What makes a good interviewer? In the end it comes down to instinct, being interested in people and downright nosiness – if you’ve got that, you’re away. However, if you aren’t naturally inclined to acquiring vast amounts of information from people you meet in work, at parties or at the bus stop then here are a few tips to start you off.

Choosing a venue. I prefer to do one-to-one interviews and avoid anyone else tagging along, even if it’s the account manager. Most people are closet journalists and tend to interject with a question or piece of information they think you’ve missed - usually leaping ahead of what you are doing and disrupting your interview gameplan.

If time is limited then try meeting at a neutral venue such as a café. At an interviewee’s home or place of work they may keep breaking off to demonstrate something or introduce you to people and the interview can stretch on for ages, running up the client’s costs.

Phone interviews While many interviewees don’t like the idea of being interviewed by phone, it can be the easiest, simplest and by far the least time-consuming way of conducting an interview.

Homework. Find out as much as you can about your interviewee and their business in advance. This helps you to ask the right questions and cuts down the interview time. Business clients, in particular, will expect you to be very au fait with their business. It also helps, as you progress with the interview, to drop in snippets such as “oh yes, that was the XXX contract”. It shows you are genuinely interested in them.

Control. Maintain control of your interview. One helpful tip is to make a list of subjects you want to cover on a piece of paper - not your notepad - and keep it to hand so you can check you haven’t missed anything, refer to it as you go along and work through in order. This will help you get back into the interview if you digress.

Warm your subject up. If you are arranging the interview in advance give your subject a brief idea of the kind of thing you will be looking for to give them a chance to think about it, source relevant details or make some notes. I try to avoid sending e-mail questions. People sometimes feel nervous about being interviewed and an interview by e-mail allows them to just flick back e-mailed responses which rarely gives you everything you want.

If appropriate, kick off the interview with a brief chat - if you are doing a profile then just asking them to talk about themselves and give a brief career resume might not be relevant but gets them talking and over their discomfort.

From there you can move on what they are doing now.  Avoid going off on tangents or bringing in issues about yourself, although that’s acceptable if it’s something very relevant - perhaps you know someone in common - that will encourage them to talk more. Just make sure you bring the subject back to the point you broke off.

Many people feel uncomfortable just talking for fifteen minutes or so. If you are doing an interview in person then you can generally respond with facial expressions or a few words. With phone interviews, as well as questions, I tend to interject when relevant with a “how interesting” or “oh yes I‘ve heard about that” type stuff - just to show I’m interested in what they are saying and to stop them drying up.

Direct questions. Ask questions politely but directly. Don’t say “Do you mind talking about…?” I was once at a press conference with a very haughty English actor who managed to answer just “yes” or “no” to every question. We suspected he’d perfected this technique over some years simply for the pleasure of irritating hacks. Our very glamorous features editor, on the other hand, swanned in for an interview with him the next day bearing a bottle of his favourite whisky (see previous note on doing your research) and opened the encounter with a gushing “I hope you don’t mind me confessing that I think you are absolutely wonderful”, and he was putty in her hands.

Always check spellings of names. I’ve encountered many variations on traditional names – Miles/Myles, James/Jaimes/Jaymes Michael/Micheal, Jonathan/Jonothan/Jonathon, Kimberley/Kimberlea.

Sticky questions This applies more to interviewing for the media than PR. If there’s a sticky question to be asked, at what point in the interview do you risk annoying your interviewee? I prefer to ask such questions directly, while acknowledging that it’s a difficult subject, as soon as I’m satisfied I’ve got enough material to write something if they throw a tantrum and flounce off. Most of the time I find the interviewee appreciates your candour and it saves you being nervous throughout the interview and them looking twitchy and defensive waiting for that question to come. However, many interviewers prefer to save it for the end so they can grab their notepad and bolt for the door. It comes down to whatever suits you best. Always Always end an interview by asking the interviewee if there is anything else they would like to say or include.

Always. Always end an interview by asking the interviewee if there is anything else they would like to say or include.