Reference-call script: twelve questions to ask another customer

Insist on calls without the vendor on the line, with customers you choose. The DBSE review pool is a good place to find them; a message through a war room keeps it private.

Opening (2 minutes)

Say what you are deciding, by when, and between which vendors. Ask whether they have any affiliation with the vendor beyond being a customer.

The twelve questions

1. What did you replace, and what made you switch?
2. How long did deployment actually take, and what surprised you?
3. How many hours a week does your team spend running it now?
4. Which feature from the demo did you never get working the way it was shown?
5. What has support been like at severity one, and at "working as designed"?
6. What did the renewal look like, and what uplift did you get?
7. Which add-ons did you end up buying, and were they needed?
8. What would you do differently in the first ninety days?
9. What has the product removed or changed in the last two years that hurt?
10. Have you had an incident the product missed, and how was it handled?
11. Would you buy it again, today, against the current alternatives?
12. Who else should I talk to?

Closing (3 minutes)

Ask permission to quote them anonymously in your internal write-up. Offer the same favour in return. Then write the answers into your scorecard within the hour, while the nuance is fresh.