Why Case Studies Fail You With Customers

Marketers use the term case study for a more in depth or descriptive narrative of a customer engagement, from the problem the company helped solve, to the solution used to solve it, including glowing quotes from a happy customer. So why do case studies fail you with customers?

The short answer is that those were instances of success for others, and you cannot replicate exactly the same conditions that brought them there. In other words, you fail to see what was behind the implementation. Copying or relying heavily on something happened elsewhere in a different context is a waste of your time.

Chances are, your business strategy is either totally different, or totally misses the point on sustaining your business over the long haul. In that case, your energies would be well invested there. Customers might look at what you've done with others as information to make an inquiry, but it's the way you behave with them that will get you the business, not the success you had with someone else.

Check to see if this is true for you. People think what you've done in the past is nice, but wonder: what have you done for me, today? For example, have you:

• provided support on a timely basis?
• communicated clearly and proactively?
• over delivered on expectations?

Case studies may help you get new inquiries in the door where word of mouth from existing customers would be difficult to engage. Maybe your customers are geographically dispersed - although that is not so much a problem with the broader adoption of digital communications - or your business is very complex for a customer to articulate, or your offerings too diverse for customers to find others who might use your help.

Herein is the problem. You continue to prospect when your gold mine is with your customer base - both for cross sell or deeper service relationships, and for word of mouth marketing on your behalf. You decide if this is a lesson in communications, branding, or business. Here's some things to think about when it comes to case studies and customers:

Treat customers better than your prospects

Current customers are aware of the reality of doing business with you. Did you match their expectations of when they read case studies off your Web site?

There's a famous sales joke with many incarnations. The one I'm familiar with is a person being escorted through this fabulous resort with a golf course, amenities, and all around nice people and weather.

When the person chats with the host after the tour, she's sold as to the magnificence of the place and signs on the dotted line. The next day, she comes back to be guided to a place filled with ugliness and filth. At the probing question as to why, the host responds: "yesterday you were a prospect, today you're a customer."

Offer deals for recurring business

In addition to treating customers better with support, think about offers and deals over time. One of the things that simply stumps me is the great offers I get for starting a membership or program with a company I'm already doing business with.

Do you see the issue here? First off, why don't you know I'm already a customer? It's a rhetorical question, and we'll tackle the data issue in another post. Second, why would you not offer me a similar deal for being a customer for a number of years?

Once I even wrote to the President and CEO of one such companies. I never got a response. Guess if I'm still a customer and recommend the service.

Provide ways for customers to feel part of a community

This needs to be more than just lip service or a shiny new private portal or email newsletter. Although those, within your business strategy, would be a good place to start to integrate, depending on the company culture.

You need to put skin in the game, day in day out. Software automation tools don't have relationships with customers. They may serve up good content you've taken the time to research and develop, but they're no substitute to human talk and engagement - give to get is usually a good rule of thumb.

An online community manager is the right choice for this endeavor. However, you cannot do social without the support of the organization. To walk the talk, every group that touches the customer needs to be on the same service page.

***

These ideas are about making your customers feel special and valued. Case studies are a good way to get in new customers. However, the most successful project you have ever done in the past doesn't hold a candle to what you can do with the customer in front of you, today.

Not convinced? Then try asking your customers for referrals and participation in case studies. How many agree enthusiastically and go through the whole approval process with you?

Happy customers will spread the word about your product and service on their own or with very little prodding. Today you can help them do that by putting information they can use on your Web site, offering a real simple syndication (RSS) feed and share buttons, open comments in blogs, and by integrating online outposts in your content strategy.

In fact, while in the past some of these options were available only to companies with big budgets, today they're within reach of any business any size with the right desire to be helpful and friendly.

What steps can you take to make sure you don't rest on your case study laurels when it comes to customers?

© 2006-2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Stan Phelps]

Tremendous post Valeria. I love the golf course analogy. Unfortunately it's sad, but true. Most companies could give a sh*t about their customers.
Imagine the power of flipping the traditional funnel. What if you focused 80% of your energy on current customers? What if you made it a point to exceed expectations by providing those little unexpected extras? What if you actually demonstrated that you care about keeping their business?
FACT: It cost 5 to 10 times the amount of money to retain a current customer than it does to obtain a new one.
Investing in your current customers provides you with the best ROI in marketing. Reducing attrition is the lowest hanging fruit. Too bad most companies don't get it. I guess the 'two in the bush' is sexier than the 'one in your hand'.
Best,
Stan
@9INCHmarketing
#PurpleGoldfishProject (an effort to crowd source 1001 examples of marketing lagniappe)

[Christa M. Miller]

Ha -- I came to this just as I was thinking about how to get more customers to help a client with case studies!

For this B2B client, still more or less in "startup" mode, case studies are going to be important -- prospects are asking for examples.

What I am trying to do is support the customers in my requests, by making sure they know the case study makes them look good, too. (It's software that helps them solve cybercrimes. Great press.) I even tell them I will work with their public relations person to get it distributed.

There are other issues (like case sensitivity) that prevent them from wanting to be involved, but making sure their role is (publicly) valued is part of a broader community-building strategy!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Stan - my EVP of sales at a past company told me that joke, so it felt safe if it was coming from him. Like me telling an Italian joke. You probably meant it costs you 5-10 times to replace the current customer with a new one. Indeed, it does. Looking forward to our coffee conversation.

@Christa - I recall your thinking about helping the customer tell their story in our conversation a few posts ago about that very topic. Well done on continuing to approach it that way. it is about helping your customer tell their story, your company is a supporting actor in it.

[Becky Carroll]

Great post, Valeria; thank you for always guiding your readers back to the customer. Your golf post analogy reminds me of a post by Kathy Sierra from February 2007 showing a picture of prospect vs customer (sexy images vs a couple arguing). And this is too true.

Making customers feel special and valued is very important, and it can't be done just by having great customer service people on the staff. It needs to be proactively planned in the same manner that one would create a marketing or social media strategy. Companies need a customer strategy which encompasses understanding their needs, then addressing those needs (differently for different customers) in such a way that an outstanding experience is created for the customer.

Only then will customers be treated well and companies succeed.

Thanks for making us think, Valeria. You rock!

[Casey Hibbard]

Thanks for the thoughtful post. You definitely make the case too for including in a case study details about the ongoing relationship - and waiting to do a case study until there's that track record there.

For companies that do continue to support customers, talk about "above and beyond" customer support, responsiveness, etc. can be a major deciding factor and the #1 message in a case study.

[Anna Barcelos]

I'm grateful to be with a company that is constantly going to its existing customers and asking what we can do better. These customers are also the catalysts for new programs we offer. Is this the norm?

At previous B2B companies I've worked for, lead generation always trumped customer retention.

Companies sometimes forget about their existing customers (yeah the ones fueling paychecks) and instead continue to invest enormous costs in acquisition/lead generation campaigns.