«Return to Blog List 4 Factors Affecting Customer Stories Today
Much has changed since I wrote my first customer success story 20+ years ago.
It’s amusing to look back at that case study, laid out with zero graphics and actually printed by the hundreds to be handed out.
Now, customer stories are mostly digital and look like slick magazine-style pieces.
Customer evidence like this is still king for sellers and buyers, but multiple factors are driving shifts in customer storytelling:
1. Marketing Budgets Have Been Stagnant, But There’s Hope
I’ve seen layoffs and budget cuts among my B2B clients and maybe you have too.
Surveys, however, offer a glimmer of hope.
Analyst firm Forrester’s most recent survey said, “35% of B2B marketing decision-makers say they are expecting a budget increase of more than 5% in 2025. The majority — 47% — expect an increase of just 1% to 4%.”
When combined, that’s 82% of global B2B marketing decision-makers who expect to see increased marketing investment in the next 12 months, even if the gains are small.
Still, most marketers I know feel the pressure to do more with less, and they’re spreading dollars for customer stories across various formats.
These days, companies must choose the most high-impact stories. What does the sales team need the most? What will best support product launches, pushes, or media outreach?
Many realize that having a relevant story to hand a prospect seems more important than a big-name story.
Opportunity for customer-story creators:
- Help your clients or employers identify gaps in their current customer stories and strategically fill them with the highest-value types of stories.
2. Companies Tell Customer Stories in More Ways
These days, companies capture their customers’ experiences in more ways than ever: videos, written stories, webinars, live events, slides, social media images, and via review sites.
Most still create written customer stories, but their efforts are more spread out across these different formats.
Many marketers are also looking to go beyond the typical challenge-solution-results format. Think more feature-story, conversational style that gets to the point quickly.
Opportunities for customer-story creators:
- Help companies repackage video and webinar content into written stories, slides, and social media images.
- Adapt to changing workflows. Instead of the traditional interview and written story, source background information from existing videos, online reviews from the customer, and internal background info.
3. It Feels Harder to Get Happy Customers to Agree
I’m hearing this from clients, but I work almost entirely in the tech space. Most happy customers probably use a couple dozen products and services, or more, so they understandably get fatigued by saying yes to lots of advocacy activities.
In response, marketers cater to customers’ interests with a menu of options, including written stories, video, live presentations, etc.
They’re also helping customers tell the stories they want to tell. I’m seeing the rise of first-person customer stories posted as articles or blogs on a vendor’s site.
These stories are typically bylined by the happy customer (but usually ghostwritten) and cover a topic the customer cares about—like how they’re meeting a pressing industry challenge, best practices, or thought leadership. Check out an example.
As another option, some companies are resorting to anonymous stories, either after they have created a written version or from the start. Anonymous stories CAN be valuable when they have solid details and results.View Post
Opportunity for customer-story creators:
- Be flexible! Chat about options to engage customers, including anonymous stories or first-person customer articles. As always, make sure you’re telling the story the happy customer wants to tell (i.e. make the customer look good).
4. AI Is Affecting Some Customer Stories
AI has influenced written customer stories, but not so much the actual writing of them.
I use it on every story to help organize information, research subject matter, format quotes properly, and brainstorm headlines—like bookends before and after the writing process.
For fun, I have tested what chatbots can do for customer stories, and they have come up short when it comes to telling engaging stories.
I hear from some clients that are being asked to experiment more with chatbots for stories, however, they admit that the outputs are not as compelling.
“AI tools can draft emails, posts, and even strategies faster than ever. While this is a win for efficiency, customer stories require creativity and authenticity—qualities that can’t be fully automated to some degree,” said Kevin Lau, Vice President of Customer Engagement, Freshworks.
Even worse, AI is known to make things up! I find it takes too many liberties with changing quotes and other information.
Opportunities for customer-story creators:
- Lean into the huge advantages of HI (human intelligence) for customer stories, including a thoughtful, strategic interview, customer stories that engage readers without a bunch of clichés, and accurate, powerful storytelling that will keep clients and happy customers happy.
- Learn AI tools to support writing, but not actually write a customer story.
- Find a unique voice and a focus on the human elements of the story.
That’s my take on what’s happening in the industry. But bear in mind, I mainly work in the B2B tech market.
Despite all these trends, storytelling still helps brands stand out. If you’re a customer-story creator, always go back to fundamentals like keeping stories conversational, focusing on the human elements, and making the customer the hero.
I’m curious, what are you seeing? Let me know!