How to tell customer stories with data
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Think about the stories you remember best. Are they action-packed adventures? Fantasy? Do they have a protagonist striving to achieve a goal? Customer journeys are not so different. They are sagas filled with high and low points, tension, emotion, and (hopefully) resolution. But unlike the tales spun from our imagination, customer journeys are rooted in real-life experiences which generate quantitative and qualitative data—data which you can use to improve your business and customers’ experiences. This guide explains how you can transform data into compelling customer stories.
Why might you have to tell customer stories?
Customer stories are valuable across various business functions:
For case studies (Sales/Marketing): Highlighting real customer experiences can demonstrate the effectiveness of your product or service to potential customers. Case studies provide concrete evidence that your solutions work, making them persuasive tools in the sales and marketing toolkit. By showcasing how your product or service resolved specific problems for existing customers, you build credibility and trust with prospects.
Deciding what to build next (Product): Understanding customer journeys helps prioritize features and improvements based on actual user needs and pain points. Product teams can use these insights to focus development efforts on the most impactful areas. By aligning your product roadmap with customer needs, you ensure that the features you develop will address real problems and add the most value.
Presenting a case for developing new products or services (Product, CX, Service Design): Customer stories can build a compelling argument for investing in new solutions. When pitching new initiatives, whether to internal stakeholders or external investors, a well-crafted customer story can illustrate the demand and potential impact, making it easier to secure buy-in and resources.
Responding to support tickets and supporting current customers (Customer Support): Insight into customer journeys can guide support teams in resolving issues more effectively. By understanding the context and root causes of customer issues, support teams can provide more targeted and efficient assistance, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Digging into the data
Data can be overwhelming and confusing. It often sits in dashboards or spreadsheets, difficult to interpret and even harder to act upon. To transform this raw data into actionable insights, you need to translate it into journeys.
Using journeys to unpack data
Customer journeys serve as a powerful framework to unpack and understand data. They provide context and continuity, turning isolated data points into a cohesive narrative that illustrates the customer's experience from start to finish. This is where TheyDo comes in. With TheyDo you can synthesize key insights from vast amounts of data and plot them onto a visual journey map. This process is even faster with Journey AI—allowing you to transform research into insightful journey maps within minutes, so teams can make customer-centric decisions with speed and accuracy.
Unpacking data with TheyDo
Aggregating data: Start by gathering data from various touchpoints of the customer experience. This can include NPS surveys, support tickets, user interactions, and more. The goal is to collect a comprehensive dataset that captures the different aspects of the customer journey.
Synthesizing insights: Use TheyDo to extract key insights from the data. This step helps in identifying patterns and pinpointing crucial moments in the customer journey. For example, if multiple customers report difficulties during the onboarding process, this indicates a critical pain point that needs addressing.
Visualizing the journey: Plot these insights onto a visual journey map, creating a clear and cohesive picture of the customer’s experience. This visualization makes it easier to understand the flow of the journey, the touchpoints involved, and the emotions customers feel at each stage.
For instance, imagine you have data from several customer interactions regarding a new feature. Using TheyDo, you can visualize the journey of these customers, identifying where they encounter challenges and how they navigate through them. By repeating this process with multiple customers or personas, you can gain a comprehensive view of the overall experience.
Crafting a compelling customer story
To make your data-driven journey resonate, employ storytelling techniques. Here’s how:
Use direct customer quotes: Incorporate actual quotes from customers to add authenticity and emotional impact. This makes the story more relatable and engaging. Hearing directly from customers in their own words can be powerful, as it conveys genuine emotions and experiences.
Divide the customer story into phases or acts: this method originates from classic narrative theory and is often used in storytelling, including customer journey mapping, to highlight key moments in the customer experience. The 5-act story structure includes the following moments:
Inciting incident: Introduce the initial situation or problem the customer faces. This sets the stage for the journey and highlights the customer's motivation for seeking a solution.
Rising action: Detail the challenges and obstacles the customer encounters while trying to resolve the issue. This builds tension and keeps the audience engaged, as they become invested in the customer's struggle.
Climax: Highlight the turning point where the customer discovers a solution or breakthrough. This is the most intense part of the story, where the customer's efforts pay off.
Falling action: Describe the steps the customer takes to implement the solution. This shows the practical application of the solution and how it addresses the customer's needs.
Resolution: Conclude with the positive outcome and how the customer's situation improved. This provides a satisfying ending and reinforces the value of your product or service.
The power of data-driven narratives
Data-driven storytelling is an essential skill for CX leaders. By effectively telling customer stories, you can increase understanding, make informed decisions, and improve the customer experience more efficiently. Using tools like TheyDo, you can transform raw data into journeys with insights that tell a compelling story that resonates with stakeholders and drives action.
Stories have the power to connect with people on an emotional level, making complex data more accessible and memorable. By using journeys to craft customer stories, you not only showcase the impact of your product or service but also create a shared vision that can inspire and guide your team.
Ready to start telling your customer stories? Try TheyDo today and turn your data into powerful narratives that drive results.