After ordering lunch at the drive-thru I pulled up to the window to receive the order.  The polite employee at the window asked if I would pull into one of the parking spots to wait because they were running a bit behind.  There was already one other car sitting waiting and soon after I parked I noticed the car behind me was asked to do the same thing.  I have to admit, once this type of thing happens I usually start thinking negatively. 

“This is going to take forever.”

“They definitely are going to mess up the order now.”

“They will forget about me.”

After a few minutes, a high-school aged boy came out with a bag of food.  He handed it to the man in the first car that was asked to wait.  With a thank you and a smile the man drove off.  The worker sprinted back inside to track down the next order – impressive!  He was in full uniform and seemed to take it upon himself to run instead of walk.

Another minute went by and the boy came out again.  This time he was holding two bags of food and my order should be next.  He ran out of the building just like last time.  I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel happy that my order was about to arrive.  He didn’t sprint towards my car though, heading straight for the car that had ordered after me instead. 

“There it is!” 

“They forgot about me.”

“I knew it.”

I watched the boy talk to the family in the car–he kept looking through the bags.  Then there was a shake of the head, and I knew exactly what was happening now.  He brought my order to that car which caused confusion.  The family rejected the order and the worker turned around.  But he didn’t come over to my car.  He ran back inside with both bags of food!

Another minute went by and there he was again….with one bag of food.  He delivered it swiftly to the other car and that family happily left with their delicious noontime meal.  I tried to get the employee’s attention as he ran by, but he didn’t hear me. 

After another couple minutes, my savior finally appeared with two bags of hot, terribly bad for you, but scrumptious food.  Halfway across the lot one of the bags split open–”This isn’t happening!”–and the burgers and fixings spilled out onto the parking lot.  The ambitious hard working kid quickly grabbed as much as he could off the ground in a bear hug and continued on to my car.  He said, “Did you order three bags of fries?”  I said, “Yes, among other things”.  He handed me the bag that was intact and said that the other items would have to be remade.  He was “very sorry.”  Off he went.  Another full sprint into the building.

Several minutes went by as they remade my order and soon he was back again.  When he got to my car he apologized another time and told me a couple apple pies were added.  He thanked me for waiting.  All was well again.  The situation was handled well.  I drove home…finally.

When we tore into the bags to eat our lunch we quickly realized that one of the sandwiches was incorrect.  I stared down at the receipt that had a phone number and website, and a message that said “How are we doing”?  “Not well,” I said to myself.  Should I call and complain?  Should I let the manager know how I was feeling about our experience?  I probably should have called…

But I didn’t. And now I have only regrets.

How are they going to improve if they don’t get feedback?  Even though I may be tired of giving feedback, each separate incident has something at stake for the company involved.  Plus, I could have also given compliments to the ambitious, fast-moving worker that operated with a smile on his face.  He deserved a few kind words.  Even with a seemingly engaged employee doing the best job that he/she can, stuff happens.  At Questar we promote giving feedback on companies, managers, and employees.  Feedback is a key to people and businesses improving themselves.  When you struggle with the question of should you or shouldn’t you give that feedback…I encourage you to answer “yes, I should!”

Steve Mars  |  Vice President

Perhaps we should turn to the research for a little guidance?

Employees in the fast food business work in a broader industry called “dirty work.”  The concept of “dirty work” was first introduced by a social psychologist in the late 1950’s, referring to work that is either disapproved or stigmatized by members of society who do not work in such jobs.   I’m not saying that people disapprove of fast food.  However, few people aspire to become a worker at such restaurants.  According to the research, we tend to wonder how they can do it. 

Finding people both willing and excited about doing work involving “flipping burgers” can be difficult.  If you currently have such employees, consider yourself lucky: do what you can to keep these individuals. For other individuals in dirty work, it is likely that wages are the best driver in determining their willingness to stay. Unfortunately for employees, many dirty occupations do not pay well. National pay data shows that the average wage for a fast food worker is between $7.12 and $8.93 per hour.

Therefore, while some may not be able to obtain higher paying jobs and will stay for the sheer need to make a living, it might make sense to practice a few exercises that researchers say help these employees feel better about what they do.  Some of these strategies may even instill pride, making employees not just okay with doing the work, but excited:

Reframe:  If a job is seen as dirty, it can be reframed by simply remembering the purpose for which it exists.  A fast food employee is working to provide quick, low-cost food to the consumer.  Not everyone can afford the time to go shopping or sit in a more upscale restaurant.  Some might even argue that some value menu items are cheaper than buying groceries- which means fast food can help feed the poor.  Reminding employees of the organization’s mission can help the employee feel better about their work—and it is important that this idea trickles down through the organization’s culture.

Recalibrate: Similar to reframing, this technique focuses on placing more value on the aspects of the job that are in fact good for society.   A typical day might involve taking orders, refilling the ice cream machine, changing the grease traps, or scooping fries.  These tasks seem to be fairly menial, but thinking about the purpose for why they exist, and placing value on the ones that are most noble can help the employee feel better about the work.  For example, while taking orders, an employee might be able to recommend a product that will be a greater value to the customer. If a customer orders a cheeseburger, small fries, and a strawberry shake, the employee may be able to suggest a value meal that will save the customer some money.  The employee can then think about their job in terms of saving people money.

Refocus:  This technique is similar to recalibration, but involves actually overlooking the stigmatized aspects of the job.  Sometimes fast food is stigmatized as unhealthy.  A way to refocus this aspect of the work would be to focus on the fact that the food is affordable, and that there are healthy options on the menu.  In fact, a tasty treat like a hamburger is not of harm to people once and a while, so the fast food worker is not promoting anything unhealthy.

While I am not promising that any of these techniques are going to significantly reduce turnover rates in the fast food industry, I would say that they can be nothing but helpful to the worker.  It doesn’t cost a dime to use a little positive reinforcement on the meaning of one’s work, but if it does work, that’s a lot of time and money saved for very little effort!

Amanda Harms, M.A. | Associate Consultant

Our objective was simply to meet as many people as possible.  We needed them to stop at our booth to do that.  The idea (which really was a game) had individuals select a bright, yellow, Questar button from a bowl.  They were to keep the button visible throughout the conference on their clothing, bag or lanyard.  Each button had the name of a unique city from somewhere around the world—because Questar is a global survey research company.  Included in the batch of buttons were two sets of matching city names.  If a person happened to have one of the cities with a match and they found the other individual with that same city, both people would win either an iPad2 or Kindle.  We weren’t sure how this would go over…

And then word got out..

As more and more buttons got out there, more and more people asked about them and we ended up having a fairly constant stream of people at our booth.  The students really made it fun.  They would hunt down all of their classmates and bring them to our booth to make sure they got their buttons in hopes of an instant match.  The energy around this idea was phenomenal and we had many people tell us that the “button game” was the best marketing idea they have seen at SIOP!  Between Thursday and Friday we gave out all 400 buttons, so we knew the matches were out there somewhere…they just needed to find each other.

It was fun to see people craning their necks for a quick look as another button-wearer passed them by.  It was almost comical when one motivated player made a large sign with her city name, and several others, and proceeded to hold the sign up for hours on Friday hoping the increased visibility would lead to a match.  And it was really cool when one student stopped me on the other side of the exhibition hall and said “Can you help me find the Questar booth?”  My answer was “Of course I can…I work for Questar.  Follow me!”

Although the individuals with the matching buttons (Delhi and Cape Town) never did come back to the booth together we still drew names on Saturday to give away the iPad2 and Kindle prizes.  There was a group of about 20 people anxiously waiting, hoping to hear their name pulled out of the bag.

When I had the chance to reflect on SIOP it made me think about how people really rally around something they are engaged in.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a fun game at a conference, an innovative idea at work, or an inviting atmosphere at their favorite restaurant.  When people are motivated, excited, and smiling, good things happen.

Over the course of the week several people came up to our booth and paid us some very nice compliments.  We were told that we were approachable, easy to talk to, and fun.  I guess it’s that “Minnesota Nice”.  Our goal at a conference is really to just be ourselves and approach it as an opportunity to make contacts, learn about current issues and solutions, and maybe even make some new friends.  Hopefully the impressions we made will last.  I am looking forward to staying in contact with the new people I met this year and I am already very excited to do it all again next year in San Diego.  To everyone that participated in our game…thanks!  To everyone…stop by our booth next year and make sure you get your button before their gone!

Steven Mars | Vice President

It turns out the online promotion was not being honored at the kiosks.  Before I could even finish the sentence, “No problem, I’ll just…” the likely “on-commission” salesperson told me he could pull some strings and get me the same deal there.  I took it home, plugged it in, and it worked great.  I was a happy customer.  That is until the bill came.  I noticed I was being charged to lease my free device and that there was no credit for my free month of service.  What happened next was what got me thinking about growing pains companies – and their customers – experience when they aren’t prepared for rapid expansion.  I called customer service.

The support specialist was nice enough, but after explaining the situation several times she could find only one solution.  I needed to take the device back to the kiosk, return it, and cancel my contract.  I would then need to go online, sign up for the deal and wait for exactly the same device to be mailed to me.  No way.  What a colossal waste of time and money for everyone involved.

I wanted to figure out how things were set up on the other end of the line, so I asked.  She expressed frustration with the sales guy – I pried and it turns out he was not the first to try to go around the system.  She was frustrated with the software she had – it physically wouldn’t let her apply the promotion to my account.  She was frustrated that she had never heard of the online deal offered in my area.  I sympathized with her and explained how I see, in the work that I do, how poor planning and communication, and not having the tools and autonomy needed can be stressful.

There are a few things I see here that are symptomatic of a company that has a widening gap between infrastructure and growth:

»     Poor communication.  When companies grow quickly they undergo many changes in a short period of time.  Information becomes siloed and lines of communication between groups break down.

»     Poor planning.  Strategic planning is a must in any change initiative and especially when dealing with plans for expansion.  It’s important to take a systematic approach and consider all of the aspect of the change (including customer experience) not just technical and financial considerations.

»     Lack of clear job roles.  As roles expand or are created, the situation turns to one in which people do what they want to do and say that the remaining tasks are “not my job.”  This was very evident in my encounter.  The support person said a number of times that “this is a sales person issue” or “I can’t help with online problems.”  To me, the customer, the company has one face.  Internally that didn’t appear to be the case.

»     Lack of resources.  Employees need to have the tools that will be required to support growth.  In this case the support person felt her “hands were tied.”

I wonder if senior leadership of this company are aware of the issues their employees and customers are facing.  In a press release, they describe their growth last year as “phenomenal,” reporting subscriptions doubled in Q3.  They anticipated by the end of 2010 they would see double what they expected in terms of a customer base.  Surely, they have a lot on their plates.  How much better would the situation be if they were armed with feedback from their employees?

If I had to make one recommendation to this company, it would be to pay attention to what is happening on the front lines.  It’s so important to give employees a voice and support them in supporting your customers.  Employees have an understanding what is and is not working in day-to-day activities.  They want to know their opinions count and can shed light on things leaders can’t see.  In order to truly leverage employees’ experiences, leaders must listen, let employees know what they are hearing, and show employees how their feedback has created real and meaningful change.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I did get the support person to find a work-around to remove the lease fee and she simply reversed the charges for the month instead of billing me for a promotional rate.

Michael Durando | Associate Consultant

I’ll start with the good…

On this recent trip, the woman seated next to me didn’t speak English and seemed to have some physical issues as well. One of the flight attendants taking care of us on this particular flight zeroed in on this woman’s needs immediately after the woman boarded the plane. The flight attendant spent extra time with her to communicate as best as possible, to get her buckled in safely, and to ensure she knew how to use the in-flight entertainment system and was as comfortable as possible. The flight attendant checked back numerous times during the flight also. I am sure the individual attention the woman received made her flight much more enjoyable (or perhaps tolerable is a better word to use).

Now for the bad…

The same flight was delayed because of a dreaded “maintenance problem.” Apparently, the reserve oxygen tank was empty and needed to be replaced. The mechanic assigned to our flight came aboard and removed the empty tank. We could see him walk down the portable steps outside the plane and place the tank on his maintenance vehicle. Then, the waiting began. The mechanic sat on the tailgate of his vehicle for 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 45 minutes, and finally after 60 minutes a new tank arrived. During this one hour wait the pilot only spoke to us one time to inform us that “someone” was looking for a full tank in the warehouse. Oxygen tanks are standard equipment, so my assumption would be that an airline has an entire wall of oxygen tanks at the ready for this exact situation.

I guess not.

It can be frustrating to hear what the issue is, but it’s even more frustrating to have no idea what is happening and why it’s happening. In this case, anyone that looked out the window could see the mechanic sitting on his vehicle, waiting, with literally no activity that might clue us in to what’s going on.

The flight attendant on this flight certainly seemed engaged in her job. What about the pilot? Not in my opinion. And the mechanic? I guess I’ll never know. As we sat on the tarmac waiting for the reserve oxygen tank I couldn’t help but think how engaged employees would have made this experience much more bearable.

I reflected on the announcement at the beginning of the flight by both the lead flight attendant and the captain where we were reminded that they are there for our comfort and security. We were told “If there is anything we can do to make your flight better, let us know.” Unfortunately, our comfort didn’t seem to be the priority in this cases from what I witnessed. It should be though. And having a fully engaged workforce would make sure it is a priority.

Steven Mars | Vice President

With the explosion of smart phones, retailers have been in a bit of an app race– trying to create the most user friendly and innovative applications. In fact, many retailers are opting to have multiple apps in an effort to beat the competition. These apps vary slightly but most offer exclusive sales, store locators, product listings, reviews and some even have bar code scanners so you can be sure you are getting the best deal on products. Even though these are very “cool” applications, I believe we’re just scratching the surface of where smart phones and mobile marketing are taking us in the retail world.

We have already seen some revolutionary independent apps come out—things like shopkick, CauseWorld, FourSquare and Loopt to name just a few. All of these are geolocation apps, meaning that they track your location via your smart phone. Social-mapping service Loopt Inc. provides its users with reviews, directions and even special offers and coupons from retailers nearby. Shopkick, which is one of the most revolutionary to retail, physically tracks when someone walks through the doors of a store and rewards them accordingly with points. These points can then be redeemed for gift cards, prizes and music downloads.

While these are powerful and fun apps there are a wide variety of people that these apps do not appeal to. Many people don’t want to play games on their phone while shopping. But I think there is a wide variety of functionality on the horizon that could bring much broader appeal.

I can see it now… in the midst of my holiday shopping I check my family’s wish lists (on my phone of course) and I see that several of the gifts would most likely be at Best Buy. I use the store locator to find the nearest store and then check the stores inventory to make sure they have the items I need. Once in the store, I use the product locator function on my phone to effortlessly find my items. As I start making my way towards the cashier I remember a DVD I wanted to pick up for myself. I quickly check my phone to see if the store has it in stock—they do not so I place an order online. Again I turn to head toward the check out line only to see that the line is outrageously long. I once again turn to my phone and use the pay on-line function in order to avoid the holiday traffic. I walk towards the door, show the security guard my receipt on my phone and I head home.

Seem far fetched? Smart phones will soon be changing the landscape of retail, it’s just a matter of how they do it.

So what do you think?

Beth Holine| Marketing Coordinator

Click here to register

I don’t want to give away too much in advance of our webinar with Clarabridge at noon CST on October 14^th—how’s that for a plug?—but have you ever played those trivia games that are on the TV’s at your local sports bar?  The ones where you need the wireless game board and you compete against the other patrons to see who actually knows what song spent 10 weeks as the Billboard number one hit in 1981-1982?

Before you answer, let me stop right there and back up just a bit.  Maybe I should let you know just why I’m doing a webinar with Clarabridge.  Well, first of all our organizations are partners; we embed the Clarabridge solution into our suite of survey research solutions.  Second, we thought it would be good to get the word out about the cool things we’re doing together—creating holistic customer feedback programs.  Third, it’s this Thursday at noon, October 14^th, so register soon.

Okay, back to my story…

I was recently at a local sports bar taking in the first Vikings victory of the season—I had to squeeze that in here somewhere.  At halftime, I noticed a group of high school kids huddled around a high-top table, drinking soda and playing trivia.  But it wasn’t trivia, per se, at least not in the sense that I think of it.  The screen started blank and then every few seconds a puzzle piece of a larger picture would appear.  The person who could guess the name of the athlete in the picture the fastest scored the most points.  Once the entire picture came up, no more points were awarded.  Of course, I went over and checked it out.  And let me tell you, it is not an easy game.

But it got me thinking.

The game isn’t all that different from how many organizations make business decisions based on customer feedback data.  We take a few data points—a few puzzle pieces—and use them to draw important conclusions.  We guess.  Just like the high school kids drinking soda at the bar.  But with one big difference: the stakes are much, much higher.

So how do companies see the whole picture?

Join us next Thursday as we discuss how Questar and Clarabridge partner to seamlessly integrate all sources of customer feedback, and then transform the data into focused business intelligence that’s used to drive sales growth.

By the way, in case you were wondering, the answer is Physical by Olivia Newton-John.

Joseph Stanton | Vice President CEM Division

Going paperless when managing household bills is a good thing, right?  Online statements are convenient and online bill pay has become easier.  Not to mention we all want to do our part to help the environment.  Why wouldn’t a person want to “do the right thing” while at the same time making their life easier to manage?  I found out a few days ago there is a little more to think about when you choose to discard the “old way’ of doing things for a “better”, more progressive approach.

Many of us have probably taken advantage of a deferred interest program when making a household purchase.  What a great concept!  Pay off something that we really want now over a specified timeframe, and there’s no interest.  It’s “free money”, right?  Yes, if paid off by the final due date.  If not, the interest that has been deferred becomes the buyer’s responsibility.  And let’s just say, it’s not typically a low interest rate.

A year ago my family purchased a new home computer and financed it through one of the all-too-common “no interest for 12 months” plans.  The minimum payment for the item was some small, token amount so I rounded up considerably from that and proceeded to pay it off.  Just a few months ago, after receiving an email prompt, I made the decision to stop the paper statements and go paperless for this account.  I felt great about the decision…until this week.

When you open a paper statement there is typically an on-going, visible reminder of the approaching, dreaded, deferred interest due date and amount.  Once you go paperless you begin receiving an email instead that simply says “Your minimum payment of $XX is due by XX.  If you want to review your online statement please go to your account on our website”.  But I wouldn’t need to go to the website.  I am already making payments above the minimum through my banks online bill pay system so I’m fine.

The trouble is that the payment that I was making, even if above the minimum, was not enough to pay off the entire amount in 12 months.  When I finally went in to my account recently expecting to see just a small amount left to pay off I realized what happened.  There were several hundred dollars of deferred interest that had been added to my account.  This was my fault I know, but couldn’t the email have had a little more information?  If there is already variable information in the email about minimum payment and due date, why wasn’t there some alert about the approaching deferred interest due date as well?  I suspect it’s because this is a good way for the bank to make money, but as a customer who always makes payments on time, I was frustrated.

I called the customer service line and spoke to a front-line representative and explained the situation.  She listened, but said she would need to speak to a supervisor.  After returning from that discussion she informed me that there was nothing they could do – I would be responsible for the entire amount.  So, as the process goes, I asked to speak to that same supervisor.  After re-explaining the situation to the supervisor and asking if we could split the amount, she said I would need to speak to her manager.  I waited on hold for a few minutes and then spoke to a manager.  The manager informed me that she would agree to my request and I would see a credit for half of the interest amount.  I hung up the phone feeling pretty satisfied and proud of my negotiation skills.  Should I have been satisfied though?

Admittedly, I give credit to the bank for negotiating at all.  Sometimes they just say “no”.  Of course I didn’t mention yet that I had to use the line of “you may force a good customer like me to close my account if we can’t come to some reasonable conclusion”.  It did get me thinking more however about the overall customer service approach that was used, and I actually became frustrated again.  Why wasn’t there more information in the email?  Why do customers have to go through several conversations, and layers, to get something done?  Wouldn’t empowering front-line employees to make decisions like this be better for the employees and the customers?

At Questar we do our best to help organizations answer questions like these.  Empowered, engaged employees do make a difference with customers.  In addition, improved client handling processes and procedures will leave customers happy, instead of frustrated.

Steven Mars | Vice President

And then it hit me the other day.

Tuesday.

The day of our company-wide celebration event—a boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka.

The biggest thing that has changed in 25 years is accessibility.  I should write about that.

Now, what do I mean by accessibility?  Just follow me for a minute here.  That Tuesday was a gloomy day and it seemed it might rain at any moment.  So an hour before we needed to leave I checked the weather radar online and sent a reassuring email to all the employees—weather is looking good so come and have some fun.  Right before I left, I made sure I had my Blackberry.  Then I used the GPS in my car to direct me to the correct location.  The last thing I did before I got on the boat was check my email.

It occurred to me that 25 years ago none of that would have been possible—we didn’t have easy access to all the information we have now.  It also occurred to me that Questar is very much a part of the accessibility story.  We provide our clients with easy access to reams of information about their customers and employees.

When Questar started in 1985 we distributed, collected and scanned in paper surveys.  After the results were tallied we mailed the aggregated results and reports to the client.  In the 1990’s we built our IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system and began collecting survey data over the phone.  We even created and distributed electronic reports on a scheduled basis.  Eventually, we delivered the reports and data through an online portal.  Today, we collect tens of millions of surveys a year and deliver the data in real-time back to our clients through interactive reports and dynamic dashboards.  We analyze customer and employee comments on the fly.  We even integrate all of the information that comes from social media websites, online reviews, customer call centers, and on and on in one spot for our clients.

And you can view all that information from your smartphone.

Now, that’s accessibility.  That’s what’s changed the most, I think.

Of course, it took a lot of dedication from our employees and commitment from our clients to get here—a lot of great ideas and partnership and teamwork, too.

But I wonder, though, what the next 25 years will hold. Well, I’m sure of one thing: it will continue to amaze me.

Ted Naegeli | President and CEO

Our friends at Bolster (www.bolstercreative.com) are also in the business of driving brand loyalty. They use authentic storytelling, and engaging and sustainable communications tools to strengthen the reputation of a brand.We thought they had some good ideas and that you might find them interesting as well. Let us know what you think.

Once Upon A Time-Driving Brand Engagement Through the Power of Story

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact. — Robert McKee, Screenwriter

“Tell me a story.”

“What’s your story?”

“That reminds me of a great story!”

The overwhelming familiarity of these phrases reminds us that we are all truly hardwired for stories. They are how we learn about our world as small children and how we come to define our social and cultural values as we grow older. Listening to others’ stories is how we decide whom to invite into our social circles. If the story someone tells us contains values that align with ours, a connection is made. And perhaps best of all, stories are universal. There have been societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories – true story.

Story has always been a compelling way to communicate a message, but what special relevance does storytelling have to communicating in today’s media-saturated, digital landscape?

Consider this: we live in the age of information overload. Never has more data or factual information been available – to the point of annoyance when you’re looking for something specific. It seems we are constantly trudging through a surplus of email and meaningless spam ads every time we are trying to digitally connect. Therefore, one of the great challenges of our time is to synthesize that data, discover the insight from the facts and ultimately find a way to convey those insights in a meaningful way. This is precisely where story can help solve this unique modern problem.

Story doesn’t just tell you the facts. Story shows you how the facts have impacted a human life. And story allows you to see yourself in that central character’s shoes and imagine how your life would be different were you in that position yourself. Herein lies one of the most powerful qualities of story: empathy. Story is in fact, the quickest way to building an emotional connection. And those emotional connections are absolutely necessary in the new experience economy where emotional brand loyalty comes from the side of the brain that makes intuitive decisions.

Brand as Story

First came products, then came trademarks, then came brands. Brands transcend product features and design. These material things can and are being imitated and for a lot lower cost by international competition. The time to compete based on physical characteristics and rational pricing arguments alone is over. We’ve entered an era where consumers are buying based on the values a brand portrays and whether or not those values align with their ideal of a meaningful life. So how can brands better showcase their core values to allow consumers and employees to make an emotional connection more readily?

Through story.

A powerful brand builds on clearly stated values while a strong story communicates those values in a captivating manner, easily understood by all. Think of the stories of your childhood. Most were a lot of fun to experience and they also had a moral to them. And that moral is also usually a social value – a value which could easily be one of a brand’s core values. Therefore, our task is to find and tell the stories which contain our company’s core brand values as their inherent theme or moral. How do we do this?

If your company has customers, then you have customer stories. In many cases, the sales force knows them best. Every interaction between customers and your brand or service has story potential. The task is to identify the stories that most clearly and powerfully bring your brand values to life.

The first thing we must do to find an ideal brand story is to identify a protagonist. Our protagonist must represent our target audience – in this example, your customers. This protagonist must have faced a challenge and through the help of your service our product, overcome that challenge to find a new level of success.

Once you’ve identified a powerful story, how do you determine the best way to tell it?

There are as many different ways to tell a story as there are different kinds of stories to tell. This is where storytelling becomes a powerful skill in today’s marketing landscape. As you begin to partner with professional storytellers and media producers to bring your brand stories to life, here are a few general storytelling tips to keep in mind:

1. Know Your Audience: Target your audience before you target your story. The demographic of your audience will inform the type of story you tell and how you go about telling it.

2. Conflict & Resolution: Every story must have a central character that overcomes a challenge (in this case with the help of your product or service).

3. Raise Questions: This is what gives a story momentum. Your audience should be asking,

“What happens next?”

4. Make it Visual: Strong imagery makes for more memorable stories. Web video is a great way to tell a memorable, visual story with high viral potential. Web videos are also simple to integrate into social media and mobile channels.

5. Moment of Reflection: Every story must give the viewer a chance to connect the dots and make the final judgment of what the core values or the morals of the story are for themselves. The theme or values should not be overt, preachy or salesy. Business writer Annette Simmons put it best when she said, “Story doesn’t tell people what to do, but it can powerfully influence what they think about as they make their own choices.”

Find the right content-producing partners and keep these story tips top of mind, and you’ll be on your way to strengthening your brand by telling some value-defining, wow-inspiring stories.

Happy storytelling.

– Jesse Roesler | Bolster