Storytelling is an integral part of human history and a key part of our evolution as a species. Since the earliest days of cave paintings and language, human beings have told stories.

Stories have a special power, a way to make us feel that facts and data do not have. And as such, storytelling can be a powerful part of both the customer and employee experience. 

STORYTELLING WITH CUSTOMERS

One part of organizations that tends to be fairly adept at storytelling is Marketing. Storytelling has been a crucial part of marketing practice for a very long time, but other parts of the organization tend to use stories less often and less effectively. 

So, here are three ways you can enhance your customer experience with storytelling.

Share Successes. Share stories of your success with other customers. This is particularly helpful in a service-based or business-to-business environments. For example, don’t just share that you sold a house in this neighborhood for X price; share what your customers wanted, what their challenges were, and how you solved those to help them get their price. 

Share Projects. Share what your team is working on. For example you might share behind-the-scenes looks at how your team members overcame obstacles to deliver a new product or to improve the customer’s experience. Make sure you keep the benefit to the customer as part of the story, and they can see how hard you’re working hard to make their experiences better. 

Humanize Your Team. As a reader of The Human Experience, you know that humanizing our customer’s experiences makes them richer and more emotionally resonant. Humanizing our team members can be an important aspect of this approach. Share stories about your team. They do not have to be overly personal or about sensitive topics. They can be about Jenny realizing her dream to climb Denali or how Jack was a college football star before becoming your top sales agent.  

As much as I love using storytelling with customers, I think it is an even more powerful tool with employees. With employees, the stories can be even more targeted and relevant. Here are three ways to use storytelling with employees. 

Inspiration. Share the stories of your customer heroes. Talk about what happened, how a team member went the extra mile for a customer. How a team member saved a long term customer from leaving 

Education. Tell similar stories to the above, but break down the lessons from it. Remind teams where they are empowered to act and show them why the choice the team member made was the right choice at the right time. 

Recognition. In this case, you’re telling similar hero stories, but you’re focusing on the person, specifically recognizing them. Customer Hero of the Week maybe? Give them a shout out and encourage the team to do the same, telling them they won a gift card or something else. The stories may be the same types used for inspiration or education, but in this case, we are more focused on the who and a little bit less on the what. 

We humans are wired for story, and they can motivate us to think differently, to feel differently, and to learn differently. The more you can utilize stories in both your customer and employee experience, the better both experiences will be.