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Direct quotes from a satisified customer are the single most powerful thing you can include in a Success Story. WN |
Writing a great Customer Success Story is no different than writing a great book or screenplay. There needs to be a beginning, middle, and an end. There need to be characters your readers will identify with--preferably people in their own industry. The protagonist needs to face a challenge, use your products or services to overcome it, and ride off into the sunset.
In terms of organization, I use an inverted pyramid format for writing Success Stories. My first paragraph offers an overview of the entire story. A busy executive reading only the first paragraph should be able to capture the flavor of the rest. I try to include a hook to convince him or her to continue reading--some interesting detail, or the promise of such a detail.
Setting the stage: The second paragraph is where I introduce the customer. I describe what their company does and where its products or services fit in the marketplace. I sometimes list a few of their customers. It's background, it's necessary, and it needs to be brief or readers won't ever make it to the third paragraph.
A story about a sheriff in the Old West would be pretty boring if he didn't ever have to face down some outlaws. First, we need to introduce the Sheriff--a spokesperson for the company, their Director of IT or whatever.
Typical "Old West " Director of IT
The challenge the company faced is what comes next. I describe the company's pain points in excruciating detail. I try to get readers nodding their heads because they share that pain. Describing how your firm's product or services alleviates that pain doesn't need to be long. Usually what's more interesting are descriptions of the side-benefits the customer didn't realize they were going to receive.
Direct quotes from a satisifed customer are the single most powerful thing you can include in a Success Story. The simple fact is that a satisfied customer will make statements that are more powerful, and more credible, than anything any writer (short of Stephen King) can make up. While I freely edit quotes, changing "yeah's" to "yes's" and so forth, I try extremely hard to capture a customer's voice. For example:
I once interviewed an IT Director at a New Jersey firm who repeatedly said things like, "And then, kaboom! The software started working," I quoted him. His "kabooms!" made reading the Success Story just like listening to him speak--New Joysee accent and everything. Why would I want to sanitize this guy's distinctive voice when reproducing it made the reader walk away feeling like s/he actually met and talked to the man. Everyone loved that story, including the interviewee.
The purpose of a Success Story is to build credibility for your product or service, educate your prospect, and also to highlight features/benefits a prospect may not have realized your product delivers.
Never miss an opportunity to teach your reader something that will help them decide to purchase your product. I argued with one firm over including an explanation of what an application server (BEA Weblogic) does. Would all of the story's prospective readers understand where a package like BEA fits into the construction of a complex e-commerce system? I doubt it. By not including a brief explanation, that story was rendered incomprehensible to the hi-level executives who make most spending decisions.
You can make a Success Story powerful by discussing technical challenges a firm faced and how they were overcome. Today's savvy customers are impressed by reports of terrific customer service. Why? Because nobody has ever built a product that operates perfectly out of the box in all situations. Details of humorous screw-ups, operator error and how technical issues got resolved all make a Success Story more plausible and more interesting. You get your point across and you build credibility by including them. Leave images of perfection to the people who write your advertising. We're trying to establish credibility here.
When you can include actual ROI numbers, dollar or times savings, it makes for an extremely powerful Success Story. For most stories, however, a discussion of the savings a firm achieved is the best you can do. Most firms simply don't track ROI on every purchase they make.
I always try to end stories on a powerful quote from the customer, such as, "Wade writes terrific Success Stories, he's easy to work with, and since he handles all the time-consuming details like obtaining customer approvals. I recommend him highly."
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