How to Write the Perfect Customer Success Story

Customer stories will continue to be the cornerstone of success for B2B companies well into 2023 and beyond. When your prospects are searching for a solution, 93% will review customer success stories before making their final decision. If you don’t have any stories, or yours are not optimized, then you may lose out on new clients. That’s exactly why we have taken the time to put together this article on how to write a powerful customer success story. Before you start writing your success story, you’ll need to find the right client.

Find the Right Client

Interviewing the right client is essential. The client that you choose should depend on your end goal of the story. If you want a client to talk about how easy it was to get started, you should choose a client that has been with your company for 2 to 6 months. This way they will still remember their onboarding experience. Try not to ask very new clients, or continuously have a lot of questions, as their answers probably won’t be as high quality as you’d like.

Structure

The structure of your customer success story will increase the chances of your audience reading or watching the entire story. By reading the entire story, they will see exactly how their company can succeed. So, it’s essential to keep them hooked from the very beginning. Here is the structure that you should follow when creating a powerful customer success story.

Introduction

The first part of your customer success story is an introduction. This is a brief overview of your client, their industry, and the role that the interviewee plays in their company. This information will help your prospects understand the story, as well as resonate with your current client. It’s best to keep this area short and sweet. Below is an example of an introduction from a Hubspot customer success story.

Problem

After you give a brief overview of your client, you’ll want to move into the problem(s) that they were facing. This is the section that explains why they were searching for a solution. Common problems may include wanting to generate more qualified leads, simplifying tech stacks, improving communication, improving customer satisfaction, and more. 

If you have a client who switched from a previous provider, that can be a huge asset to your customer success story. Here is another example from Hubspot, where their client, ResellerRatings, previously used Salesforce. Salesforce is Hubspot’s largest competitor, and most prospects look into both options before choosing one. In this customer success story, Hubspot states, “ResellerRatings struggled with its Salesforce CRM for years, but the platform’s lack of revenue reporting was the final straw.”. This is very enticing for readers and may give Hubspot the upper hand.

Solution

The next step in writing the perfect customer success story is to explain the solution to the problem mentioned above. Going back to the Hubspot x ResellerRatings story, Hubspot lists all of the products that ReSeller uses and a brief description of how they use them to achieve their goals. This section is important because you want to show your prospect how they would use your solution regularly. Try to keep it straightforward, so you don’t confuse or overwhelm your prospect. It can be easy to go on and on about the solutions that you provide, but the more information that you have, the less likely they will be to read all of it.

Outcome

The last section in your customer success story is the outcome. This is where numbers and/or powerful quotes will come in to drive home your client’s success. The outcome is one of the most important parts of your customer success story. Try to make this section stand out from the rest, with large numbers, using different colors, or bullet points. Below is an example from Zendesk. They have an outcome that stands out from the rest of the page, along with supporting text to get the point across. So, if the reader doesn’t read all of the text, they’ll still see the important information.

Tell a Story

You want your prospect to envision what it would be like to use your product regularly. By writing an enticing customer success story, prospective customers will not only read the entire story, but they will be more likely to convert. Include a call to action on the page, and your customer success stories can help you increase your conversion rate.

Be Relatable

I have touched on this already throughout the article, but being relatable is how your prospects will convert. You want your prospects to be able to resonate with the story. If you cater mostly towards SMB companies, then you’ll want to ensure your top story is with an SMB client. Or, if you work with local companies to help them get started, you might not want to use terminology that experienced marketers use, as it could confuse them. When you are writing your customer success story, try to write it in the tone of voice that your clients resonate with.

Content Variety

Every company will have primary, secondary, and even tertiary target markets. So, you will want to have at least one customer success story for each. This will allow your prospects to choose the story that they relate to the most. By reading a story that is similar to their own, they will be more likely to remember it, and see how you can help them. Alongside a variety of stories, you’ll want to have both written and video success stories.

Video vs Written

Having a selection of videos and written customer success stories will give your prospect the choice of how they consume the content. Not everyone wants to watch a video, and vice versa. So, if you have a few written and a few video stories, all of your bases will be covered. This also opens up opportunities to use your case studies in more places, like emails, social media advertising, and Google Ads.

Use Stats

As I touched on before, statistics are one of the most effective ways to get your point across. And, they give a quantifiable value to your business. As an example, if a prospect sees that your company was able to save 10 hours a week by automating tasks, then they may also think that they can save 10 hours a week. And, 10 hours a week adds up in terms of time and money. When you use stats, ensure the numbers stand out from the rest of the text. It can also be a good idea to use a stat in the title of the story to increase your CTR. Below is an example from Unbounce, where they state their client hit a 44% conversion rate by using their templates.

Answer FAQs

If your company has frequently asked questions, it can be a good opportunity to include them in your customer success stories. As an example, if your prospects or new clients are worried about the onboarding process, try to include how easy onboarding was for your client. To do this, simply ask your client questions like, “How did you and your team find our onboarding process?” and “If you had any questions about onboarding, were you able to get them answered with our resources?”. This can reduce any worry that prospects may have if they are not tech savvy.

Use Images

Whether you have a written or a video success story, pictures can be a great way to support and provide additional information. For example, if your client is talking about your user-friendly dashboard, then you can show an image of your dashboard or a short video clicking through different parts of your dashboard. This will help your prospect see and hear that your dashboard is user-friendly. Additionally, graphics are more likely to be seen and understood rather than paragraphs of text. Try to include at least one image in your customer success story. Below is an example from Salesforce, where they pair a quote with screenshots of their dashboard.

otrillo

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into crafting the perfect customer success story. But, they are extremely important and helpful in encouraging your prospects to convert. If you need help, try out otrillo. otrillo can help your team create optimized video and written case studies and success stories. All you have to do is enter the questions you’d like to ask, and send a link to your client to complete their personalized survey, and we handle the rest. You can choose to have the success story as a video or written, and we will put it together and deliver the final product. Then, you can use the stories on your website and social media channels to attract and entice prospects. Join the otrillo waitlist today to be the first to access our software!

Final Words

Customer success stories are one of the best ways to attract prospective customers. When your prospects are looking at these stories, they are often part of the way down your sales funnel. This means your customer success stories can make or break your chances of prospects converting into paying customers. By following these tips and tricks, you can write a great customer success story. And, with the help of otrillo, you can write the perfect one.