Cashing In on the Customer Success Story

Along with white papers, customer success stories are the most popular tool in the technology marketer’s toolkit.

Why are they so popular? Because they are compelling to prospective customers. References and testimonials are great things to have but customer success stories flesh out those testimonials and give them teeth. And if you match the case study customer’s industry to the prospects, it’s clear to prospects that your company knows how to successfully operate in a given market.

The ubiquitous case study can range from a 3-paragraph online snippet to a full-blown report. The most popular case study in the marketing/PR arsenal is the 600-1200 word customer success story following this pattern: company overview and challenge, project details, and positive results. Elements include:

  • Customer Overview and Challenge. Start with a 2-3 paragraph overview of the customer’s company. This should be very positive – since you’re going to detail a problem the customer was having, the last thing you want to do is make them sound like a jerk. So compliment them. Feel free to adapt the overview from their own Website text, where they’re already placing themselves in the best possible light. Then move on to the business challenge. Don’t make the customer sound stupid or incompetent. The challenge should always be centered on something good that is happening to them –fast growth, industry prominence, strategic IT changes – whatever. Their challenge should be applicable to your readers’ own business issues.
  • Project Details. Everyone knows that no project goes perfectly, but save the debriefing for the longer-form trade journal article. These short customer success stories should report on the successful project by briefly discussing specific products and benefits. Don’t go all over the map. If the project is fairly narrow or specific, you won’t have any trouble sticking with the main point or product. In the case of very large and complex installation, concentrate on the main product or application. For example, Microsoft Great Plains has more modules than you can shake a stick at. Concentrate on the ones that had the most positive impact on your customer.
  • Business Benefits. Always quantify improvement if you can. Numbers can be dollar savings, percentages, or other measures of saved staff time, more efficient workflows, better customer service, etc. Be sure that the benefits you list are the benefits the customer perceives – hard costs are most easily quantified, but soft costs may have the higher perceived benefit to a customer. Ideally you will have both.

How many customer success stories should you have on hand? The more the better. A large company may have dozens of them on hand and smaller companies should strive for at least three to start. Why? Because they work. Start capturing those customer success stories today, and watch those sales rise.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.