Writing a great customer story

Personalization of messages, websites, content, and offers has become a key differentiator for businesses today. Customers want to feel special, to know with confidence that a product or service is absolutely the right fit for them and not made for a generalized public. They need to see themselves using it and benefiting from it.

But how do you do that without adding another technology to your already growing tech stack?

Here’s where good content comes in. I’ve worked with many different companies in my career producing content and the most successful of all types is the customer story, or as its most commonly referred to: the case study.

Sure, a flashy video introducing your product or telling people how they’ll become superheroes using it is great, but that’s a pretty generic piece because not all use cases for your product are the same. It also doesn’t speak to every type of user you may have unless you’ve invested in developing unique videos for all user personas. Plus, videos can be expensive and take a while to produce. You need these to create awareness, but how do you hook people?

A case study is different. It can, and should, take several forms depending on how your buyers like to consume their content, such as a written version or in video delivery. But the meat of the story is the customer. And how they’re using your product. AND it allows the reader to see themselves using that product and getting the same results as your customer.

How do you get started telling a good customer story?

Get permission to use the customer’s company name publicly

This piece has two parts.

1.     Legal permission – Some companies require that their legal teams sign off on the usage of the company name in any capacity that might be construed as endorsing another’s product. Make sure you understand whether or not this is needed before going on because it can save you cycles.

2.     Named vs. anonymous – Being able to name your customer publicly validates (in the mind of the readers) the claims made in the customer story. This carries so much underestimated value and is worth a bit of extra work to obtain the ability to name the customer. Anonymous case studies are fine if there is no alternative, but they are typically held in poor esteem because it lacks validation and customers perceive it as fabricated. Don’t lose trust with the customer if you can help it.

Be certain on who USES your product

This may feel like a duh moment, but many companies reach out to the buyer of the product for a case study and not the actual user. They may be one and the same, but typically they aren’t and while the buyer may know how the company has benefited from using the product, they are removed from the actual usage.

The user cares about how the product works and how it improves their ability to do their work. If they are happy and successful, so will be your case study. They must be part of telling your story. Real, potential customers want to know how the sausage is made and buyers can’t tell that story.

Obtain a technology AND business perspective

When I’ve interviewed customers to write case studies, I often have several people from the customer’s business on the line. I want different perspectives because it makes the story richer. The two types of people I want on that call are:

• the user, as mentioned above, that represents the technology, and

• a business benefiter

The user will tell you about how they use the product and what it does for them. Include technical content. This can be a controversial topic as people can be afraid to disclose anything that might put their IP at risk, but prospects want this information. Give readers enough to want to ask more pointed, 1:1 questions directly with you.

The business benefiter will tell you how the business itself is realizing value: Has it improved overall security, has it improved ARR, are processes more efficient, are costs lower, etc. This is where the numbers come in and allows the reader of this story to be able to validate why its company may want to consider your products or services.

Talk about the tangible benefits

Products that actually solve a real problem always have tangible benefits. These should be relatively easy to determine.

From my experience, customers love talking about how they are benefiting from the product. And they often have more than one success metric. Talk about and document them all, even if you don’t use them in your story. Take this feedback back to your engineering team or product team so they know what people like. Take it back to your marketing team so that they know how to improve messaging, especially in areas that haven’t been considered before.

What are the intangible benefits?

Intangible benefits humanize a story. How does the product make the customer feel? What does it allow the customer to do now that they couldn’t before? Talk about it.

Tell the story in a classic pattern

People love a good story. So, introduce the characters, state the conflict, introduce the remedy, tie it up with a happy ending.

You want your customer to go on an adventure with you. Most companies just talk about the benefits or the happy ending. But what about the journey? The journey is where we get invested in anything. Otherwise, most novels would be five pages long. Make it memorable.

Ask questions that tell you more about your product

My other tip is to record your interviews and then transcribe them to make it easier to write. You always have a record of what the customers said and its context. It’s highly likely you won’t use all the content you captured because that would make the case study so long that no one will want to read it in this day of 20 second attention spans. But you will have something you can share with your cross-functional teams to help them do their job better and improve the product.

Ask questions about how quickly they implemented it, how they learned about the product or service, how they decided on your product and not the competition’s, what things do they like and don’t like about your product/service or the company. It’s all valuable.

Now go ask for the interview!

Need help building a library of customer stories? I can help. Take a look at my Content Strategy and Development services. Let’s chat!