Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business

Identifiable Characters
Get ready for some earth-shattering news. The identifiable character in a
customer story is 
the customer
. I know. Crazy. When it comes to the identifiable

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character in a customer story, it’s much less about the who and more about the
how. How do you enable the customer to be a character your audience can relate
to and trust? The answer varies depending on the means by which you are
sharing your story.
If, like Native Deodorant, you are building a story museum based on
customer reviews, make sure the process you use and the questions you ask
encourage customers to express their true selves. Thumbs up versus thumbs
down gives very little insight into the people who own these thumbs.
If you want to take a more active approach to your customer stories—
perhaps catch them on video, post an image and story on Instagram, or maybe
have them share their story onstage at a live event—and you have identified a
few customers who are up for the challenge, then remember this: perfection is
your enemy. Too smooth is suspicious.
I watched the bonus commentary on the 2003 movie 
Love Actually,
and I’ll
never forget what the director said during the final scene when the elementary-
school-aged girl belted out the classic Christmas anthem “All I Want for
Christmas.” Apparently, she was too good to be believable. They had to ask her
to sing it again, but not so perfectly. They needed scratches in the record in order
for the character to be believable.
The fact that a child singer can be that good is a conversation for another
time. For now, when it comes to your identifiable character, resist the urge to
make the character perfect, the urge to smooth any rough edges. Movies and
commercials need actors; customer stories just need customers.
Authentic Emotions
The great advantage of customer stories and why your extra effort to seek
them out is worth it is that authentic emotion lives in every word. There is
nothing more authentic than what naturally flows from a customer whose life has
been changed by what you offer. But more valuable than the emotions they felt
after experiencing your product or service are the emotions they felt before.
Customer stories live and die based on the emotions that are shared in the normal
of the story.
When seeking and telling customer stories, remember this: the joy or relief
they felt (authentic emotion) after finding you only matters when placed in
contrast to how they felt 
before
finding you.
A Moment

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Like the previous story types, including a specific moment strengthens the
effectiveness of a customer story. And while your control over these stories has
its limitations, you can encourage the inclusion of a moment by asking questions
like “Where were you the first time you tried our product?” or “Do you
remember where you were when you first heard about our service?” These
questions are moment-driven. The answer you receive will often include the
moment 
for
you.
Specific Details
As mentioned earlier, the specific details are what give the customer story its
irresistible ring of truth. The offhanded comments or specks of reality so small
they risk being written off completely. Of course, you would never do that; you
now know better.
This is perhaps the most rewarding, fun component of customer stories:
hearing the unique details of your customers’ experiences that you otherwise
wouldn’t know. I don’t think I will ever tire of reading emails that describe how
my customers (typically people in the audience of my keynotes or who read my
work) have used their stories. They include details like what hors d’oeuvres were
served at the networking hour as they shared a story with a new contact or the
sound of the CEO impatiently clicking his pen before a big presentation—a
clicking that stopped once my customer told a story.
Keep your ears out for these little details and pay attention to your own
imagination when they tell you or write you with their story. What details
engaged your co-creative response? What details did your subconscious pick up
on and run with? Let that be your guide for the details that ultimately get shared.
One Last Truth About Customer Stories
Before we wrap up this chapter and move to the final part of the book, let me
take off my rose-colored glasses for a moment and say out loud what you may
be thinking after reading this chapter.
Customer stories aren’t easy.
I was working with an international brand who wanted to tell the story of one
of their customers. But when it came time to discuss which customer’s story we
should tell, the team immediately suggested we create a customer versus actually
find one. Create a persona and then hire an actor to play the part. They felt this

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would be an easier path—which is true! It takes extra work to find customers,
talk with them, ask what their story really is. It’s time consuming to listen and
ask questions that allow you to reveal the authentic emotion and specific details.
In many cases the marketing team, who are often the ones tasked with telling the
story, have absolutely no interaction with customers. This isn’t a criticism; it’s a
reality. Their job is to sit in boardrooms with whiteboard walls and create
customers, and meanwhile, at the reception desk or sitting in the customer
service call center are the people who actually interact with customers.
The customer story can be challenging simply because you have less control
over the story by default—it’s not yours, it’s theirs. But I find the real challenge
with the customer story is a symptom of a much bigger issue in business:
namely, how acceptable it has become to be disconnected from our actual
customers. Customer communications has become siloed and automated and, as
a result, has created a story wasteland. With no real customer conversations,
we’re left to make up versions of them based on data and surveys.
So, yes, the customer story requires a few extra steps and effort, but imagine
how transformative it would be if you encouraged your team and committed
yourself to seek out customer stories and allowed your customers’ true voices to
be heard.
Creating Your Own Essential Stories
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