How to Tell a Customer Success Story
Brandtelling
Brand Storytelling for Business Success | Want to be the thought leader and go-to brand in your industry?
By Arthur Germain, Principal & Cheif Brandteller, Brandtelling
I often complain that marketers are telling “case studies” instead of sharing “customer success stories.” Here’s an example of the latter:
The other night I was driving home from New Jersey and it reminded me of a time, just a couple of summers ago, when I was helping my daughter move into her off-campus apartment. While moving some furniture, I smashed my ring finger between her desk and a wall. My finger began to swell up, so we put some ice on it and my daughter made me a splint. I continued to help her set up her apartment and then I drove home.
I kept my finger in front of the air vent in the car, hoping that it would keep cool, because it was beginning to really swell up. By the time I got home, it was late in the evening and my finger was really swollen. The first thing, my wife said was, “Oh my God, you have to go to the hospital!” Because now, we couldn't get my wedding band off. We've been married for over 30 years and I don't take my ring off that often. And to be honest, I had gained a little weight and I really had trouble getting it off, but by this time my finger had swollen so much around the band that I absolutely couldn't remove it. It was right then that I was contemplating, “Do I go to the hospital? Should I call for an ambulance? Do I call the fire department to cut this thing off?”
Then I remembered something that my high school chemistry teacher said: gold is a soft and malleable metal. I went into the garage and I hunted around and I found a pair of needle nose pliers and a wire cutter. I shoved the pliers in between my finger and the band, then I cut the band with the with the wire cutters. It cut right through like butter! I bent the ring open and I was able to get it off and ice down my finger.
By the next morning my finger looked a little bit better. However, the wedding band that I had worn for over 30 years was a mess. It was a wreck. I wasn't really sure what to do. And my wife said, “Well, maybe the jeweler in town can help you.” So I went down into Northport where we live to the Harborview Jewelers and I showed the owner my mangled wedding band and asked if there was anything that they could do about it? She smiled and said, “Absolutely! The jeweler can fix this. You won't even know that there was anything ever wrong with it!” I laughed and left it with her. About a week later, she called me to tell me that my wedding band was ready. And it was. In fact, it was absolutely, perfect! The jeweler added a little bit of gold, he filed and melted and polished and put it all back to new.
?And the store owner smiled and said, “He also made it a little bigger, so it fits over your finger better and you shouldn't have this problem again.”
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What I thought was going to be a total loss wasn’t because a professional jeweler who knew exactly what he was doing looked at this mangled piece of jewelry that held a lot of personal meaning for me and he was able to fix it without a problem. I was ecstatic and I highly recommend Harborview Jewelers in Northport if anyone on Long Island ever needs a jeweler. If they can repair an existing piece of jewelry with this kind of expertise, imagine how much care and attention to detail they will provide when helping you select a unique and beautiful piece of jewelry!
That is a fantastic way to tell a customer success story. How many times did I mention Harborview Jewelers? A couple of times? What I really did was share my customer story about how happy they made me by repairing my wedding band. Now, my story has nothing to do with the actual jewelry that they sell. Instead, my customer success story focuses on the value and comfort that a professional jeweler was able to deliver. Oh, and they sell beautiful jewelry.
The store owner absolutely assured me, from the moment I stepped into her store, that they could take care of a piece of jewelry that holds a lot of meaning for me. She put my mind at ease and they absolutely did what they said.
And that's the way that you want to tell all of your customers stories. So, think of it a lot more as a customer success story and a whole lot less as a boring case study.