Video Testimonial Interview Questions: A Copyable Question Bank

Video testimonial interview questions should draw out a customer's story in their own words: what was going on before, why they chose you, what working together was like and what changed. The question bank below is grouped in that order, ready to copy. This page is part of our video production guide.

How to use this question bank: choose ten to fifteen questions across the groups, copy them into your interview notes, and follow up on anything specific. Read the last group before the shoot.

Start with easy warm-up questions

Warm-ups settle the speaker and give the crew time to check sound and picture. Some answers make good introductions in the edit.

• Tell me your name, your role and what your business does.
• How long have you been doing this work?
• What does a normal day look like for you?
• Who are your customers, in a sentence or two?
• What do you enjoy most about your job?

Ask about the problem before you

The story needs a "before". Ask for specific moments, not general complaints.

• What was going on in your business before we started working together?
• What had you already tried, and how did that go?
• Tell me about a moment when the problem really got in the way.
• How was that affecting you or your team day to day?
• What would have happened if nothing had changed?
• What made you decide it was time to look for help?

Ask why they chose you

These answers speak to other people at the same decision point, so let the speaker explain it their way.

• How did you first hear about us?
• What were you looking for in a partner at that point?
• What made you choose us over the other options?
• Did you have any doubts before starting? What were they?
• What happened that put those doubts to rest?

Ask about the experience of working together

Process answers make the result believable. Ask for details a viewer can picture.

• Walk me through what happened once we got started.
• Tell me about a moment in the project that stands out.
• How did communication work along the way?
• Did anything surprise you about working with us?
• How did we handle it when something didn't go to plan?
• Who on our team did you work with most, and what were they like?

Ask about the result in their own words

Let the speaker describe the result. Don't suggest numbers or outcomes they haven't raised themselves.

• What is different now compared with before we started?
• How do your customers or team react to the result?
• Tell me about the first time you noticed things had changed.
• How does it feel to see the finished work?
• Describe the result in one sentence to someone who's never heard of us.
• Who would you recommend us to, and why?

Close and capture pickups

End on an open question, then record the short lines the edit will need.

• Tell me anything else you'd like to say that we haven't asked about.
• If you could tell your past self one thing before starting, what would it be?
• Record a short, clean intro: name, role and business, said in one line.
• Record room tone with everyone in the room still and quiet.

Run the interview so answers sound natural

The questions only work if the speaker forgets the camera. These habits help, and our guide on how to light an interview covers the setup.

• Send the topics in advance, never a script or suggested answers.
• Ask the speaker to answer in full sentences that include the question.
• Have one person ask every question, seated beside the lens.
• Pause for a beat after each answer before moving on.
• Follow up with "tell me more about that" when an answer gets specific.
• Ask again in different words if an answer comes out rehearsed.
• Avoid feeding lines or asking the speaker to repeat your phrasing.
• U.S. FTC guidance: if speakers were told in advance their words might appear in ads, disclose that in the ad.

Testimonials are planned like any interview: the questions replace the script. Our guide on how to write a video script explains how the story outline works, and the shoot day run-of-showshoot day run-of-show covers the day itself. For the bigger picture on making these videos, see our post on testimonial video production, or have our in-house video production team plan, shoot and edit the whole piece, with no handoffs.