Storytelling: because our customers and people have a lot to say

Stories are intriguing, facts are boring. Facts are important, but stories evoke emotions, and when we connect emotionally, we respond.

Marketing teams deal with communication and customer relationships on a daily basis. They need to create content that is interesting, entertaining and inspires their target groups to show an interest in the brand, buy the company′s products and ideally speak positively about the brand and its products. This has always been the case, and colleagues who succeeded in touching people instead of merely reducing their advertising to a rational product promise were the most successful.

Good stories are based on a company and brand strategy. Before you start to tell your story, define which objective you want to achieve and which key messages should be part of the story, as well as tone of voice and style of your storytelling. Showing your logo in the middle of the story is not enough to successfully connect your brand to a story.

To emotionally connect with customers we must listen. Listening sends a strong message that tells customers that this relationship is more about their needs than ours. That builds trust. In addition, when we listen, customers tell us what they need - in their words. As marketers, we can use their language when we communicate. Using their language says we listened, we heard, and we are responding.

A few month ago, Zurich began focusing on our employees that tell us amazing customer stories. Each of them has a unique story to tell. Sharing these stories and experiences is a great way to learn from each other and grow together.

We want to focus on the real experiences of the people who buy and use our products and services. These stories help us to pay closer attention to what really matters to our customers. And that is why we want to spread the word and share our stories.

It is energizing to see all the amazing examples of how we help our customers and we will create and share more stories, as this is valuable content for us.

Visit https://www.zurich.com/en/about-us/customer-stories to see all the stories published so far.