Project title – “True human stories making people smile”

Example reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection:

Storytelling is absolutely a fantastic tool, which I use during my day-to-day operations in the  organization. The intelligence level of our customers is little low as we serve to the common man,  the unserved, which lies in the bottom of the pyramid of economic strata. So, the objective of  storytelling to our customer is that how we have made a difference to their lives & how our  customer has felt about being associated with our organization. We are having many customized  products and it’s the role & responsibilities of the line managers / customer services executives to  disseminate the information to the customers. But sometimes it’s not reaching to the customers in  true spirit. So, customers share their experience with us, we capture it through a story and tell our  large number of customers, how we (organization) changed their (customers) lives every day  through our products and services. It helps us in two way, customers know about us and the staffs  who deals with customers are also cognizant about the customer requirements, which helps us in  serving better, we understand customers need and serve them suitably.

Application:

we have collated many stories from our valued customers and one story is really heart-touching,  which I’m sharing over here. One of the customers is struggling to get loan from any financial  institution, one bank agreed to provide but could not give as per his requirements i.e. a higher loan  amount. Then he has approached our organization (a reputed non-banking financial company) and  we could able to provide the loan amount as per his demand. The end use of the loan is to pay the  fees for education for his daughter studying MBBS. Customer is very much delighted as the loan was  disbursed within a short span time and ultimately, she has completed her course with distinction,  now she is serving the society as a doctor. We put these live changing stories in front of customers  and these stories are with empathy, customers listen to these stories and they visit our branches for  availing various facilities. One of the customers sitting at the corner of the hall has eagerly asked  about a business loan and after detailed discussion, we conveyed her that, you are eligible for  certain amount initially and further with proper repayment track, the limit will be increased. She has  agreed to the terms and availed an unsecured loan from our organization. This is nothing but a  reference program and it has given a great result in the form of customer engagement and business  generation thereafter.

Insight and approach:

The approach was very much simple, through the stories, we are trying to reach our to the  customers, who are needy and unable to express the feelings and requirements because they feel  that they may not get the loan because it’s very much cumbersome and they can’t provide requisite  documents for taking the loan. But we said to that customer about the procedure, which requires  few documents and she provided. Line managers have made the ambience very much comfortable  and friendly, she told us about the business which she is undertaking, it’s “tailoring and ready-made”  garment shop. we assessed the business model and fund requirements for establishment of the  business and provided her with an in-principle sanction note. In the next day, the loan was  disbursed, and she was very much delighted as her dream came true, business expanded.

Through that story (loan taken for education purpose), many customers have come to us for  experiencing our products. It has benefitted the both i.e. the organization (revenue generated) and  the customer (education completed, or business expanded) and these are true human stories, which  makes people smile.

Many a times, I used the “storytelling” as a tool in generating business through various customer  engagement programs, but it was not in a structured a way. But now through the course “design  thinking for innovation”, it has made me more systematic and it will be helping me in fine-tuning the  approach, the journey of good to great will start shortly with the “new” storytelling tool.

