Anatomy of a Customer Case Study
Every strong customer case study has four parts: the customer, the challenge, the solution, and the impact. Here's how to structure each one to win deals.
TL;DR
- A strong customer case study is built from four sections: who the customer is, the challenge they faced, the solution your product provided, and the measurable impact.
- The customer section should cover company size, revenue range, and what they do; the challenge section should establish the cost of inaction before you arrived.
- The impact section should use hard numbers and percentages to tell the "before" and "after" story, ideally co-written with the customer.
Customers can become a crucial part of your outbound content strategy through customer case studies, referrals, marketing opportunities, and more.
In this article, we’ll look at the critical parts of a case study to ensure your team creates the most compelling, valuable stories to help tell – and sell – your company’s value.
Who is the customer?
The first section of your case study should introduce the customer and share more about their business. This includes the size of their organization, revenue range, and other classifying information. Then, you can share more about what they do, the product, service, or hardware they sell or create. Make sure you also include background information regarding ‘how’ they do what they do, ‘why’ they do what they do, and ‘where’ the company is located.
What is the challenge/problem?
Next, you need to establish the problem or challenge the customer was looking to solve by working with your organization. Outline the impact of this issue to establish what would happen if they didn’t address the problem directly. What was the customer doing or attempting before your solution? What wasn’t working, or what was too manual or time-consuming to continue? You can end this section by outlining their decision to try an alternative or look for a permanent solution with your team.
What is the solution?
This section bridges the gap between the problem the customer was experiencing and the solutions or products your team provides. Walk through how the customer determined what to do next and how they came to your company. What was the solution that your product provided? Outline how exactly the customer uses your product or solution to execute and directly address the problems you mentioned in the section above. Make sure you mention how they deployed your solution and any key stakeholders or personnel directly involved in implementation.
What is the impact?
This final section highlights the partnership results between your team and your customer. Was there a reduction in time, resources required to get something done, an increase in revenue, or something else? Use the problems and solutions you outlined above to add a measurable impact number to each point. This section is also where you can work directly with your customers to tell the ‘before’ and ‘after’ stories. Just be sure to include as many hard numbers or percentages as possible to illustrate the impact accurately.
Want to learn more?
Building compelling customer case studies and sharing these stories with prospective and current customers can help drive new deals and even introduce upsell conversations. Stay on the lookout for customers who may be a good fit for a case study, and then work with your marketing team to build the most compelling customer case studies possible.
You can learn more about building customer case studies with these additional resources from ClientSuccess:
- Webinar: Designing the Playbooks to Power Your Customer Journey
- eBook:Customer Success Best Practices from 20+ Executives
- Toolkit: Customer Journey Toolkit
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main parts of a customer case study?
How do you write the impact section of a case study?
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