Structure method, discussed in section three, bakes this approach in at a fundamental level. This is as opposed to the framework-based approach you will find in older case-solving

Focus on going through memorised sequences of steps too-often means failing to develop a full understanding of the case and the real key drivers.

At this link, we run through a case to illustrate the difference between a standard framework-based approach and our Problem Driven Structure method.

2.1.3. Problem Solving

You’ll be tested on your ability to identify problems and drivers, isolate causes and effects, demonstrate creativity and prioritise issues. In particular, the interviewer will look for the following skills:

• Prioritisation - Can you distinguish relevant and irrelevant facts?
• Connecting the dots - Can you connect new facts and evidence to the big picture?
• Establishing conclusions - Can you establish correct conclusions without rushing to inferences not supported by evidence?

2.1.4. Numerical Agility

In case interviews, you are expected to be quick and confident with both precise and approximated numbers. This translates to:

• Performing simple calculations quickly - Essential to solve cases quickly and impress clients with quick estimates and preliminary conclusions.
• Analysing data - Extract data from graphs and charts, elaborate and draw insightful conclusions.
• Solving business problems - Translate a real world case to a mathematical problem and solve it.

Our article on consulting math is a great resource here, though the extensive math content in our MCC Academy is the best and most comprehensive material available.

2.1.5. Communication

Real consulting work isn’t just about the raw analysis to come up with a recommendation - this then needs to be sold to the client as the right course of action.

Similarly, in a case interview, you must be able to turn your answer into a compelling recommendation. This is just as essential to impressing your interviewer as your structure and analysis.

Consultants already comment on how difficult it is to find candidates with the right communication skills. Add to this the current direction of travel, where AI will be able to automate more and more of the routine analytic side of consulting, and communication becomes a bigger and bigger part of what consultants are being paid for.

So, how do you make sure that your recommendations are relevant, smart, and engaging? The answer is to master what is known as CEO-level communication .

This art of speaking like a CEO can be quite challenging, as it often involves presenting information in effectively the opposite way to how you might normally.

To get it right, there are three key areas to focus on in your communications:

• Top down : A CEO wants to hear the key message first. They will only ask for more details if they think that will actually be useful. Always consider what is absolutely critical for the CEO to know, and start with that. You can read more in our article on the Pyramid Principle .
• Concise : This is not the time for "boiling the ocean" or listing an endless number possible solutions. CEOs, and thus consultants, want a structured, quick and concise recommendation for their business problem, that they can implement immediately.
• Fact-based : Consultants share CEOs' hatred of opinions based on gut feel rather than facts. They want recommendations based on facts to make sure they are actually in control. Always go on to back up your conclusions with the relevant facts.

Being concise and to the point is key in many areas, networking being one for them. For more detail on all this, check out our full article on delivering recommendations .

Prep the right way

3. types of case interview.

While most case interviews share a similar structure, firms will have some differences in the particular ways they like to do things in terms of both the case study and the fit component.

As we’ll see, these differences aren’t hugely impactful in terms of how you prepare. That said, it's always good to know as much as possible about what you will be going up against.

3.1. Different case objectives

A guiding thread throughout this article and our approach in general will be to treat each case as a self-contained problem and not try to pigeonhole it into a certain category. Having said that, there are of course similarities between cases and we can identify certain parameters and objectives.

Broadly speaking, cases can be divided into issue-based cases and strategic decision cases. In the former you will be asked to solve a certain issue, such as declining profits, or low productivity whereas in the latter you will be ask whether your client should or should not do something, such as enter a specific market or acquire another company. The chart below is a good breakdown of these different objectives:

3.2. How do interviewers craft cases

While interviewers will very likely be given a case bank to choose from by their company, a good number of them will also choose to adapt the cases they would currently be working on to a case interview setting. The difference is that the latter cases will be harder to pigeonhole and apply standard frameworks to, so a tailored approach will be paramount.

If you’ve applied for a specific practice or type of consulting - such as operational consulting, for example - it’s very likely that you will receive a case geared towards that particular area alongside a ‘generalist’ consulting case (however, if that’s the case, you will generally be notified). The other main distinction when it comes to case interviews is between interviewer-led and candidate-led.

3.3. Candidate-led cases

Most consulting case interview questions test your ability to crack a broad problem, with a case prompt often going something like:

" How much would you pay to secure the rights to run a restaurant in the British Museum? "

You, as a candidate, are then expected to identify your path to solve the case (that is, provide a structure), leveraging your interviewer to collect the data and test your assumptions.

This is known as a “candidate-led” case interview and is used by Bain, BCG and other firms. From a structuring perspective, it’s easier to lose direction in a candidate-led case as there are no sign-posts along the way. As such, you need to come up with an approach that is both broad enough to cover all of the potential drivers in a case but also tailored enough to the problem you are asked to solve. It’s also up to you to figure out when you need to delve deeper into a certain branch of the case, brainstorm or ask for data. The following case from Bain is an excellent example on how to navigate a candidate-led case.

3.4. Interviewer-led cases

This type of case - employed most famously by McKinsey - is slightly different, with the interviewer controlling the pace and direction of the conversation much more than with other case interviews.

At McKinsey, your interviewer will ask you a set of pre-determined questions, regardless of your initial structure. For each question, you will have to understand the problem, come up with a mini structure, ask for additional data (if necessary) and come to the conclusion that answers the question. This more structured format of case also shows up in online cases by other firms - notably including BCG’s Casey chatbot (with the amusing result that practising McKinsey-style cases can be a great addition when prepping for BCG).

Essentially, these interviewer-led case studies are large cases made up of lots of mini-cases. You still use basically the same method as you would for standard (or candidate-led) cases - the main difference is simply that, instead of using that method to solve one big case, you are solving several mini-cases sequentially. These cases are easier to follow as the interviewer will guide you in the right direction. However, this doesn’t mean you should pay less attention to structure and deliver a generic framework! Also, usually (but not always!) the first question will ask you to map your approach and is the equivalent of the structuring question in candidate-led cases. Sometimes, if you’re missing key elements, the interviewer might prompt you in the right direction - so make sure to take those prompts seriously as they are there to help you get back on track (ask for 30 seconds to think on the prompt and structure your approach). Other times - and this is a less fortunate scenario - the interviewer might say nothing and simply move on to the next question. This is why you should put just as much thought (if not more) into the framework you build for interviewer-led cases , as you may be penalized if you produce something too generic or that doesn’t encompass all the issues of the case.

3.5. Case and fit

The standard case interview can be thought of as splitting into two standalone sub-interviews. Thus “case interviews” can be divided into the case study itself and a “fit interview” section, where culture fit questions are asked.

This can lead to a bit of confusion, as the actual case interview component might take up as little as half of your scheduled “case interview”. You need to make sure you are ready for both aspects.

To illustrate, here is the typical case interview timeline:

• First 15-30 minutes: Fit Interview - with questions assessing your motivation to be a consultant in that specific firm and your traits around leadership and teamwork. Learn more about the fit interview in our in-depth article here .
• Next 30-40 minutes: Case Interview - solving a case study
• Last 5 minutes: Fit Interview again - this time focussing on your questions for your interviewer.

Both the Case and Fit interviews play crucial roles in the finial hiring decision. There is no “average” taken between case and fit interviews: if your performance is not up to scratch in either of the two, you will not be able to move on to the next interview round or get an offer.

NB: No case without fit

Note that, even if you have only been told you are having a case interview or otherwise are just doing a case study, always be prepared to answer fit questions. At most firms, it is standard practice to include some fit questions in all case interviews, even if there are also separate explicit fit interviews, and interviewers will almost invariably include some of these questions around your case. This is perfectly natural - imagine how odd and artificial it would be to show up to an interview, simply do a case and leave again, without talking about anything else with the interviewer before or after.

3.5.1 Differences between firms

For the most part, a case interview is a case interview. However, firms will have some differences in the particular ways they like to do things in terms of both the case study and the fit component.

3.5.2. The McKinsey PEI

McKinsey brands its fit aspect of interviews as the Personal Experience Interview or PEI. Despite the different name, this is really much the same interview you will be going up against in Bain, BCG and any similar firms.

McKinsey does have a reputation for pushing candidates a little harder with fit or PEI questions , focusing on one story per interview and drilling down further into the specific details each time. We discuss this tendency more in our fit interview article . However, no top end firm is going to go easy on you and you should absolutely be ready for the same level of grilling at Bain, BCG and others. Thus any difference isn’t hugely salient in terms of prep.

3.6. What is different in 2023?

For the foreseeable future, you are going to have to go through multiple live case interviews to secure any decent consulting job. These might increasingly happen via Zoom rather than in person, but they should remain largely the same otherwise.

However, things are changing and the rise of AI in recent months seems pretty much guaranteed to accelerate existing trends.

Even before the explosive development of AI chatbots like ChatGPT we have seen in recent months, automation was already starting to change the recruitment process.

As we mentioned, case interviews are expensive and inconvenient for firms to run . Ideally, then, firms will try to reduce the number of interviews required for recruitment as far as possible. For many years, tests of various kinds served to cut down the applicant pool and thus the number of interviews. However, these tests had a limited capacity to assess candidates against the full consulting skillset in the way that case interviews do so well.

More recently, though, the development of online testing has allowed for more and more advanced assessments. Top consulting firms have been leveraging screening tests that better and better capture the same skillset as case interviews. Eventually this is converging on automated case studies. We see this very clearly with the addition of the Redrock case to McKinsey’s Solve assessment.

As these digital cases become closer to the real thing, the line between test and case interview blurs. Online cases don’t just reduce the number of candidates to case interview, but start directly replacing them.

Case in point here is BCG’s Casey chatbot . Previously, BCG had deployed less advanced online cases and similar tests to weed out some candidates before live case interviews began. Now, though, Casey actually replaces one first round case interview.

Casey, at time of writing, is still a relatively “basic” chatbot, basically running through a pre-set script. The Whatsapp-like interface does a lot of work to make it feel like one is chatting to a “real person” - the chatbot itself, though, cannot provide feedback or nudges to candidates as would a human interviewer.

We fully expect that, as soon as BCG and other firms can train a truer AI, these online cases will become more widespread and start replacing more live interviews.

We discuss the likely impacts of advanced AI on consulting recruitment and the industry more broadly in our blog.

Here, though, the real message is that you should expect to run into digital cases as well as traditional case interviews.

Luckily, despite any changes in specific case interview format, you will still need to master the same fundamental skills and prepare in much the same way.

We’ll cover a few ways to help prepare for chatbot cases in section four. Ultimately, though, firms are looking for the same problem solving ability and mindset as a real interviewer. Especially as chatbots get better at mimicking a real interviewer, candidates who are well prepared for case cracking in general should have no problem with AI administered cases.

3.6.1. Automated fit interviews

Analogous to online cases, in recent years there has been a trend towards automated, “one way” fit interviews, with these typically being administered for consultancies by specialist contractors like HireVue or SparkHire.

These are kind of like Zoom interviews, but if the interviewer didn’t show up. Instead you will be given fit questions to answer and must record your answer in your computer webcam. Your response will then go on to be assessed by an algorithm, scoring both what you say and how you say it.

Again, with advances in AI, it is easy to imagine these automated case interviews going from fully scripted interactions, where all candidates are asked the same list of questions, to a more interactive experience. Thus, we might soon arrive at a point where you are being grilled on the details of your stories - McKinsey PEI style - but by a bot rather than a human.

We include some tips on this kind of “one way” fit interview in section six here.

4. How to solve cases with the Problem-Driven Structure?

If you look around online for material on how to solve case studies, a lot of what you find will set out framework-based approaches. However, as we have mentioned, these frameworks tend to break down with more complex, unique cases - with these being exactly the kind of tough case studies you can expect to be given in your case interviews.

To address this problem, the MyConsultingCoach team has synthesized a new approach to case cracking that replicates how top management consultants approach actual engagements.

MyConsultingCoach’s Problem Driven Structure approach is a universal problem solving method that can be applied to any business problem , irrespective of its nature.

As opposed to just selecting a generic framework for each case interview, the Problem Driven Structure approach works by generating a bespoke structure for each individual question and is a simplified version of the roadmap McKinsey consultants use when working on engagements.

The canonical seven steps from McKinsey on real projects are simplified to four for case interview questions, as the analysis required for a six-month engagement is somewhat less than that needed for a 45-minute case study. However, the underlying flow is the same (see the method in action in the video below)

Let's zoom in to see how our method actually works in more detail:

4.1. Identify the problem

Identifying the problem means properly understanding the prompt/question you are given, so you get to the actual point of the case.

This might sound simple, but cases are often very tricky, and many candidates irretrievably mess things up within the first few minutes of starting. Often, they won’t notice this has happened until they are getting to the end of their analysis. Then, they suddenly realise that they have misunderstood the case prompt - and have effectively been answering the wrong question all along!

With no time to go back and start again, there is nothing to do. Even if there were time, making such a silly mistake early on will make a terrible impression on their interviewer, who might well have written them off already. The interview is scuppered and all the candidate’s preparation has been for nothing.

This error is so galling as it is so readily avoidable.

Our method prevents this problem by placing huge emphasis on a full understanding of the case prompt. This lays the foundations for success as, once we have identified the fundamental, underlying problem our client is facing, we focus our whole analysis around finding solutions to this specific issue.

Now, some case interview prompts are easy to digest. For example, “Our client, a supermarket, has seen a decline in profits. How can we bring them up?”. However, many of the prompts given in interviews for top firms are much more difficult and might refer to unfamiliar business areas or industries. For example, “How much would you pay for a banking license in Ghana?” or “What would be your key areas of concern be when setting up an NGO?”

Don’t worry if you have no idea how you might go about tackling some of these prompts!

In our article on identifying the problem and in our full lesson on the subject in our MCC Academy course, we teach a systematic, four step approach to identifying the problem , as well as running through common errors to ensure you start off on the right foot every time!

This is summarised here:

Following this method lets you excel where your competitors mess up and get off to a great start in impressing your interviewer!

4.2. Build your problem driven structure

After you have properly understood the problem, the next step is to successfully crack a case is to draw up a bespoke structure that captures all the unique features of the case.

This is what will guide your analysis through the rest of the case study and is precisely the same method used by real consultants working on real engagements.

Of course, it might be easier here to simply roll out one an old-fashioned framework, and a lot of candidates will do so. This is likely to be faster at this stage and requires a lot less thought than our problem-driven structure approach.

However, whilst our problem driven structure approach requires more work from you, our method has the advantage of actually working in the kind of complex case studies where generic frameworks fail - that is exactly the kind of cases you can expect at an MBB interview .

Since we effectively start from first principles every time, we can tackle any case with the same overarching method. Simple or complex, every case is the same to you and you don’t have to gamble a job on whether a framework will actually work

4.2.1 Issue trees

Issue trees break down the overall problem into a set of smaller problems that you can then solve individually. Representing this on a diagram also makes it easy for both you and your interviewer to keep track of your analysis.

To see how this is done, let’s look at the issue tree below breaking down the revenues of an airline:

These revenues can be segmented as the number of customers multiplied by the average ticket price. The number of customers can be further broken down into a number of flights multiplied by the number of seats, times average occupancy rate. The node corresponding to the average ticket price can then be segmented further.

4.2.2 Hypothesis trees

Hypothesis trees are similar, the only difference being that rather than just trying to break up the issue into smaller issues you are assuming that the problem can be solved and you are formulating solutions.

In the example above, you would assume revenues can be increased by either increasing the average ticket price or the number of customers . You can then hypothesize that you can increase the average occupancy rate in three ways: align the schedule of short and long haul flights, run a promotion to boost occupancy in off-peak times, or offer early bird discounts.

4.2.3 Other structures:structured lists

Structured lists are simply subcategories of a problem into which you can fit similar elements. This McKinsey case answer starts off by identifying several buckets such as retailer response, competitor response, current capabilities and brand image and then proceeds to consider what could fit into these categories.

Buckets can be a good way to start the structure of a complex case but when using them it can be very difficult to be MECE and consistent, so you should always aim to then re-organize them into either an issue or a hypothesis tree.

It is worth noting that the same problem can be structured in multiple valid ways by choosing different means to segment the key issues. Ultimately all these lists are methods to set out a logical hierachy among elements.

4.2.4 Structures in practice

That said, not all valid structures are equally useful in solving the underlying problem. A good structure fulfils several requirements - including MECE-ness , level consistency, materiality, simplicity, and actionability. It’s important to put in the time to master segmentation, so you can choose a scheme isn’t only valid, but actually useful in addressing the problem.

After taking the effort to identify the problem properly, an advantage of our method is that it will help ensure you stay focused on that same fundamental problem throughout. This might not sound like much, but many candidates end up getting lost in their own analysis, veering off on huge tangents and returning with an answer to a question they weren’t asked.

Another frequent issue - particularly with certain frameworks - is that candidates finish their analysis and, even if they have successfully stuck to the initial question, they have not actually reached a definite solution. Instead, they might simply have generated a laundry list of pros and cons, with no clear single recommendation for action.

Clients employ consultants for actionable answers, and this is what is expected in the case interview. The problem driven structure excels in ensuring that everything you do is clearly related back to the key question in a way that will generate a definitive answer. Thus, the problem driven structure builds in the hypothesis driven approach so characteristic of real consulting practice.

You can learn how to set out your own problem driven structures in our article here and in our full lesson in the MCC Academy course.

4.2. Lead the analysis

A problem driven structure might ensure we reach a proper solution eventually, but how do we actually get there?

We call this step " leading the analysis ", and it is the process whereby you systematically navigate through your structure, identifying the key factors driving the issue you are addressing.

Generally, this will mean continuing to grow your tree diagram, further segmenting what you identify as the most salient end nodes and thus drilling down into the most crucial factors causing the client’s central problem.

Once you have gotten right down into the detail of what is actually causing the company’s issues, solutions can then be generated quite straightforwardly.

To see this process in action, we can return to our airline revenue example:

Let’s say we discover the average ticket price to be a key issue in the airline’s problems. Looking closer at the drivers of average ticket price, we find that the problem lies with economy class ticket prices. We can then further segment that price into the base fare and additional items such as food.

Having broken down the issue to such a fine-grained level and considering the 80/20 rule(see below), solutions occur quite naturally. In this case, we can suggest incentivising the crew to increase onboard sales, improving assortment in the plane, or offering discounts for online purchases.

Our article on leading the analysis is a great primer on the subject, with our video lesson in the MCC Academy providing the most comprehensive guide available.

4.4. Provide recommendations

So you have a solution - but you aren’t finished yet!

Now, you need to deliver your solution as a final recommendation.

This should be done as if you are briefing a busy CEO and thus should be a one minute, top-down, concise, structured, clear, and fact-based account of your findings.

The brevity of the final recommendation belies its importance. In real life consulting, the recommendation is what the client has potentially paid millions for - from their point of view, it is the only thing that matters.

In a case interview, your performance in this final summing up of your case is going to significantly colour your interviewer’s parting impression of you - and thus your chances of getting hired!

So, how do we do it right?

Barbara Minto's Pyramid Principle elegantly sums up almost everything required for a perfect recommendation. The answer comes first , as this is what is most important. This is then supported by a few key arguments , which are in turn buttressed by supporting facts .

Across the whole recommendation, the goal isn’t to just summarise what you have done. Instead, you are aiming to synthesize your findings to extract the key "so what?" insight that is useful to the client going forward.

All this might seem like common sense, but it is actually the opposite of how we relay results in academia and other fields. There, we typically move from data, through arguments and eventually to conclusions. As such, making good recommendations is a skill that takes practice to master.

We can see the Pyramid Principle illustrated in the diagram below:

To supplement the basic Pyramid Principle scheme, we suggest candidates add a few brief remarks on potential risks and suggested next steps . This helps demonstrate the ability for critical self-reflection and lets your interviewer see you going the extra mile.

The combination of logical rigour and communication skills that is so definitive of consulting is particularly on display in the final recommendation.

Despite it only lasting 60 seconds, you will need to leverage a full set of key consulting skills to deliver a really excellent recommendation and leave your interviewer with a good final impression of your case solving abilities.

Our specific article on final recommendations and the specific video lesson on the same topic within our MCC Academy are great, comprehensive resources. Beyond those, our lesson on consulting thinking and our articles on MECE and the Pyramid Principle are also very useful.

4.5. What if I get stuck?

Naturally with case interviews being difficult problems there may be times where you’re unsure what to do or which direction to take. The most common scenario is that you will get stuck midway through the case and there are essentially two things that you should do:

• 1. Go back to your structure
• 2. Ask the interviewer for clarification

Your structure should always be your best friend - after all, this is why you put so much thought and effort into it: if it’s MECE it will point you in the right direction. This may seem abstract but let’s take the very simple example of a profitability case interview: if you’ve started your analysis by segmenting profit into revenue minus costs and you’ve seen that the cost side of the analysis is leading you nowhere, you can be certain that the declining profit is due to a decline in revenue.

Similarly, when you’re stuck on the quantitative section of the case interview, make sure that your framework for calculations is set up correctly (you can confirm this with the interviewer) and see what it is you’re trying to solve for: for example if you’re trying to find what price the client should sell their new t-shirt in order to break even on their investment, you should realize that what you’re trying to find is the break even point, so you can start by calculating either the costs or the revenues. You have all the data for the costs side and you know they’re trying to sell 10.000 pairs so you can simply set up the equation with x being the price.

As we’ve emphasised on several occasions, your case interview will be a dialogue. As such, if you don’t know what to do next or don’t understand something, make sure to ask the interviewer (and as a general rule always follow their prompts as they are trying to help, not trick you). This is especially true for the quantitative questions, where you should really understand what data you’re looking at before you jump into any calculations. Ideally you should ask your questions before you take time to formulate your approach but don’t be afraid to ask for further clarification if you really can’t make sense of what’s going on. It’s always good to walk your interviewer through your approach before you start doing the calculations and it’s no mistake to make sure that you both have the same understanding of the data. For example when confronted with the chart below, you might ask what GW (in this case gigawatt) means from the get-go and ask to confirm the different metrics (i.e. whether 1 GW = 1000 megawatts). You will never be penalised for asking a question like that.

5. What to remember in case interviews

If you’re new to case cracking you might feel a bit hopeless when you see a difficult case question, not having any idea where to start.

In fact though, cracking case interviews is much like playing chess. The rules you need to know to get started are actually pretty simple. What will make you really proficient is time and practice.

In this section, we’ll run through a high level overview of everything you need to know, linking to more detailed resources at every step.

5.1. An overall clear structure

You will probably hear this more than you care for but it is the most important thing to keep in mind as you start solving cases, as not only it is a key evaluation criterion but the greatest tool you will have at your disposal. The ability to build a clear structure in all aspects of the case inteview will be the difference between breezing through a complicated case and struggling at its every step. Let’s look a bit closer at the key areas where you should be structured!

5.1.1 Structured notes

Every case interview starts with a prompt, usually verbal, and as such you will have to take some notes. And here is where your foray into structure begins, as the notes you take should be clear, concise and structured in a way that will allow you to repeat the case back to the interviewer without writing down any unnecessary information.

This may sound very basic but you should absolutely not be dismissive about it: taking clear and organized notes will allow what we found helps is to have separate sections for:

• The case brief
• Follow-up questions and answers
• Numerical data
• Case structure (the most crucial part when solving the case)
• Any scrap work during the case (usually calculations)

When solving the case - or, as we call it here, in the Lead the analysis step, it is highly recommended to keep on feeding and integrating your structure, so that you never get lost. Maintaining a clear high level view is one of the most critical aspects in case interviews as it is a key skill in consulting: by constantly keeping track of where you are following your structure, you’ll never lose your focus on the end goal.

In the case of an interviewer-led case, you can also have separate sheets for each question (e.g. Question 1. What factors can we look at that drive profitability?). If you develop a system like this you’ll know exactly where to look for each point of data rather than rummage around in untidy notes. There are a couple more sections that you may have, depending on preference - we’ll get to these in the next sections.

5.1.2 Structured communication

There will be three main types of communication in cases:

• 1. Asking and answering questions
• 2. Walking the interviewer through your structure (either the case or calculation framework - we’ll get to that in a bit!)
• 3. Delivering your recommendation

Asking and answering questions will be the most common of these and the key thing to do before you speak is ask for some time to collect your thoughts and get organised. What you want to avoid is a ‘laundry list’ of questions or anything that sounds too much like a stream of consciousness.

Different systems work for different candidates but a sure-fire way of being organised is numbering your questions and answers. So rather than saying something like ‘I would like to ask about the business model, operational capacity and customer personas’ it’s much better to break it down and say something along the lines of ‘I’ve got three key questions. Firstly I would like to inquire into the business model of our client. Secondly I would like to ask about their operational capacity. Thirdly I would like to know more about the different customer personas they are serving’.

A similar principle should be applied when walking the interviewer through your structure, and this is especially true of online case interviews (more and more frequent now) when the interviewer can’t see your notes. Even if you have your branches or buckets clearly defined, you should still use a numbering system to make it obvious to the interviewer. So, for example, when asked to identify whether a company should make an acquisition, you might say ‘I would like to examine the following key areas. Firstly the financial aspects of this issue, secondly the synergies and thirdly the client’s expertise’

The recommendation should be delivered top-down (see section 4.4 for specifics) and should employ the same numbering principle. To do so in a speedy manner, you should circle or mark the key facts that you encounter throughout the case so you can easily pull them out at the end.

5.1.3 Structured framework

It’s very important that you have a systematic approach - or framework - for every case. Let’s get one thing straight: there is a difference between having a problem-solving framework for your case and trying to force a case into a predetermined framework. Doing the former is an absolute must , whilst doing the latter will most likely have you unceremoniously dismissed.

We have seen there are several ways of building a framework, from identifying several categories of issues (or ‘buckets’) to building an issue or hypothesis tree (which is the most efficient type of framework). For the purpose of organization, we recommend having a separate sheet for the framework of the case, or, if it’s too much to manage, you can have it on the same sheet as the initial case prompt. That way you’ll have all the details as well as your proposed solution in one place.

5.1.4 Structured calculations

Whether it’s interviewer or candidate-led, at some point in the case you will get a bunch of numerical data and you will have to perform some calculations (for the specifics of the math you’ll need on consulting interviews, have a look at our Consulting Math Guide ). Here’s where we urge you to take your time and not dive straight into calculating! And here’s why: while your numerical agility is sure to impress interviewers, what they’re actually looking for is your logic and the calculations you need to perform in order to solve the problem . So it’s ok if you make a small mistake, as long as you’re solving for the right thing.

As such, make it easy for them - and yourself. Before you start, write down in steps the calculations you need to perform. Here’s an example: let’s say you need to find out by how much profits will change if variable costs are reduced by 10%. Your approach should look something like:

• 1. Calculate current profits: Profits = Revenues - (Variable costs + Fixed costs)
• 2. Calculate the reduction in variable costs: Variable costs x 0.9
• 3. Calculate new profits: New profits = Revenues - (New variable costs + Fixed costs)

Of course, there may be more efficient ways to do that calculation, but what’s important - much like in the framework section - is to show your interviewer that you have a plan, in the form of a structured approach. You can write your plan on the sheet containing the data, then perform the calculations on a scrap sheet and fill in the results afterward.

5.2. Common business knowledge and formulas

Although some consulting firms claim they don’t evaluate candidates based on their business knowledge, familiarity with basic business concepts and formulae is very useful in terms of understanding the case studies you are given in the first instance and drawing inspiration for structuring and brainstorming.

If you are coming from a business undergrad, an MBA or are an experienced hire, you might well have this covered already. For those coming from a different background, it may be useful to cover some.

Luckily, you don’t need a degree-level understanding of business to crack case interviews , and a lot of the information you will pick up by osmosis as you read through articles like this and go through cases.

However, some things you will just need to sit down and learn. We cover everything you need to know in some detail in our Case Academy Course course. However, some examples here of things you need to learn are:

• Basic accounting (particularly how to understand all the elements of a balance sheet)
• Basic economics
• Basic marketing
• Basic strategy

Below we include a few elementary concepts and formulae so you can hit the ground running in solving cases. We should note that you should not memorise these and indeed a good portion of them can be worked out logically, but you should have at least some idea of what to expect as this will make you faster and will free up much of your mental computing power. In what follows we’ll tackle concepts that you will encounter in the private business sector as well as some situations that come up in cases that feature clients from the NGO or governmental sector.

5.2.1 Business sector concepts

These concepts are the bread and butter of almost any business case so you need to make sure you have them down. Naturally, there will be specificities and differences between cases but for the most part here is a breakdown of each of them.

5.2.1.1. Revenue

The revenue is the money that the company brings in and is usually equal to the number of products they sell multiplied to the price per item and can be expressed with the following equation:

Revenue = Volume x Price

Companies may have various sources of revenue or indeed multiple types of products, all priced differently which is something you will need to account for in your case interview. Let’s consider some situations. A clothing company such as Nike will derive most of their revenue from the number of products they sell times the average price per item. Conversely, for a retail bank revenue is measured as the volume of loans multiplied by the interest rate at which the loans are given out. As we’ll see below, we might consider primary revenues and ancillary revenues: in the case of a football club, we might calculate primary revenues by multiplying the number of tickets sold by the average ticket price, and ancillary revenues those coming from sales of merchandise (similarly, let’s say average t-shirt price times the number of t-shirts sold), tv rights and sponsorships.

These are but a few examples and another reminder that you should always aim to ask questions and understand the precise revenue structure of the companies you encounter in cases.

5.2.1.2. Costs

The costs are the expenses that a company incurs during its operations. Generally, they can be broken down into fixed and variable costs :

Costs = Fixed Costs + Variable Costs

As their name implies, fixed costs do not change based on the number of units produced or sold. For example, if you produce shoes and are renting the space for your factory, you will have to pay the rent regardless of whether you produce one pair or 100. On the other hand, variable costs depend on the level of activity, so in our shoe factory example they would be equivalent to the materials used to produce each pair of shoes and would increase the more we produce.

These concepts are of course guidelines used in order to simplify the analysis in cases, and you should be aware that in reality often the situation can be more complicated. However, this should be enough for case interviews. Costs can also be quasi-fixed, in that they increase marginally with volume. Take the example of a restaurant which has a regular staff, incurring a fixed cost but during very busy hours or periods they also employ some part-time workers. This cost is not exactly variable (as it doesn’t increase with the quantity of food produced) but also not entirely fixed, as the number of extra hands will depend on how busy the restaurant is. Fixed costs can also be non-linear in nature. Let’s consider the rent in the same restaurant: we would normally pay a fixed amount every month, but if the restaurant becomes very popular we might need to rent out some extra space so the cost will increase. Again, this is not always relevant for case interviews.

5.2.1.3. Profit and profit margin

The profit is the amount of money a company is left with after it has paid all of its expenses and can be expressed as follows:

Profit = Revenue - Costs

It’s very likely that you will encounter a profitability issue in one of your case interviews, namely you will be asked to increase a company’s profit. There are two main ways of doing this: increasing revenues and reducing costs , so these will be the two main areas you will have to investigate. This may seem simple but what you will really need to understand in a case are the key drivers of a business (and this should be done through clarifying questions to the interviewer - just as a real consultant would question their client).

For example, if your client is an airline you can assume that the main source of revenue is sales of tickets, but you should inquire how many types of ticket the specific airline sells. You may naturally consider economy and business class tickets, but you may find out that there is a more premium option - such as first class - and several in-between options. Similarly to our football club example, there may be ancillary revenues from selling of food and beverage as well as advertising certain products or services on flights.

You may also come across the profit margin in case interviews. This is simply the percentage of profit compared to the revenue and can be expressed as follows:

Profit margin = Profit/Revenue x 100

5.2.1.4. Break-even point

An ancillary concept to profit, the break-even point is the moment where revenues equal costs making the profit zero and can be expressed as the following equation:

Revenues = Costs (Fixed costs + Variable costs)

This formula will be useful when you are asked questions such as ‘What is the minimum price I should sell product X?’ or ‘What quantity do I need to sell in order to recoup my investment?’. Let’s say in a case interview an owner of a sandwich store asks us to figure out how many salami and cheese salami sandwiches she needs to sell in order to break even. She’s spending $4 on salami and $2 for cheese and lettuce per sandwich, and believes she can sell the sandwiches at around $7. The cost of utilities and personnel is around $5000 per month. We could lay this all out in the break-even equation:

7 x Q ( quantity ) = (4+2) x Q + 5000 ( variable + fixed costs )

In a different scenario, we may be asked to calculate the break-even price . Let’s consider our sandwich example and say our owner knows she has enough ingredients for about 5000 sandwiches per month but is not sure how much to sell them for. In that case, if we know our break-even equation, we can simply make the following changes:

P ( price ) x 5000 = (4+2) x 5000 + 5000

By solving the equation we get to the price of $7 per sandwich.

5.2.1.5. Market share and market size

We can also consider the market closely with profit, as in fact the company’s performance in the market is what drives profits. The market size is the total number of potential customers for a certain business or product, whereas the market share is the percentage of that market that your business controls (or could control, depending on the case).

There is a good chance you will have to estimate the market size in one of your case interviews and we get into more details on how to do that below. You may be asked to estimate this in either number of potential customers or total value . The latter simply refers to the number of customers multiplied by the average value of the product or service.

To calculate the market share you will have to divide the company’s share by the total market size and multiply by 100:

Note, though, that learning the very basics of business is the beginning rather than the end of your journey. Once you are able to “speak business” at a rudimentary level, you should try to “become fluent” and immerse yourself in reading/viewing/listening to as wide a variety of business material as possible, getting a feel for all kinds of companies and industries - and especially the kinds of problems that can come up in each context and how they are solved. The material put out by the consulting firms themselves is a great place to start, but you should also follow the business news and find out about different companies and sectors as much as possible between now and interviews. Remember, if you’re going to be a consultant, this should be fun rather than a chore!

5.3 Public sector and NGO concepts

As we mentioned, there will be some cases (see section 6.6 for a more detailed example) where the key performance indicators (or KPIs in short) will not be connected to profit. The most common ones will involve the government of a country or an NGO, but they can be way more diverse and require more thought and application of first principles. We have laid out a couple of the key concepts or KPIs that come up below

5.3.1 Quantifiability

In many such scenarios you will be asked to make an important strategic decision of some kind or to optimise a process. Of course these are not restricted to non-private sector cases but this is where they really come into their own as there can be great variation in the type of decision and the types of field.

While there may be no familiar business concepts to anchor yourself onto, a concept that is essential is quantifiability . This means, however qualitative the decision might seem, consultants rely on data so you should always aim to have aspects of a decision that can be quantified, even if the data doesn’t present itself in a straightforward manner.

Let’s take a practical example. Your younger sibling asks you to help them decide which university they should choose if they want to study engineering. One way to structure your approach would be to segment the problem into factors affecting your sibling’s experience at university and experience post-university. Within the ‘at uni’ category you might think about the following:

• Financials : How much are tuition costs and accommodation costs?
• Quality of teaching and research : How are possible universities ranked in the QS guide based on teaching and research?
• Quality of resources : How well stocked is their library, are the labs well equipped etc.?
• Subject ranking : How is engineering at different unis ranked?
• Life on campus and the city : What are the living costs in the city where the university is based? What are the extracurricular opportunities and would your sibling like to live in that specific city based on them?

Within the ‘out of uni’ category you might think about:

• Exit options : What are the fields in which your sibling could be employed and how long does it take the average student of that university to find a job?
• Alumni network : What percentage of alumni are employed by major companies?
• Signal : What percentage of applicants from the university get an interview in major engineering companies and related technical fields?

You will perhaps notice that all the buckets discussed pose quantifiable questions meant to provide us with data necessary to make a decision. It’s no point to ask ‘Which university has the nicest teaching staff?’ as that can be a very subjective metric.

5.3.1 Impact

Another key concept to consider when dealing with sectors other than the private one is how impactful a decision or a line of inquiry is on the overarching issue , or whether all our branches in our issue tree have a similar impact. This can often come in the form of impact on lives, such as in McKinsey’s conservation case discussed below, namely how many species can we save with our choice of habitat.

5.4 Common consulting concepts

Consultants use basic business concepts on an every day basis, as they help them articulate their frameworks to problems. However, they also use some consulting specific tools to quality check their analysis and perform in the most efficient way possible. These principles can be applied to all aspects of a consultant’s work, but for brevity we can say they mostly impact a consultant’s systematic approach and communication - two very important things that are also tested in case interviews. Therefore, it’s imperative that you not only get to know them, but learn how and when to use them as they are at the very core of good casing. They are MECE-ness, the Pareto Principle and the Pyramid principle and are explained briefly below - you should, however, go on to study them in-depth in their respective articles.

Perhaps the central pillar of all consulting work and an invaluable tool to solve cases, MECE stands for Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive . It can refer to any and every aspect in a case but is most often used when talking about structure. We have a detailed article explaining the concept here , but the short version is that MECE-ness ensures that there is no overlap between elements of a structure (i.e. the Mutually Exclusive component) and that it covers all the drivers or areas of a problem (Collectively Exhaustive). It is a concept that can be applied to any segmentation when dividing a set into subsets that include it wholly but do not overlap.

Let’s take a simple example and then a case framework example. In simple terms, when we are asked to break down the set ‘cars’ into subsets, dividing cars into ‘red cars’ and ‘sports cars’ is neither mutually exclusive (as there are indeed red sports cars) nor exhaustive of the whole set (i.e. there are also yellow non-sports cars that are not covered by this segmentation). A MECE way to segment would be ‘cars produced before 2000’ and ‘cars produced after 2000’ as this segmentation allows for no overlap and covers all the cars in existence.

Dividing cars can be simple, but how can we ensure MECEness in a case-interview a.k.a. a business situation. While the same principles apply, a good tip to ensure that your structure is MECE is to think about all the stakeholders - i.e. those whom a specific venture involves.

Let’s consider that our client is a soda manufacturer who wants to move from a business-to-business strategy, i.e. selling to large chains of stores and supermarkets, to a business-to-consumer strategy where it sells directly to consumers. In doing so they would like to retrain part of their account managers as direct salespeople and need to know what factors to consider.

A stakeholder-driven approach would be to consider the workforce and customers and move further down the issue tree, thinking about individual issues that might affect them. In the case of the workforce, we might consider how the shift would affect their workload and whether it takes their skillset into account. As for the customers, we might wonder whether existing customers would be satisfied with this move: will the remaining B2B account managers be able to provide for the needs of all their clients and will the fact that the company is selling directly to consumers now not cannibalise their businesses? We see how by taking a stakeholder-centred approach we can ensure that every single perspective and potential issue arising from it is fully covered.

5.4.2 The Pareto Principle

Also known as the 80/20 rule, this principle is important when gauging the impact of a decision or a factor in your analysis. It simply states that in business (but not only) 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. What this means is you can make a few significant changes that will impact most of your business organisation, sales model, cost structure etc.

Let’s have a look at 3 quick examples to illustrate this:

• 80% of all accidents are caused by 20% of drivers
• 20% of a company’s products account for 80% of the sales
• 80% of all results in a company are driven by 20% of its employees

The 80/20 rule will be a very good guide line in real engagements as well as case interviews, as it will essentially point to the easiest and most straightforward way of doing things. Let’s say one of the questions in a case is asking you to come up with an approach to understand the appeal of a new beard trimmer. Obviously you can’t interview the whole male population so you might think about setting up a webpage and asking people to comment their thoughts. But what you would get would be a laundry list of difficult to sift through data.

Using an 80/20 approach you would segment the population based on critical factors (age groups, grooming habits etc.) and then approach a significant sample size of each (e.g. 20), analysing the data and reaching a conclusion.

5.4.3 The Pyramid Principle

This principle refers to organising your communication in a top-down , efficient manner. While this is generally applicable, the pyramid principle will most often be employed when delivering the final recommendation to your client. This means - as is implicit in the name - that you would organise your recommendation (and communication in general) as a pyramid, stating the conclusion or most important element at the top then go down the pyramid listing 3 supporting arguments and then further (ideally also 3) supporting arguments for those supporting arguments.

Let’s look at this in practice in a case interview context: your client is a German air-conditioning unit manufacturer who was looking to expand into the French market. However, after your analysis you’ve determined that the market share they were looking to capture would not be feasible. A final recommendation using the Pyramid Principle would sound something like this: ‘I recommend that we do not enter the German market for the following three reasons. Firstly, the market is too small for our ambitions of $50 million. Secondly the market is heavily concentrated, being controlled by three major players and our 5 year goal would amount to controlling 25% of the market, a share larger than that of any of the players. Thirdly, the alternative of going into the corporate market would not be feasible, as it has high barriers to entry.Then, if needed, we could delve deeper into each of our categories

6. Case examples or building blocks?

As we mentioned before, in your case interview preparation you will undoubtedly find preparation resources that claim that there are several standard types of cases and that there is a general framework that can be applied to each type of case. While there are indeed cases that are straightforward at least in appearance and seemingly invite the application of such frameworks, the reality is never that simple and cases often involve multiple or more complicated components that cannot be fitted into a simple framework.

At MCC we don’t want you to get into the habit of trying to identify which case type you’re dealing with and pull out a framework, but we do recognize that there are recurring elements in frameworks that are useful - such as the profitability of a venture (with its revenues and costs), the valuation of a business, estimating and segmenting a market and pricing a product.

We call these building blocks because they can be used to build case frameworks but are not a framework in and of themselves, and they can be shuffled around and rearranged in any way necessary to be tailored to our case. Hence, our approach is not to make you think in terms of case types but work from first principles and use these building blocks to build your own framework. Let’s take two case prompts to illustrate our point.

The first is from the Bain website, where the candidate is asked whether they think it’s a good idea for their friend to open a coffee shop in Cambridge UK (see the case here ). The answer framework provided here is a very straightforward profitability analysis framework, examining the potential revenues and potential costs of the venture:

While this is a good point to start for your case interview (especially taken together with the clarifying questions), we will notice that this approach will need more tailoring to the case - for example the quantity of coffee will be determined by the market for coffee drinkers in Cambridge, which we have to determine based on preference. We are in England so a lot of people will be drinking tea but we are in a university town so perhaps more people than average are drinking coffee as it provides a better boost when studying. All these are some much needed case-tailored hypotheses that we can make based on the initial approach.

Just by looking at this case we might be tempted to say that we can just take a profitability case and apply it without any issues. However, this generic framework is just a starting point and in reality we would need to tailor it much further in the way we had started to do in order to get to a satisfactory answer. For example, the framework for this specific case interview doesn’t cover aspects such as the customer’s expertise: does the friend have any knowledge of the coffee business, such as where to source coffee and how to prepare it? Also, we could argue there may be some legal factors to consider here, such as any approvals that they might need from the city council to run a coffee shop on site, or some specific trade licences that are not really covered in the basic profitability framework.

Let’s take a different case , however, from the McKinsey website. In this scenario, the candidate is being asked to identify some factors in order to choose where to focus the client’s conservation efforts. Immediately we can realise that this case doesn’t lend itself to any pre-packaged framework and we will need to come up with something from scratch - and take a look at McKinsey’s answer of the areas to focus on:

We notice immediately that this framework is 100% tailored to the case - of course there are elements which we encounter in other cases, such as costs and risks but again these are applied in an organic way. It’s pretty clear that while no standard framework would work in this case, the aforementioned concepts - costs and risks - and the way to approach them (a.k.a building blocks ) are fundamentally similar throughout cases (with the obvious specificities of each case).

In what follows, we’ll give a brief description of each building block starting from the Bain example discussed previously, in order to give you a general idea of what they are and their adaptability, but you should make sure to follow the link to the in-depth articles to learn all their ins and outs.

6.1 Estimates and segmentation

This building block will come into play mostly when you’re thinking about the market for a certain product (but make sure to read the full article for more details). Let’s take our Bain Cambridge coffee example. As we mentioned under the quantity bucket we need to understand what the market size for coffee in Cambridge would be - so we can make an estimation based on segmentation .

The key to a good estimation is the ability to logically break down the problem into more manageable pieces. This will generally mean segmenting a wider population to find a particular target group. We can start off with the population of Cambridge - which we estimate at 100.000. In reality the population is closer to 150.000 but that doesn’t matter - the estimation has to be reasonable and not accurate , so unless the interviewer gives you a reason to reconsider you can follow your instinct. We can divide that into people who do and don’t drink coffee. Given our arguments before, we can conclude that 80% of those, so 80.000 drink coffee. Then we can further segment into those who drink regularly - let’s say every day - and those who drink occasionally - let’s say once a week. Based on the assumptions before about the student population needing coffee to function, and with Cambridge having a high student population, we can assume that 80% of those drinking coffee are regular drinkers, so that would be 64.000 regular drinkers and 16.000 occasional drinkers. We can then decide whom we want to target what our strategy needs to be:

This type of estimation and segmentation can be applied to any case specifics - hence why it is a building block.

6.2 Profitability

We had several looks at this building block so far (see an in-depth look here ) as it will show up in most case interivew scenarios, since profit is a key element in any company’s strategy. As we have seen, the starting point to this analysis is to consider both the costs and revenues of a company, and try to determine whether revenues need to be improved or whether costs need to be lowered. In the coffee example, the revenues are dictated by the average price per coffe x the number of coffees sold , whereas costs can be split into fixed and variable .

Some examples of fixed costs would be the rent for the stores and the cost of the personnel and utilities, while the most obvious variable costs would be the coffee beans used and the takeaway containers (when needed). We may further split revenues in this case into Main revenues - i.e. the sales of coffee - and Ancillary revenues , which can be divided into Sales of food products (sales of pastries, sandwiches etc., each with the same price x quantity schema) and Revenues from events - i.e renting out the coffee shop to events and catering for the events themselves. Bear in mind that revenues will be heavily influenced by the penetration rate , i.e. the share of the market which we can capture.

6.3 Pricing

Helping a company determine how much they should charge for their goods or services is another theme that comes up frequently in cases. While it may seem less complicated than the other building blocks, we assure you it’s not - you will have to understand and consider several factors, such as the costs a company is incurring, their general strategic positioning, availability, market trends as well as the customers’ willingness to pay (or WTP in short) - so make sure to check out our in-depth guide here .

In our example, we may determine that the cost per cup (coffee beans, staff, rent) is £1. We want to be student friendly so we should consider how much students would want to pay for a coffee as well as how much are competitors are charging. Based on those factors, it would be reasonable to charge on average £2 per cup of coffee. It’s true that our competitors are charging £3 but they are targeting mostly the adult market, whose willingness to pay is higher, so their pricing model takes that into account as well as the lower volume of customers in that demographic.

6.4. Valuation

A variant of the pricing building block, a valuation problem generally asks the candidate to determine how much a client should pay for a specific company (the target of an acquisition) as well as what other factors to consider. The two most important factors (but not the only ones - for a comprehensive review see our Valuation article ) to consider are the net present value (in consulting interviews usually in perpetuity) and the synergies .

In short, the net present value of a company is how much profit it currently brings in, divided by how much that cash flow will depreciate in the future and can be represented with the equation below:

The synergies refer to what could be achieved should the companies operate as one, and can be divided into cost and revenue synergies .

Let’s expand our coffee example a bit to understand these. Imagine that our friend manages to open a chain of coffee shops in Cambridge and in the future considers acquiring a chain of take-out restaurants. The most straightforward example of revenue synergies would be cross-selling, in this case selling coffee in the restaurants as well as in the dedicated stores, and thus getting an immediate boost in market share by using the existing customers of the restaurant chain. A cost synergy would be merging the delivery services of the two businesses to deliver both food and coffee, thus avoiding redundancies and reducing costs associated with twice the number of drivers and vehicles.

6.5. Competitive interaction

This component of cases deals with situations where the market in which a company is operating changes and the company must decide what to do. These changes often have to do with a new player entering the market (again for more details make sure to dive into the Competitive Interaction article ).

Let’s assume that our Cambridge coffee shop has now become a chain and has flagged up to other competitors that Cambridge is a blooming market for coffee. As such, Starbucks has decided to open a few stores in Cambridge themselves, to test this market. The question which might be posed to a candidate is what should our coffee chain do. One way (and a MECE one) to approach the problem is to decide between doing something and doing nothing . We might consider merging with another coffee chain and pooling our resources or playing to our strengths and repositioning ourselves as ‘your student-friendly, shop around the corner’. Just as easily we may just wait the situation out and see whether indeed Starbucks is cutting into our market share - after all, the advantages of our product and services might speak for themselves and Starbucks might end up tanking. Both of these are viable options if argued right and depending on the further specifics of the case.

6.6. Special cases

Most cases deal with private sectors, where the overarching objective entails profit in some form. However, as hinted before, there are cases which deal with other sectors where there are other KPIs in place . The former will usually contain one or several of these building blocks whereas the latter will very likely have neither. This latter category is arguably the one that will stretch your analytical and organisational skills to the limit, since there will be very little familiarity that you can fall back on (McKinsey famously employs such cases in their interview process).

So how do we tackle the structure for such cases? The short answer would be starting from first principles and using the problem driven structure outlined above, but let’s look at a quick example in the form of a McKinsey case :

The first question addressed to the candidate is the following:

This is in fact asking us to build a structure for the case. So what should we have in mind here? Most importantly, we should start with a structure that is MECE and we should remember to do that by considering all the stakeholders . They are on the one hand the government and affiliated institutions and on the other the population. We might then consider which issues might arise for each shareholder and what the benefits for them would be, as well as the risks. This approach is illustrated in the answer McKinsey provides as well:

More than anything, this type of case shows us how important it is to practise and build different types of structures, and think about MECE ways of segmenting the problem.

7. How Do I prepare for case interviews

In consulting fashion, the overall preparation can be structured into theoretical preparation and practical preparation , with each category then being subdivided into individual prep and prep with a partner .

As a general rule, the level and intensity of the preparation will differ based on your background - naturally if you have a business background (and have been part of a consulting club or something similar) your preparation will be less intensive than if you’re starting from scratch. The way we suggest you go about it is to start with theoretical preparation , which means learning about case interviews, business and basic consulting concepts (you can do this using free resources - such as the ones we provide - or if you want a more through preparation you can consider joining our Case Academy as well).

You can then move on to the practical preparation which should start with doing solo cases and focusing on areas of improvement, and then move on to preparation with a partner , which should be another candidate or - ideally - an ex-consultant.

Let’s go into more details with respect to each type of preparation.

7.1. Solo practice

The two most important areas of focus in sole preparation are:

• Mental math

As we mentioned briefly, the best use of your time is to focus on solving cases. You can start with cases listed on MBB sites since they are clearly stated and have worked solutions as well (e.g. Bain is a good place to start) and then move to more complex cases (our Case Library also offers a range of cases of different complexities). To build your confidence, start out on easier case questions, work through with the solutions, and don't worry about time. As you get better, you can move on to more difficult cases and try to get through them more quickly. You should practice around eight case studies on your own to build your confidence.

Another important area of practice is your mental mathematics as this skill will considerably increase your confidence and is neglected by many applicants - much to their immediate regret in the case interview. Find our mental math tool here or in our course, and practice at least ten minutes per day, from day one until the day before the interview.

7.2. Preparation with a partner

There are aspects of a case interview - such as asking clarifying questions - which you cannot do alone and this is why, after you feel comfortable, you should move on to practice with another person. There are two options here:

• Practicing with a peer
• Practicing with an ex-consultant

In theory they can be complementary - especially if you’re peer is also preparing for consulting interviews - and each have advantages and disadvantages. A peer is likely to practice with you for free for longer, however you may end up reinforcing some bad habits or unable to get actionable feedback. A consultant will be able to provide you the latter but having their help for the same number of hours as a peer will come at a higher cost. Let’s look at each option in more detail.

7.2.1. Peer preparation

Once you have worked through eight cases solo, you should be ready to simulate the case interview more closely and start working with another person.

Here, many candidates turn to peer practice - that is, doing mock case interviews with friends, classmates or others also applying to consulting. If you’re in university, and especially in business school, there will very likely be a consulting club for you to join and do lots of case practice with. If you don’t have anyone to practice, though, or if you just want to get a bit more volume in with others, our free meeting board lets you find fellow applicants from around the world with whom to practice. We recommend practicing around 10 to 15 ‘live’ cases to really get to a point where you feel comfortable.

7.2.2. Preparation with a consultant

You can do a lot practising by yourself and with peers. However, nothing will bring up your skills so quickly and profoundly as working with a real consultant.

Perhaps think about it like boxing. You can practice drills and work on punch bags all you want, but at some point you need to get into the ring and do some actual sparring if you ever want to be ready to fight.

Practicing with an ex consultant is essentialy a simulation of a case interview. Of course, it isn’t possible to secure the time of experienced top-tier consultants for free. However, when considering whether you should invest to boost your chances of success, it is worth considering the difference in your salary over even just a few years between getting into a top-tier firm versus a second-tier one. In the light of thousands in increased annual earnings (easily accumulating into millions over multiple years), it becomes clear that getting expert interview help really is one of the best investments you can make in your own future.

Should you decide to make this step, MyConsultingCoach can help, offering bespoke mentoring programmes , where you are paired with a 5+ year experienced, ex-MBB mentor of your choosing, who will then oversee your whole case interview preparation from start to finish - giving you your best possible chance of landing a job!

7.3. Practice for online interviews

Standard preparation for interview case studies will carry directly over to online cases.

However, if you want to do some more specific prep, you can work through cases solo to a timer and using a calculator and/or Excel (online cases generally allow calculators and second computers to help you, whilst these are banned in live case interviews).

Older PST-style questions also make great prep, but a particularly good simulation is the self-assessment tests included in our Case Academy course . These multiple choice business questions conducted with a strict time limit are great preparation for the current crop of online cases.

7.4. Fit interviews

As we’ve noted, even something billed as a case interview is very likely to contain a fit interview as a subset.

We have an article on fit interviews and also include a full set of lessons on how to answer fit questions properly as a subset of our comprehensive Case Academy course .

Here though, the important thing to convey is that you take preparing for fit questions every bit as seriously as you do case prep.

Since they sound the same as you might encounter when interviewing for other industries, the temptation is to regard these as “just normal interview questions”.

However, consulting firms take your answers to these questions a good deal more seriously than elsewhere.

This isn’t just for fluffy “corporate culture” reasons. The long hours and close teamwork, as well as the client-facing nature of management consulting, mean that your personality and ability to get on with others is going to be a big part of making you a tolerable and effective co-worker.

If you know you’ll have to spend 14+ hour working days with someone you hire and that your annual bonus depends on them not alienating clients, you better believe you’ll pay attention to their character in interview.

There are also hard-nosed financial reasons for the likes of McKinsey, Bain and BCG to drill down so hard on your answers.

In particular, top consultancies have huge issues with staff retention. The average management consultant only stays with these firms for around two years before they have moved on to a new industry.

In some cases, consultants bail out because they can’t keep up with the arduous consulting lifestyle of long hours and endless travel. In many instances, though, departing consultants are lured away by exit opportunities - such as the well trodden paths towards internal strategy roles, private equity or becoming a start-up founder.

Indeed, many individuals will intentionally use a two year stint in consulting as something like an MBA they are getting paid for - giving them accelerated exposure to the business world and letting them pivot into something new.

Consulting firms want to get a decent return on investment for training new recruits. Thus, they want hires who not only intend to stick with consulting longer-term, but also have a temperament that makes this feasible and an overall career trajectory where it just makes sense for them to stay put.

This should hammer home the point that, if you want to get an offer, you need to be fully prepared to answer fit questions - and to do so excellently - any time you have a case interview.

8. Interview day - what to expect, with tips

Of course, all this theory is well and good, but a lot of readers might be concerned about what exactly to expect in real life . It’s perfectly reasonable to want to get as clear a picture as possible here - we all want to know what we are going up against when we face a new challenge!

Indeed, it is important to think about your interview in more holistic terms, rather than just focusing on small aspects of analysis. Getting everything exactly correct is less important than the overall approach you take to reasoning and how you communicate - and candidates often lose sight of this fact.

In this section, then, we’ll run through the case interview experience from start to finish, directing you to resources with more details where appropriate. As a supplement to this, the following video from Bain is excellent. It portrays an abridged version of a case interview, but is very useful as a guide to what to expect - not just from Bain, but from McKinsey, BCG and any other high-level consulting firm.

8.1. Getting started

Though you might be shown through to the office by a staff member, usually your interviewer will come and collect you from a waiting area. Either way, when you first encounter them, you should greet your interviewer with a warm smile and a handshake (unless they do not offer their hand). Be confident without verging into arrogance. You will be asked to take a seat in the interviewer’s office, where the case interview can then begin.

8.1.1. First impressions

In reality, your assessment begins before you even sit down at your interviewer’s desk. Whether at a conscious level or not, the impression you make within the first few seconds of meeting your interviewer is likely to significantly inform the final hiring decision (again, whether consciously or not).

Your presentation and how you hold yourself and behave are all important . If this seems strange, consider that, if hired, you will be personally responsible for many clients’ impressions of the firm. These things are part of the job! Much of material on the fit interview is useful here, whilst we also cover first impressions and presentation generally in our article on what to wear to interview .

As we have noted above, your interview might start with a fit segment - that is, with the interviewer asking questions about your experiences, your soft skills, and motivation to want to join consulting generally and that firm in particular. In short, the kinds of things a case study can’t tell them about you. We have a fit interview article and course to get you up to speed here.

8.1.2. Down to business

Following an initial conversation, your interviewer will introduce your case study , providing a prompt for the question you have to answer. You will have a pen and paper in front of you and should (neatly) note down the salient pieces of information (keep this up throughout the interview).

It is crucial here that you don’t delve into analysis or calculations straight away . Case prompts can be tricky and easy to misunderstand, especially when you are under pressure. Rather, ask any questions you need to fully understand the case question and then validate that understanding with the interviewer before you kick off any analysis. Better to eliminate mistakes now than experience that sinking feeling of realising you have gotten the whole thing wrong halfway through your case!

This process is covered in our article on identifying the problem and in greater detail in our Case Academy lesson on that subject.

8.1.3. Analysis

Once you understand the problem, you should take a few seconds to set your thoughts in order and draw up an initial structure for how you want to proceed. You might benefit from utilising one or more of our building blocks here to make a strong start. Present this to your interviewer and get their approval before you get into the nuts and bolts of analysis.

We cover the mechanics of how to structure your problem and lead the analysis in our articles here and here and more thoroughly in the MCC Case Academy . What it is important to convey here, though, is that your case interview is supposed to be a conversation rather than a written exam . Your interviewer takes a role closer to a co-worker than an invigilator and you should be conversing with them throughout.

Indeed, how you communicate with your interviewer and explain your rationale is a crucial element of how you will be assessed. Case questions in general, are not posed to see if you can produce the correct answer, but rather to see how you think . Your interviewer wants to see you approach the case in a structured, rational fashion. The only way they are going to know your thought processes, though, is if you tell them!

To demonstrate this point, here is another excellent video from Bain, where candidates are compared.

Note that multiple different answers to each question are considered acceptable and that Bain is primarily concerned with the thought processes of the candidate’s exhibit .

Another reason why communication is absolutely essential to case interview success is the simple reason that you will not have all the facts you need to complete your analysis at the outset. Rather, you will usually have to ask the interviewer for additional data throughout the case to allow you to proceed .

NB: Don't be let down by your math!

Your ability to quickly and accurately interpret these charts and other figures under pressure is one of the skills that is being assessed. You will also need to make any calculations with the same speed and accuracy (without a calculator!). As such, be sure that you are up to speed on your consulting math .

8.1.4. Recommendation

Finally, you will be asked to present a recommendation. This should be delivered in a brief, top-down "elevator pitch" format , as if you are speaking to a time-pressured CEO. Again here, how you communicate will be just as important as the details of what you say, and you should aim to speak clearly and with confidence.

For more detail on how to give the perfect recommendation, take a look at our articles on the Pyramid Principle and providing recommendations , as well the relevant lesson within MCC Academy .

8.1.5. Wrapping up

After your case is complete, there might be a few more fit questions - including a chance for you to ask some questions of the interviewer . This is your opportunity to make a good parting impression.

We deal with the details in our fit interview resources. However, it is always worth bearing in mind just how many candidates your interviewers are going to see giving similar answers to the same questions in the same office. A pretty obvious pre-requisite to being considered for a job is that your interviewer remembers you in the first place. Whilst you shouldn't do something stupid just to be noticed, asking interesting parting questions is a good way to be remembered.

Now, with the interview wrapped up, it’s time to shake hands, thank the interviewer for their time and leave the room .

You might have other case interviews or tests that day or you might be heading home. Either way, if know that you did all you could to prepare, you can leave content in the knowledge that you have the best possible chance of receiving an email with a job offer. This is our mission at MCC - to provide all the resources you need to realise your full potential and land your dream consulting job!

8.2. Remote and one-way interview tips

Zoom case interviews and “one-way” automated fit interviews are becoming more common as selection processes are increasingly remote, with these new formats being accompanied by their own unique challenges.

Obviously you won’t have to worry about lobbies and shaking hands for a video interview. However, a lot remains the same. You still need to do the same prep in terms of getting good at case cracking and expressing your fit answers. The specific considerations around remote case interviews are, in effect, around making sure you come across as effectively as you would in person.

8.2.1. Connection

It sounds trivial, but a successful video case interview of any kind presupposes a functioning computer with a stable and sufficient internet connection.

Absolutely don’t forget to have your laptop plugged in, as your battery will definitely let you down mid-interview. Similarly, make sure any housemates or family know not to use the microwave, vacuum cleaner or anything else that makes wifi cut out (or makes a lot of noise, obviously)

If you have to connect on a platform you don’t use much (for example, if it’s on Teams and you’re used to Zoom), make sure you have the up to date version of the app in advance, rather than having to wait for an obligatory download and end up late to join. Whilst you’re at it, make sure you’re familiar with the controls etc. At the risk of being made fun of, don’t be afraid to have a practice call with a friend.

8.2.2. Dress

You might get guidance on a slightly more relaxed dress code for a Zoom interview. However, if in doubt, dress as you would for the real thing (see our article here ).

Either way, always remember that presentation is part of what you are being assessed on - the firm needs to know you can be presentable for clients. Taking this stuff seriously also shows respect for your interviewer and their time in interviewing you.

8.2.3. Lighting

An aspect of presentation that you have to devote some thought to for a Zoom case interview is your lighting.

Hopefully, you long ago nailed a lighting set-up during the Covid lockdowns. However, make sure to check your lighting in advance with your webcam - bearing in mind what time if day your case interview actually is. If your case interview is late afternoon, don’t just check in the morning. Make sure you aren’t going to be blinded from light coming in a window behind your screen, or that you end up with the weird shadow stripes from blinds all over your face.

Natural light is always best, but if there won’t be much of that during your interview, you’ll likely want to experiment with moving some lamps around.

8.2.4. Clarity

The actual stories you tell in an automated “one-way” fit interview will be the same as for a live equivalent. If anything, things should be easier, as you can rattle off a practised monologue without an interviewer interrupting you to ask for clarifications.

You can probably also assume that the algorithm assessing your performance is sufficiently capable that it will be observing you at much the same level as a human interviewer. However, it is probably still worth speaking as clearly as possible with these kinds of interviews and paying extra attention to your lighting to ensure that your face is clearly visible.

No doubt the AIs scoring these interviews are improving all the time, but you still want to make their job as easy as possible. Just think about the same things as you would with a live Zoom case interview, but more so.

9. How we can help

There are lots of great free resources on this site to get you started with preparation, from all our articles on case solving and consulting skills to our free case library and peer practice meeting board .

To step your preparation up a notch, though, our Case Academy course will give you everything you need to know to solve the most complex of cases - whether those are in live case interviews, with chatbots, written tests or any other format.

Whatever kind of case you end up facing, nothing will bring up your skillset faster than the kind of acute, actionable feedback you can get from a mock case interview a real, MBB consultant. Whilst it's possible to get by without this kind of coaching, it does tend to be the biggest single difference maker for successful candidates.

You can find out more on our coaching page:

Explore Coaching

Of course, for those looking for a truly comprehensive programme, with a 5+ year experienced MBB consultant overseeing their entire prep personally, from networking and applications right through to your offer, we have our mentoring programmes.

You can read more here:

Comprehensive Mentoring

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14 Best Case Study Questions to Ask Your Top Customers

If you want to show interested leads that you can put your money where your mouth is, case studies are a good way to go. They’re a valuable form of content that can even be used as lead magnets under the right conditions, and they have a singular purpose: To show how your clients achieved specific, significant results with your product or service. 

Knowing how to write a great case study is an important part of success, but there’s a part of the process that comes before that: Knowing which questions to ask, which you’ll determine when you’re preparing for a case study interview. 

The questions you ask can make the difference between a case study that feels like it’s been churned out by a low-quality AI machine compared to one that feels actionable, engaging, and high-stakes to your readers. 

In this post, we’re going to go over the 14 best case study questions to ask, along with discussing some tips to improve the results you’ll get. 

How to Structure Your Case Study Questions

Before we dive in, we want to talk about how to structure your questions in the interview.

In this post specifically, we’re going to look at individual questions you should ask around pointed topics, like about the client’s brand, solutions they’ve tried already, and their results. 

It’s best to stick close to the progression outlined here because it will give you the basic information you need at every level of the case study interview . You can’t ask what solutions they’ve tried before when you don’t even understand their brands’ needs. 

And keep in mind that when you’re asking users to provide specific information about a topic up front, they’ll often reference it later, strengthening the overall case study and sometimes encouraging them to share information they may not have thought to share otherwise. 

That being said, let’s go ahead and start to dive in to the best case study questions you should ask. 

Questions About Their Brand 

The best case studies will have some information about the brand they’re featuring and not just about how the brand uses their product. Information about the brand size, industry, and unique selling propositions (USPs ) can all play a valuable part in building a strong case study. 

These are a few important case study questions to consider asking about branding: 

1. Can you tell us a little bit about your brand? 

This is a great way to start the interview off strong. Ask the client to tell you about the brand, plain and simple. See what they have to say; they may share information about their product or service, how they fit into their industry, what differentiates them, and more. 

Leaving this first question relatively vague and open-ended helps them feel more comfortable while giving you some good ideas for where to go. 

If they’re stumped, ask them to provide a brief description of what their company does.

2. Can you tell me about your business’s structure, including industry, company size, or years in business? 

While this may feel technical, it can be exceptionally valuable to readers of the case study to help them relate or get a good understanding of who is using your products. 

3. An industry-relevant question 

SaaS tools that help with ad management may ask clients about their total monthly ad spend, for example. An eco-friendly company may ask clients what their “green goals” are or their previous carbon emissions. 

Think about what would benefit you to have in the case study, and ask it here if possible. 

Questions About Their Challenge & Pain Points 

We know that all great case studies will highlight the challenges that clients have before finding your product or service as their solution, exacerbated by key pain points. 

It’s so important to get enough information that these challenges feel real and significant in the case study; if you neglect to explain why a challenge was an actual obstacle, it can come across as seeming trivial. That can make your solution seem trivial, too.

These are the best case study questions to ask for this stage of the interview.   

4. What were the challenges you needed to solve before finding our product? 

This is a specific, pointed question, which helps make it effective. 

If I ask my content marketing clients this question, for example, they might say, “we didn’t know how to create content that ranked well” or “we needed help creating content at scale.” 

You can dive deeper by asking pointed questions about their key problems, which brings us to the next question. 

5. Why did this challenge have such a significant impact on your business?

This is the golden ticket right here, because it’s about pain points. 

Say you’re selling marketing services, and the client’s challenge is that they wanted help with lead generation . 

The pain points of “organic channels were too slow in driving customer acquisition, and our churn rates were eviscerating our client numbers” or “we tried to run ads ourselves but ended up losing hundreds of dollars to no avail.” 

Wasted money. Bleeding clients. Too-slow organic channels. These are pain points that make the case study feel real, and that other customers will connect to.  

6. What other solutions had you tried before and why didn’t they work? 

While it’s best to skip out on trash-talking competitors in the case study, asking this question during the interview can give you valuable context and a lot to work with. 

If, for example, I’m a weight loss coach, my clients may have tried the keto diet and Weight Watchers to no avail. Knowing that the keto diet made them feel queasy and that they found the point-tracking Weight Watchers to be too much work can be useful information for the study, even if you don’t ever name the alternatives.

These are pain points in their own right, and can be utilized like the following: 

 “The client had tried different solutions before but found that the diets either made them sick or were too much work to maintain.” It positions your solution to be the winning option. 

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Questions About How They Discovered You 

While it may seem irrelevant, information about how customers discovered you and why they decided to work with you can actually become compelling parts of a case study— even if only mentioned in brief. 

Here’s an example of how you can use this information in the case study: 

“We found Breadcrumbs after our business partner mentioned it to us, and after reading about their easy-to-use interface and accessible lead scoring , we decided to give it a try.” 

You’ve got social proof (business partner referred them) and a promo for a unique feature that made them convert. 

Here are the case study questions you can ask to get this information:

7. How did you find out about our brand? 

It’s a simple question, and it will likely be a simple answer. Nice and easy. 

8. What made you decide to try our product over other solutions? 

This essentially gets the customer to sell your product back to you, which is phenomenal. And someone reading the case study might think, “They’re right; I’ve also looked for a lead scoring tool with a great interface, I’d try that.” 

Questions About How They Used The Product or Service 

This will likely be one of the meatier parts of the case study interview because this is where some of the actionable information comes into play. How did your clients use your product or service, what steps did they take, and how can others use this to replicate the eventual results we’ll discover? 

These are the case study questions to ask: 

9. Which specific products and product features did your team use? 

Say you’re selling invoicing software to small businesses. Not all clients will use every feature.

Graphic designers, for example, may take advantage of project estimates for upfront deposits more than a copywriter who only works for flat fees. That copywriter, however, might be more likely to use invoice templates for retainer clients or automated billing features. 

Ask about the products and services the team used. 

10. How did your team use our products and services to meet their needs? 

You know what products or services were used, but now it’s time to ask how they were used.

Project estimates, for example, allowed graphic designers to send more professional-looking invoices to clients, who could pay upfront deposits through credit card, check, or bank deposit. This helped that designer weed out clients who had no intention of paying and gave them the funds they needed to secure the supplies to begin working.

And for the copywriter who used automated billing, it saved her an exceptional amount of time and ensured she got paid on time because she sent those invoices on time. 

11. How was your experience? 

Was the SaaS tool user-friendly? Did your clients take advantage of a free demo program or the option to have an account manager get their entire account up and running?

Ask about their specific transition process using the tool and what made the experience a more positive one. 

Questions About Their Results 

Last but not least… the results. Believe it or not, some case studies skip this part of the interview, but you definitely want to include hard, quantifiable data in as many case studies as possible. 

12. What end results did you get after using our product? 

Ask for the results your clients achieved. If they’re comfortable sharing the information, ask for KPIs. 

How did using our social media marketing software increase message response rates? 

How did our marketing service improve lead generation efforts, and customer acquisition costs? 

How did our lead scoring software reduce the contact-to-close period for leads or increase the overall financial value of leads acquired? 

Be as specific as the client will allow. The more definitive the data you can share, the better. 

13. What impact did these results have on your business? 

While this may seem self-explanatory, this is a great final question that again helps the impact of your product or service really stand out.

We saw customer satisfaction increase and sales go up by about 15% by improving message response rates on social media. 

Or, by getting more leads at lower costs, our business was able to reinvest those accelerated profits into additional campaigns to scale exponentially at an unprecedented rate, and now we’re opening two new branches. 

This can be a combination of data-focused or story-driven impacts. Either (or both!) works well. 

14. Is there anything else we should know? 

Anything else you want to share? This is a short but powerful question, and while some clients will say, “nope, that’s it,” you may be surprised what some other people share with you. 

There may be something they’ve been excited to talk about that hasn’t come up in the questions yet, or something may pop into mind to elaborate on something you’d discussed earlier.

Give them the floor, and see what they have to say. 

Final Thoughts 

If you’re going to take the time needed to conduct and write up a case study (both your own time and the client’s), you want to get it right. Coming prepared with a list of strong case study questions can help you create content that will be highly effective at generating leads and converting customers for a long time to come. 

Want to speed up the lead conversion funnel with lead scoring software? Create a Breadcrumbs account for free here ! 

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9 Benefits of Customer Interviews & How to Conduct Them

Updated: February 09, 2024

Published: December 23, 2020

Of course, you should trust the expertise your marketing, sales, and product development teams have. But they shouldn't be the only ones you consult when making changes to your business. That’s where customer interviews come into the picture.

Feedback collected through customer interviews can help you make brilliant decisions and predict how customers will react to a particular change or event. But in order to acquire this information, you must first figure out how to successfully conduct a customer interview.

I’m here to help walk you through what a customer interview is, its benefits, best practices, and tips you should know to conduct them at your organization. 

What is a customer interview?

How customer interviews help improve customer satisfaction and product development, 9 benefits of customer interviews, how to conduct customer interviews, customer interview best practices.

The world's most brilliant minds can develop new product and service ideas, but unless they understand your customers’ needs, their ideas will miss the mark. Customer interviews prevent that from happening. 

A customer interview lets you speak to the people who matter most — the folks who buy your product. It's a great way to uncover your customers' challenges, the solutions they're looking for, and how you fare compared to your competitors.

You can conduct customer interviews in two ways. The first is a planned interview. These interviews are scheduled in advance, and you ask customers various questions about their overall brand experience or an individual interaction with your business. These interviews will typically last longer than the second type of interview — which is ad hoc.

Ad hoc interviews are conducted one-on-one, either in person, on the phone, or through video software. While online surveys are convenient, ad hoc interviews let you have a real-time conversation with the customer so that you can ask about specific experiences and events.

So, how does conducting customer interviews actually benefit your brand? I’m glad you asked. I rounded up some insight from business leaders who have witnessed firsthand how transformative conducting customer interviews can be. Here’s what they have to say. 

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Joseph Lewin, Director of Growth at Proofpoint Marketing

According to Lewin , customer interviews can significantly impact company messaging. For instance, one client wanted to improve their messaging for ads and sales decks, so Lewin did ten customer interviews, paying attention to the interviewees' language. 

“We tested their current ads versus language that came directly from customers,” says Lewin. The outcome? Ad engagement rate jumped from 1.45% to 6.59%

Learnings from customer interviews have also helped Proofpoint develop new service offerings. 

“We've struggled to get clients to post on LinkedIn. Through interviews, we learned the biggest challenges were knowing what to post and creating the content,” says Lewin. “From those interviews, we developed a program to facilitate video content creation from our customers' sales teams.”

Lewin says the program led to an enormous improvement in the quality and quantity of content coming from customers who use the new service offering.

Joseph adds that customer interviews have helped “highlight pain points and challenges that are difficult (if not impossible) to uncover without direct conversations with customers.” 

For instance, one customer once shared that she struggled to keep up “with all the timelines and tasks [Proofpoint] needed from her team.” Proofpoint fixed this problem by creating “a dashboard for clients with current campaigns, timelines, and checklists for the client to use as an on-demand resource.”

Ben Nebesky, Customer Success Manager at MessageDesk

Nebesky says the greatest benefit of customer interviews is the ability to discover customers’ pain points and how MessageDesk solves them. MessageDesk values this insight above all else because it recognizes it only wins when its customers succeed. 

“The more pain points we know we're solving or know how to solve, the more dollars we net in terms of new MRR or retained MRR,” says Nebesky.

Also, insights from customer interviews are fundamental to MessageDesk's product development process. 

Nebesky says, “Every time I talk with a customer, I walk away with new insights and a refined understanding of what success looks like for them. We always try to be solution and outcome-oriented for our customers, so getting their feedback is instrumental." 

Also, customer interviews help MessageDesk achieve its goal of building a human connection with its clients. In Nebesky’s words, "Our customers always walk away from these interviews with a greater connection to the MessageDesk product and its people.”

Dave Burson, Global Head of Revenue at Canva

In a 2020 interview, Canva's Global Head of Revenue, Dave Burson, shared that one of Canva's biggest growth wins in 2019 was a simple tweak in marketing copy for Canva Pro, Canva's paid product.

This update was inspired by the customer interviews they conducted with a few users. The interviews helped them realize their copy didn’t reflect key reasons customers sign up for Canva Pro.  

By interviewing a few users and updating the copy to reflect the users' language, Canva crafted a marketing copy that resonated better. “We saw a considerably large percentage increase in trial conversion off the back of that one copy,” says Burson. 

Customer interviews also helped Canva realize its users didn't understand the phrase “Upgrade to Canva Pro for magic resize,” formerly included in the marketing for Canva Pro. By changing the words to “magically resize your design in just a few clicks,” sign-ups for Canva Pro increased.

1. You can assess customer demand.

When you're considering a new product or service — or even a new business — you should first identify the demand for it with your customer base . Customer interviews can help you assess customer demand and know if your target audience would be interested in your product, service, feature, or promotion.

2. You highlight customer pain points.

One common use case for customer interviews is understanding the pain points customers experience with your products and services. This helps you improve the pre and post-purchase experience and shows you value long-term customer success.

3. They help you understand customer needs.

Customer interviews are great for uncovering customer needs because you can have an in-depth conversation with your target audience. You can ask about specific experiences and prompt follow-up questions if something is unclear or confusing. The more you understand your customers' needs, the more effective your marketing, sales, and customer service efforts will be.

4. You get inspiration for product development.

We've all done this at some point as customers. We think of a great idea to improve our favorite brand or product, and we wish we could talk face-to-face with a product developer to bring our idea to life.

Customer interviews present this opportunity for customers to share their ideas with your business. Even if their ideas are far-fetched or implausible, they reveal what customers want from your business and show what you can improve.

5. You'll empathize with your customers.

If you don't work in customer service, interviews are a great way to understand the roadblocks customers experience when interacting with your business. When you're familiar with their problems, it becomes much easier to empathize with them when they share feedback. Not only do you see how the problem impacts the customer, but you also see why it's important for your brand to fix it. 

6. You can identify new target audiences.

Some businesses add new products and services that aren't targeted toward their usual consumers. For example, Nerf was originally a brand intended for kids but recently started selling products targeted towards pet owners. 

To understand the opportunity in this market, Nerf likely interviewed potential customers to gauge their interest in buying Nerf-branded pet products.

You can do the same in your business to see who would buy your new product, service, or feature. If the response is negative, you can either change your offer or eliminate it altogether to avoid making a costly mistake.

7. They help you learn your customers' vocabulary.

People who work in a customer-facing role usually know their customers' lingo. If you don't, then you might not be as familiar with the language and vocabulary your customers are using. 

If you use business jargon or highly technical language, your customers might not understand what you're talking about. Customer interviews are a great chance to learn how your customers speak so you can communicate with them more effectively.

8. They develop trust with your customers.

Customer interviews are useful even if you don't get the most valuable information from the conversation. Regardless of the outcome, conducting customer interviews demonstrates that you value the experience customers have, and you’re committed to improving it for them. 

9. Customer feedback helps you make successful business decisions.

Successful organizations always consider customer feedback before making any business decisions. Customer feedback tells you what customers think about your business and how they think you can improve it. Following their lead will only improve your business strategies and create a better customer experience .

Now that I’ve laid out the benefits of customer interviews, I’ll teach you how to conduct them with your customers.

1. Understand your goal.

Before you come up with questions, you should first set a goal for your customer interviews. What are you hoping to get out of your time with the customer? Are you developing a new product and want to get feedback from your existing customer base? Or are you looking to better understand the customer journey so you can streamline their experience?

Pro tip:  You can go into an interview with multiple goals, but defining them beforehand will save you and your interviewees time and energy.

2. Identify ideal customers.

You should think about the ideal customers you want to speak to. If you have a CRM , you'll have a bank of customer contacts to look through and reach out to. Once you have an example of a good interviewee in mind, use their defining characteristics to comb through your data and find other folks you’d value hearing from, too. 

Pro tip:  Use your CRM to identify customers who align with your interview objectives. Look for a mix of satisfied and dissatisfied customers to gather diverse perspectives.

3. Approach interviews with an open mind.

It can be very easy to hear negative comments about your product or service and slip into a defensive mode. While you may feel justified in shooting down this feedback, the fact is that customers are sharing how they experienced your company and its products — and you can’t dispute how they feel.

When you're going into these interviews, realize you may hear some comments or feedback you disagree with. Rather than shutting them down and wasting everyone's time, hear them out. You'll always have a few outliers with odd feedback, and those are not the comments you need to be concerned with. 

Pro tip:  It’s especially important to note recurrent issues that come up repeatedly. That’s where you’ll really make a difference in solving for your customers. 

4. Ask pertinent questions.

As you prepare for interviews, create a list of questions that will help you achieve your overarching goal. Open-ended questions are better than "yes or no" questions because they allow the interviewee to express themselves fully and explore topics you didn’t consider discussing. Also, use follow-up questions to clarify important points — especially when something is unclear or confusing.

Pro tip:  When you're preparing for the interview, anticipate how the customer might respond to your questions and what you might ask as a follow-up to get even more information.

5. Provide the option to follow up in the future.

Before you finish the interview, thank the customer for their time and ask if you can contact them in the future with more questions. This keeps the door open to get more information or possibly conduct another interview if needed.

Pro tip:  One effective approach you can take is interviewing the customer about a particular problem, and then re-interviewing them after you make an adjustment. That way, you can see if what you did actually worked and resolved their issue. This also creates an ongoing dialogue with the customer, which will strengthen your rapport with them.

6. Analyze the results.

Once you've completed your interviews, the next step is to look for commonalities in your customer feedback. Prioritize the most popular problems first since these impact the most customers at your business. 

Pro tip:  Analyzing the results is just the beginning — what really matters is fixing the issues mentioned, and in a timely manner. You can even follow up with interviewees and let them know you’ve taken their feedback into consideration, and your team will be enacting changes to rectify the problem. This makes customers who give their time and consideration to your business feel appreciated and heard. 

Nuance matters. So, besides what we've discussed, consider following these best practices to conduct successful customer interviews.

Consider doing a mix of one-on-one interviews and focus groups. 

Marketing experts like Mark Ritson strongly advocate for focus groups , and for good re ason.  “They’re a quick and cheap route to useful insights,” says Ritson . However, Ritson also states that they have flaws.

One major flaw is they're prone to bias. Interviewees might say certain things just to look smarter than others. Some interviewees might also say little or stay quiet. Consequently, the opinions of a few people dominate the conversation and distort the result. 

The bottom line? If you can, mix and match focus groups and one-on-one interviews. If you have to choose, go with one-on-one. 

Ask these five questions.

Marketers often struggle to ask the right questions during customer interviews. Customer Interview expert Louis Grenier recommends asking the following questions.

What's the trigger? What first caused you to look for this solution?

What's the pain? What's the main barrier to achieving your goal? What did you hate?

What's the journey they took? What alternatives did you look for?

What can you do now that you couldn’t do before?

What do you hate about the industry?

That last question is beneficial because, according to Grenier, few people ask it. Consequently, the responses you receive can help shape your differentiation and positioning strategy.

Don’t ask about the future.

As established earlier, no doctor fills out a prescription without first diagnosing the patient. However, no doctor expects patients to write their own prescriptions either. 

The point? It's not your customers' job to know the solution to their problems. It's yours. This clarification is essential because, as Nebesky says, “Customers may say they want one thing, but that may not be what they actually NEED to solve their problem.”

Understand that the purpose of the interview isn't to ask what customers want. It's to diagnose their needs using probing questions. So, if customers request a specific feature or product, probe deeper to uncover the underlying reason for their request. That way, you can provide the appropriate solution. But don’t expect them to supply it — that’s your job. 

Treat feature/product requests as opportunities for interviews.

If your team is small, you might think you don’t have time to fit customer interviews into your schedule, even if you understand the value of it. 

In such cases, Michele Hansen, author of Deploy Empathy, recommends you “integrate it into what you’re already doing.” Feature requests give you an opportunity to do this because the customers are already coming to you. So you don’t have to proactively recruit customers for interviews.

When you get feature requests, turn them into a customer interview by asking questions like, “What leads you to want that?” And “What are you currently using to get that done?” These questions help you dive into how the customer thinks and gauge how valuable the request is to them. 

Do your homework.

“Learn everything your company knows about the customer before going into your interview,” says Jim Lein , a marketing expert with 20+ years of experience at Oracle. Study them on LinkedIn, too. 

This helps build rapport at the beginning of the conversation, ensures your interviewees are comfortable, and makes the interview a friendly conversation rather than an interrogation. 

Learn more ways to survey customers with these strategies to obtain customer feedback .

Getting Started with Customer Interviews

As Close.com CEO Steli Efti aptly summarizes, “Whoever understands the customer best wins.” We know you want to win. But to do that, you need to know what your customers want and how they think. Customer interviews are the perfect tool you can use to fill in the gaps and build rapport with the people who matter most: Your customers. 

Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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The CEO guide to customer experience

What do my customers want? The savviest executives are asking this question more frequently than ever, and rightly so. Leading companies understand that they are in the customer-experience business, and they understand that how an organization delivers for customers is beginning to be as important as what it delivers.

This CEO guide taps the expertise of McKinsey and other experts to explore the fundamentals of customer interaction, as well as the steps necessary to redesign the business in a more customer-centric fashion and to organize it for optimal business outcomes. For a quick look at how to improve the customer experience, see the summary infographic.

Armed with advanced analytics, customer-experience leaders gain rapid insights to build customer loyalty, make employees happier, achieve revenue gains of 5 to 10 percent, and reduce costs by 15 to 25 percent within two or three years. But it takes patience and guts to train an organization to see the world through the customer’s eyes and to redesign functions to create value in a customer-centric way. The management task begins with considering the customer—not the organization—at the center of the exercise.

Customer experience

More insight into creating competitive advantage by putting customers first and managing their journeys.

Observe: Understand the interaction through the customer’s eyes

Technology has handed customers unprecedented power to dictate the rules in purchasing goods and services. Three-quarters of them, research finds, expect “now” service within five minutes of making contact online. A similar share want a simple experience, use comparison apps when they shop, and put as much trust in online reviews as in personal recommendations. Increasingly, customers expect from all players the same kind of immediacy, personalization, and convenience that they receive from leading practitioners such as Google and Amazon.

Central to connecting better with customers is putting in place several building blocks of a comprehensive improvement in customer experience.

Identify and understand the customer’s journey.

It means paying attention to the complete, end-to-end experience customers have with a company from their perspective. Too many companies focus on individual interaction touchpoints devoted to billing, onboarding, service calls, and the like. In contrast, a customer journey spans a progression of touchpoints and has a clearly defined beginning and end.

The advantage of focusing on journeys is twofold.

First, even if employees execute well on individual touchpoint interactions, the overall experience can still disappoint (Exhibit 1). More important, McKinsey research finds that customer journeys are significantly more strongly correlated with business outcomes than are touchpoints. A recent McKinsey survey, 1 1. McKinsey US cross-industry customer-experience survey, June–October 2015 data. for example, indicates customer satisfaction with health insurance is 73 percent more likely when journeys work well than when only touchpoints do. Similarly, customers of hotels that get the journey right may be 61 percent more willing to recommend than customers of hotels that merely focus on touchpoints.

Quantify what matters to your customers.

Customers hold companies to high standards for product quality, service performance, and price. How can companies determine which of these factors are the most critical to the customer segments they serve? Which generate the highest economic value? In most companies, there are a handful of critical customer journeys. Understanding them, customer segment by customer segment, helps a business to maintain focus, have a positive impact on customer satisfaction, and begin the process of redesigning functions around customer needs. Analytical tools and big data sources from operations and finance can help organizations parse the factors driving what customers say satisfies them and also the actual customer behavior that creates economic value. Sometimes initial assumptions are overturned. In one airport case study, customer satisfaction had more to do with the behavior of security personnel than with time spent in line (Exhibit 2). For a full view of the airport’s insightful customer-satisfaction exercise, see “ Developing a customer-experience vision .”

Define a clear customer-experience aspiration and common purpose.

In large, distributed organizations, a distinctive customer experience depends on a collective sense of conviction and purpose to serve the customer’s true needs. This purpose must be made clear to every employee through a simple, crisp statement of intent: a shared vision and aspiration that’s authentic and consistent with a company’s brand-value proposition. The most recognizable example of such a shared vision might be the Common Purpose 2 2. The Common Purpose is the intellectual property of The Walt Disney Company. See Talking Points , “Be our guest. . .again,” blog post by Jeff James, December 22, 2011, on disneyinstitute.com/blog. of the Walt Disney Company: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.” The statement of purpose should then be translated into a set of simple principles or standards to guide behavior all the way down to the front line.

Customer journeys are the framework that allows a company to organize itself and mobilize employees to deliver value to customers consistently, in line with its purpose. The journey construct can help align employees around customer needs, despite functional boundaries. As McKinsey’s Ron Ritter elaborated in a recent video, rallying around customers can bring the organization together.

Shape: Redesign the business from the customer back

Customer-experience leaders start with a differentiating purpose and focus on improving the most important customer journey first—whether it be opening a bank account, returning a pair of shoes, installing cable television, or even updating address and account information. Then they improve the steps that make up that journey. To manage expectations, they design supporting processes with customer psychology in mind. They transform their digital profile to remove pain points in interactions, and to set in motion the culture of continuous innovation needed to make more fundamental organizational transformations.

Apply behavioral psychology to interactions.

Deftly shaping customer perceptions can generate significant additional value. One tool leading customer-experience players deploy is behavioral psychology, used as a layer of the design process. Leading researchers have identified the major factors in customer-journey experiences that drive customer perceptions and satisfaction levels. 3 3. Richard Chase and Sriram Dasu, The Customer Service Solution: Managing Emotions, Trust, and Control to Win Your Customer’s Business , Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013. For example, savvy companies can design the sequence of interactions with customers to end on a positive note. They can merge different stages of interactions to diminish their perceived duration and engender a feeling of progress. And they can provide simple options that give customers a feeling of control and choice. One pilot study at a consumer-services firm found that improvements in customer-satisfaction scores accrued from “soft” behavioral-psychology initiatives as well as from “hard” improvements in operations (Exhibit 3).

Reinvent customer journeys using digital technologies.

Customers accustomed to the personalization and ease of dealing with digital natives such as Google and Amazon now expect the same kind of service from established players. Research shows that 25 percent of customers will defect after just one bad experience.

Customer-experience leaders can become even better by digitizing the processes behind the most important customer journeys. In these quick efforts, multidisciplinary teams jointly design, test, and iterate high-impact processes and journeys in the field, continually refining and rereleasing them after input from customers. Such methods help high-performing incumbents to release and scale major, customer-vetted process improvements in less than 20 weeks. Agile digital companies significantly outperform their competitors, according to some studies. 4 4. See The 2015 Customer Experience ROI Study , Watermark Consulting, watermarkconsult.net. To achieve those results, established businesses must embrace new ways of working.

Perform: Align the organization to deliver against tangible outcomes

As the customer experience becomes a bigger focus of corporate strategy, more and more executives will face the decision to commit their organizations to a broad customer-experience transformation. The immediate challenge will be how to structure the organization and rollout, as well as figuring out where and how to get started. Applying sophisticated measurement to what your customers are saying, empowering frontline employees to deliver against your customer vision, and a customer-centric governance structure form the foundation. Securing early economic wins will deliver value and momentum for continuous innovation.

Use customer journeys to empower the front line.

Every leading customer-experience company has motivated employees who embody the customer and brand promise in their interactions with consumers, and are empowered to do the right thing. Executives at customer-centered companies engage these employees at every level of the organization, working directly with them in retail settings, taking calls, and getting out into the field. In the early years, for example, Amazon famously staged “all hands on deck” sessions during the year-end holidays, a tradition that lives on in the employee-onboarding experience. 5 5. Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon , New York, NY: Little, Brown, 2013. Some organizations create boards or panels of customers to provide a formal feedback mechanism .

Establish metrics that capture customer feedback.

The key to satisfying customers is not just to measure what happens but also to use the data to drive action throughout the organization. The type of metric used is less important than the way it is applied . The ideal customer-experience measurement system puts journeys at the center and connects them to other critical elements such as business outcomes and operational improvements. Leading practitioners start at the top, with a metric to measure the customer experience, and then cascade downward into key customer journeys and performance indicators, taking advantage of employee feedback to identify improvement opportunities (Exhibit 4).

Put cross-functional governance in place.

Even for companies that collaborate smoothly, shifting to a customer-centric model that cuts across functions is not an easy task. To move from knowledge to action, companies need proper governance and leadership . Best-in-class organizations have governance structures that include a sponsor—a chief customer officer—and an executive champion for each of their primary cross-functional customer journeys. They also have full-time teams carrying out their day-to-day work in the existing organization. To succeed, the transformation must take place within normal operations. To foster understanding and conviction, leaders at all levels must role-model the behavior they expect from these teams, constantly communicating the changes needed. Formal reinforcement mechanisms and skill-building activities at multiple levels of the organization support the transformation, as well. In a recent video, McKinsey’s Ewan Duncan describes how rewiring a company in this way is typically a two- to four-year journey.

Log early wins to demonstrate value creation.

Too many customer-experience transformations stall because leaders can’t show how these efforts create value. Executives, citing the benefits of improved customer relations, launch bold initiatives to delight customers that end up having clear costs and unclear near-term results. The better way is to build an explicit link to value creation by defining the outcomes that really matter, analyzing historical performance of satisfied and dissatisfied customers, and focusing on customer satisfaction issues with the highest payouts. This requires discipline and patience, but the result will be early wins that will build confidence within the organization and momentum to innovate further.

Delighting customers by mastering the concept and execution of an exceptionally good customer experience is a challenge. But it is an essential requirement for leading in an environment where customers wield growing power.

Related Articles

Designing and starting up a customer-experience transformation

From touchpoints to journeys: Seeing the world as customers do

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MASTERING PRIVATE EQUITY CASE STUDIES: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

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​ Having progressed through the initial stages outlined in our preparation guide , you are now about to enter the case study phase of the interview process. This stage closely mirrors the tasks you'll perform on the job, testing your analytical skills, strategic thinking, and investment rationale. 

Regardless of the level you enter the fund at, the case study is a generally accepted practice and forms one of the three key pillars of any successful interview process: structured interviews, work–based tests, and psychometric assessments based on empirical evidence.

To help you succeed, this guide delves into the nuances of PE case studies, offering insights from industry experts and best practices.

The Essence of the PE Case Study

A private equity case study typically requires evaluating a potential investment opportunity. You’ll receive an Information Memorandum (IM) for a company the PE firm could consider investing in, potentially some supporting information (industry news/benchmarking), and possibly a part-completed model (though often you are asked to prepare this from scratch). Your task is to value the company and formulate an investment proposal, including whether or not to invest. Keep in mind that this task may not be exclusive. The key lies not only in your final decision but also in the depth and logic of your analysis.

Types of PE Case Studies:

1. paper lbo/dcf.

A Paper LBO/DCF involves a simplified leveraged buyout or discounted cashflow model performed on paper or verbally, focusing on core concepts without the aid of a computer.

Preparation Strategy

Understand Core Concepts: Be well-versed in the fundamentals of LBO and DCF models.

Practice-Without Tools: Get comfortable performing calculations manually or explaining your thought process clearly without visual aids.

2. Timed LBO Modelling Test

A Timed LBO Modelling Test is a fast-paced, 1-3 hour on-site or remote test focused on speed and accuracy. These are often designed to understand the gaps in your skill-set, so it is not about achieving the perfect result, but creating a well thought-through working model. It is therefore important to pace yourself and breakdown what to focus on and when before you start.

Speed and Accuracy: Hone your Excel skills and practice building LBO models quickly.

Simulate Test Conditions: Replicate the pressure of a timed test to build your endurance and efficiency.

3. Take-home LBO Model and Presentation

The Take-home LBO Model and Presentation involves a comprehensive analysis where you might have a weekend or a week to build a full LBO model and prepare a detailed investment recommendation. Typically, you will then be asked to submit your findings and return to present 

Detailed Analysis: Conduct thorough research and develop a comprehensive model. Ensure the numbers balance and that you are not making assumptions based on incorrect data.

Effective Presentation: Focus on creating a clear, concise, and compelling presentation of your findings and recommendations.

4. Commercial Case Studies

Commercial case studies are less frequently used but typically deployed when you come from a non-financial background, such as commercial consulting or industry. In this scenario, you are either presented with a CIM or some high-level information about a business and then asked to think through aspects like business model, unit economics, market dynamics, growth opportunities, investment risks, KPIs, and areas of additional diligence.

Develop a Structured Approach: Create a framework for methodically analysing businesses. Practice with a few random CIMs you can find online. Example framework:

Revenue Generation: How does the business generate revenue? What does it sell, and how does it sell these products or services?

Revenue Evolution: How is the company’s ability to generate revenue likely to evolve? What are its growth prospects?

Direct Costs: What are the direct costs associated with its revenue streams? Is it a people-oriented cost structure, a SaaS business, or a materials-based cost structure?

Indirect Costs: What indirect costs are required to drive revenue? Consider factors like sales intensity and capital intensity.

Financial Understanding: Understand growth rates, margin profiles, operating leverage, unit economics, and cash flow profiles.

Market Positioning and Dynamics: Where is the business positioned in the value chain? What external factors, such as changing market dynamics and competition, will impact the business model

Dissecting the Case Study

To effectively analyse a potential investment in a private equity case study, it is crucial to break down the company and its environment into several key areas. Each aspect provides insight into different facets of the business and its viability as an investment. This section outlines the essential components you should examine, from industry dynamics to the specifics of the transaction, ensuring a comprehensive analysis.

Industry Analysis

Key Products and Markets: Understand the company’s primary products and markets and the main demand drivers.

Market Participants and Competition: Analyse the competitive landscape and the intensity of competition.

Industry Cyclicality: Determine the cyclical nature of the industry and external factors influencing it, such as regulatory changes or economic cycles.

Company Analysis

Position in Industry: Assess the company’s market position and growth trajectory.

Operational Leverage and Margins: Evaluate the cost structure and sustainability of margins.

Management and Cash Needs: Consider the effectiveness of the management team and the company’s working capital requirements.

Financial Analysis

Revenue Drivers and Stability: Identify revenue drivers, growth potential, and stability.

Cost Structure: Examine supplier diversity, fixed versus variable costs, and capex requirements.

Competitive Analysis: Assess industry concentration, buyer and supplier power, brand strength, and potential substitutes.

Growth Prospects

Scalability and Efficiency: Evaluate scalability and potential efficiency improvements.

Due Diligence: Consider environmental, legal, and operational risks.

Transaction Analysis

LBO Model: Build a leveraged buyout model to project financial performance and returns.

Valuation and Debt Capacity: Justify your valuation and the company’s ability to raise and service debt.

Exit Opportunities: Assess potential exit strategies and their impact on returns.

Building a Leveraged Buyout Model

Creating a full 3-statement model is crucial, and it's important to ensure it balances. You will typically build this from scratch, and we recommend a buyout overlay (especially for large-cap funds). While formatting isn't a primary concern, the model should lead you to a clear view of the deal's merits and risks, culminating in a definitive recommendation—whether to invest or not.

Key Components of the Model

Income Statement: Shows the company's revenue, expenses, and net income over a specific period.

Balance Sheet: Displays the company's assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity at a specific point in time, providing a financial snapshot.

Cash Flow Statement: This statement illustrates the company's cash inflows and outflows from operating, investing, and financing activities over a specific period.

Ensuring it balances is a core principle because it reflects the fundamental accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity. In simpler terms, everything a company owns (assets) must be financed by what it owes (liabilities) and the money invested by shareholders (equity). The 3-statement model is designed to be internally consistent, so changes in one statement should automatically flow through and impact the other statements, ensuring the balance sheet remains balanced.

Buyout Overlay

With a buyout overlay to the model, we can determine:

Financial Assumptions:

Buyout Price: Determine the price per share the private equity firm will pay for the company. Techniques for this can include:

Market Valuation Techniques

Market Multiples: Compares the target company's financial metrics to publicly traded companies in the same industry.

Transaction Multiples: Analyses recent M&A deals in the same industry.

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation: Considers the target company's future cash flows, discounting them to their present value to arrive at a company valuation.

Financing Structure: Specify the debt and equity financing mix used to fund the buyout, impacting the company's capital structure and future cash flows.

Exit Strategy: Consider the private equity firm's expected exit timeline, influencing future growth assumptions.

Income Statement:

Impact on Revenue: Analyse if the buyout will affect the company's pricing strategy, market access, or growth initiatives.

Impact on Expenses: Consider potential changes in management structure, financing costs (interest on debt), or one-time transaction fees.

Balance Sheet:

Shareholder Equity Elimination: Upon buyout, existing shareholder equity gets replaced by new equity issued to the private equity firm.

Debt Assumption: Account for the new debt used to finance the buyout, increasing the company's liabilities.

Cash Flow Impact: Model the cash outflow for the buyout transaction and the ongoing cash flow implications of the new debt (interest payments).

Cash Flow Statement:

Financing Activities: Reflect the cash inflow from the debt portion of the buyout financing.

Debt Service: Include the cash outflow for ongoing interest payments on the new debt.

Iteration and Sensitivity Analysis:

Refine Assumptions: Based on industry benchmarks and company-specific factors.

Perform Sensitivity Analysis: See how variations in buyout price, financing structure, or growth assumptions impact the model's outputs.

Presenting Back to the Business

Effectively presenting your analysis to the business is a critical part of the private equity case study process. This step involves synthesising your findings into a clear and compelling narrative that highlights the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis). By doing so, you can provide a comprehensive view of the potential investment, showcasing both its merits and risks. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what to consider when presenting your findings to ensure a thorough and persuasive presentation.

Strengths (Internal - Positive)

Financial Performance: Examine profitability (margins, net income), revenue growth, and cash flow generation.

Competitive Advantage: Identify unique selling propositions or strategic advantages.

Management Team: Evaluate the management team's experience, track record, and expertise.

Product/Service: Consider the quality, innovation, and market demand for the company's offerings.

Operational Efficiency: Analyse production processes, inventory management, and cost structure.

Weaknesses (Internal - Negative)

Financial Performance: Identify weaknesses in profitability, cash flow, or high debt levels.

Market Position: Assess the company’s competitive challenges.

Product/Service: Evaluate the relevance and competitiveness of products or services.

Operational Inefficiencies: Identify inefficiencies in production, supply chain, or overhead costs.

Management Team: Assess any gaps in management experience or track record.

Opportunities (External - Positive)

Market Growth: Identify growth potential in the target market.

Industry Trends: Leverage favourable industry trends.

Technology Advancements: Consider new technologiesto enhance the company's products or services.

Acquisitions: Explore potential acquisitions or partnerships.

Economic Conditions: Evaluate positive economic factors that could benefit the company.

Threats (External - Negative)

Market Competition: Assess the impact of increasing competition.

Economic Downturn: Consider the potential impact of economic slowdowns.

Regulatory Changes: Identify new regulations that could increase costs or restrict operations.

Technological Disruption: Evaluate the threat of emerging technologies.

Political Instability: Consider the impact of political or economic instability in the company’s operating regions.

Key Tips for Success

Prioritise depth over breadth.

Concentrate on the most crucial elements of your analysis. It's better to delve deeply into a few critical points than to cover too many topics superficially.

Simulate Realistic Conditions

Practice under time constraints to enhance your speed and accuracy. Replicating the pressure of a real case study will help you perform better during the actual interview.

Utilise Mock Case Studies

Engage with mock case studies and seek feedback from industry professionals. This will help you refine your approach and improve your analytical skills.

Be Honest and Transparent

If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it. Honesty is valued over attempting to bluff, as interviewers can easily spot insincerity.

Align with the Firm’s Philosophy

Customise your analysis to match the investment strategy of the private equity firm you are interviewing. Understanding and reflecting on the firm’s investment style can distinguish you from other candidates.

Succeeding in a private equity case study requires a blend of analytical rigour, strategic insight, and effective communication. The process tests your technical skills and ability to think like an investor and articulate your ideas clearly. Here are the key takeaways to ensure success:

Analytical Rigour: Dive deep into financial data to uncover meaningful insights. Develop a robust understanding of the company's financial health through detailed analysis of income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.

Strategic Insight: Go beyond numbers. Assess the company's market position, competitive landscape, growth prospects, and potential risks. Identify where value can be created and understand the broader industry dynamics.

Effective Communication: Your ability to present your findings clearly, concisely, and compellingly is crucial. Ensure your presentation is structured logically, highlights the key points, and supports your investment thesis with solid evidence.

Value Creation Focus: Always keep the potential for value creation at the forefront of your analysis. Consider how operational improvements, strategic repositioning, or market expansion can enhance the company's value.

Practice and Preparation: Simulate real case study conditions to build speed and accuracy. Engage with mock case studies and seek feedback from industry professionals to refine your approach.

Customisation: Tailor your analysis to align with the specific investment philosophy of the PE firm you’re interviewing with. Understanding the firm's strategy and past investments can provide valuable context and make your presentation more relevant.

Focusing on these areas can demonstrate your potential as a valuable investment professional. Remember, the case study is not just a test of your analytical abilities but a showcase of how you approach problem-solving and decision-making in a real-world context.

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