Challenge & Selection

I work for a large organisation in the financial industry sector and my role is to provide the business  and senior management with customer insight so that business decisions can be made by not only  focussing on income but also to obsessively focus on the customer. Storytelling is a great tool in  meetings or debriefs to bring our customer voice to life and to influence business change.

Storytelling is useful in far more situations than most leaders realize such as inspiring the  organization, setting a vision, teaching important lessons, defining culture and values, and explaining  who our customers are and what they believe. In addition, storytelling is useful when heavy  influence is required like leading change, or making recommendations to the senior stakeholders in  the business. Often, our senior stakeholder do get overloaded with lots of presentations as well as  data for their strategic decision making, a story will allow them to remember the presentation much  better compared to numbers.

Application

I have a story about using storytelling. As a business we are making constant business decisions  based on growth and ROI. Once, the business made a decision to make operational changes to a  business unit that had a great income opportunity but they not know how these changes would  impact the customer. I have told the business a story about a vulnerable customer who was  negatively impacted by the changes and told his/her story to the internal decision makers and what  the customer experienced and said.

Insight & Approach

It allowed the business to cross correct their plans to ensure that they fully focus on customer  experience and the implication it has on the customer when they made operational changes. The  story of the customer bought the issue clearly to life and was told across the business. Senior  stakeholders were able to bring the customers to the heart of the decision making process without  compromising financials or ROI. It is now encouraged to always have a customer story during key  meetings.


Challenge & Selection I work for a large organisation in the financial industry sector and my role is to provide the business and senior management with customer insight so that business decisions can be made by not only focussing on income but also to obsessively focus on the customer . Storytelling is a great tool in meetings or debriefs to bring our customer voice to life and to influence business change . Storytelling is useful in far more situations than most leaders realize such as inspiring the organization , setting a vision , teaching important lessons , defining culture and values , and explaining who our customers are and what they believe . In addition , storytelling is useful when heavy influence is required like leading change , or making recommendations to the senior stakeholders in the business . Often , our senior stakeholder do get overloaded with lots of presentations as well as data for their strategic decision making , a story will allow them to remember the presentation much better compared to numbers . Application I have a story about using storytelling . As a business we are making constant business decisions based on growth and ROI . Once , the business made a decision to make operational changes to a business unit that had a great income opportunity but they not know how these changes would impact the customer . I have told the business a story about a vulnerable customer who was negatively impacted by the changes and told his / her story to the internal decision makers and what the customer experienced and said . Insight & Approach It allowed the business to cross correct their plans to ensure that they fully focus on customer experience and the implication it has on the customer when they made operational changes . The story of the customer bought the issue clearly to life and was told across the business . Senior stakeholders were able to bring the customers to the heart of the decision making process without compromising financials or ROI . It is now encouraged to always have a customer story during key meetings .