Framework
Expert calls vs customer interviews: four costs of the proxy
What you lose each time the evidence comes from someone who knows the market instead of someone who buys in it
A framework of the four things you lose when an expert network call stands in for talking to customers: observation turns into recall, answers get smoothed into a neat story, the people available skew in who they are, and nobody on the call can churn. Use it when a diligence or market-entry plan leans only on expert calls. Koji runs AI-moderated interviews with your own customers or with buyers it recruits, so the demand side gets heard too.
Where this appears
What's in this framework
- Recall replaces observation: An expert describes what buyers wanted when they last sat across from them. A customer describes what they are choosing now.
- Narrative smoothing: Experts are paid to be articulate. Real buying is messy and contradictory, and a tidy answer hides the constraints.
- Selection: People who take paid consulting calls skew toward the between-roles, the recently departed and the professionally available.
- Nobody in the call can churn: An expert has no account, renewal date or budget line, so they cannot tell you whether your customers are about to leave.
Use this image
Free to use in your docs, decks and posts under CC BY 4.0, as long as you credit Koji with a link to this page. To embed it, paste this into your page:
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/expert-testimony-vs-customer-evidence-four-costs"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/expert-testimony-vs-customer-evidence-four-costs/expert-testimony-vs-customer-evidence-four-costs.png" alt="Framework of four costs of using expert network calls instead of customer interviews: recall over observation, narrative smoothing, selection and no churn risk." width="1200" height="802" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/expert-testimony-vs-customer-evidence-four-costs">Expert calls vs customer interviews: four costs of the proxy</a>, Koji</p>
