It’s one thing to appreciate the huge value of customer stories. It’s another to have them as an active part of your marketing. So, many businesses fail at the first hurdle: getting your customers to say “yes”. Let’s have a look at this so you feel more confident about the ask. With the right approach, your customers will be delighted to get involved.
Why customer stories matter
I’ve written about this A LOT, so I’ll keep it brief. This article tells you more.
When people have a problem, they love to discover how others solved it. They welcome a first-hand account and relate to your customer’s language. It’s like they’re talking to a colleague at the bar. Sometimes, they can put themselves in the story and understand what it feels like.
By holding their attention with an engaging story, they better understand your product’s benefits. Not from a sales pitch though, but from a customer perspective. That story will get them closer to becoming your new customer, as few other marketing assets can.
Customer stories inform without selling. They build trust in your business and move prospective customers closer to acting. Personally, I can’t see a downside (aside from the effort to create them).
“But we don’t have any stories to tell!”
I’ve heard that often, and it’s not true. If you’re in business, you have customers. And almost every customer has a story worth telling.
What you’re really saying here is “We don’t know how to create customer stories, and we don’t want to offend our customers, or waste their time.”
So, let’s dispel two myths, right now:
Fact: if you have customers, you have stories
Fact: creating their stories DOESN’T offend them. It can actually IMPROVE your relationship
Of course, the first step is to ask your customer to get involved. And that’s where many become stuck.
Don’t ask cold
When you ask your customer to help you create their story, you should be relatively confident they’ll say yes. Would you ask for a sale cold? No. Nobody likes a bolt out the blue. So, try not to ask for a customer story cold.
But how can you feel confident they’ll say yes?
This comes down to preparation, communication, and developing a system. If you haven’t done this before, here’s my suggestion.
Open a new spreadsheet. Now think whose stories you’d like to tell It’s a question worth sharing with your customer success team and any other customer-facing roles. List the customers here, and grade them by importance, if you like. This gives you a clear picture to start from.
Now consider who’ll be responsible for asking these customers for their stories? This can vary (even by customer), so you must think carefully about your answer. I cover this more in how to ask, below. And remember, while one person will ultimately ask your customer, getting to that point can be a team effort.
Nurturing and information gathering
Back to your spreadsheet. You’ll now want to collect information on each customer, such as:
- Key contacts
- Projects you’re working on (or you’ve completed)
- Goals they’re looking to achieve
- Likely milestones your product should meet for them
- Feedback they’re giving you (set-up, first thoughts, early results)
Those key contacts are important. They should be the people who understand how their business is working with your product on board, and the impact it’s having. They should have plenty to say about it. That means they’re likely to be relatively senior in their department or the company.
Gathering information is one step, but you must also develop great relationships with the customers you have in mind for stories. Hopefully, you’re doing this as standard, anyway. What team members are responsible for this? And who’s nurturing the relationship with the person you’d like to interview for the story? You may want to add this information to your spreadsheet.
Should you want a longstanding customer to tell their story, you probably have a warm relationship with key contacts already. If you’re focusing on new customers though, this is likely to be a work-in-progress.
Have regular team updates on your story targets. It’s great to reinforce the importance of story creation with other colleagues, and it’s an opportunity to gather information you’re not aware of yet.
This information gathering and nurturing stage looks different for every business, so I cannot give you a definitive template. And that’s ok. You can develop a system that works for you and your customers.
When to ask
Asking too early is not a good thing. They may not have used your product sufficiently to give meaningful feedback.
Asking too late can also be tricky. Whilst I’m a big fan of working with longstanding clients to create stories, don’t expect them to remember what it was like before they used your product. Or how they decided to involve you.
(Note: when telling stories about longstanding customers, focus on how they’ve benefited and evolved during their time with you on board.)
The ideal time to ask is when your customer has just given you good feedback. Maybe they’ve told you something about their performance since using your product, or the impact it’s having on their business. That’s a great starting point.
By nurturing your target story customers, you’ll be first to hear something like this and feel confident asking to create their story.
But timing is never black and white. You can’t say “we’ll ask them after three months”. And even if they report good feedback early on, you might choose to wait until they have more experience of your product. Your own judgment matters here.
It also depends on the type of story you’re looking to create. Do you want to demonstrate the ease of onboarding and set-up, or do you want to cover their transformation having partnered with you over time?
How to ask
Perhaps my biggest tip is to have an ‘asking process’. Know who will ask (remember, it could be different per customer) and know who they’re asking. Let’s dig into both of those first.
Who will ask?
The person who asks your customer…
1. Should know the contact well and talk to them often
OR
2. Should be senior in your business to highlight the importance of the ask
Sometimes, that person can be both these things. It depends on the size and structure of your business. Whoever they are, they must know what they’re asking for.
Who are they asking?
The best person to ask is the person you want to interview. Ideally, not even their PA. The actual person.
That person should have sufficient knowledge and insight to inform the story. They should know how your product fits into their business and have feedback about its impact.
Most stories come from people in senior roles. But you can also create stories by interviewing someone ‘at the rock face’ so to speak. Know what type of story you’re looking to create before finalising who to ask.
Asking via email is my favoured approach because it has many advantages over a phone call:
- They have time to reflect on what you’ve asked
- You can be consistent with how you ask (and explain what you need clearly)
- It’s quick to do
You can also cc people into that email, should you want to keep others in the loop (their PA, your colleagues, for example). If necessary, follow up with a phone call after a few days. Again, think carefully about who makes the call. In an ideal world, it’s the email sender.
Have a win-win mindset
This bit is crucial. To get that “yes” (and for them to give you their precious time), your customer must appreciate what’s in it for them. And it’s your job to tell them.
You’re not asking to create a success story for your business. It’s about them and their achievements. They’re the hero, and you’re the guide who helped them get there.
A story about their success is valuable for their marketing, too – both internally and externally. It can boost team morale, reassure their own customers, and enhance their reputation. So, when you ask, do so from this perspective. This is a collaborative piece of marketing to help both of you.
You should also be aware of the objections you might have to overcome before getting your “yes”.
- Fear of giving away secrets – reassure them you’ll only use information they’re comfortable sharing. And offer to anonymise any (business or contact) names they don’t wish to publish
- Fear of how they’ll come across – reassure them they get to review and approve the final story
- Fear it’ll take too much of their time – be specific about what you need from them (and highlight how you’ll handle most of it)
- Fear of where the story will appear – tell them how you’ll use it (and highlight the benefits to them)
What to put in your ‘ask’ email
This is where people get ‘blank page’ fright or inconsistency creeps in. So, I recommend creating a template to use. You can then adapt it for each customer. Importantly, don’t “ask a favour”, and be clear about the mutual opportunity (remember your mindset).
Here’s a quick example to show you what I mean:
Subject line: Shall we tell your story?
Hi [first name],
It was great to hear how well you’re getting on with [product name]. [the specific feedback customer gave you] must be making a huge difference to your business.
We’d love to create a story around your recent success. Would you be up for it?
Others will value learning how you overcame your challenges, and it’ll highlight your achievement.
In fact, you could also use this story in your own marketing. For example, some of our clients have used such a story to showcase developments to customers or boost internal team morale.
Here’s an example of a previous customer story we’ve written.
Creating your story won’t take up much of your time at all. We’d arrange a convenient time for you to have an informal chat with [person who writes your stories]. This is usually no more than 45 minutes. Prompted by questions, you’d explain the situation before you came to us and what you’ve managed to achieve since. There’s no need to prepare, it’s just a chat.
Confidentiality is important to us, so we’d only publish metrics you were comfortable sharing. And as we want you to love the result too, we’d ask you to quickly review it before finalising. There’s no risk of you being misquoted. Once approved, we can both publicise it.
Shall we get started on this [first name]?
Just let me know.
You’ll notice there’s no incentive aside from the mutual benefit. In most cases, that suffices, and you’re more likely to get a better story from them if they’re committed without an incentive.
(Note: I do know some SaaS companies that make creating a customer story part of their contract. It can also be a useful negotiating tactic, should you need to reduce your project fee.)
One big tip is to show them a story you’ve created about another customer. This gives confidence you’ll showcase them at their best.
While you’re far more likely to get a “yes” when you have a system and the right mindset, it’s realistic to expect the occasional “no”. If that’s you, don’t be downhearted. Find out if there’s a better time to ask in the future, then move on. You’ll find this so much easier when you have a process in place.
Pitfalls to avoid
If nothing else, avoid making these mistakes when creating customer stories. It’s all too easy to put a lot of effort into creating an asset that doesn’t make the grade.
- Are you interviewing the right person? They must have the insight you’re looking for.
- Does their business policy allow collaborations like this?
- Are they happy to be named in the story? Otherwise, you’ll have to anonymise it.
- Do you know what their sign-off procedure looks like? Sometimes it’s complex!
- Is something not going well for the customer, or has your relationship deteriorated? Don’t ask.
Once you’ve got your “yes”
Getting “yes” is just the start. To make the most of this opportunity, and create an amazing customer story, you must have a proven process that covers:
- How you carry out the customer call
- How you draft the story
- Your feedback and approvals process
- How you publish the story
- How you repurpose it
Should you have any questions about asking your customers for their stories, please get in touch. And you can read some stories I’ve written for various clients here.
