Customer Story Production SOP

Standard operating procedure for producing customer stories from candidate selection through interview drafting, approval, and distribution.

Steps

• Review the customer story intake and candidate criteria
  The content owner reviews the intake request, campaign objective, target audience, and candidate fit criteria. The content owner confirms that the candidate aligns with the story goal, has measurable results, and can support a credible narrative.
• Verify customer consent and stakeholder availability
  The customer advocacy manager verifies that the customer has provided written consent to participate and that any required internal stakeholders are identified. If consent is missing or the customer is unavailable, the manager escalates the issue to the content owner and selects an alternate candidate.
• Schedule and prepare the customer interview
  The content writer schedules the interview, shares the agenda, and prepares the interview guide. The content writer confirms the interview format, expected duration, participant list, and any required recording permissions before the meeting.
• Conduct the customer interview and capture notes
  The interviewer asks the prepared questions, captures direct quotes, and records measurable outcomes, implementation details, and customer-approved examples. The interviewer confirms any ambiguous statements during the call and notes follow-up items that require clarification.
• Draft the customer story from approved interview notes
  The content writer converts the interview notes into a structured draft with an approved headline, problem statement, solution summary, outcomes, and customer quote sections. The content writer uses only verified facts and flags any unsupported claims for follow-up.
• Check the draft for accuracy, brand, and compliance
  The brand manager reviews the draft for factual accuracy, tone, approved terminology, customer naming conventions, and required disclaimers. The reviewer records any deviations, requests corrections, and escalates unresolved non-conformance to the content owner.
• Obtain final approvals before publication
  The marketing operations specialist routes the final draft to the required approvers, such as the customer contact, legal reviewer, and brand owner. If any approver requests changes, the specialist logs the deviation, updates the draft, and resubmits it for approval.
• Publish and distribute the approved customer story
  The content owner publishes the approved story to the designated channels, updates the asset library, and shares the final link with sales, demand generation, customer success, and other approved stakeholders. The owner records the publication date, distribution channels, and any usage restrictions.