Trust in Companies Getting Better?
In January, we reported that corporate trust was at a 10-year low, according to the semi-annual Edelman Trust Barometer.
The mid-year news is a little better, though still not that promising.
First, why does a blog about leveraging customer stories care about trust in corporations?
Because trust is one of the most valuable outcomes of communicating your message with authentic customer stories. Prospects believe your customers much more than they believe you.
So, here’s a summary of Edelman’s most recent findings:
Trust in business increased – In January, just 36 percent said they trust corporations to do what is right. In July that had increased to 48 percent.
Technology is trusted most – Technology was the most trusted industry in the U.S., U.K., Germany, India and China – 5 out of 6 of the countries surveyed. In France, healthcare came first.
Customers were top stakeholders – Those surveyed named customers as the top stakeholders that CEOs should consider in their decisions, ahead of employees, investors, society, local communities and government. That’s good news!
24% really distrust large, global corps – In the U.S., 24 percent distrust these companies, while 29 percent gave them a "fair" ranking, when asked how they would describe the reputation of large global businesses.
All these are just reminders that we need to keep telling positive, authentic stories about how our solutions and companies make a difference for customers and communities.
See the full Edelman executive summary here.
Heathrow’s Bold Storytelling Project – Good Idea or too Risky?
I adore airports.
Sure, they’re big, busy and the source of a lot of stress and frustration at times. But they’re also endlessly interesting.
I got a firsthand, daily view during three summer stints in high school and college as a passenger services aid ("wheelchair girl") at the massive Dallas/Ft. Worth airport.
Among people coming and going from every direction in the world, there were tearful family reunions, health emergencies, celebrities, weather scares, and all the usual yelling that delays induce. The drama never stopped.
That’s why I’m excited to hear about a new airport storytelling project at London’s Heathrow.
It’s a risky, uncontrolled approach to capturing customer stories. Heathrow has hired a writer, a successful author, to spend a week in the airport collecting passenger stories.
The catch: The writer asked to be able to write about whatever he sees.
The stories will go into a book published next month, to be handed out to passengers.
It’s an interesting approach. Instead of controlled customer stories to enhance public perception, the airport is pulling back the curtain to let the stories be told as they may. Pretty bold!
I still feel like the airport has veto power over what’s published. They hired the writer after all.
What do you think? Smart PR move or too risky?
What IT People Really Think about Success Stories
The folks at the Reference Success blog pointed me to a recent article about IT pros’ opinions of case studies, success stories and references.
Scott Vaughn, VP of Marketing at TechWeb, got the chance at an event to hear what CIOs and IT people think about case studies and success stories. He then shared their comments.
The original question: What works and what do marketers need to do better? Their answers were pretty thought-provoking.
Highlights:
Case studies are helpful and should be comprehensive when the audience is IT folks
Lessons learned were seen as the most valuable information. What would the featured customer do differently?
Customer references are valuable during the short-listing process
Customer success stories received the strongest reaction. Respondents said they are OK for sales references but IT folks don’t want to read just a happy ending. They want more dimension in their stories, so this is the format they are least likely to read.
That brings up some questions. Are you integrating lessons learned in your technology customer stories? How has that been received by sales reps? What’s the best way to bring this into the story – in the body or sidebar? Are you labeling stories with lessons learned either case studies or success stories?
Interview on Trends and Uses of Customer Stories
Britton Manasco interviewed me for his blog, Illuminating the Future, on trends in and uses of customer stories. His thought-provoking questions delved deep into customer storytelling today.
New LinkedIn Group
A new LinkedIn Group, Success-Story Marketing, serves as a forum for exchanging ideas and best practices on writing, managing and using customer success stories and case studies. Join us!
A CEO’s Storytelling Manifesto
Storytelling has always been important to human society. From our earliest days, it’s how we learned and understood the world.
Now, a CEO of a successful software company suggests that storytelling is critical to companies during this economic downturn.
Tom Nies, founder and CEO of 40-year-old software company Cincom Systems, says:
"Companies must be willing to play a larger part in the success stories of their customers, not only in the singular success of selling a product or service to a customer. We all must work together to create new stories out of the current downturn."
Read Nies’ 12-slide manifesto, "Stories, Storytelling, Story-Selling in Business."
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