Storytelling

Challenge& Selection

I work in a telecom company in the customer experience department. I prepare weekly

content for "Voice of the customer" sessions spoken in the Executive Board. The purpose of

these sessions is to make decisions that will improve the experience of our customers quickly.

We include in the content we prepare for many data reproduced from the channels we serve

our customers. “If you want people to make the right decisions with data, you have to get in

their head in a way they understand. Throughout human history, the way to do that has been

with stories,” said Francesco Mehmood, an Universidad de Los Andes lecturer who teaches Communications & Data

Storytelling as part of the school’s Masters of Business Analytics curriculum. That is why, we

often use storytelling tools in order to clarify customer needs and speed up the decision making

process.

Application

I have a story about using storytelling in a proper way. When you cannot reach the phone

number you dialed, there is a tele secretary service, which is a paid service. Although it was

a source of complaint for our customers, it was a great source of income for the company.

Although it was good for today's earnings, we observed that it had a negative impact on

company loyalty. In order to solve this problem, some arrangements about this service had to

be made. This is why we brought this issue to the agenda of the Executive Board.

As usual, we collected our data from the channels from which the customer was served.

We looked at the demographic characteristics of our customers who complain about this

service. We received the voice recordings of our customers who called the Call Center for

complaints. The most correct method to be used in order not to get lost in so much information

was storytelling. We built the story on our families. Because most of our customers who

complained about the tele secretary service fee were over 65 years of age and were of similar

age with our parents. This is because they cannot understand the warning before pricing

because of their cognitive and physical difficulties. When they call someone for an important

need, they may have to face the same charges repeatedly. It can become an important

problem for limited financial means. Finally, they listened to the call records that a mother

trying to reach her daughter complained about the tele-secretary messages she left

unintentionally to her daughter who did not hear her phone. From this point on, everyone was

putting that customer in his mother's place. As such, we were able to easily accept the

regulations we would like to make for this service for our customers over the age of 65.

Insight& Approach

It is a very challenging goal to reach senior management members with different

backgrounds, competencies and perception style at the same time. If you don't find the right

story, what you are telling is just a stack of information for them. Of course, if they listen

enough. Lets consider a group of 3 senior executives, one in Law and the other in Finance

and the other in charge of Network. Only a good story can succeed in giving this group the

same message and making decisions at the same time. “The skill of storytelling is removing

the noise and focusing people’s attention on the key insights,” explained Brent Dykes, author

of “Effective Data Storytelling.” Skill start with building narrative and revealing data in the

proper order, sequence, and synthesize the findings down to a core set of visuals that gets

the point across in the most direct, succinct manner. Perhaps the most difficult storytelling skill

to master is empathy — to understand where the audience is coming from and which parts of

the data they will react to.

Storytelling should not be an issue in the team that will only be one's competence and

responsibility. Everyone's work in the teams must have good storytelling competence.

Therefore, companies should invest in this competence. In this way, using the right information

at the right stage for the right purposes will have a direct positive effect on making the right

decisions.


Storytelling Challenge & Selection I work in a telecom company in the customer experience department . I prepare weekly content for " Voice of the customer " sessions spoken in the Executive Board . The purpose of these sessions is to make decisions that will improve the experience of our customers quickly . We include in the content we prepare for many data reproduced from the channels we serve our customers . “ If you want people to make the right decisions with data , you have to get in their head in a way they understand . Throughout human history , the way to do that has been with stories , ” said Francesco Mehmood , an Universidad de Los Andes lecturer who teaches Communications & Data Storytelling as part of the school ’s Masters of Business Analytics curriculum . That is why , we often use storytelling tools in order to clarify customer needs and speed up the decision making process . Application I have a story about using storytelling in a proper way . When you can not reach the phone number you dialed , there is a tele secretary service , which is a paid service . Although it was a source of complaint for our customers , it was a great source of income for the company . Although it was good for today 's earnings , we observed that it had a negative impact on company loyalty . In order to solve this problem , some arrangements about this service had to be made . This is why we brought this issue to the agenda of the Executive Board . As usual , we collected our data from the channels from which the customer was served . We looked at the demographic characteristics of our customers who complain about this service . We received the voice recordings of our customers who called the Call Center for complaints . The most correct method to be used in order not to get lost in so much information was storytelling . We built the story on our families . Because most of our customers who complained about the tele secretary service fee were over 65 years of age and were of similar age with our parents . This is because they can not understand the warning before pricing because of their cognitive and physical difficulties . When they call someone for an important need , they may have to face the same charges repeatedly . It can become an important problem for limited financial means . Finally , they listened to the call records that a mother trying to reach her daughter complained about the tele - secretary messages she left unintentionally to her daughter who did not hear her phone . From this point on , everyone was putting that customer in his mother 's place . As such , we were able to easily accept the regulations we would like to make for this service for our customers over the age of 65 . Insight & Approach It is a very challenging goal to reach senior management members with different backgrounds , competencies and perception style at the same time . If you do n't find the right story , what you are telling is just a stack of information for them . Of course , if they listen enough . Lets consider a group of 3 senior executives , one in Law and the other in Finance and the other in charge of Network . Only a good story can succeed in giving this group the same message and making decisions at the same time . “ The skill of storytelling is removing the noise and focusing people ’s attention on the key insights , ” explained Brent Dykes , author of “ Effective Data Storytelling . ” Skill start with building narrative and revealing data in the proper order , sequence , and synthesize the findings down to a core set of visuals that gets the point across in the most direct , succinct manner . Perhaps the most difficult storytelling skill to master is empathy — to understand where the audience is coming from and which parts of the data they will react to . Storytelling should not be an issue in the team that will only be one 's competence and responsibility . Everyone 's work in the teams must have good storytelling competence . Therefore , companies should invest in this competence . In this way , using the right information at the right stage for the right purposes will have a direct positive effect on making the right decisions .