Case studies that resonate

LinkedIn: Great customer stories are important, but well-packaged ones win the day. 

In a complex marketplace, it’s often a challenge to stay ahead based merely on what you do. Success is often related more to “the way you do, what you do” — and that has everything to do with the customer experience. 

Enter the case history, case study, or as some like to refer to it, the “customer story.” Effective examples answer the basics:

• Who are you? 

• Can you solve my problem? 

• Who else have you worked with?

Great customer stories are important, but well-packaged ones win the day. Many companies I’ve worked with fall into one of a handful of familiar case study traps: 

 – Too long. 

 – Overly technical. 

 – Way too self-promotional. 

 – So scholarly, it’s painful. 

Usually, the best antidote is common sense, coupled with industry knowledge. 

You can easily improve your customer success communications by keeping the following in mind:

What’s in it for the reader? Keeping clear the perspective between your story and its consumer is paramount. Direct the information to the target, using language — and media — he or she uses. 

Would anybody outside my industry be interested in this? If the answer is, “Probably not,” then you aren’t telling the story as effectively as you could. Step one: lose the jargon.

Get them on the record. Testimony lends credibility. Strive hard to obtain permission not only to name the organizations you help but also to quote, on the record, the principal executive[s] discussing the journey with you.

What really happened here? Problem, solution, result: these advance action and provide context. 

To uncover the real story you must be willing to dig deeper. Were there hiccups, and maybe conflict, along the way? What was that like? That’s precisely where things get interesting.

What people ultimately decide about working with your organization depends on a style — the way of doing what you do that separates you from others. Let your communications echo this!

So, how to go about writing case studies that resonate? 

Include these Essentials: Making customer stories or case studies effective entails proper organization of facts, active voice, concise/vivid detail, measurable results and a clean conclusion.

• Structured approach: Problem, Implication, Need, Solution = PINS

• Customer quote. This can add time, but it’s 100% worth it.

• Measurable results. Although we might not always get analytical results, if we keep asking questions, usually it leads to specifics – growth percentage, hours/staffers saved, etc.

• Photography/illustration/logo(s). 

• Understand the importance of video. According to Forbes Insight, 59% of senior executives would rather view a customer story including video, than consume it via print only. Much more on this to come in a later post. 

• Social media to promote the article.

Questions? I’m happy to help your firm with any of the above.