Your Best Customer Stories Are the Ordinary Ones

So you've been asked to find a customer story for an ongoing campaign. Or maybe you're looking for testimonials to add social proof to your website. Either way, the instinct might be to hunt for your biggest, most tear-inducing, once-in-a-lifetime stories.

Here's the thing though: that story might not exist.

Well, it could, but not in the way you might expect. The easiest place to find strong customer testimonials is in the everyday. We're talking return customers, staff favourites, that sort of thing. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, including your most consistent customers.

So stop hunting for that golden story and look at what's right in front of you. You're quite literally interviewing your target audience!

Mary and Bill Did the Persuading

Respect Home Care shows what everyday customer story videos can do.

Like a lot of our healthcare video production in Melbourne, the brief came down to trust. For families weighing up aged home care, the hardest part is the idea of a stranger coming through the front door.

Unfortunately, there's nothing a spokesperson or sales rep can do about that. So we worked with Respect to find their regular, everyday customers, which is how we met Mary and Bill!

After a quick introductory call, we organised a low-pressure interview at their house and got them talking about the support workers who visit them. Meet Mary and Bill shows two people at ease with their carers, and for a nervous family, that's the proof that matters. It's part of a larger testimonial series we produced for Respect, so families can hear from people who've already opened that door.

Play Respect Home Care - Meet Mary and Bill

How the Shoot and Edit Protected That Ease

It's all well and good to have a great candidate lined up for your testimonial, but it has to work for them too. That's why we build our shoot and edit plan around whatever the customer is comfortable with. For Mary and Bill, we kept the crew small and the lighting minimal, so their home still felt like theirs and not a film set.

We also brought a tidy stack of interview questions, but Mary and Bill were a step ahead of us!

They were so keen to talk about their Respect support workers that the best lines came out in plain conversation. Those moments were warmer and more real than any answer to a prepared question, so in the edit, they steered the narrative.

That's the strength of an everyday story: the people living it already know what to say, and our job is to give them a place to say it.

Finding the Next Mary and Bill

Of course, one good film doesn't make a series, so the next step is finding stories like theirs again and again. That comes down to how you ask. Asking staff across a large organisation for an extraordinary customer story is a tall order, and the replies tend to dry up pretty quickly. Instead, ask your team who their favourite customers or regulars are, and watch the anecdotes roll in!

Some of those regulars will surprise you. The customer who seems the most ordinary on paper is often hiding the most powerful story, and it's one you'd never have thought to ask for otherwise.

Offering a freebie to the customer, or a small reward to the staff member who found the story, turns the ask into a habit. Give that habit time and it builds a catalogue of customer testimonial videos you can use all over your business.

One story already travels a long way. Mary and Bill ran as a TVC, the film lives on Respect's website and socials, and it helps onboard families considering the service.

Now imagine 10, 20 or 50 stories across a year! You'd be stocked for socials, TV, case studies, website quotes and your intranet for months! The catalogue works the other way too, because every story is your best customers telling you what they value.

If keeping it going sounds like a lot, look at Ableton's One Thing series. Each episode asks one musician for one idea. Because each episode is small, the series never runs out of them. Everyday stories work the same way: there's always another one to film.

So, back to that stack of interview questions we prepped for Mary and Bill. They got there before we could ask, because the everyday story was already in the room. This approach takes the friction out of your never-ending quest for social proof. Over time, it gives you a library of content that's easy to maintain. It also gives you a clearer picture of your customers' needs.

Hold out for that extraordinary story and you might get one video. Start with the everyday and you get a library!

To map out a story series, book a discovery chat and we'll work out together where your next Mary and Bill might be. Rather see a number first? Grab a Same Day Quote, or browse our case studies.