User interview guide for Small Business & Shops

Your prompt is ready 1 bracket to fill

You are an expert in this kind of work, and you know the Small Business & Shops sector from the inside.

## Your task
Write a 30-minute user interview guide for local customers, walk-in buyers and followers on WhatsApp and Instagram of a small business such as a shop, local service or home business with 1 to 20 people to learn about [TOPIC]. Include the intro, warm-up, 10 open questions about past behaviour (not opinions about the future), follow-up probes and a wrap-up.

## About my situation
- What we must respect: GST and local shop rules, a tight budget and very little staff time
- How we measure success: monthly sales and repeat customers

## What matters in Small Business & Shops
- How customers decide: most customers live or work nearby; they choose on trust, price, convenience and how well they are treated; word of mouth, Google reviews and WhatsApp matter more than ads; many pay by UPI and like asking questions on WhatsApp first.
- Numbers that matter: monthly sales; repeat customers; average bill value; profit margin per product; cash in hand at month end; Google rating and number of reviews; enquiries from WhatsApp and Instagram.
- Rules and standards that usually apply: GST registration, invoices and returns once turnover crosses the limit (in India); shop and establishment registration and local trade licences; FSSAI licence for anything involving food; consumer-protection rules on prices, MRP and refunds; consent before adding people to WhatsApp or SMS broadcast lists.
- Tools commonly used: WhatsApp Business; Google Business Profile; Instagram; UPI apps and QR codes; billing apps such as Vyapar, Khatabook or Tally; Canva.
- Rules differ by country. If I have not said where I work, ask me, and do not present one country's law as if it applied everywhere.

## How to work through it
1. Write an intro and warm-up.
2. Write ten questions about past behaviour.
3. Add follow-up probes.
4. Write a wrap-up.

## What to deliver
- Interview guide
- Note-taking template

## Rules
- Make every point specific to my situation and my industry; replace generic advice with detail that fits.
- Use plain language, short sentences, and tables where they make the answer easier to scan.
- Use only the facts I give you. Do not invent figures, laws, sources or quotes. Mark anything you had to assume with "Assumption:".
- If something important is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions before you start.

## Before you answer
Check your draft against this list and fix anything that fails:
- Each feature is tied to a user problem and a measurable outcome.
- It is written for a small business such as a shop, local service or home business with 1 to 20 people; nothing in it would read the same for any other business.
- Nothing in it breaks GST and local shop rules, a tight budget and very little staff time.
- Every item under "What to deliver" is included.

Open in ChatGPT Claude Perplexity

How to use this prompt

Copy the prompt. Press Copy prompt and the full text goes to your clipboard.
Fill the brackets. Use the form above, or replace [TOPIC] with your own details.
Paste and send. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and send. Ask follow-up questions to refine the answer.

Why this prompt works

The “User interview guide” prompt tells the assistant exactly what to hand back: interview guide; and note-taking template. It makes the assistant work through 4 steps in order, starting with "write an intro and warm-up", instead of jumping straight to an answer. Before replying, the assistant checks its draft against 4 tests and fixes anything that fails.

This version is written for a small business such as a shop, local service or home business with 1 to 20 people, so the assistant keeps GST and local shop rules, a tight budget and very little staff time in mind and judges the result by monthly sales and repeat customers. If an important detail is missing, it asks you up to 3 short questions before it starts.

How to get the best answer

Fill every bracket with real detail: [TOPIC] should hold real names, numbers and dates, not placeholders.
Paste real material: where the prompt asks for notes, data or text, paste the actual content rather than a summary.
Refine in the same chat: ask "make it shorter", "turn it into a table" or "add more detail on step 2".
Check the result: review it against what you know about monthly sales and repeat customers before you share it.

Other industries

Same prompt for other industries

The same user interview guide prompt, rewritten for each industry.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which AI assistant works best with the “User interview guide” prompt?

The “User interview guide” prompt works in any chat assistant and suits ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini best. Paste it in, send it, and ask follow-up questions in the same chat to refine the answer.

What do I fill in before sending the “User interview guide” prompt?

Replace the highlighted bracket – [TOPIC] – with your own details. The more specific you are, the better the answer.

Is the “User interview guide” prompt only for Small Business & Shops?

No. This version is written for a small business such as a shop, local service or home business with 1 to 20 people, and the same prompt is also written for 15 other industries, listed on this page.

Is the “User interview guide” prompt free to use?

Yes. First AI Prompt prompts are free to copy and use in personal and business work, with no sign-up, no account and no daily limit.

Can I trust the answer the “User interview guide” prompt gives?

Treat it as a strong first draft: the prompt tells the assistant not to invent facts and to mark its assumptions, but check figures yourself, especially anything with legal, financial or safety consequences.

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