Follow-up probes for paid social customer interviews, task by task

An opening interview question gets a story, and the follow-up probes decide whether the story is usable. In paid social customer interviews, a good probe asks for a date, an artefact or the person who acted next. A bad probe asks the participant to rate, predict or praise anything.

What to take away

Open the call with the participant's choice

Say at the start that taking part is voluntary and that the participant can stop or withdraw their consent at any time. The GOV.UK Service Manual advises repeating that reminder at the beginning and end of the session.

Record the role and organisation unit beside each account. A commissioning owner can describe the need, while an operator may only see the final instruction, so the same question can give different answers from different roles. Note who is speaking before noting what was said. A named research-ethics reviewer and a UK privacy professional must approve the actual study before recruitment.

Probe by task area

Each area below gives the opening question word for word, then the probes that follow it. All start from the most recent completed or attempted piece of work and ask what happened and who did it, never whether it went well.

The last brief

Open with: "Think about the most recent paid social brief you worked on. What decision started it, and what happened from that point?"

Then probe: "Which date did that decision land, and which document shows it?" and "Who acted next?" Do not ask whether the process was efficient, because that invites a verdict rather than a sequence. A brief written by one role and instructed by another is two accounts, so note both.

The approval that released money

Open with: "For that piece of work, how was the amount approved, changed or stopped?"

Then probe: "Who owned the budget?", "Which procurement route did it follow?", "Who paid the platform for the media?" and "What evidence did the decision rest on?" Do not ask for the amount itself unless it is necessary and approved in the protocol.

An access change

Open with: "What was the last platform permission you added or removed, and how did you check the result?"

Then probe: "Which platform was it, such as Meta, TikTok or LinkedIn?", "Who granted it?" and "Who confirmed it worked?" Never request a password, recovery code or live customer list, because the account of the change is all the study needs.

One creative approval

Open with: "Take the most recent advert you are able to discuss. Which claims and disclosures and accessible formats were checked, and by whom?"

Then probe: "Where was that check recorded?" and "Which claim needed evidence?" The topic is the decision trail, not whether the advert was good. CAP Code Section 2 addresses recognition of marketing communications, but its rules do not validate an interview claim, so route legal interpretation to a qualified reviewer.

The last report

Open with: "When you last reviewed performance, which records disagreed, and what decision followed?"

Then probe: "How was the event defined?", "Which attribution period did each record use?", "Did finance reconcile the figures?" and "What data was missing?" Do not convert platform-attributed actions into incremental effect in your notes.

Weigh each answer by who gave it

One interviewee's recollection is not proof of authority. Seek a permitted record or a second role before treating an answer as the way the organisation works. A measurement user can explain reporting practice but may not know the commercial outcome.

Keep findings bounded to the interviewed sample. Report the recruitment source, the rule used to decide who counted as in England, invitations, eligible participants, completions, withdrawals, field dates, missing roles and the analysis method. The research protocol covers how the sample is drawn. Stop fieldwork when the preset sample rule is met, harm emerges or secure handling fails.

Pause the recording when the call drifts

Pause recording at once if credentials or unrelated personal data appear. A participant who reads out a password or shares a live customer list has moved outside the study, so note that the pause happened and why before resuming.

Google's manager-account overview shows that linked-account arrangements exist, but it does not describe the participant's configuration. Ask the participant what was set up, and do not infer it from a help page.

Close the call without opening a sales route

Agreement to record does not grant a testimonial, case study or promotional quotation. Later sales email is another purpose. The ICO's electronic mail marketing guidance says you must not send marketing emails or texts to individuals without specific consent, so do not treat participation as a lead opt-in.

The ICO distinguishes research participation from UK GDPR lawful-basis consent in its valid-consent guidance. Determine the basis for processing separately, before any contact for another purpose.

Before you act

Common questions

What should follow the opening question?

A probe for dates, artefacts and who acted next. Ask what happened and who did it, not whether it went well.

Can an interviewer ask for the budget figure?

Only if the figure is necessary and approved in the protocol. Otherwise ask who owned the budget and what evidence supported the decision.

What happens if the participant wants to stop?

The call stops. Participants can stop or withdraw their consent at any time, and the participation record and withdrawal route prepared before recruitment say what happens to the data collected so far.