Your happiest customers are your most persuasive sales tool.
I interview the people whose lives your work has changed, and write the stories and case studies that give your next donor, funder, or customer a reason to say yes.
Why customer evidence works
Whether you’re closing a deal or converting a browser, the same principle applies: a real customer speaking about their own experience is more convincing than anything you say about yourself. They have nothing to gain by overstating the outcome, and your audience knows it.
Customer stories and case studies replace vague praise with a specific, measurable result, the kind that builds genuine confidence in what you do. The difference is format, not substance. A story pulls a reader in through narrative. A case study gives a decision-maker something structured to share upward. Both come from the same interview, and both carry the same proof.
Two formats. One interview.
Customer story
A narrative piece, written in the customer's voice, that takes a reader through the challenge they faced, what changed, and what life looks like now. Readable, human, and built to travel — across a website, a pitch deck, a grant application, or a social feed. 600–800 words for B2C. 800–1,200 for B2B.
Case study
A structured document built for a buying or funding decision. Same Challenge–Solution–Impact framework, presented with headers, callout boxes, and pull quotes for readers who skim before they commit. Designed to be shared internally, attached to a proposal, or handed to someone who wasn't in the room. 800–1,200 words.
Both from one interview
The interview happens once. I shape the material into whichever outputs you need.
Customer evidence often fails before it gets read.
They sound like the company wrote them
Because the company did. The result reads like a press release – polished, vague, and instantly forgettable. Real customers don't talk like that, and other customers can tell immediately.
They have no proof in them
"Transformative" and "game-changing" are not outcomes – they are placeholders. Without a specific result, the story or case study carries no weight in a buying decision, whatever that decision looks like.
They never actually get written
The customer agreed months ago. Nobody has had time to design the interview, make the call, and turn the transcript into something worth publishing. So it stays on the list.
I handle the whole thing, from interview to finished piece. I come back with a story that's ready to use, not a transcript that still needs work.
The structure that makes a story do its job
Every story and case study follows the Challenge–Solution–Impact framework. It creates recognition in a reader, earns credibility through someone else's experience, and delivers the proof that moves a decision forward — whether that decision is a business contract or a first purchase.
Challenge
The problem, in their words
Specific enough that your next customer reads it and thinks: that is exactly where I am right now. The challenge is what gives the rest of the story meaning. Vague problems produce stories nobody finishes.
Solution
What actually changed
Your product or service described through the customer's lived experience — not your feature list. This section earns trust precisely because it comes from someone with no reason to flatter you.
Impact
The result that makes it real
Time saved. Revenue grown. Costs avoided. A problem that stopped happening. This is the sentence a prospect quotes to a colleague, or a customer sends to a friend before they buy. In a case study, it becomes the headline figure in the summary box. In a story, it's the line that stays with a reader.
How I pull the proof out of an interview
Most customers describe satisfaction rather than outcomes. My interviews are designed to move past answers like "it was brilliant" and find the specific detail or figure that gives the story its weight – whatever form that takes for your customer.
Before / After
The comparison that lands
What did this look like before? How long did it take? What did the old approach cost or involve? The before is what makes the after feel real.
"We used to spend half a day on this every week. Now it takes twenty minutes."
Cost avoided
What they didn't have to spend
What would they have done instead, and what would that have cost — in money, time, or effort? Sometimes the most powerful proof is what someone avoided.
"Without this we'd have needed at least two more people in the team."
The specific outcome
What is different now
Not "I feel better" but what, concretely, has changed. For a business that might be a figure. For a consumer it might be a habit, a relationship, or something they stopped worrying about.
"I haven't thought about it once since. That sounds small but it was taking up real space."
The referral moment
When they told someone else
Who did they recommend it to, and what did they say? The language someone uses when recommending something unprompted is the most credible copy you will ever have.
"I told three other founders about it before I'd even finished the first month."
One story, many places.
A well-structured customer story or case study doesn't belong in just one place. The same interview material can be shaped into multiple formats and sized to the audience (600–800 words for B2C, 800–1,200 for B2B where the proof needs to land with more than one decision-maker) then adapted into whatever formats reach people at each stage of the journey from stranger to loyal customer.
Sales and pitches
The story a salesperson shares when a prospect asks who else you've worked with. Specific, credible, in a customer's own voice.
Investor and funder materials
Customer outcomes are your clearest evidence that what you offer works. A story with a real voice and a case study with a named result are more convincing together than either is alone.
Pull quotes
The two or three lines from the interview that carry the most weight on their own. Formatted for use in sales decks, email footers, or website testimonial slots.
Website
A case study or beneficiary story page that gives a visitor the proof they need to take the next step: donating, enquiring, buying, or subscribing.
Grant applications and impact reports
Funders want to know their money is changing lives. A beneficiary story provides the human account; a structured case study provides the evidence. Both belong in a strong application.
Social posts
Two or three posts built around the most quotable moments and the sharpest outcome. Written natively for LinkedIn rather than cut-and-pasted from the long piece, so they read like content, not excerpts.
Short-form version
A condensed version of the story for press releases, PR pitches, or anywhere the full case study is too long. Same structure, same proof. Just compressed.
Social and community
A customer or beneficiary story gives you something worth sharing — not a product announcement or a funding update, but a human experience that people engage with and pass on to others who need it.
Real outcomes in a customer's voice outperform invented copy at every stage of a nurture or welcome sequence — especially where someone is deciding whether to commit.
PR and press
The customer's outcome is the news hook. A well-written story can be pitched as a case study, adapted as a byline, or used as the basis of a press release.
Who commissions these?
Charities and non-profits with a fundraising or awareness goal
A story from a beneficiary gives donors something to connect with. A case study gives trustees and funders something to act on. Both come from one interview.
Companies with a considered sales process
Your prospects take time to decide. A customer story with a real voice and a case study with hard numbers give your team something credible to share at the right moment in a long sale.
Growing businesses that need a content library
You have been winning customers and building strong relationships. Now you need the evidence that turns that traction into proof – for your website, your sales team, and anyone who needs to understand what you do.
Businesses entering a new market
When you are trying to win customers who don't know you yet, stories from people who do are your most credible introduction. A case study lowers the barrier with decision-makers; a story lowers it with everyone else.
Consumer brands building a loyal following
Your best customers have real things to say about you. A story captures that in a form people will read and share. A pull-quote version gives you something for every channel.
Founders and small marketing teams
You know which customers would make great stories. You just haven't had time to design the interview, make the call, and turn the conversation into something worth publishing in any format.
Investor-backed businesses
Customer stories with real outcomes and case studies with named results are evidence that your product works in the world. A small set of well-crafted pieces can anchor a fundraising conversation more convincingly than a slide full of logos.
The common thread: your customers are getting results and having experiences worth talking about. The question is whether that evidence exists in a form anyone else can find and use.
How it works
Four steps from brief to a finished, publication-ready story. You are involved at the start and the end. I handle everything in between, including the conversation with your customer.
1. We agree on the brief
A short call to understand your business, the customer, what they experienced, and what you need the piece to do. We also agree on format (story, case study, or both) so the interview is shaped accordingly from the start.
2. I design the interview
A tailored guide built around your objectives and this specific customer, not a generic question list. Structured to surface the challenge, the turning point, and the result, with prompts designed to find the detail that makes the piece worth reading.
3. I conduct the interview
Remotely by default, in person when it makes sense. I run the conversation, follow the threads that lead somewhere interesting, and do the work of finding the proof. Your customer leaves feeling heard, which matters if you want them to remain an advocate after the story is published.
4. You receive the finished piece or pieces
Story, case study, or both, delivered within five working days of the interview. Stories run 600–800 words for B2C and 800–1,200 for B2B; case studies 800–1,200 words. Structured around Challenge, Solution and Impact, with the proof woven throughout rather than bolted on at the end. Publication-ready, with one round of revisions included as standard.
A producer's instinct. Not a copywriter's template.
Customer stories and case studies can be useless. Not because the writer was bad at writing, but because the interview was bad at interviewing. Prepared questions get prepared answers. You end up with a quotes-and-numbers press release dressed up as a story, and nobody reads it past the third paragraph.
I've spent over a decade in TV documentary and branded content, and this has involved interviewing contributors from all walks of life - including families of murder victims, survivors of natural disasters and North Sea fishermen. It takes patience and a willingness to drop a question list when something interesting comes up. Generic answers are easy to get. The telling detail is always specific: a number mentioned almost in passing, or something that nearly went wrong. That's where the story usually is. It's also where the proof is, which is what the client actually wanted in the first place.
Pricing
Every project is scoped individually.
If you have a budget in mind, share it, and I’ll tell you honestly what’s possible within it.
If not, get in touch, and we’ll work it out together.
Work samples
Get in touch
Tell me a little about what you're working on, and I'll come back to you within two working days.