What Makes a Story Have Impact?

What makes a story have an impact and drive meaningful influence? What tools do you have in your design kete to ensure you are not just conveying information - but leveraging insights to influence the outcomes you seek?

In CX design, stories can drive decisions and shape the future of a project, product, or team. They can inspire action, shift perspectives, and help create momentum.

Think about how your storytelling influences decisions in your work.

Emotions are a key ingredient in making a story memorable. Using words, images, and sounds that evoke feelings for those you’re trying to influence - such as joy, surprise, empathy, and fear - can have an impact on their behaviour and decisions.

Bridging Logic with Emotion

The most effective stories bridge the gap between logic and emotion.  They offer clarity while maintaining a human connection.

Some examples include the use of customer testimonials, case studies, anecdotes, and reviews to show how your product or service is influencing real lives and help make your story more relatable and compelling.

Think about a time when a well-crafted story affected a decision you made. How did it narrate the key challenges?

How did it evoke an emotional pull, to encourage stakeholders to take action?

Recently, we spoke to Zoe Ikin, Experience Design Director, and Luke Pittar, Design Practice Lead at ASB, as part of our Craft Conversations. They discussed the importance of a “show, don’t tell” approach when communicating with stakeholders, emphasising being the voice of the customer within an organisation requires both courage and conviction.

Craft Conversations with Zoe Ikin and Luke Pittar from ASB 

They explained that involving key stakeholders in the design process and sharing real-world customer stories and challenges can be an effective way to demonstrate the value while framing customer feedback in a way that highlights the strategic advantage it offers to the organisation.

Humanising Customer Insights for Impact

In customer experience, we often work with data—numbers, statistics, insights—that might seem impersonal. The challenge lies in making this data come alive through stories. When we integrate customer insights with real-world examples, we give meaning to the numbers.

For example, instead of simply stating that 30% of customers struggle with a particular process, we can share a story about a customer who faced these hurdles, making the issue personal and urgent.

Crafting influential stories isn’t about persuading with force—it’s about inviting others into a shared vision and helping them see the possibilities. When you share the story of a customer’s journey—highlighting pain points, aspirations, and moments of delight—it becomes much easier to rally support for change.

We challenge you to think about how your stories can make a difference. How can you use storytelling to shift perspectives, influence decisions, and generate momentum for your initiatives?

Why Storytelling?

Storytelling is the most powerful tool we have as CX design professionals to connect, sense-make, and influence. Stories help us to:

• Connect: Build bridges across silos, power dynamics, and fragmented perspectives in your organisation.

• Sense-make: Establish shared narratives that clarify complex situations, attaching meaning to what might otherwise be overlooked.

• Influence: Shift decision-making and challenge dominant narratives, bringing customers' voices into the rooms where critical decisions are made.

Last year was tough for many, but it also showed us that thriving—both individually and collectively—is possible when we position our work with clarity and purpose. This year, our events and conversations will explore how to use storytelling to:

• Communicate CX's value across your organisation.

• Challenge the status quo and create space for new perspectives.

• Make the invisible glue work of CX both visible and impactful.

Join The CXC Storytelling Challenge

In 2025, the CXC will share a storytelling challenge on our community forum every Monday. That might be a question, a poll or an activity to get you thinking, exploring or talking with your peers and teams about your storytelling practice.

You have until Friday of each week to share your answers, insights, examples and reflections before we jump into the next theme.

Become a CXC member and be part of this annual challenge to lift your storytelling muscle and lift our collective practice! 

Become a CXC Member and join the Storytelling Challenge.