Business Storytelling: New Forms of Communications

I just received a newsletter from a speaker colleague. She was announcing her debut on YouTube. It seems she attended an all-day event with celebrity speakers and then ended the evening by watching President Obama deliver his health care reform speech.

As a speech, body language, voice expert she normally would have written up a description of what she observed. However, this time she was encouraged by another colleague to put her comments on video. The reasoning from the other colleague is that we are about to experience another major shift in communication styles and videos will play a key part in the revolution.

She may be right, she may be wrong, but what I thought about as I watched the video, as opposed to reading about the speeches, was how history repeats itself. It made me wonder if in a couple centuries we are a world without the written word? Will all our lessons and history be passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth? Will Storytellers once again be revered members of society instead of viewed as children's entertainers? Who knows for sure.

What I do know is that the ability to communicate orally is once again becoming important. Learning to tell great stories is no longer just for entertainers, if you want your message remembered wrap it in story.

Business Storytelling: Networking with Stories

This past Thursday I attended a networking meeting. There were many familiar faces there but some new "commercials". One that impressed me was an insurance man who normally stands and gives the run down of services and products, very standard.

This week he started by saying that he wanted to share a couple of stories of customers that he helped this past week. He was engaging and informative as we all learned a bit more about the kinds of coverage he delivers and his commitment to servicing his clients. We talked briefly afterwards and I said how much I enjoyed his stories.

He was appreciative saying he had never tried anything like that before but that several people approached him to tell him what a great introduction he had. He thought he may have included a few too many stories and he may be right but he is on the right track by using stories. He received immediate feedback to just how powerful of a technique storytelling is in business.

So what's your 30 second story?

Business Storytelling: WOW Customer Service

A client asked me about running a workshop to collect exceptional customer service stories. I immediately thought of Ritz-Carlton and their WOW story sessions that I had read about awhile ago. Each shift, employees gather for 15 minutes to share customer service stories that show going above and beyond.

Sharing stories and having the set time dedicated for this purpose drives home the value placed on customer service by the Ritz-Carlton. My client was not aware of the program at the Ritz but felt stories needed to be used to encourage great customer service. I agree!

I'm sure the employees have delivered exceptional service. The problem is, until telling the stories is encouraged and practiced what you probably will hear is "I don't have a story to tell." It takes a little practice, prodding and modeling but once the idea catches on it becomes viral, everyone seems to have a story. Then of course in the coming days human as we are, we will want to top the customer service stories and suddenly you have a cultural shift and loyal repeat customers.

I can't wait to get started, facilitating these story sessions!