△ MENU/TOP △

Holtz Communications + Technology

Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
SearchClose Icon

Six better ways to get customer stories than yet another a “tell us your story” campaign

Six better ways to get customer stories than yet another a “tell us your story” campaign

AFHE Tell Us Your Story campaignCustomer stories are the best.

That was the message from marketing executives at a recent Ad Age Digital Conference. Adobe’s chief marketing officer, Ann Lewnes, for example, said, “Brand love leads to story making. The ability to get [consumers] to participate is so much easier than ever before.”

While there are great ways to find those customer stories, the easiest (or laziest) seems to be launching a campaign that invites customers to share theirs, like the Arizona Families for Home Education did (at left). So routine has the “tell us your story” campaign become that there’s now a Tumblr blog dedicated to the concept. Tell Us Your Story collects campaigns shared by readers who can submit images, in addition to those ad copywriter Brian Eden finds on his own. Eden is behind the Tumblr blog, which he created after seeing “Tell us your story at drpeppertuition.com” on a Dr. Pepper can he was drinking.

“I don’t have a Dr. Pepper story to share,” he told ClickZ. “My story is I bought it and I drank it.”

You have to wonder how many people visiting Home Depot’s Facebook page will actually share their metal roofing story, as requested, or what kinds of stories Clorox might get from its request to share your “bleachable” moment. FinnAir wants your tale of travel on the airline, Flonase wants your allergy relief story, and UPS wants to know about your most memorable package ever. Glock is seeking stories about customers’ Glock handguns, Dunkin Donuts is seeking donut tales, and Pond’s is soliciting skin care sagas. This barely scratches the surface. Olay, Levi’s, GNC, Nutella, Purina, Uber, Avis, Husqvarna, Dell, White Castle, Coors Light, Air France, Snapple, odge, Secret deodorant, Wheat Thins, the NFL…the list goes on. And on. And on.

Contently argues these campaigns never seem to work. “If anyone did this in real life, they’d never be invited out to dinner again,” writes Contently’s Joe Lazauskas. Imagine a dinner companion asking you to “Tell me a story about how much I mean to you.”

Seriously. How likely are you to share your adult diaper story?

Share Your Adult Diaper story

Customer stories are, indeed, important, given they’re more credible than advertising or messaging from your CEO or paid spokespeople. But there are better ways—not necessarily easier, but better—for obtaining customer stories. Just watch some of the testimonial videos from The Mayo Clinic. What you see is heart-felt, authentic, and sincere, not the result of a call to action. How does The Mayo Clinic get these stories? In many cases, they’re shared with the communications team by staff with direct knowledge of the patients’ experience.

Here are some other sources of customer stories that don’t require you to pimp for them:

  1. Read the messages people send to customer service—The customer service department is the recipient of a ton of customer input. It’s not all bad. Some people just have to share their great experience. When my HP laser jet printer survived a fall during an earthquake, I praised the company in a note I sent to customer service.
  2. Use your monitoring service—If your company and product brand names are listed as key words in your media monitoring tool, you should get some great stories customers are sharing in their blogs and social networks.
  3. Ask your employees—In hospitals like The Mayo Clinic, nurses and doctors and other staff interact directly with patients and their families. Thus, they become a great source of potential stories to share. The same is true in other businesses, too, where the sales, customer service, tech support, and other customer-facing teams hear stories all day long.
  4. Reach out to your brand ambassadors—If you’re doing your job right, you know who your most vocal supporters are. Reach out to them individually and interview them. You’re bound to get more authentic stories than you will from people responding to a spray-and-pray solicitation.
  5. Survey your customers—Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch recommends a one-question survey that asks how likely it is the customer would recommend the company, product, or service. You can ask those most likely to recommend for permission to interview them or for a written testimonial.
  6. Get your biggest fans in the same room—Companies like Disney Parks, Dell, and Ford have invested time and money bringing their brand ambassadors together in the same place, a great opportunity to collect stories as they talk among themselves about their shared passion for your product.

What techniques have you used to find customer stories?

Comments
  • 1.I was always under the impression that even if a customer writes in to customer service or posts online the company doesn't have permission to then publish that comment without getting actual permission. It is generally getting the approval that seems to be the hardest part. Are you suggesting we don't have to get permission to publish customer service emails on our website?

    Elizabeth | May 2017 | Usa

  • 2.Elizabeth, if a message was sent privately by a customer to the company, I'd seek permission before publishing externally. To publish internally, however, is another matter. When I worked for Mattel, we published kids' letters in the company magazine. We removed any information that might have made it possible to identify them, but when they send a letter to "Mattel," there's no need to seek permission to share them with employees of Mattel.

    Shel Holtz | June 2017

  • 3.Your post always motivates new bloggers like us. I have been following your blog since 4 month and now applying each and every method suggested here. Its really improving my results.
    And thanks for all the guides with simple language.

    Harry L. Sims | August 2017 | US

Comment Form

« Back