Engaging the Enterprise

Is anybody listening? That might be a common question as a customer advocate or customer strategist delivers a presentation on the latest voice of the customer information.

After all, they typically deliver lots of presentations, going from department to department, providing relevant customer insights to help improve the business. While they are active presenters, it doesn't guarantee that their audience always listens. And it definitely doesn't guarantee that they will do anything with the information they deliver.

I recently read an interesting blog about how storytelling helped a CIO and it reminded me how storytelling can be really effective for customer advocates. After all, you can always find stories about customers, and it really compliments all the facts and figures that typically dominate such presentations.

Consider this simple framework for weaving in a story:

1. Start with a story - share a personal experience or a customer experience. 
2. Connect it - explain how it is relevant to one of your key points.
3. Back it up - use other customer insights and data to reinforce your point.
4. Call to action - now explain what people should do with this information.

There! You've taken a simple, effective technique to engage the audience and then followed through in a manner that leads to action.

Need more? Click here for a great list of storytelling tips.