example of case study in business

In terms of the interview structure, I recommend categorizing the questions in a way that the answers flow into six specific sections that will mirror a successful case study format. Combined, they'll allow you to gather enough information to put together a rich, comprehensive study.

Open with the customer's business.

The goal of this section is to generate a better understanding of the company's current challenges and goals, plus how they fit into the landscape of their industry. Sample questions might include:

• How long have you been in business?
• How many employees do you have?
• What are some of the objectives of your department at this time?

Cite a problem or pain point.

To tell a compelling story, you need context that helps match the customer's needs with your solution. Sample questions might include:

• What challenges and objectives led you to look for a solution?
• What might have happened if you did not identify a solution?
• Did you explore other solutions before this that did not work out? If so, what happened?

Discuss the decision process.

Exploring how the customer decided to work with you helps to guide potential customers through their own decision-making processes.

Sample questions might include:

• How did you hear about our product or service?
• Who was involved in the selection process?
• What was most important to you when evaluating your options?

Explain how a solution was implemented.

The focus here should be placed on the customer's experience during the onboarding process. Sample questions might include:

• How long did it take to get up and running?
• Did that meet your expectations?
• Who was involved in the process?

Explain how the solution works.

The goal of this section is to better understand how the customer is using your product or service. Sample questions might include:

• Is there a particular aspect of the product or service that you rely on most?
• Who is using the product or service?

End with the results.

In this section, you want to uncover impressive measurable outcomes — the more numbers, the better. Sample questions might include:

• How is the product or service helping you save time and increase productivity?
• In what ways does that enhance your competitive advantage?
• How much have you increased metrics X, Y, and Z?

It’s a smart idea to send a copy of your interview questions to your subject ahead of time so they can prepare strong answers and collect the numerical data you need from them.

10. Lay out your case study format.

When it comes time to take all of the information you‘ve collected and actually turn it into something useful, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I always do, but I also know that it works out in the end, so I just jump on in and work it through.

So where should you start? What should you include? What's the best way to structure it?

It‘s important to first understand that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the ways you can present a case study.

They can be very visual, which you’ll see in some of the examples we've included below, and can sometimes be communicated through video or photos with a bit of accompanying text.

Here are the sections I’d suggest, and I'll cover these in more detail after #11 below:

• Title. Keep it short. Develop a succinct but interesting project name you can give the work you did with your subject.
• Subtitle. Use this copy to briefly elaborate on the accomplishment. What was done? The case study itself will explain how you got there.
• Executive Summary . A 2-4 sentence summary of the entire story. You'll want to follow it with 2-3 bullet points that display metrics showcasing success.
• About the Subject. An introduction to the person or company you served, which can be pulled from a LinkedIn Business profile or client website.
• Challenges and Objectives. A 2-3 paragraph description of the customer's challenges, before using your product or service. This section should also include the goals or objectives the customer set out to achieve.
• How Product/Service Helped. A 2-3 paragraph section that describes how your product or service provided a solution to their problem.
• Results. A 2-3 paragraph testimonial that proves how your product or service specifically benefited the person or company and helped achieve its goals. Include numbers to quantify your contributions.
• Supporting Visuals or Quotes. Pick one or two powerful quotes that you would feature at the bottom of the sections above, as well as a visual that supports the story you are telling.
• Future Plans. Everyone likes an epilogue. Comment on what's ahead for your case study subject, whether or not those plans involve you.
• Call-to-Action (CTA). Not every case study needs a CTA, but putting a passive one at the end of your case study can encourage your readers to take an action on your website after learning about the work you've done.

When laying out your case study, focus on conveying the information you've gathered in the most clear and concise way possible.

Make it easy to scan and comprehend, and be sure to provide an attractive call-to-action at the bottom — that should provide readers an opportunity to learn more about your product or service.

11. Publish and promote your case study.

Once you‘ve completed your case study, it’s time to publish and promote it.

Some case study formats have pretty obvious promotional outlets — a video case study can go on YouTube, just as an infographic case study can go on Pinterest.

But there are still other ways to publish and promote your case study. Here are a couple of ideas.

Lead Gen in a Blog Post

As stated earlier, written case studies make terrific lead-generators if you convert them into a downloadable format, like a PDF.

To generate leads from your case study, consider writing a blog post that tells an abbreviated story of your client‘s success and asking readers to fill out a form with their name and email address if they’d like to read the rest in your PDF.

Then, promote this blog post on social media, through a Facebook post or a tweet.

Published as a Page on Your Website

As a growing business, you might need to display your case study out in the open to gain the trust of your target audience.

Rather than gating it behind a landing page, publish your case study to its own page on your website, and direct people to it from your homepage with a “Case Studies” or “Testimonials” button along your homepage's top navigation bar.

The traditional case study format includes the following parts: a title and subtitle, a client profile, a summary of the customer’s challenges and objectives, an account of how your solution helped, and a description of the results. You might also want to include supporting visuals and quotes, future plans, and calls-to-action.

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5 Steps for Writing a Case Study for Business (+Templates)

Get professional tips for writing a case study that drives business impact. Learn the best format and research method to use alongside examples & templates.

7 minute read

helped business professionals at:

SHORT ANSWER

What is a case study.

• Open with an introductory overview
• Explain the problem in question
• Detail the solutions that solved the problem
• Refer to key results
• Finish with recommendations and next steps

Why you need a case study

“I climbed Mount Everest and I did it all by myself.” “Yeah mate, pics or it didn’t happen.” The same logic applies to case studies. In business, it’s “case studies or it didn’t happen.” A well-written case study legitimizes your product or services. It proves the impact your actions have on the bottom line and is the single most important element of building trust amongst prospective clients. But… How do you write a *perfect* case study? One that engages readers and makes them care about your offering and excited to work with you?

In business, a case study , or customer success story, is a marketing tool that showcases how your product or service helped clients overcome business challenges. It uses statistics, quotes, and specific examples to convincingly highlight your ability to produce results.

What is the purpose of a case study?

The purpose of a case study, usually, is to provide your prospective clients with specific examples of how your products or services can help solve business problems they might be facing.

Case studies legitimize your business activities allowing you to go beyond explaining what you do and focus on how well you do it. (And, in case you were wondering just HOW important case studies are, here’s an item of data to ponder: according to a DemandGen report , 78% of B2B buyers want to review case studies before making a purchase decision. Another study by Uplift found that at the end of 2023, f or the third year in a row, marketers ranked case studies the #1 most effective marketing tactic to increase sales—ahead of general website content, SEO, blog posts, social media, paid ads and other tactics. )

There’s no magic behind it. Just a proven, simple formula I’m about to share with you. Spend the next 7 minutes reading this guide and you’ll learn how to write case studies better than any case study you’ve created in the past. Important caveat: this article explains how to write a case study for business purposes. If you’re interested in writing research case studies for academia, refer to this excellent guide by University of Southern California. If, in turn, you’re struggling with putting together a medical case study, here’s a fantastic 101 by the BMJ . I’m not going to pretend I know better than these guys do.

For your reference, here’s an example of our very own case study, showing how, at Storydoc, we helped the Spot company boost some of their key metrics: Learn How Spot by NetApp boosted their conversion rates 2x.

Spot's team used this deck to boost their conversion 2x

By drawing the bigger picture even deep-tech software products can be easily explained.

Browse interactive case study templates

No matter how great the contents of your case study might be, if you fail to present it in an eye-pleasing way, most likely, no one will really read it. The good news? I’ve put together a gallery of the most professional, attention-grabbing case study templates available online. You can find it here: Case Study Templates & Design Tips Or, take a shortcut to great case study design and use our presentation maker . Have a look below to see what your case study might look like.

And now, let’s get to the case study 101. (If you’re only interested in a specific section of a case study, simply click on a jump-to link in the table of contents below.

Here's how to write a case study:

1. Open with an introductory overview

The last thing you want is for someone to open your case study, give it a quick glance, and decide to skip. See— People don’t usually read case studies. At least not immediately. First, they skim the contents to see if the subject is relevant enough. How to make sure your case study sticks? At the beginning, place an introductory overview (also called an “executive summary”). Provide an overview of the whole case. It’s not supposed to be a catchy intro but a full synopsis, detailing the problem at hand, your assumptions, the solutions implemented, and the results achieved.

How to write a case study introduction?

Introduce the purpose of the case study—specify exactly what you were aiming to achieve.

Define the problem or the most significant challenge. For instance, low conversion rates, a technological issue or high costs. (It could also be a combination of such factors!)

Explain briefly what the solution to the problem was.

Share the most important results your actions produced. Don’t go into too much detail, a few key points will do. It’s best if you can quantify the results: numbers pop!

Keep it short. Usually, 2–4 paragraphs + a few bullet points with key results will do.

While, as its name implies, this section comes at the beginning of your case study, write it last. First, craft the rest of your document, then pick the most important bits and compile them into the introductory overview.

2. Explain the problem in question

“Adam caught a flat tire. In the middle of the desert. He had no spare, no signal, no food, and only enough water to keep him alive for 48 hours.” Oh dear, poor Adam! What could possibly be done to help him?! See, in your case study, make the client seem like Adam so that, later on, you can paint your company like the miraculous savior. Of course, I’m exaggerating, but only so much. The purpose of the “problem” section in a case study is to arouse emotions from the readers. Ideally, in such a way that they can picture themselves as Adam. Highlight a problem your product or services solve and present an example of when that problem was troubling a client really badly.

How to write a “problem” section in a case study?

In a single sentence, describe your customer’s business challenges and objectives.

Explain the problem your customer faced that prevented them from achieving those objectives prior to working with you.

If that was the case, mention other solutions your client experimented with that didn’t work out and explain why.

Make it clear how the issue or problem impacted the client’s business results so that it’s easy to understand why a solution was badly needed.

3. Detail the solutions implemented to solve the problem

Here comes the moment to toot your own horn a bit (and also that moment when you can get slightly technical). Present your solutions in reference to the issue your client was dealing with and make it obvious that those are easily replicable for all future cases. Of course, the exact formula for this section will depend on your industry and mode of operation. Sometimes a 2–3 paragraph summary will be enough, in other cases, you’ll need to include more detailed technical specs regarding the solution you implemented.

How to write a solutions section in a case study?

Focus on your customer’s experience in using your product or services.

Explain the process: say how long it took to get the solution up and running and what teams on your customer’s end were involved.

Highlight the features of your product or service that turned out to be the most beneficial to your customer.

If possible, attach or link to relevant assets that will work as real-life examples of your solution (unless, of course, the information is highly sensitive).

Always run your case study by your client’s marketing team before you go live. Even if you’re using direct quotes or verifiable results, it’s ultimately their decision whether or not to make certain information freely available.

4. Refer to key results

In business, nothing speaks louder than ROI and you know it. Prospective customers reading your case study won’t be bothered to take notice of your state-of-the-art technology or innovative approach. Neither will they care about your past customers’ happiness. What they want to know is this: Will that help me save or make money? When writing a case study, your job is to present results in a way that answers the above question with a resounding YES. You need to make it blatantly obvious that your solutions heavily impact the bottom line of the client in question and that such results are easily replicable.

Here’s how to write about results:

In a few bullet points, list numerical results your solution delivered to the client.

Ideally, you’ll want to include revenue-related data: increase in clients’ base, more demos booked, higher conversion rates, or optimized pricing.

If you can’t (or aren’t allowed to) share hard sales numbers, refer to softer KPIs: time saved, customer happiness scores, expanding the community, or enhancing brand visibility.

If possible, by all means include quotes from your client. Results should speak for themselves, obviously, but showing the real human whose problems you solved makes for a much more powerful narrative. Plus, it further adds credibility to the case study. Start by preparing a list of powerful case study questions to guide your client interviews.8

5. Finish with recommendations and next steps

Everyone enjoys a solid epilogue. To end on a high note, include a list of key findings from your case study. Even if a given reader won’t decide to get in touch with you, at least you’ll provide them with a valuable source of knowledge—sometimes that’s enough to keep your company top of mind in the future. Plus, if you’re planning to continue working with the subject of your case study, definitely mention that! It shows that your support is valuable enough to warrant long-term collaboration, not just a one-off endeavor. Now, not every case study requires a call to action (especially if your main purpose is to inform and educate rather than convert, which is okay, too), but for those more commercially-oriented ones, do add it. Make your CTA singular and clear —if the most desired action is to reach out to you, leave your contact details, if you’d rather direct prospects to a landing page or a welcome screen, add a button.

And that’s a wrap!

Here are the key points to keep in mind when writing a case study:

Put an introductory overview at the beginning.

Present the problem you were solving and your exact solutions to that problem.

Include numerical, verifiable results your product or services delivered for the client.

Explain what the next steps are, especially if you plan to continue working with the client.

Finish with a strong, clear CTA, making it easy for prospects to reach out to you.

Thanks for reading the guide. Keeping my fingers crossed for your case study and wishing many successful cases so that you’ll always have something to write about.

Hi, I'm John, Editor-in-chief at Storydoc. As a content marketer and digital writer specializing in B2B SaaS, my main goal is to provide you with up-to-date tips for effective business storytelling and equip you with all the right tools to enable your sales efforts.

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9 Case Study Examples, Plus a Useful Case Study Template

Writing a case study can help you pitch your services to prospective clients. Learn how to write one by studying successful examples and using a free template.

If you can write a résumé, you can write a case study. Just as a résumé shows potential employers how your experience can benefit their team, a case study highlights an existing client’s success story to demonstrate your business or product’s value to prospective clients.

A compelling case study includes relevant data without overwhelming your reader, considers the customer’s perspective, and demonstrates how you handled a specific challenge.

The best way to learn how to write one is by reading a stellar business case study example.

What is a case study?

A case study is a document business-to-business (B2B) companies use to illustrate how their product or service helped a client achieve their goals. A winning case study introduces the featured client, gives a brief description of their challenge or goal, and showcases the results they achieved with your help.

Businesses that provide software, tools, or consulting services often provide case studies to potential customers trying to choose between several options.

A company’s marketing team is typically responsible for writing case studies, but if you have a small business without a dedicated marketing team, don’t worry. Anyone can write a case study, and it’s a straightforward process if you use a template.

Why should you create a case study?

A case study brings your product or service to life for future customers with real-world examples. These success stories offer tangible results. Case studies are, thus, a form of social proof , but their power goes beyond a mere testimonial or review.

Since B2B services often are expensive and require approval from multiple decision-makers, typical forms of social proof often aren't enough to convince potential customers. Business customers want to be able to share compelling data with their teams, and that’s where the case study is beneficial.

How to write a case study

• Choose a template
• Interview your client or customer
• Describe the situation
• Identify the solution
• Present the results

1. Choose a template

You don’t necessarily need a template to write a case study, but it can make the process easier—especially if you haven’t written one before or need to write several at once.

You’ll notice that most business case studies take the same general format; after inputting the basics into the template, you can add your own personal flair. (That is, your branding and voice.)

2. Interview your client or customer

The client or customer interview is the heart of the case study. Identify several current or past clients willing to chat with you about their experiences. Look for repeat customers and those who reached out independently to tell you how much they enjoyed your product or service.

A phone interview is the best way to get conversational quotes, but you can correspond via email if your subject is short on time. Not sure what to ask? When social advertising agency Biddyco interviewed the VP of Marketing at Fellow , they asked him the following questions , according to their case study:

• What were the obstacles that would have prevented you from choosing/hiring Biddyco?
• What have you found as a result of hiring Biddyco?
• What specific feature or thing do you like most about Biddyco’s services?
• Would you recommend Biddyco and why?

The goal of the interview is to better understand your client’s experience with your product or service and grab a soundbite you can use as a testimonial in your case study. If you didn’t work directly with the client, you may also want to interview someone on your team who did to get more context.

3. Describe the situation

Give context to your case study with a brief description of the client’s business and the desired outcome that led them to seek your product or service. You can follow this general formula:

[Client’s name] is a [type of business] with [unique feature]. [Client’s name] came to [your business] seeking [client’s desired outcome] while [requirement].

Here’s an example of a one-sentence situation summary in the case study for Sharma Brands ’ client Feastables:

“Feastables, a better-for-you snacks company, came to us in need of a team to take the DTC setup off their plate.”

Advertising company Adgile, which created moving billboards for the non-alcoholic aperitif brand Ghia , has a longer description in its case study that provides background on the marketplace, but the heart of it is this:

“Ghia was seeking creative ways to break through the clutter of a crowded—and big-budgeted—adult beverage market, all while managing customer acquisition cost (CAC).”

4. Identify the solution

This section can vary depending on your field. Also described as “the action,” “the work,” or “the strategy,” the solution describes the strategic insights your company brought to your client’s problem or how your customer used your product to achieve their goals.

The basic formula: [Client’s name] partnered with [your business] to [service received].

Here’s an example from email marketing software Klaviyo’s case study featuring olive oil brand Graza:

“Graza uses Klaviyo’s granular segmentation tools to send automated flows and promotional campaigns to small, targeted groups of customers based on purchase frequency.”

This section describes exactly which of Klaviyo’s features Graza used (granular segmentation) and how they used it (to send automated flows to small, targeted groups), without getting into any outcomes or results yet.

5. Present the results

This section is where you’ll win over prospective customers and build trust. The basic formula is:

[Client’s name] used [service received] to [desired outcome].

Share how your product or service positively affected the client’s business, whether that’s cost savings, more clients, or improved company culture. According to a case study from community platform TYB, the results it delivered for skin care company Dieux were as follows:

“Dieux was able to create thousands of authentic, personalized referrals ahead of its new product launch plus live out its brand promise of transparency.”

Depending on your product or service, your results may include quantifiable outcomes (like thousands of referrals), intangibles (like living out your brand promise), or both, as in the case of TYB.

Real-world examples of case studies

Sharma brands for feastables, adgile media group for ghia, meta for lulus, tyb for dieux, biddyco for fellow, outline for heyday canning, klaviyo for graza, culture amp for bombas, kustomer for thirdlove.

A great way to write a case study is to look at a sample case study—or better yet, many. You’ll notice that wildly different businesses have case studies that follow roughly the same structure, which is why we recommend using one of our free case study templates to write yours. Learn from this mix of business, design, and marketing case study examples:

Sharma Brands is a branding agency founded by Nik Sharma , “The DTC Guy.” Sharma Brands keeps its case study featuring snack company Feastables short and sweet, breaking it down into three chronological sections: the situation, the work, and the outcome.

The Sharma Brands case study is a good example of how to incorporate meaningful results without sharing actual numbers (which the client may not wish to make public) or getting into an in-depth analysis.

Instead of metrics, Sharma Brands lists the tasks it executed: 

• “Successfully launched their DTC site.” 
• “Simultaneously launched on GoPuff with no downtime.”

It also lists some general achievements: 

• “Broke Shopify records in the first 24 hours of launch.” 
• “All revenue and engagement metrics were highly exceeded.”

Adgile Media Group creates outdoor advertising by providing brands with mobile billboards. Unlike traditional outdoor advertising, Adgile also tracks the digital impact of its IRL campaigns.

Adgile’s case study featuring the non-alcoholic beverage brand Ghia is the perfect place to show off the metrics it collects, like:

• 78% homepage visit lift
• 91% conversion lift
• 82% lift on its Find Us page
• Increase in brand awareness and recall, more than 75% over the competition

Meta, the social media and digital advertising platform, does something in its case studies that every company can replicate. Instead of saving the numbers for the results section, Meta provides a brief overview near the top. This breaks up the text visually, provides a quick snapshot for anyone who doesn’t want to read the full case study, and intrigues those curious to know how they achieved those numbers.

Meta’s case study for the clothing company Lulus starts by teasing its most impressive stat:

“The women’s fashion ecommerce company compared the performance of a Meta Advantage+ shopping campaign with Advantage+ catalog ads versus its usual ad campaign setup and saw a 47% increase in return on ad spend using the Advantage+ products.”

It then presents three key figures in a visually appealing design, drawing clear attention to the impact it had on this customer.

TYB is a community platform that rewards fans for creating user-generated content . TYB’s case study for Dieux details how the skincare brand used its platform to involve customers in product testing.

It also does something small worth noting: Instead of sticking the call to action at the bottom of the case study, TYB places a “request demo” button at the top of the page. That way, anyone compelled by the results of the case study can take the next step immediately.

Advertising agency Biddyco took a unique approach to its case study for the coffee- and tea-gear company Fellow . Unlike other business case study examples that use the typical situation-solution-results format, Biddyco structured its case study as an extended testimonial, with a series of questions like, “What specific feature or thing do you like most about Biddyco’s services?”

In addition to client feedback, Biddyco also highlights a few key accomplishments under the heading “All You Really Need to Know.”

A branding studio like Outline won’t approach case studies in the same way an advertising platform like Meta would. What matters here isn’t cost per impression or ROAS, it’s how everything looks.

That’s why Outline’s case study for ​​ Heyday Canning is relatively light on words and heavy on imagery. If your work is more visual than numerical, your case study is a great place to show your behind-the-scenes process.

For example, Outline shows the label design alongside images of the cans on the shelf and provides a brief description of the design inspiration. This example shows how you can have a design-focused case study that still tells a compelling story.

Klaviyo , an email marketing software company, puts numbers front and center in its case study for the olive oil company Graza . If your product or service involves tracking metrics like email open rates, revenue, and click rates, highlight those stats in a larger font size, as Klaviyo did.

Klaviyo’s case study for Graza also shows you don’t necessarily need to fix a problem to create a great case study; you can also simply help your client achieve their goals. According to Klaviyo’s case study, Graza’s challenge was to create strong customer relationships.

How do you write a compelling case study if your service doesn’t involve tangible metrics or flashy design? For the performance management software company Culture Amp , it’s highlighting key statistics about the subject of its case study , sock company Bombas .

Like Meta and Klaviyo, Culture Amp highlights three numbers in large font. But these numbers are stats about their client Bombas, not Culture Amp’s services: “120+ employees,” “25M+ items donated,” and “$100M+ in revenue for 2018.”

Instead of showing off the results it achieved for Bombas, these numbers let prospective clients know that Culture Amp works with big, important companies on their performance management process.

Choosing a customer relationships management ( CRM ) platform is a big decision. Switching platforms—as bra company ThirdLove did in this case study from customer support platform Kustomer—can involve lengthy data migration, customization, and employee onboarding.

That’s why it makes sense that Kustomer’s case study for ThirdLove is a four-page-long PDF and not a blog post. If your case study involves a long, detailed analysis, follow Kustomer’s example and make two versions of your case study.

The first page is an executive summary, with about a paragraph each describing the challenge and results. If after reading the first page, you want to learn more, you can dive into the rest of the case study, but you don’t have to read the entire thing to get a sense of how Kustomer collaborated with ThirdLove.

Case study examples FAQ

How do you write a simple case study.

To simplify the case-study writing process, download a template. Shopify’s fill-in-the-blanks case study template can help you share your customers’ success stories in an easily digestible, well-designed format.

Why are case studies important for businesses?

For the business reading a case study, the contents can help them decide between different products or services. For the business writing the case study, it’s a chance to connect more deeply with potential customers.

What is an example of a case study?

An example of a case study is a mobile billboard company’s overview of the services it provided to a client. The case study might include an overview of the client's goals and how the advertiser addressed them, plus a list of outcomes—increased website visits, decreased costs per visit, and a rise in brand awareness.

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How to write a business case study: your complete guide

Hanna Stechenko Manager, SEO Management

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Business case studies are powerful tools for marketing, teaching, and training. They help to create valuable learning experiences that can be shared with others.

A well-written business case study can also generate leads, increase customer loyalty, and boost sales.

But writing an effective and compelling case study can be easier said than done.

Great case studies aren’t something that you can write by yourself.

You’ll need help from existing clients who are willing to talk about their problems publicly, and you’ll need to safeguard their reputation while you tell their story.

It’s tricky.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to write a business case study, including best practices, case study templates, real examples, and more.

Let’s jump in.

What is a business case study?

A business case study is an in-depth look at a specific company or organization that examines how a business solved a problem, achieved success, or faced failure.

Case studies are often used by businesses to demonstrate the effectiveness of their strategies and solutions.

They can also serve as inspiration for other organizations that may be considering similar approaches.

The idea is simple: Stakeholders evaluating a product may be able to see the value of that product by learning how other companies have tried and succeeded with it.

For that reason, 42% of marketers still list case studies as a top media format used to generate leads and sales.

Strong case studies are often based on interviews with actual customers to highlight the effectiveness of a specific feature, explain a certain use case, or emphasize benefits or results of note.

Done correctly, a case study combines customer testimonials, process information, and usage data to tell a unique story about how a product or service helped a company succeed.

That’s why case studies are sometimes known as customer success stories.

What makes a strong case study?

Before we jump into the details of how to make a great case study, let’s take a closer look at what a strong case study actually looks like.

To create a great case study, you’ll need each of the following:

• Clear, compelling storylines. A good case study should include a clear story line that conveys the problem, solution, and the impact of the solution.
• A strong presentation of data. Demonstrate how your product or service has made an impact on the customer’s business with documented facts and figures.
• Credible client testimonials. Include feedback from real clients and users about how your product or service solved their issue. With permission, use a person’s real name and job title and personal experience to add credibility to your case study.
• Streamlined visuals. Graphics, photos, charts and/or videos can help illustrate results in an engaging and easy to understand way.
• Call to action. Always include a link to more information or a contact form at the end of your case study.

While all of these components are essential to great case studies, they aren’t always easy to acquire. Be prepared to dig for information and work closely with customers to build compelling content.

Why use case studies at all?

Great case studies can take some time to create.

Considering budgets and deadlines, why should you even bother using them when you could create more landing pages, buy more ads, or write more blog posts?

It’s a fair point to consider.

Case studies come with a unique set of benefits for your marketing strategy that other forms of content simply can’t fill.

1. They can last a long time

A single case study can be used as sales and marketing collateral as long as the feature products or services are still relevant.

If your products have a long lifespan, the same piece of content may be useful for months or years.

2. They’re relatively inexpensive

Case studies are relatively inexpensive to produce compared to other forms of marketing, such as white papers, e-books, and long-form blog content.

3. They drastically boost your credibility

Done correctly, case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of your products and services from the perspective of customers who have benefited directly from using them.

In a sense, case studies represent your products and services through the eyes of customers who have already taken the proverbial leap of faith.

When speaking to prospects and leads who aren’t fully bought in, they can minimize risk and offer assurances in a way that no other piece of sales and marketing collateral can match.

With all of that preliminary information out of the way, let’s take a closer look at how to actually build an effective case study.

Before you start: Understanding stakes and obstacles

The strongest case studies are usually created in collaboration between two companies: Your organization and that of a current or former customer with whom you have a good relationship.

At a high level, the process is straightforward:

• Question creation . Your team compiles a list of interview questions designed to tell a compelling story for new, prospective customers.
• Interview. Your team interviews a representative or stakeholder from the customer-partner organization.
• Draft. After the interview is complete, your team transforms the interview into a complete narrative.
• Feedback round. The customer-partner reviews the draft and provides feedback and input.
• Final draft. Your team makes corrections based on that feedback and resubmits for final approval.
• Final approval. The customer-partner approves the draft.
• Publish. Your team creates marketing collateral and publishes or shares the case study.

Simple, right?

Unfortunately, the process is rarely this smooth.

There are several outlying factors that can stop your case in its tracks or prevent it from ever seeing the light of day.

Here are some factors that you’ll need to consider before you start the case study process.

1. Relationship

Potential interview targets are more likely to agree to an interview if they have a strong relationship with someone on your team, like an account manager or a longtime sales rep.

Without a way to get your foot in the door, your interview request may be politely declined.

2. Availability

People are busy.

It’s not uncommon for the interval between reviews and approvals to take weeks at a time.

Because case study drafts need to be approved by both parties, expect delays while your drafts are circulated through your partner organizations.

3. Branding

Even if your product or service helped an organization overcome a huge obstacle, they may not want to talk about that weakness in a public forum.

Many companies are very cautious about anything that portrays their brand in an unfavorable light.

4. Legality

If your customer-partner doesn’t like what you’ve written, they may simply forbid you to use their name, logos, or data as part of your case study.

Moving forward without their permission could cause legal issues and damage customer relationships.

5. Approval

Sometimes, it’s impossible to get final approvals from the appropriate individuals in the customer-partner organization.

If HR or legal needs to sign off on the final product before it can be officially released, it could take weeks or months before that final approval comes through.

Above all else, remember: The customer-partner that agrees to help you create a case study is doing you a favor.

Most of the time, the customer-partner receives no benefit from the time and effort spent creating this piece.

They can’t use it to sell their own services, and they may reveal information and data that demonstrates a weakness in their management or internal process.

Keep that information in mind as you select your customer partners.

Be sure to treat these partners with care and respect, as a bad case study experience can damage a healthy customer relationship.

Step 1: Planning and prep

Business case studies will usually fall under the domain of your marketing team, but you’ll need to be specific when assigning project tasks and responsibilities.

Here’s what you need in order to create a case study:

• Internal project stakeholder. This individual oversees the project internally. They assign tasks, handle outreach, and oversee the production and delivery of the case study.
• External project stakeholder. The individual at the customer organization who agrees to help. This person may or may not be the individual who is interviewed by your organization.
• Interviewer. The individual who conducts the interview.
• Writer. The individual who writes the case study.
• Project manager. The individual who manages the case study project and ensures that deadlines are met.
• Internal editor or approver. The individual who reviews the case study and provides feedback or final approvals.
• External editor or approver. The individual at the customer organization who reviews the case study and provides feedback or final approvals.
• Designer. The individual who formats the case study, provides data-based graphics and illustration, or produces the final product file (typically a PDF or web page) with the case study and all relevant content.

Sometimes, these roles are combined.

The internal project stakeholder may also manage the product and provide editorial feedback after the case study is written.

Or, if you’re working with a freelancer for this process, they may conduct the interview, write the draft, and furnish a final design.

Next, consider your goals:

• Why are you writing this case study? Do you have a specific goal, such as boosting lead generation or improving customer lifetime value (CLV)?
• If your case study is angled to grow business with existing customers, you may select different features from case studies meant to introduce prospective customers to your products.
• This could include add-on services or premium product features.
• Do you have any new products, services or updates you’d like to share with the world?
• Do you have a new positioning strategy?

After you’ve defined your objectives, it’s time to start considering who you might want to interview.

1. Make your list specific

Include the company name, any relevant notes and the name of the intended stakeholders to be interviewed.

2. Only include notable candidates

Make sure that your interview targets have experienced substantial or notable results with your product.

Look for clients who have experienced exceptional and transformative outcomes while using your product or service.

3. Consider existing relationships

Look for clients that already have a strong working relationship with you.

If they regularly work with an account manager or are in constant contact with specific team members, consider bringing those individuals into the conversation early.

Once you have your targets, reach out, explain your project, and see if the customer is interested in participating.

When you ask for an interview, be sure to mention the following details:

• The purpose of the case study and what you’re ultimately trying to accomplish.
• A brief overview of the case study process (including the interview process and what happens next).
• Timeframes and estimated deadlines.
• A general idea of the kinds of questions they may be asked.
• Explain scenarios for how and where the case study may be used (you’ll need their permission to share it with your audiences).
• Thank them for their time.

If they agree, start scheduling your timeline.

Work backwards from the date you’d like to publish, then build in dates for reviews and edits. Also create a flexible internal deadline for securing a client interview.

Since you’ll need to align your schedule with that of your interviewee, pinpointing an actual interview date can take some time.

Step 2: The interview process

As we mentioned above: Most of the time, the customer-partner that agrees to help you with your case study receives no major benefit from the project.

It helps you, but it doesn’t usually help them.

With that in mind, your goal during the interview process is to make things as easy, streamlined, and stress-free as possible.

One major step that you can take to calm nerves and prevent misunderstandings is to send an interview questionnaire prior to your interview.

This will help your customer-partner understand your main objectives and prepare their responses in advance.

Here are a few sample questions you might use:

• How many team members use our product/service? Which departments?
• What were your challenges before using our product/service/process?
• What made you leave your previous solution for our product?
• How do you use our product/service/process?
• What features or tools have been the most helpful for your business?
• If you asked us for help, how did we provide you with what you need? We’d like to understand this from your perspective.
• How have you benefited from our offering–and what have been your greatest results to date? Please provide specific metrics, if possible.
• What surprised you most about using our product/service/process?
• How have your customers or clients benefited from your use of our products or services?
• Is there anything else you would like us to know?

When you sit down to interview the client, it’s easiest to follow the interview questions that you sent over and simply record their responses.

However, don’t just stick to the script during the actual interview . Listen and actively engage with your interviewee.

Ask follow-up questions. Clarify details. Explore the answers in real time with your interviewee.

Use the opportunity to dig deeper and gather all the information you need to tell the right story to your prospects and leads.

You might also use a tool like Otter.ai to record and capture the transcript at the same time, but be sure to have your customer-partner sign a recording permission release if you intend to use sound bytes from that recording as part of your final case study.

Step 3: Writing your business case study

Ideally, the interview is the last piece of information you need before writing your case study.

All of the background information and preliminary work should be done as part of the interview preparation.

When you finish speaking with the customer-partner, it’s time to consolidate your notes and write the draft.

Before you begin, take a moment to review your overall objectives and the story that you want to tell. From there, select a format for your case study and start the draft.

Regardless of the modules, headings, or illustrations that you use, the case study should cover what life was like before the customer started using your product or service and what happened after they adopted those products/services into their workflow.

Sample case study outline

1. introduction.

A brief description of the case study’s contents (bullet point key metrics and successes).

2. Company overview

A brief description of the featured company — what they do, who their customers are, what they sell, etc. Include brief background/context as to how they use your product, service or process.

3. Problem / Challenge

Describe the business problem or opportunity that your customer was facing before they started using your product or service.

Include strong quotes and fully illustrate why the issue was a problem that needed to be solved.

4. Solution

Explain how the customer used your product to solve their problem.

Share their decision-making process, how they arrived at your solution, what convinced them to purchase, and how they implemented that solution internally.

Share benefits and features that stood out to them. Reinforce these details with quotes from your interview.

Summarize the outcome from the customer’s implementation of your product, service, or process.

Recap their wins, as well as the major improvements that they have seen over both the short and long term.

Add data and metrics, where relevant. Include quotes about how the current solution empowers the company and solves their problems.

6. About us

Share a brief explanation of your company and the products or services you provide.

7. Call-to-action (CTA)

Add a call to action with the appropriate contact information (or a contact button, if this is a web-based case study) so that users can get in touch for additional information after reading the case study.

When it’s time to start writing, gather all relevant information and relevant links (white papers, other case studies, sales and spec sheets, etc.) to make sure you have access to the full scope of information related to the products and services mentioned in your case study.

Your goal isn’t to overload the reader by explaining everything. Instead, focus on creating a benefits-driven story around the features that your products and services provide.

Use data and details to provide precise information at key points.

It’s likely that you will need to bridge the information gap between your interviewee and your target audience.

Since your clients know you understand your product or service, they’re likely to answer your questions in broader terms.

However, your readers will not be as familiar with your organization and may only have limited experience with what you sell.

Instead, you’ll need to provide context as you write. If your business has buyer personas or ideal customer profiles (ICP), it’s a great idea to keep those on hand.

It’s also important to reserve enough writing time to get creative. Thoughtfully work your way through your materials to come up with the type of angle that will make your case study worthwhile.

Best practices

• Start with an attention-grabbing, relevant headline.
• Avoid lengthy explanations unless you’re working on a more complex case study.
• If you’re writing a business case study that’s complicated because of the subject matter or necessary background information, consider starting the content with an executive summary to improve readability.
• Only include a table of contents for lengthier case studies.
• Write in the third person.
• Avoid alienating your readers by assuming they’ll understand technical details. Skip the jargon and explain every acronym to hold their attention the entire way.
• A good business case study is a story. Make sure it has a strong beginning, middle, and end. A conversational tone often works best.
• Keep it focused. Don’t highlight a million wins for a single case study. Pick one or two combinations of challenges and solutions instead. If you include more, you might dilute your message or bore your readers.
• Always include direct quotes for an added dose of personality, energy, and human connection.
• Include stats or metrics whenever possible, such as increased revenue, the number of new customers gained, or a measurable boost in traffic.
• If you’re in a very visual industry like graphic design, advertising, fashion, or interior design, include on-brand images where relevant.
• Standard case study length: Roughly 500-1000 words.
• Long-form case study: Roughly 1500-2000 words.
• Make your customer-partner the hero. While your products and services are key to customer success, they are ultimately there to aid the customer in the important work that they do.

Revise and review

Once you’ve completed your case study draft, take a few minutes to re-read everything and ensure that the draft tells the right story.

• Double-check that all facts and figures are correct.
• Set it aside for a time and get some distance. Return to the draft with a fresh perspective.
• Pass it to your colleagues, including internal stakeholders and approvers, for feedback.
• Provide enough details and context so that readers can see customer benefits and how your solution can help them succeed.

Seek client approval

When you’re satisfied with your case study, it’s time to send a copy of the draft to your client for their review and approval.

This is an important step in ensuring maximum transparency and visibility.

Your customer partner should know exactly what you plan to share and have enough time to share it with key stakeholders from their marketing and/or legal department.

It is highly likely that your customer-partner will request changes.

Some changes may be simple (such as clarifying job roles), but others may be more drastic.

Your customer partner may request that you remember sensitive data and details or phrase issues in a more favorable light.

Most organizations seek to avoid bad press and prefer not to point out key weaknesses in their internal processes and strategies.

Be prepared to soften your language or advocate to keep key data points in place.

This is often one of the most critical parts of the case study process. Proceed with caution and choose your battles wisely.

While you can push back on suggested changes, remember that your customer-partner can rescind the use of their name and information in your case study.

Though you can choose to publish anyway (with names and titles omitted), your case study would be far less influential as a result.

Regardless of the potential gains from a case study, it’s not worth poisoning a relationship with a customer that actively uses and promotes your product.

Step 4: Marketing your case study

When you have the finished product, it’s time to share and promote your case study. Think about using these channels:

• A dedicated landing page.
• The resources section of your website.
• Your company blog.
• One or a series of marketing emails.
• Social media.
• Custom infographic.

Requiring readers to fill out a short online form to get the download may allow sales and marketing teams to connect with potential leads.

If you do go the gated route, be sure the conditions of opting in are crystal clear. And feature a couple of non-gated case studies on your site for everyone who’d prefer to skip the forms.

Regardless of how you market your case study, don’t forget about your sales team!

Sales reps will get a lot of use out of your case studies.

They can feature them as links in their email signatures and include them in sales emails and proposals for new clients and potential customers.

Ready to get started? Try out this case study presentation template .

Good case study examples (and why they work)

If you’re struggling with case studies, you can find plenty of great examples around the internet.

Start reading well-executed case studies to learn more about what makes them work.

Below, you’ll find a selection of three very different but successful case studies.

PandaDoc case study

Intro : Before diving into the body of the case study, we briefly introduced the company, TPD, and highlighted three major metrics for a promising start.

The problem: We quickly engaged readers with our conversational tone. We also invited them to walk in TPD’s shoes through empathetic language and relatable context.

Challenges, solutions, and results: We took readers on a storytelling journey to help our case study flow. We gave them enough information to understand the “why”, but never bogged them down with unnecessary details. We were also sure to include supporting quotes and specific, measurable results in these critical sections.

Pull quote: We reserved the very best quote as the only pull quote, ensuring it would receive the attention it deserves.

Format: Finally, every time we mentioned a new company, we gave it a hyperlink to help readers save time.

Trello case study

Unicef + trello: helping others when they need it most.

Facts and figures : Trello opens the case study with great at-a-glance information, sharing insights into UNICEF as an organization and their relationship with Trello products.

Challenges, solutions, and results: This case study takes readers through a detailed narrative, providing statistics and metrics whenever possible. Readers are immersed into the story of exactly how UNICEF used Trello to help thousands of people during a natural disaster, offering enough detail to spark use case inspiration for other Trello users.

Photos: Trello included photos of actual UNICEF employees working remotely around the globe. The pictures gave the case study a personal feel, which could help readers better identify with the story.

Readers are reminded of the unique challenges of working together while apart to start considering how Trello might be able to help them find the solutions they need. Remember, the best case studies are relatable to all of your prospects!

Format: Its structure makes this longer case study easy to read. Sections of text are kept short while bullet points and pull quotes provide visual breaks.

Finally, hyperlinks to organizations’ websites open in separate tabs to help prevent losing case study readers along the way.

Stripe case study

Simplepractice launches automatic payments offering for clinicians with stripe.

Intro: In just two sentences, Stripe successfully manages to explain what SimplePractice is, what they offer, who they serve, how they serve them, and the benefits those clients gain.

While it’s not necessary to be this brief, readers will be more likely to read your entire intro if it’s on the shorter side.

Sidebar : The sidebar draws eyes to keep reading with two impressive metrics and a brightly-hued CTA button to “contact sales”.

Challenge and solution: These sections read like a story, with each sentence enticing the reader to continue to the next. It’s also great that a quote from SimplePractice’s COO is used to add context, emphasizing the gravity of their challenge.

Results: Stripe gives a lot of detail here for a strong close to the case study. After explaining how their offering brought ease to SimplePractice’s business, they went on to share detailed specifics on what made things easier and in what ways.

They also explained how their offering improved the businesses of SimplePractice’s clients. It’s highly persuasive for readers to understand they have the opportunity to not only benefit their own companies but also those of their clients.

Pull quote: The case study ends with a strong pull quote in a can’t-miss-it color.

Format: Stripe has a great case study format.

Wrapping up

The truth is: No matter how much you talk up your product, you’re a biased participant in any conversation. You have an ulterior motive, and that makes any direct claims you make about your product or service questionable.

Why? Because you want to sell your product!

Case studies offer an alternative way to soften your messaging by allowing prospects and potential buyers to hear from the people who use your products in real-world, everyday situations.

By placing your customers and their experiences at the front of your marketing, you can use trust and relatability to bridge a gap in a way that numbers and data just can’t provide.

Your customers already have great stories about how your solutions have transformed the work that they do.

Help them speak and share those stories with the people who need to hear them most with a case study.

Good luck? Be sure to check out other marketing tips and tricks on the PandaDoc blog .

Frequently asked questions

What is the best business case study format.

The best business case study format depends on the nature of the results and what you’re trying to achieve. You can figure that out by carefully reviewing your customer success stories and interviews.

• What stands out the most?
• What are you trying to achieve?
• How can you use your layout to guide readers through your story?
• What is your industry or what is the industry of your featured client?

Pro tip : Some interviews are more quotable than others. If you have too many great quotes to include them in your featured sections, consider adding a few pull quotes to your layout.

How do I create a business case study outline?

To create a business case study outline, list all of your featured sections and use bullet points to note subsections and what should be covered.

Most case studies feature the following sections:

• Introduction
• Brief Description of Customer’s Business
• Problem/Challenge/Opportunity
• Results/Conclusion
• About Us / Boilerplate
• Call-to-Action (CTA).

But outlines aren’t just for traditional case studies. Use outlines to guide your infographic and video versions too.

What are some case study best practices?

Best practices for writing case studies include:

• Crafting short, easy-to-digest sections.
• Weaving in a narrative for engaging storytelling.
• Starting with an engaging headline.
• Writing in layman’s terms.
• Explaining any necessary acronyms.
• Including any supporting metrics or statistics.
• Using direct quotes to bring your customer’s story to life.

Also, be sure to get the approval of your client and their marketing team after you’ve had time to review your first draft and fact-check all information.

Where can I find a good case study design template?

You can find a good case study design template on PandaDoc.

Our company’s expertise is spot-on and the case study templates are free. Also, don’t be afraid to branch out. Let’s say you have a big following on YouTube or Spotify.

You might want to create a video or podcast version of your case study for readers who prefer audiovisual information.

Or, you may want to add multimedia content to your case study, such as a video insert or or audio clip.

PandDoc is not a law firm, or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. This page is not intended to and does not provide legal advice. Should you have legal questions on the validity of e-signatures or digital signatures and the enforceability thereof, please consult with an attorney or law firm. Use of PandaDocs services are governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Originally published October 27, 2022, updated March 30, 2023

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Methodology

• What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

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In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Ecological validity

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

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6 Brilliant Small Business Case Study Examples For Marketers

Explore case study examples for small businesses. Additionally, find strategies for handling common challenges and solutions for growing your business.

Every business starts small.

The success of a business lies in its strategy to overcome any challenge during its journey.

If you are trying to take your business to new heights, start identifying challenges and create solutions.

The best way is to learn from sundry success stories.

There are several case studies of different businesses that can teach you which strategy to take for selling your product and attracting the target audience.

In this article, we will discuss some of the top case study examples that can assist in upscaling small businesses.

Let’s begin.

Challenges Faced by Small Businesses

As far as businesses go, there are always hurdles that need to be defeated. Starting a business is itself a big achievement for entrepreneurs, but the main challenge is maintaining one.

There are three common challenges businesses need to overcome. These include managing the expenses, hiring people, and following new trends to develop a customer base.

1. Increased Expenses

Every business revolves around money. There are different areas where businesses have to spend their money. But the issue is handling the financial hurdles. With an unplanned budget and financial advice, businesses will be spending more than they need to.

Keeping an eye on expenses is important because the expenses determine the profit the business will make.

However, it is not easy to reduce the expense. It’s affected by demand and supply. If businesses need to keep up with the market’s demands, then the chance of increasing expenses is 100%.

2. More and Skilled Manpower Required

Businesses don’t run themselves. They need manpower with skills to handle different departments. Generally, the number of employees in a small business ranges from 1 to 500 people. Getting this manpower is easy but getting a skilled one is difficult and time-consuming.

Whenever looking for manpower, businesses need to decide what skills they want in their candidate. The problem is candidates can’t always fulfill all the requirements. Besides, hiring manpower also increases the expenses.

3. Keeping Up With the Latest Trends

The market is fluid. It changes and introduces new trends. Small businesses need to keep up with changing trends to keep their business growing. But this is where many businesses start to fall apart.

The thing about new trends is that businesses need to sell their products at the right time. It means they have to keep on studying the market to speculate their next products. If a small business fails to deliver during the peak of the trend, then it will suffer a heavy loss.

Solutions to Grow a Small Business

The best thing about businesses is that there is an attempt to find a solution for every challenge. It brings out the competition in the market, which is huge for surfacing different kinds of solutions a business can adopt.

1. Reduce the Expenses

When it comes to expenses, businesses are focused on spending huge sums on communication because communication is the key element of increasing customers and revenue. It’s not a big problem for big companies, but it is expensive for small businesses. Thus, finding innovative and cost-effective marketing strategies becomes essential for maximizing outreach and impact without straining financial resources.

Fortunately, the cloud telephony system has removed the dilemma while making business budgets because cloud phone services are cheaper than plain old telephone services.

It reduces the initial cost of new businesses up to 90%. Recent surveys suggest that over 74% of businesses prioritize cloud phone systems as their urgent investment.

The same goes for marketing which is necessary to attract potential customers. Small businesses don’t have enough budget to advertise their products.

The best solution for this is using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to promote and sell their products.

Case Study: Coffman Engineers

Coffman Engineers clearly states that although the cost of using a virtual phone number adhered to cloud phone is 50% more per employee, it still provides overall 25% more savings than plain old telephone service (POTS).

Coffman Engineers have been relying on cloud phones ever since their one office location faced a disaster. Now they have a disaster recovery feature built into their cloud phone system. It helped them to be ready for any disasters without losing communication with employees.

Not just that, they found all the necessary features bundled into one subscription package in a VoIP phone system. Such a facility enabled them to handle all their business communication using only one platform.

Key Takeaways

• Small businesses must invest in cloud telephony for business communication.
• Extensive use of social media to promote and sell your products/service.

2. Improve Employee Productivity

As we discussed earlier, manpower is a big challenge for small businesses. Hiring more employees doesn’t mean higher productivity. It’s about smart task allocation through a streamlined workload management strategy . Businesses also need to hire the right candidates to keep their expenses in check and improve productivity.

There are different tools available that can monitor what the employees are doing. Time tracking tools and workforce management tools are key components every business needs.

Especially in remote working scenarios, these tools are crucial to getting the full effort for the employees. Companies have seen a 35%-40% rise in productivity in employees working remotely with the use of tracking tools.

Case study: On The Map Marketing

On The Map Marketing , a digital marketing agency, used time tracking tools that showed that remote working employees tend to work more hours since they can work at flexible hours.

On The Map Marketing first started using the time tracking tool when they were opening their office in Riga, Latvia. The CTO of the company wanted the time spent on different tasks on his computer as well as managing the remote working employees.

Using a time tracking tool, they were able to track their productivity with a detailed report of their daily activities during office hours. It helped them calculate salary bonuses. They also found the productivity level of each employee to determine their value for the company.

• Small businesses should use a time tracking tool to make sure employees focus on their office work.
• Small businesses can track the performance of each employee at office locations or remote working locations.

3. Reward Your Customers

A business becomes successful when it can keep its customers happy. In efforts to upscale a small business quickly, the marketplace has seen a decline in the quality of products and services. It is a primary reason for customer dissatisfaction.

About 45% of business professionals rate customer experience as their top priority for growing a business.

Survey says more than 85% of buyers are willing to spend more for a better customer experience . Therefore, small businesses need to focus on improving their quality of products and services, which is a powerful indicator of customer experience.

Case study: Starbucks

Starbucks introduced a Reward Loyalty Program in which customers collect stars to get exciting rewards. This program drives 40% of Starbucks’s total sales .

By adapting the gamification method, Starbucks added a reward loyalty program to their already established app. This move drastically increased sales and digital traffic. They brought mobile payment, customer loyalty, and content partnership in one powerful app.

Customers started registering for My Reward via their app. They are given stars(points) in exchange for their interaction in the app or purchase made. The higher the number of stars a customer gets, the better rewards they get.

• Small businesses can give different forms of rewards for more customer engagement.
• Improvement in customer service can drive more sales and attract more customers.

4. Build Your Brand

Small businesses should learn to build their brand image on social media. While marketing any product or service, the brand image is a key factor for understanding how people view your business.

A brand image must first include mission, vision, and values. It also requires a brand positioning statement that can set your business apart from the competitors.

It’s important to create a unique brand personality. For this, businesses need to design a good logo because customers are most likely to recognize a business looking at a logo. They will have to identify their target audience to craft a good brand image.

According to a study, around 89% of users stay loyal to a business with a good brand image .

Case study: Apple

Apple logo is a well-recognized design that reflects the brand value. Over the years, the Apple logo has gone through several design changes.

The most important rebranding of the company came when Steve Jobs changed the logo which impacted the overall personality of the company. Now, this logo is the most recognized logo in the world.

Looking at the Apple logo, customers can feel a sense of trust, reliability, and innovation . It is the main reason for the huge sales of all Apple products across the globe.

• Branding helps a business build strong relationships with prospects and attract them to be loyal customers.
• Small businesses need to create a strong brand image to sell their products efficiently.

5. Prioritize on Partnerships

Partnerships and collaboration can lift the businesses to maximize their cost savings. It allows businesses to strengthen their programs using available resources and tools.

This has a direct effect on improving the efficiency of their operations. It improves the credibility of the business in the marketplace.

Case study: RENAULT & NISSAN

Renault and Nissan have a strong partnership in automobiles. Their partnership made a remarkable achievement of making up 10% of new car sales worldwide .

Renault and Nissan chose to make an alliance rather than a merger because an alliance has many stronger benefits than a merger would give.

With an alliance, they can access more geographical areas where foreign investments are restricted. These companies got better chances to enter each other’s territory where they were already established companies because of the alliance.

Although they faced numerous challenges including fluctuation in price share, they managed to resolve issues and succeed.

• Small businesses can collaborate with other businesses to increase their chances of higher product sales and profit for everyone.
• Partnership with other businesses allows all parties to benefit from each other’s strong areas.

6. The Right Marketing Strategy

Every business requires to sell its product and services to the market. Without the right social media marketing strategy , a business cannot compete in the marketplace. The first thing about marketing is knowing your target audience and competitors.

When small businesses know who they are competing against, it will help them to see how the competitors are executing their business and attracting their customers.

One such way is to grow your website traffic which can bring you more leads and eventually customers. And how do you increase your website traffic? SEO. If done right, Search Engine Optimization can drive huge traffic to your website to reach your marketing goals.

Case study: Zapier

Zapier used an SEO strategy revolving around long-tail keywords for generating organic traffic to their website. They created 25,000 unique landing pages for unique keywords.

Zapier had a structure and layout for each page including well-optimized human written content. They outsourced SEO content and focused on a playbook for the onboarding process and launched new apps so that they can get partners to write content for them.

On top of that, they also outsourced link building to their partners. These partners wrote valuable guest post content of Zapier on their site and gave a backlink to Zapier. It helped Zapier to get new users as well as drive their website traffic.

• Small Businesses should improve their website traffic by adding more landing pages with relevant content.
• Backlinks through guest posts on other websites can drive more website traffic and attract more prospects.

Now that we have discussed these examples, let’s see how you can create these studies.

Now that you have a fair idea of the business challenges and solutions, there is a good chance of delivering a good strategy for growing your small business.

On top of that, the case study examples above will help you view how other businesses overcome their situation to take their business to new heights.

The most important aspect of upscaling a small business is understanding the customer’s needs. Therefore, you should design a persuasive marketing strategy to attract customers and compete with other businesses in the market.

And a good marketing strategy for any business must include social media. And to make the most of your social media marketing efforts try SocialPilot for free today.

Frequently Asked Questions

🌟 How do you upscale a small business?

Upscaling a small business is a very challenging process. Whether it's making a budget or hiring employees, you have to focus on things that are best for your business. Planning, targeting prospects, marketing strategy, etc. are crucial steps for upscaling businesses and competing with big companies.

🌟 What is a small scale business?

Small scale businesses or Small scale industries (SSI) provide products and services on a small level. Normally in the US, a small business consists of less than 250 employees. Also, it has small capital investments and less office space.

🌟 Why do entrepreneurs find it difficult to scale up?

New entrepreneurs find difficulty in scaling up their businesses because they don’t know what to do. Even if they know, they have to face many challenges like market research, finding loans, allocating space, etc. Also, legal matters are always a major concern for making changes.

🌟 Why is scalability important in business?

Scalability is important because it directly impacts business competition, profitability, brand image, and product quality. Since small businesses have huge growth potential and high return on investment (ROI), they have to properly focus on scalability.

🌟 When should you scale a business?

A small business should look for upscaling its business if it has achieved a minimum annual growth of 20% over 2-3 years with only 10 or more active employees.

About the Author

Anwesha Ghatak

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Problem-Solving in Business: CASE STUDIES

• ABOUT THIS LIBGUIDE
• PROBLEM-SOLVING DEFINED AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
• SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED IN PROBLEM-SOLVING
• PROBLEM-SOLVING STEPS
• CASE STUDIES
• MORE HELPFUL RESOURCES

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• Last Updated: Mar 23, 2024 4:47 PM
• URL: https://libguides.nypl.org/problem_solving_in_business

How to Write a Case Study Analysis

Step-By-Step Instructions

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When writing a business case study analysis , you must first have a good understanding of the case study . Before you begin the steps below, read the business case carefully, taking notes all the while. It may be necessary to read the case several times to get all of the details and fully grasp the issues facing the group, company, or industry.

As you are reading, do your best to identify key issues, key players, and the most pertinent facts. After you are comfortable with the information, use the following step-by-step instructions (geared toward a single-company analysis) to write your report. To write about an industry, just adapt the steps listed here to discuss the segment as a whole.

Step 1: Investigate the Company’s History and Growth

A company’s past can greatly affect the present and future state of the organization. To begin, investigate the company’s founding, critical incidents, structure, and growth. Create a timeline of events, issues, and achievements. This timeline will come in handy for the next step. 

Step 2: Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

Using the information you gathered in step one, continue by examining and making a list of the value creation functions of the company. For example, the company may be weak in product development but strong in marketing. Make a list of problems that have occurred and note the effects they have had on the company. You should also list areas where the company has excelled. Note the effects of these incidents as well.

You're essentially conducting a partial SWOT analysis to get a better understanding of the company's strengths and weaknesses. A SWOT analysis involves documenting things like internal strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) and external opportunities (O) and threats (T). 

Step 3: Examine the External Environment

The third step involves identifying opportunities and threats within the company’s external environment. This is where the second part of the SWOT analysis (the O and the T) comes into play. Special items to note include competition within the industry, bargaining powers, and the threat of substitute products. Some examples of opportunities include expansion into new markets or new technology. Some examples of threats include increasing competition and higher interest rates.

Step 4: Analyze Your Findings

Using the information in steps 2 and 3, create an evaluation for this portion of your case study analysis. Compare the strengths and weaknesses within the company to the external threats and opportunities. Determine if the company is in a strong competitive position, and decide if it can continue at its current pace successfully.

Step 5: Identify Corporate-Level Strategy

To identify a company’s corporate-level strategy, identify and evaluate the company’s mission , goals, and actions toward those goals. Analyze the company’s line of business and its subsidiaries and acquisitions. You also want to debate the pros and cons of the company strategy to determine whether or not a change might benefit the company in the short or long term.​

Step 6: Identify Business-Level Strategy

Thus far, your case study analysis has identified the company’s corporate-level strategy. To perform a complete analysis, you will need to identify the company’s business-level strategy. (Note: If it is a single business, without multiple companies under one umbrella, and not an industry-wide review, the corporate strategy and the business-level strategy are the same.) For this part, you should identify and analyze each company’s competitive strategy, marketing strategy, costs, and general focus.

Step 7: Analyze Implementations

This portion requires that you identify and analyze the structure and control systems that the company is using to implement its business strategies. Evaluate organizational change, levels of hierarchy, employee rewards, conflicts, and other issues that are important to the company you are analyzing.

Step 8: Make Recommendations

The final part of your case study analysis should include your recommendations for the company. Every recommendation you make should be based on and supported by the context of your analysis. Never share hunches or make a baseless recommendation.

You also want to make sure that your suggested solutions are actually realistic. If the solutions cannot be implemented due to some sort of restraint, they are not realistic enough to make the final cut.

Finally, consider some of the alternative solutions that you considered and rejected. Write down the reasons why these solutions were rejected. 

Step 9: Review

Look over your analysis when you have finished writing. Critique your work to make sure every step has been covered. Look for grammatical errors , poor sentence structure, or other things that can be improved. It should be clear, accurate, and professional.

Business Case Study Analysis Tips

Keep these strategic tips in mind:

• Know the case study ​backward and forward before you begin your case study analysis.
• Give yourself enough time to write the case study analysis. You don't want to rush through it.
• Be honest in your evaluations. Don't let personal issues and opinions cloud your judgment.
• Be analytical, not descriptive.
• Proofread your work, and even let a test reader give it a once-over for dropped words or typos that you no longer can see.
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• Case Studies

Sample Cases

Explore raw case studies for free from the school of management.

All of the cases listed here are from our series on Design and Social Enterprise, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through a grant to William Drenttel and Winterhouse Institute.

Perspectives: Customer/Marketing, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

Harish Hande and the company he founded, SELCO, provide solar electricity for lighting and power to India's poor. For his company's work, he has received numerous recognitions and is frequently cited as one of the top social entrepreneurs in India and an example for the entire developing world. But the road to SELCO’s success has not always been smooth...

Design at Mayo

Perspectives: healthcare, innovation & design, leadership & teamwork, social enterprise.

In the early 2000s, Mayo Clinic physician Nicholas LaRusso began asking himself a question: if we can test new drugs in clinical trials, can we also test new kinds of doctor-patient interactions. Although over the last 50 years there had been enormous advances in diagnosing and treating disease, the health care experience had become increasingly complex...

Perspectives: Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise

When Krista Dong and Zinhle Thabethe came to the 2006 PopTech conference in Camden, Maine, they hoped to expand their fight against HIV/AIDS, one of South Africa’s greatest problems. They were the founders of iTEACH, an HIV/AIDS and TB prevention and treatment program in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Impressed by their story, conference organizers and Robert Fabricant of frog design came together with iTEACH to address these real-world challenges through the conference’s vision - accelerating social innovation...

Teach for All

Perspectives: education management, innovation & design, social enterprise.

By their November 2011 annual conference in Mumbai India, Teach For All’s network consisted of 23 national partner organizations. Network members came from all over the globe. From tiny Estonia with near universal literacy, to India with over 900 times more people and only 75% literacy, from China with single-party authoritarian rule, to England with hundreds of years of multi-party democracy. Uniting the network, though, was a commitment to building an organization similar to Teach For America in their respective countries. Teach For America was the brainchild of Wendy Kopp...

17 Brilliant Case Study Examples To Be Inspired By

Lead generation is complex, which means that your best bet is to have multiple touchpoints on different channels designed to capture as many leads as possible.

While you’re setting up your lead generation funnel , remember that you need to have different touchpoints on your site itself, too. It’s not enough, after all, that they’ve landed on your site on their own; you need to convince them to convert as a lead or even as a customer once they’re there.

Case studies can help with this, allowing you to prove what kind of results your brand, product, or service can offer to real clients. You can back up what you’re promising, and show the how, what, who, and why questions that customers may have. They can help generate more leads and accelerate revenue quickly.

We’ve got some great resources on how to get the information on how to conduct great case study interviews and what makes case studies valuable , but today we’re going to look at 17 individual and diverse case study examples and talk about how to write great B2B case studies.

These examples all do something exceptional and approach their case studies a little differently, but they all have outstanding final results. 

Ready to get inspired and get some actionable tips to write your own B2B case studies? Let’s get started.

How to Write Great B2B Case Studies 

Before we start looking at different B2B case study examples, we want to first talk about what makes B2B case studies valuable and effective.

What All Great B2B Case Studies Accomplish 

Case studies are most often used to build trust by proving that you’ve gotten a specific result for clients and that you can do the same for your existing leads. In many cases, case studies should:

• Establish a persona or audience segment that the client fits into (which, in many cases, leads will relate to)
• Explain what the client’s problem was before they started working with your brand
• Detail what solution you offered to help the client (which should include some level of detail regarding the strategies, products, or tactics that you used)
• Share the results, ideally the more specific (and numerical) the better; statistics that show improvements are golden 
• Feature a client impact statement or a testimonial if possible 

You can use this as a guide post (or almost like a template) of how to get started with the content that you need to cover in your case study. 

B2B Case Study Best Practices 

When writing B2B case studies, you always want to follow these best practices:

• Try to stick to a consistent template, that way as you create a fleshed-out case study section on your site, it will be scannable and familiar to leads 
• Tell a story, using a client’s problems and pain points to connect with potential leads and highlighting how you can help; think of the problem as the beginning of the story, the solution as the climax, and the results section as the resolution of the story 
• Be as detailed as you need to be, but as brief as possible; while B2B case studies can certainly trend much longer in length than most B2C case studies, you also want to make sure you’re offering value because if it goes too long, your customers will lose interest 
• Always include hard facts. Statistics, tactical solutions, and quantifiable data reign supreme here. They carry a case study, and they give you a nice impressive title to draw in the clicks, too.
• Rely on great formatting. Do not write a case study that’s nothing more than a giant block of text. Use great formatting to keep the entire case study scannable and easy to read. Break it up with visuals whenever possible. 

1. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs has a number of content-based case studies on our site, and you know we had to feature these case studies first! 

These case studies both accomplish everything we’ve discussed above; they detail a client’s problem and pain points, explain the solution, and share the results and client testimonials. All the major boxes are checked.

What these case studies do differently than most, however, is they use a content-focused approach. The case studies aren’t just boasting about the amazing results our clients have seen, but they actually share enough actionable information for other clients to replicate their success, too. 

Let’s look at our case study, How to Reduce Your SLA by 99% . It discussed how a single client did reduce their SLA by 99%, but it also gives enough information that other users can discover how to use lead scoring to reduce SLA successfully themselves. 

The case study is downloadable, which a “Download” button at the top of the page next to “Request Demo” and “Start Free” CTAs. It also features a well-formatted “What you’ll learn” section to engage users and assure them that they won’t just be reading about a client story, but they’ll walk away with something helpful.

One other thing to note here is that some B2B case studies can feel, for lack of a better word, a little cold. The client’s business name is mentioned, but pain points are relatively clinical and the tone is dull. That’s not the case with the Breadcrumbs case studies, where individual client contacts are referred to by first name and are written in a more conversational tone. It feels much more personal, and at the end of the day, we’re not just selling to businesses—we’re selling to the people who work for businesses. 

2. AdEspresso

Want to turn your case study into a lead magnet? This case study example from AdEspresso is an excellent demonstration of how to use case studies not only to pique users’ but to actually convert them to leads.

Here’s how it works:

• People go to the case study part of the site, find it through organic search, or are referred there by email, paid social ads, or blog posts
• They read the title and the description, which mentions the company name, what was accomplished, a brief explanation of how (here, it’s split testing, targeting new and existing audiences, and AdEspresso)
• The description gives a concrete result–“GlobeIn doubled its revenue”
• They encourage users to download the PDF 

While most of the case studies that we’re looking at are published on their brands’ sites, this one works as a lead magnet. When users click the “Download PDF” CTA, they’re taken to a landing page with a lead form. 

The landing page touches more on what results were achieved, but still requires users to download the PDF to find out exactly which strategies were used. This works because the case study isn’t just stating “our tool gets more results,” it also offers strategic insights similar to a blog post that readers can leverage to improve their own campaigns. 

If you create case studies that get strategic and are heavily content-based instead of just sharing results, they can act as a different kind of touchpoint in the digital sales funnel .

3. Freshbooks

Most businesses have multiple different buyer personas and audience segments that they’re targeting at any given point in time. When you want your case studies to really be effective, publishing diverse content that really speaks to each of those segments is crucial.

Freshbooks ’ case study examples really showcase how you can do that well. Their case studies feature brief customer stories from “relatable” small businesses (aka not mega CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, who are not Freshbook’s core Facebook target audience) talking about how their business used the tools to benefit.

You can see the different personas represented here. One is an agency that wanted to scale quickly; one case study example featured a growing franchise. Another was for a small business that needed help with tax prep, and the last pictured here is a freelancer who uses the invoicing software’s time tracking features to measure productivity and assess rates. 

These are four very different types of businesses, and it shows potential leads in each audience segment that there’s a reason they should use this tool. By highlighting different use cases, it can increase lead generation for all high-value audiences by appealing to their specific needs instead of just highlighting general stories that would appeal to all.

4. Disruptive Digital

Disruptive Digital is a paid social agency while a high-level holistic approach to advertising. Instead of looking at “general best practices” that you could find on ten other blogs in five seconds or less, they offer strategic insights that showcases how they really get their customers result. They make case study examples a central part of a large number of their blog posts.

They’ll write a blog post about a high-level topic like “how to calculate your target ROAS,” and then show a case study with real client data to walk you through the process. This is more powerful than hypotheticals when you’re talking about data-driven PPC campaigns, and they always use it to back up their arguments as well as teach a strategy. 

While these case study examples aren’t on a dedicated landing page, they work by appealing to users more towards the top of the funnel . It helps to build trust and establish credibility early while setting their blog posts apart. It’s good for their content marketing and lead generation efforts. 

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a well-known SaaS content and social media planning and organization tool, and their case studies are phenomenal. 

They do a few things well. The first is by featuring different types of clients in their case studies. In the case study example below, they’re showcasing not a brand, but a University alumni group. 

Their formatting is also great. The first thing you see is “This 5-Person Marketing Team Managed 12x More Work While Working Remotely” in bright blue across the top of the page. They’ve also got a quick-reference, quick-facts bar on the side of the case study that lists the brand name, the brand’s site, the industry, company size, and marketing team size. Here, you can download a PDF of the case study, and immediately under there is a CTA to request a demo (also in blue, ideally to have the eye go from the headline to the CTA).

The case study itself is well written, and you can read the full study here . It breaks things down by sharing the challenge, the solution, and the results. As you can see below, they have a graph in bright colors to showcase exactly how impactful those results were, with the results in bolded text underneath it. They finish it off with a quote from a key team member to really drive it home.

As far as case study examples go, this one is pretty perfect. The design is excellent, with quick-reference data, important facts highlighted, great design elements to draw the users’ eye and attention where you want it, and a customer quote. They also have a strong CTA to get in touch, which can get the process moving quickly, or the option to download the case study (turning it into valuable content and a lead magnet) if the customer chooses.

6. ONESOURCE

ONESOURCE  is a tax preparation product from Thomas Reuter’s, and the site features the below case study of The Cheesecake Factory—a major American brand—to help showcase value and generate sales. 

As far as design goes, this case study is clean, organized, and condensed. It’s like a digital brochure, with all the information cleanly broken down into bullet points, key quotes and statements, and subheadings. 

They share only the core information that’s needed (including what products were used, what was accomplished, and data about the Cheesecake factory’s tax department) and nothing that isn’t. It’s to the point and highly effective.

Slack is one of the most popular instant communication chat tools available right now, and especially after everyone had to work from home during the pandemic, we’re guessing a large number of readers are familiar with the platform.

Their case studies are, as you’d expect, strong and well-written. They’re longer and read almost more like a story-driven blog post than studies like CoSchedule’s fast-facts, brief-and-to-the-point content. But this works for this brand; storytelling is powerful, after all, and it’s memorable and relatable.

In this case study, they use storytelling to really highlight the company’s pain points, focusing on how shopping habits changed and impacted businesses during COVID-19. They focus on Shipt, a grocery-delivery company that was thrust into high demand quickly. 

The case study talked about how Shipt had been using Slack for years, but how they really embraced advanced features and integrations during COVID to get the most out of the platform. They then share how the company uses it, and share data and statistics about usage . 

There’s a quote from the director of IT in there, too, to stress the importance, and you’ll see they have a “quick facts” tab on the side with a powerful quote that highlights the value, key integrations that were featured, and a CTA to both contact the sales team and to try Slack for free. 

They have a full page of case studies available, all of which state what Slack helped accomplish in a storytelling format as opposed to going hard with the data upfront. This feels more casual, but is just as powerful.

8. Culture Amp

We’re going meta. We just looked at case study examples from Slack, and now we’re going to look at a case study example about Slack. 

Culture Amp helps brands maintain and facilitate their desired communication culture through feedback and communication response.

This case study features my favorite quick facts tab, sharing the brand name featured in the case study, a sentence each about the challenge, solution, and result. And there is, of course, that “request demo” CTA. 

The case study does a few things that you don’t see a lot. They introduce two of the key figures in the Slack department who worked directly with Culture Amp, giving it a more personal touch and adding more credibility to the study.

It’s also well-written and engaging to read. Sentences like “Company culture is Slack’s North Star” aren’t your standard technical and almost clinical “just the facts, ma’am” approach to case studies. The case study is longer than some others, but the creative writing can keep you hooked, and it thoroughly explains how the single brand used the product and services to excel.

9. KlientBoost 

We’ve already looked at one case study from a marketing agency, but the way KlientBoost has their case studies set up, it’s well worth taking a look at another.

Their numerous case studies are found under the “Results” tab on their site, making them all readily visible and easy to locate. It also increases the odds that users will stumble across the case studies on their own, even if they weren’t intentionally looking for them.

And one thing worth noting: They’ve got a sorting feature to “show me clients who” meet certain qualities like “are worth billions, “got acquired,” “have small budgets,” and “have crazy complex offerings.” 

This is an easy way to tell all of their potential clients that “yes, we take clients like you and get results!” while making it simple for them to find proof. 

The case study itself is of course well-written and designed, too. You’ve got a bold, color-contrasting header at the top in large text that lays out core benefits (x results in just three months), with more detailed results visible on the side.

They also break down the different advanced advertising features they used, a customer quote, and an image of what the ads looked like to bring the whole thing together. This shows prospective clients exactly what they can expect when working with the agency, and it builds a massive amount of trust. 

10. Omnivore 

Omnivore.io is a menu management tool designed specifically for restaurants that integrate with other tools to streamline the guest experience.

The content we’re going to look at is a great example of case study creation for hyper-niche industries that have specific needs. 

It’s presented as a standard blog post, but the H1 title says exactly what benefits the company achieved, and they still have a “more seating options, more problems” header to present the challenge in a creative way. 

They then explain how the TableUp app works with Omnivore’s tech and other integrations to be able to offer additional services to customers like adding their party to a restaurant’s waitlist, joining email lists for points, making to-go orders, and more. 

They also shared an example of how a real client (Budweiser) used the feature, and included a blurb about the integrating tool. 

You’ll notice that this case study looks a little different from others that we’ve looked at. It doesn’t have a lot of hard numbers or super detailed examples, but it works because it showcases a specific integration and details specific uses. 

This is, in many cases, going to be an audience focused on use case value more than just statistics; if the tool can do what’s needed, that’s what they’re going to care most about. So this formatting works. 

11. Pepperi

We’re on a food-themed case study roll right now! Next, we’re going to look at a case study of how Chex Finer Foods worked with the Pepperi omnichannel B2B Commerce. 

This case study is long . It’s much longer than the others that we’re looking at, with 6 total pages of content (though some are heavily dominated by images). See the entire case study by clicking above. 

Here’s why it works though: They keep the “Challenges” brief and the client breakdown visible right upfront to show users why they should care. 

The solutions section is also brief, explaining how Pepperi solved the company’s challenges. That all happens within the first page of the case study. 

The rest of the study has five pages that look like this, showing visuals that highlight the exact product that users received when working with Pepperi. There’s no hypothetical mock-up; you get to see the mobile app design , the site, the home page here. Other pages show how search results work for brands with extensive inventories, along with features like analytics, multi-product views, and more. 

For customers who really want to understand what they’re getting and why they should choose this particular service, there’s no doubt. They can see what the interface looks like, and what real clients’ platforms offer. 

12. DOTVOX 

DOTVOX sells hosted VoIP business lines to their clients.

There are a few reasons I really liked this particular case study.

First, they do a great job showcasing how their specific technology can benefit a specific type of client: a multi-site company that needs help with business communications. This is niche enough that some other tools may not be able to help (or that may be a concern that some customers have). 

They also focused the case study on a business in the financial industry, letting other clients in that niche know that they offer secure communication options suited for banks, mortgage lenders, and more. These are high-value clients, so it’s a solid choice. 

Later on in the case study, they break down the individual results, services, and solutions achieved. The “Feature-rich” part is my favorite; they detail unique features that other tools may not offer and explain briefly how they work. 

Potential leads reading this can get a good idea of what’s possible. 

13. PortaFab 

Last but not least, we’ve got this case study from PortaFab . 

The reason I really wanted to look at this particular case study is that it’s not selling a service or a SaaS tool; it’s a physical product being sold to businesses. That automatically changes things up a bit. 

They, of course, have a brief overview of what the project entailed, but it’s organized a bit differently. They featured the challenge on the right side of the case study and the project overview and benefits provided on the left. 

Underneath this, however, they’ve got their solution featured, along with an extensive photo gallery showing the finished project. 

Allowing customers to easily visualize the end result is important for physical goods, so this was a smart call. 

14. Strands Retail

Strands Retail sells personalization and product recommendation software to eCommerce brands. Their case study below features the work they did for mega-brand Chewy.

Featuring this particular client was smart. Chewy is highly regarded for the exceptional customer service experiences they provide, so linking themselves to the brand is a good move. It’s also a massive company, and since the case study focuses on the fact that Chewy needed a solution that scaled with their brand, it gives them outstanding credibility in terms of the potential to serve enterprise-grade clients.

The case study is visually solid and well-designed, too. Since not all leads want to read the details and just want a few quick stats, featuring a few impressive key stats at the top in contrasting colors or with graphics (which they do here) can get the point across quickly and really exemplify how beneficial the product was. 

15. Codeless.io 

Like Breadcrumbs, Codeless.io takes a content-heavy approach to the case studies they feature on their site. 

They don’t just want to show results (which are crucial for a content marketing agency to do in order to leverage trust), but they want to prove that it wasn’t just luck. They got their clients real, sustainable results with careful processes, and they can do the same for you, too. 

Let’s look at an example. Their Loomly case study boasts an impressive 827% increase in CTR by updating the client’s existing content. This is smart, because it highlights a service many agencies may not offer and demonstrates the value of the service to clients who may be reluctant to spend on updating existing content. 

The case study itself is written and formatted almost like a blog post and case study hybrid. You’ve got the essential details about the company listed off to the side, but there’s also an entire H2 section that details more about the business in question. 

They also are incredibly transparent in the processes they used to help their client obtain impressive results, and this is something you won’t see many agencies do because they don’t want to “give away their secrets.” This builds trust, however, because clients can see that there is an actual strategy and that the company can help them, too. Everyone walks away from the case study without a doubt that Codeless was responsible for these results, not luck. 

16. WizeHire 

WizeHire is a hiring platform that helps businesses find the types of applicants they’re looking for, and their case studies do an outstanding job showcasing exactly how their products work and how they impact clients.

This case study , in particular—which features their client over at Mazda—is a great case study example to look at.

Their formatting is a little different than some of the others on this list, but it’s still undeniably effective. Towards the top of the case study, they have a “How We Helped” section. It introduces the point of contact, the client’s past pain points, and basic “before and after” points to highlight the value of the tool. This is a great quick overview to introduce readers to high-value concepts quickly. 

They also use multiple media here, including images, video, and diverse text formatting. This makes the case study visually appealing and more engaging. If you want to just skim quickly through bullet points you can, but there’s also a video where the client raves about their experience.

And, of course, you’ve got a detailed results section highlighting how the client received long-term value from the product, featuring great statistics and a strong client testimonial. 

Kosli is a highly technical tool for software developers and dev ops teams, and their case studies are a great example of how to discuss extraordinarily technical topics in an approachable way.  

Let’s look at this case study , which promotes how their client Firi delivered over 100,000 changes without worrying about compliance. The case study itself is relatively short, but that’s okay, because it doesn’t need to be long to be effective.

It efficiently stresses that Firi operates in Norway, which has some of the most demanding sets of regulatory standards across the globe. That automatically assures customers that no matter where they’re based, this tool can help, making this client selection for the case study a great choice. They also explain the value upfront—100,000 changes and a proven audit trail if needed. 

The formatting of this case study is smart, cleanly listing common challenges and then solutions. They had a “counterpart” solution, if you will, for each challenge listed, showing how they were able to help the client directly. 

And while there isn’t a long list of statistics or improved performance in this case study, that’s okay, too; not every case study absolutely needs that. Instead, they have an explanation from their client (a CTO of the company), who explained why the software was so invaluable for their needs. 

Final Thoughts

Case studies can be powerful tools used to generate and convert leads, boosting your overall revenue. And as you can see above, there’s no one-size-fits-all requirement for what an effective case study looks like or even where it should appear on your website . Take some time to think about what information you want to present and how it would be most effectively portrayed to your leads. This is a good starting point, and make sure to remember to get your design team’s input, too, so it looks and reads well. 

Ready to get more conversions from the case studies you’re creating? Make sure your sales team is ready to nurture incoming leads with lead scoring! Book your free demo of Breadcrumbs today.

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Writing A Case Study

Case Study Examples

Brilliant Case Study Examples and Templates For Your Help

15 min read

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A Complete Case Study Writing Guide With Examples

Simple Case Study Format for Students to Follow

Understand the Types of Case Study Here

It’s no surprise that writing a case study is one of the most challenging academic tasks for students. You’re definitely not alone here!

Most people don't realize that there are specific guidelines to follow when writing a case study. If you don't know where to start, it's easy to get overwhelmed and give up before you even begin.

Don't worry! Let us help you out!

We've collected over 25 free case study examples with solutions just for you. These samples with solutions will help you win over your panel and score high marks on your case studies.

So, what are you waiting for? Let's dive in and learn the secrets to writing a successful case study.

• 1. An Overview of Case Studies
• 2. Case Study Examples for Students
• 3. Business Case Study Examples
• 4. Medical Case Study Examples
• 5. Psychology Case Study Examples 
• 6. Sales Case Study Examples
• 7. Interview Case Study Examples
• 8. Marketing Case Study Examples
• 9. Tips to Write a Good Case Study

An Overview of Case Studies

A case study is a research method used to study a particular individual, group, or situation in depth. It involves analyzing and interpreting data from a variety of sources to gain insight into the subject being studied. 

Case studies are often used in psychology, business, and education to explore complicated problems and find solutions. They usually have detailed descriptions of the subject, background info, and an analysis of the main issues.

The goal of a case study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Typically, case studies can be divided into three parts, challenges, solutions, and results. 

Here is a case study sample PDF so you can have a clearer understanding of what a case study actually is:

Case Study Sample PDF

How to Write a Case Study Examples

Learn how to write a case study with the help of our comprehensive case study guide.

Case Study Examples for Students

Quite often, students are asked to present case studies in their academic journeys. The reason instructors assign case studies is for students to sharpen their critical analysis skills, understand how companies make profits, etc.

Below are some case study examples in research, suitable for students:

Case Study Example in Software Engineering

Qualitative Research Case Study Sample

Software Quality Assurance Case Study

Social Work Case Study Example

Ethical Case Study

Case Study Example PDF

These examples can guide you on how to structure and format your own case studies.

Struggling with formatting your case study? Check this case study format guide and perfect your document’s structure today.

Business Case Study Examples

A business case study examines a business’s specific challenge or goal and how it should be solved. Business case studies usually focus on several details related to the initial challenge and proposed solution. 

To help you out, here are some samples so you can create case studies that are related to businesses: 

Here are some more business case study examples:

Business Case Studies PDF

Business Case Studies Example

Typically, a business case study discovers one of your customer's stories and how you solved a problem for them. It allows your prospects to see how your solutions address their needs. 

Medical Case Study Examples

Medical case studies are an essential part of medical education. They help students to understand how to diagnose and treat patients. 

Here are some medical case study examples to help you.

Medical Case Study Example

Nursing Case Study Example

Want to understand the various types of case studies? Check out our types of case study blog to select the perfect type.

Psychology Case Study Examples 

Case studies are a great way of investigating individuals with psychological abnormalities. This is why it is a very common assignment in psychology courses. 

By examining all the aspects of your subject’s life, you discover the possible causes of exhibiting such behavior. 

For your help, here are some interesting psychology case study examples:

Psychology Case Study Example

Mental Health Case Study Example

Sales Case Study Examples

Case studies are important tools for sales teams’ performance improvement. By examining sales successes, teams can gain insights into effective strategies and create action plans to employ similar tactics.

By researching case studies of successful sales campaigns, sales teams can more accurately identify challenges and develop solutions.

Sales Case Study Example

Interview Case Study Examples

Interview case studies provide businesses with invaluable information. This data allows them to make informed decisions related to certain markets or subjects.

Interview Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Examples

Marketing case studies are real-life stories that showcase how a business solves a problem. They typically discuss how a business achieves a goal using a specific marketing strategy or tactic.

They typically describe a challenge faced by a business, the solution implemented, and the results achieved.

This is a short sample marketing case study for you to get an idea of what an actual marketing case study looks like.

 Here are some more popular marketing studies that show how companies use case studies as a means of marketing and promotion:

“Chevrolet Discover the Unexpected” by Carol H. Williams

This case study explores Chevrolet's “ DTU Journalism Fellows ” program. The case study uses the initials “DTU” to generate interest and encourage readers to learn more. 

Multiple types of media, such as images and videos, are used to explain the challenges faced. The case study concludes with an overview of the achievements that were met.

Key points from the case study include:

• Using a well-known brand name in the title can create interest.
• Combining different media types, such as headings, images, and videos, can help engage readers and make the content more memorable.
• Providing a summary of the key achievements at the end of the case study can help readers better understand the project's impact.

“The Met” by Fantasy

“ The Met ” by Fantasy is a fictional redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, created by the design studio Fantasy. The case study clearly and simply showcases the museum's website redesign.

The Met emphasizes the website’s features and interface by showcasing each section of the interface individually, allowing the readers to concentrate on the significant elements.

For those who prefer text, each feature includes an objective description. The case study also includes a “Contact Us” call-to-action at the bottom of the page, inviting visitors to contact the company.

Key points from this “The Met” include:

• Keeping the case study simple and clean can help readers focus on the most important aspects.
• Presenting the features and solutions with a visual showcase can be more effective than writing a lot of text.
• Including a clear call-to-action at the end of the case study can encourage visitors to contact the company for more information.

“Better Experiences for All” by Herman Miller

Herman Miller's minimalist approach to furniture design translates to their case study, “ Better Experiences for All ”, for a Dubai hospital. The page features a captivating video with closed-captioning and expandable text for accessibility.

The case study presents a wealth of information in a concise format, enabling users to grasp the complexities of the strategy with ease. It concludes with a client testimonial and a list of furniture items purchased from the brand.

Key points from the “Better Experiences” include:

• Make sure your case study is user-friendly by including accessibility features like closed captioning and expandable text.
• Include a list of products that were used in the project to guide potential customers.

“NetApp” by Evisort 

Evisort's case study on “ NetApp ” stands out for its informative and compelling approach. The study begins with a client-centric overview of NetApp, strategically directing attention to the client rather than the company or team involved.

The case study incorporates client quotes and explores NetApp’s challenges during COVID-19. Evisort showcases its value as a client partner by showing how its services supported NetApp through difficult times. 

• Provide an overview of the company in the client’s words, and put focus on the customer. 
• Highlight how your services can help clients during challenging times.
• Make your case study accessible by providing it in various formats.

“Red Sox Season Campaign,” by CTP Boston

The “ Red Sox Season Campaign ” showcases a perfect blend of different media, such as video, text, and images. Upon visiting the page, the video plays automatically, there are videos of Red Sox players, their images, and print ads that can be enlarged with a click.

The page features an intuitive design and invites viewers to appreciate CTP's well-rounded campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team. There’s also a CTA that prompts viewers to learn how CTP can create a similar campaign for their brand.

Some key points to take away from the “Red Sox Season Campaign”: 

• Including a variety of media such as video, images, and text can make your case study more engaging and compelling.
• Include a call-to-action at the end of your study that encourages viewers to take the next step towards becoming a customer or prospect.

“Airbnb + Zendesk” by Zendesk

The case study by Zendesk, titled “ Airbnb + Zendesk : Building a powerful solution together,” showcases a true partnership between Airbnb and Zendesk. 

The article begins with an intriguing opening statement, “Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend,” and uses stunning images of beautiful Airbnb locations to captivate readers.

Instead of solely highlighting Zendesk's product, the case study is crafted to tell a good story and highlight Airbnb's service in detail. This strategy makes the case study more authentic and relatable.

Some key points to take away from this case study are:

• Use client's offerings' images rather than just screenshots of your own product or service.
• To begin the case study, it is recommended to include a distinct CTA. For instance, Zendesk presents two alternatives, namely to initiate a trial or seek a solution.

“Influencer Marketing” by Trend and WarbyParker

The case study "Influencer Marketing" by Trend and Warby Parker highlights the potential of influencer content marketing, even when working with a limited budget. 

The “Wearing Warby” campaign involved influencers wearing Warby Parker glasses during their daily activities, providing a glimpse of the brand's products in use. 

This strategy enhanced the brand's relatability with influencers' followers. While not detailing specific tactics, the case study effectively illustrates the impact of third-person case studies in showcasing campaign results.

Key points to take away from this case study are:

• Influencer marketing can be effective even with a limited budget.
• Showcasing products being used in everyday life can make a brand more approachable and relatable.
• Third-person case studies can be useful in highlighting the success of a campaign.

Marketing Case Study Template

Marketing Case Study Example

Now that you have read multiple case study examples, hop on to our tips.

Tips to Write a Good Case Study

Here are some note-worthy tips to craft a winning case study 

• Define the purpose of the case study This will help you to focus on the most important aspects of the case. The case study objective helps to ensure that your finished product is concise and to the point.
• Choose a real-life example. One of the best ways to write a successful case study is to choose a real-life example. This will give your readers a chance to see how the concepts apply in a real-world setting.
• Keep it brief. This means that you should only include information that is directly relevant to your topic and avoid adding unnecessary details.
• Use strong evidence. To make your case study convincing, you will need to use strong evidence. This can include statistics, data from research studies, or quotes from experts in the field.
• Edit and proofread your work. Before you submit your case study, be sure to edit and proofread your work carefully. This will help to ensure that there are no errors and that your paper is clear and concise.

There you go!

We’re sure that now you have secrets to writing a great case study at your fingertips! This blog teaches the key guidelines of various case studies with samples. So grab your pen and start crafting a winning case study right away!

Having said that, we do understand that some of you might be having a hard time writing compelling case studies.

But worry not! Our expert case study writing service is here to take all your case-writing blues away! 

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Dr. Barbara is a highly experienced writer and author who holds a Ph.D. degree in public health from an Ivy League school. She has worked in the medical field for many years, conducting extensive research on various health topics. Her writing has been featured in several top-tier publications.

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The nine sets of case studies featured here showcase how law firms are innovating as businesses in Europe. They highlight law firms that are changing how they manage their people and how they are reinventing services and delivery models.

All the case studies were researched, compiled and ranked by RSGI. “Winner” indicates that the organisation won an FT Innovative Lawyers Europe award for 2024 .

Read the other FT Innovative Lawyers Europe ‘Best practice case studies’, which showcase the standout innovations made for and by people working in the legal sector:

Practice of law In-house

Law firm strategy

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison: Winner

Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 9; Total: 26 From August last year to April this year, the top-tier US firm expanded its presence in London by hiring 130 new lawyers, including approximately 20 partners from rival firms. With a particular focus on rapidly building a private equity practice in London, the firm hired 14 specialist partners from international law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

A&O Shearman O: 8; L: 9; I: 8; Total: 25 In February 2023, the firm launched its artificial intelligence working group for clients, who pay a membership fee in exchange for quick responses to AI-related queries and syndicated advice. The move adds to the range of the firm’s services in this area.

Pogust Goodhead O: 7; L: 9; I: 9; Total: 25 The mass claims firm, founded in 2018, now has operations in four countries, including Brazil, and employs more than 600 people. The London firm has attracted about $1bn in litigation loans, including $552.5mn from US investor Gramercy last October.

In March 2024, it launched a £3bn action, alongside Dutch firm Lemstra Van der Korst, on behalf of around 77,000 claimants affected by the 2015 Mariana Dam disaster. It will come to court next month and adds to related action already taken in London.

Highly commended

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23 As part of its US-focused growth strategy, the “magic circle” firm has invested in expanding its Silicon Valley mergers and acquisitions practice group. In 2024, it brought in a new chief digital innovation officer, also based on the US West Coast.

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21 In 2022, newly appointed managing partner Iñigo Erlaiz Cotelo launched a new growth strategy for the Spanish firm. A three-year target to achieve a 20 per cent increase in revenue was met within two years, when net turnover hit €93mn in 2023.

Gide Loyrette Nouel O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19 The French firm entered an official partnership with patent specialist firm Regimbeau last year, to coincide with the European Commission’s creation of the Unified Patent Court. The two firms now provide clients with a single service, offering Gide Loyrette Nouel’s legal expertise and Regimbeau’s technical knowhow. The partnership has gained several conglomerates as clients.

Candey O: 6; L: 8; I: 5; Total: 19 The UK-headquartered disputes firm was licensed In March 2024 to practise in the British Virgin Islands, in addition to the UK and US. The firm aims to have all its solicitors admitted to practise there.

Pérez-Llorca O: 4; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 19 In 2024, the fast-growing Spanish firm overhauled its management structure following a five-year expansion that saw it open new offices in Brussels, Lisbon, London, New York and Singapore. Last year, it achieved revenue of nearly €124mn.

Generative AI tools

A&O Shearman: Winner Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 9; Total: 27 In December 2023, the firm launched ContractMatrix, an artificial intelligence contract negotiation tool. The service, developed with Microsoft and legal AI start-up Harvey, draws on existing contract templates to draft new agreements that lawyers can amend or accept. It has been licensed by several companies, including ASML, a Dutch supplier of chipmaking equipment.

Garrigues O: 8; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 25 Last year, the firm launched Garrigues GAIA: a platform that offers access to internally trained generative AI systems linked to its libraries of legal documents. Some 70 per cent of the staff use it daily.

Baker McKenzie O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 Employment lawyers worked with the firm’s AI practice, BakerML, to train a bespoke AI tool to handle the most common employment law queries received from a leading social media client over six years. The service drafts answers to routine queries across 45 jurisdictions, which a local lawyer then reviews.

CMS O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 The firm worked with German tech partner Xayn to launch Noxtua, a Europe-focused AI legal service in February. The service focuses on interrogating German- and English-language material and strictly complying with EU data protection legislation, to stand out as an independent European alternative to US-based rivals. Commended individual: Markus Kaulartz

Ecija O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 In November 2023, the firm began using a generative AI system in its daily operations, resulting in a reported 70 per cent time saving in some routine tasks. Clients have approached the firm’s tech consultancy for advice on incorporating AI platforms into their internal systems.

Dentons O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 In August 2023, the firm launched FleetAI: a proprietary version of ChatGPT that is designed to speed up its lawyers’ workflows — and to be licensed to clients. About 850 of its staff use the service, which is compatible with the firm’s existing tech systems.

Taylor Wessing O: 8; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 22 In October 2023, the firm launched TWLitium, an in-house generative AI tool. Around 80 per cent of staff are now using the system, which offers secure chat, document generation, and analysis in areas such as property lease documents. Commended individual: Clare Harman Clark

Travers Smith O: 8; L: 7; I; 7 Total 22 The firm built Analyse, a generative AI tool to help automate a wide range of legal document review tasks. In May 2024, the firm spun out its AI team to create technology start-up Jylo. The venture, funded by Travers Smith, aims to sell services to the broader legal market, building on Analyse and YCNBot, its open-source chatbot launched last year.

Hogan Lovells O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The firm and Eltemate, its legal tech subsidiary, launched an AI-powered service, dubbed Craig, in December 2023. The system is being offered as a subscription service for clients as well as for in-house use.

KPMG Abogados O: 6; L: 6; I: 8; Total: 20 A group of lawyers helped train a generative AI tool called KAI, which allows 1,100 staff across Spain to access eight AI “personas”. Seven mimic “experts” trained in specific practice areas of law, while the eighth helps deal with automating general internal inquiries.

DLA Piper O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The firm’s innovation arm, Law&, developed a generative AI-powered legal assistant called ButterflAI. The service is designed to ensure security for client work.

Womble Bond Dickinson O: 6; L: 6; I: 6; Total: 18 The firm has built its own internal chatbot, iWomble, to assist lawyers. The service, launched in March, is trained to deliver information on the firm’s policies and procedures.

New legal products

CMS: Winner Originality: 9; Leadership: 8; Impact: 9; Total: 26 Last November, the firm launched its patent management system, CMS Umbra, designed with software company IPDefine. The system aims to enable businesses with sizeable intellectual property interests to evaluate and maximise the value of their patent portfolios at high speed and low cost.

Its search facility identifies infringements by scanning the internet and providing validity and freedom-to-operate assessments. It also attempts to identify value and commercialise patents, most of which are left dormant.

The software can also help to calculate the value of any target company’s portfolio during an acquisition and to aid counterfeit protection.

KPMG Abogados O: 8; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 25 The global professional services firm’s Spanish legal arm developed Katalyst, a software platform to help clients manage and automate their tax, legal, and human resources work. More than 400 organisations currently use it in 90 jurisdictions. Different applications help legal departments to track regulation, and to manage budgets and specific legal processes, such as insolvency or procurement. Similar tailored systems are available for clients’ HR and tax departments.

Garrigues O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 In 2023, the firm launched its LegalApp Factory: a division dedicated to creating systems that clients can integrate directly into their operations. Authentication products include a time-stamping electronic certification tool to prove the authenticity of mobile phone pictures and other digital evidence presented in court.

Taylor Wessing O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23 In 2023, the firm launched a self-service platform, Outpace, designed to help start-up businesses and their investors. It aims to provide simplified tools to complete legal tasks, such as structuring funding rounds and monitoring investors’ shareholdings at a lower cost than traditional rival services. Outpace is now used by more than 20 clients, the firm reports.

Herbert Smith Freehills O: 6; L: 9; I: 7; Total: 22 The firm launched a service in June 2023 that helps clients identify where they may be failing to meet reporting requirements, under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Directive. The directive, which was introduced last year, also applies, in part, to some UK companies. Responses to a short questionnaire are used to create a report assessing compliance with the reporting obligations.

McDermott Will & Emery O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm designed a risk-profiling tool for its German clients that can be integrated into their in-house systems to help them comply with labour regulations when hiring freelance workers. Users of the tool answer simple questionnaires about the freelancers themselves and the roles they are applying for, which are used to generate a risk report on the contractual arrangement. One client reported that the app was used 1,400 times by their employees in 2023.

Osborne Clarke O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 In May 2023, the firm’s technology team launched a chatbot that answers questions from clients’ staff about internal policies regarding antitrust compliance and obligations. Questions that the chatbot cannot answer are dealt with by the firm’s lawyers, who can add their answers to the client’s policies, and to the chatbot service.

La Scala Società tra Avvocati O: 7; L: 7; I: 5; Total: 19 In 2024, the Italian firm struck a partnership with, and took a 25 per cent stake in, 3Ai — a data management consultancy. The venture aims to help clients improve how they manage their proprietary data.

Generative AI strategy

DLA Piper: Winner Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 9; Total: 27 The firm has developed a comprehensive AI strategy for itself and its clients. An AI and data team — comprising more than 100 lawyers, data scientists, and professionals with backgrounds in policy and academia — introduced generative AI software within the firm, including Microsoft Copilot and CoCounsel and its own proprietary tool. The team advises clients on use of AI and has created apps, handbooks, and governance frameworks to help businesses remain compliant with evolving laws and regulations.

A&O Shearman O: 8; L: 10; I: 8; Total: 26 Allen & Overy, now merged with Shearman & Sterling, was a first mover in February 2023 in rolling out generative AI across its operations. This followed a partnership with legal generative AI software company Harvey in 2022, and a pilot involving 2,000 lawyers and staff. Harvey now has 3,500 daily users. The AI helps with routine legal tasks.

Addleshaw Goddard O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24 The firm reviewed more than 50 generative AI tools and tested five in formal pilots before deciding to roll out its own proprietary generative AI tool, AGPT, in September 2023. The tool has processed an estimated 130,000 inquiries, at an average of 500 a day.

Ashurst O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24 In January 2024, the firm published its findings from trying out the law-focused generative AI products Harvey, Copilot, and Wexler. Its aim was to promote transparency in the legal sector and showcase its approach to research and development. The firm has since rolled out Harvey to its 4,000 staff.

Cuatrecasas O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 In September 2023, the firm partnered with AI start-up Harvey to create CelIA. The system is trained specifically in Spanish law and is used for information retrieval, document drafting, and analysis.

NautaDutilh O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22 In 2023, the Dutch firm partnered with AI developer Fledger to develop its proprietary generative AI tool, Ariel. The firm has offered formal training courses to encourage its use.

Macfarlanes O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 Having been among the first to sign up to Harvey’s AI tool, a group of Macfarlanes’ lawyers and technologists tracked staff behaviour to find the best ways to encourage its use, which turned out to be via workshops and formal knowledge sharing. Some 80 per cent of its 550 lawyers now use the tool.

Skills development

Garrigues: Winner Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 8; Total: 24 The firm assigned 140 people across 18 offices as “digital ambassadors” to encourage the uptake of digital services at the firm. In 2023, nearly 90 per cent of staff received training — for a total of 14,000 hours.

Kennedys O: 8; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 23 In 2023, the firm’s 120 global equity partners attended a three-day leadership programme at Oxford university’s Saïd Business School to enhance their strategic skills, such as improving collaboration and working on non-billable hours of business development.

Mills & Reeve O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 The firm introduced discussion forums based on the Balint Method, originally designed to improve doctors’ dealings with patients, their own mental health, and clinical outcomes. The lawyers meet in groups of 12 with two supervisors once a month for a year to share experiences and discuss client relationships.

PwC Legal Business Solutions O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 Working with King’s College London’s Dickson Poon law school, the firm has helped develop a course to provide practical skills in generative AI, aimed at legal and tax professionals. Some 25 managers and directors have completed it.

Shoosmiths O: 8; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 22 Sherif Malak, head of privacy and data, created the UK-based Junior Privacy Advisers’ Club in August 2023. The JPA, which now has 200 members, provides mentoring from senior lawyers, general counsel, and others in their practice area.

Dentons O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 In February 2023, the firm and O-Shaped Lawyer, a legal consultancy, conducted relationship-building workshops with key clients. Staff undertook problem-solving exercises to understand clients’ needs and priorities better.

Vieira de Almeida O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 Last year, the firm launched a system to help staff manage their career development and learning schedule. Human resources staff ensure it is suitable and properly planned.

RPC O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The firm introduced a nine-month training programme involving psychometric testing, workshops and online resources. Workshops include role-playing sessions to help partners develop skills and build better relationships with colleagues. Some 37 partners, just over a quarter of the total, have completed it.

Improving client experience

Ashurst: Winner Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 7; Total: 25 The firm is investing in new digital products to deliver services to clients. As part of this drive, it launched Ashurst Origin and XB Adviser in June 2023. The first service allows banking clients to securely extend their staff’s access to the range of the firm’s digital services. The second, XB Adviser, is an updated digital service offering clients advice culled from local experts across Ashurst’s international network on cross-border bank licensing.

Clyde & Co O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24 The firm consolidated its services dealing with risks of cyber breaches. If the service flags that a client is operating in high-threat locations, a partner at the firm will automatically receive a briefing pack to deal with potential dangers of any cyber attacks. It also notifies clients of regulatory obligations and potential fines for involvement in the event of any data privacy breaches.

PwC Tax & Legal, Spain O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23 A 40-strong team at the Spanish legal arm of global professional services firm PwC launched a service that processes data from contracts, litigation and due diligence documents to provide headline assessment of relevant business risks. For example, the team created a tool for French multinational retailer Carrefour to analyse and present risks across its property contracts.

Bird & Bird O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22 The firm helped build a compliance platform to assist an Asian computer gaming company as it develops and launches new games. This ensures that its games comply with EU and US data protection laws without the client’s legal team needing familiarity with those jurisdictions.

Ecija O: 8; L: 8; I: 5; Total: 21 The firm worked with data protection software company OneTrust to analyse how a food and drink manufacturer client was using AI, and to advise it on legal and ethical considerations and compliance with EU rules.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer O: 7; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 21 In January 2022, the firm launched a unit in Germany for managing mass claims. It has offices in Hanover, Münster and Nuremberg, and defends clients against independent parallel lawsuits — such as the emissions scandal lawsuits faced by German carmaker Volkswagen. Since being set up, the unit has attempted to act as sole defender in mass claims that were previously too large for one firm to handle.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm’s legal technology division, ClearyX, developed two AI-powered discovery tools for lawyers at semiconductor group Broadcom, to help in its acquisition of cloud software company VMware. This deal, for $69bn including debt, was announced in May 2022. One of the tools analysed and categorised 10mn documents sent to international competition watchdogs, while the other reduced the number of documents requiring human review to determine legal privilege.

DWF Group O: 6; L: 6; I: 8; Total: 20 Last year, ahead of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s formal purchase of a controlling minority stake in Manchester United, the firm reviewed the workings of the football club’s in-house legal team, identifying ways to improve to routine tasks. For example, the lawyers redrafted non-disclosure agreement precedent documents to reduce the proportion that required extra negotiation from 69 per cent to 3 per cent, according to the firm. It also developed a digital “workspace” to triage legal tasks and track ongoing matters.

Pinsent Masons O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 In 2023, the firm’s flexible resourcing arm, Vario, arranged for 24 lawyers to work on demand for consumer goods group Unilever, on its supplier contracts. The Vario lawyers, Pinsent Masons, and Unilever piloted new legal technology to help automate Unilever’s contract review, summarisation, and drafting.

Deloitte Legal O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19 In September 2023, the firm launched a tool to automate aspects of mergers by extracting information needed from the client’s records, then sorting and loading it into documents required for concluding the deal. According to the firm, the platform reduces the time spent on these processes by between 25 and 35 per cent.

Withersworldwide O: 7; L: 7; I: 5; Total: 19 In late 2023, the firm’s tech team developed a system to help software provider Diligent extract and organise information across its own 45,000 contracts with customers, using its corporate governance applications with minimal human intervention.

Matheson O: 5; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 18 Matheson provided carmaker Volkswagen with a suite of tools to increase the legal team’s efficiency and facilitate better collaboration with the law firm. Systems include trackers for monitoring litigation and environment, social and governance obligations.

Talent management

Cuatrecasas: Winner Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 25 In 2023, the firm introduced a new system for allocating work to its lawyers. Optimal Team Assistant matches individuals’ expertise, availability, professional interests, and relevant previous client contact to new projects.

The system aims to improve career development for young lawyers. It also alerts the firm to any lack of capacity in specific fields, so it can adjust its training and recruitment accordingly.

Shoosmiths O: 7; L: 9; I: 8; Total: 24 The firm has worked with social mobility campaign group Purpose Coalition since 2018. Since then, in addition to supporting outside charities, it has introduced new policies to broaden recruitment and support alternative career paths at the firm. A senior firm member is briefed to oversee these initiatives and evaluate their progress.

Vieira de Almeida O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24 The Portuguese firm introduced a Partners’ Professional Planning platform, which provides partners with information about the firm’s pay structure and personal performance measures.

PwC Tax & Legal, Spain O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 PwC Spain launched a programme last November that allows staff to earn expert diplomas and a masters degree in professional services, from Madrid’s CEU San Pablo University. Experience that legal staff gain in their day-to-day work earns credits towards the qualifications. The business expects 4,500 staff, including those at its tax and legal division, to obtain a degree in the next four years.

Hogan Lovells O: 7; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 21 Since 2022, the firm has worked with external advisers to help it identify ways to improve ethnic diversity and inclusion at an office-by-office level. Responses from the majority of staff have helped inform the firm’s continuing racial equity plan.

Linklaters O: 7; L: 6; I: 8; Total: 21 The firm played a leading role, along with five others, in the formation last year of the City Century apprenticeship scheme. This aims to expand the number of recruits to a six-year solicitor apprenticeship programme in London, designed for candidates who do not wish to pursue the traditional route of full-time university degree study.

Slaughter and May O: 8; L: 8; I: 5; Total: 21 The firm introduced a “switch on-switch off” flexible working scheme, in an attempt to counter potential burnout that affects many law firms. It allows associates with sufficient experience to cut working hours by up to a fifth, by taking blocks of leave in exchange for a salary reduction. After a two-year pilot, the firm made the scheme permanent in January, and 5 per cent of associates have taken up the offer.

Burges Salmon O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 Last year, the firm won accreditation as a “disability confident” employer under a UK government scheme aimed at encouraging recruitment and retention of people with a range of disabilities. The firm interviewed staff to identify areas for improvement and says the number of staff reporting a disability has increased from 4 per cent to 9 per cent in the past four years.

Herbert Smith Freehills O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The employment, pensions, and incentives team worked with the Living Wage Foundation to implement the campaigner’s “Living Pension” commitment in 2023 and was among the first to subscribe to it. Accreditation demands an employer pension contribution of 7 per cent of staff salary.

Dentons O: 7; L: 6; I: 6; Total: 19 In April 2022, Dentons launched a programme sponsoring paralegals and other staff to study for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. The scheme offers up to 10 candidates financial support through two years of study.

Regulatory solutions

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer: Winner Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 8; Total: 24 The firm collated legal advice about regulations across 100 jurisdictions to train a chatbot for its client Cariad, the troubled software subsidiary of carmaker Volkswagen.

The tool uses generative artificial intelligence and aims to reduce the time spent by the in-house legal team dealing with inquiries from the business’s 10,000 staff by helping them get quicker answers.

Hogan Lovells O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 The firm’s legal tech division subsidiary, Eltemate, designed a tool for BMW to monitor regulatory changes affecting carmakers across different jurisdictions. The in-house system uses AI to identify the most relevant information to the client every month.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21 The firm’s antitrust team and its tech subsidiary, ClearyX, developed a database that stores client documentation on mergers, acquisitions and public procurement deals relevant to EU regulation and reporting requirements. The subscription service helps clients demonstrate compliance.

White & Case O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21 The firm developed an app-based tool to help clients report on the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, adopted in 2023, to prevent companies subsidised by foreign governments from gaining an unfair advantage in the trading bloc.

The app asks questions and guides clients through the compliance process by automating the preparation of reports required by the European Commission.

Addleshaw Goddard O: 6; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 20 The firm developed a suite of tools to prepare smaller businesses for the UK’s new Procurement Act, which comes into force in October and governs how public bodies purchase goods.

The platform provides updates and helps clients to ensure they comply with the new rules, making contract renewals with public entities easier.

Osborne Clarke O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The firm created a tool for monitoring packaging regulations for the global coffee chain Starbucks. Users can check their legal obligations across 42 jurisdictions and take any necessary action to comply.

This system helps in-house lawyers at Starbucks to deal with compliance questions quicker and reduces the queries sent to its outside law firm.

TLT O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20 The firm created a database of regulatory updates for financial services, airline and retail clients. It alerts them to forthcoming deadlines for implementing new compliance measures. It also features a system for clients to track progress in responding to regulatory change.

Abreu Advogados O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19 To help smaller Portuguese companies comply with the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the firm created an online compliance training series. The service helps legal teams at exporting companies improve their reporting on environmental, social and governance standards. The lawyers delivered the training to more than 400 companies at the request of Portuguese trade agency AICEP.

Mayer Brown O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The firm’s pensions team created a regulation tracker for trustees of UK occupational pension schemes. Clients that subscribe receive updates on the staggered implementation of new standards released in March by the UK’s pensions regulator. These standards require trustees to ensure effective governance requirements, risk assessments and remuneration policies.

Simmons & Simmons O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The firm created a tracker to help clients stay informed about global cryptocurrency regulation. It currently covers around 60 jurisdictions. Users pay a subscription to access and receive automated updates.

Data-enhanced knowledge

Herbert Smith Freehills: Winner Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 8; Total: 24 The firm collected data from more than 1,000 arbitration cases to build a database, called Genesis, that can predict the length and price of future cases, after clients called for greater predictability of legal costs in disputes. The information allows lawyers to bill clients using fixed fees or other charging arrangements, instead of hourly rates. The firm is expanding the model into more practice areas.

Deloitte Legal O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23 The firm integrated artificial intelligence capabilities from systems provided by software partner Emérita Legal into its proprietary case management system, ValerIA. The platform, trained in Spanish law, manages documentation, provides relevant regulation and legislation, and automatically assigns tasks to lawyers.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23 The firm launched an updated version of its Deal Flow survey that analyses the scale and terms of venture capital investment in European start-ups. The report, covering 350 equity deals, suggests investors are imposing more stringent “consent rights” to tighten their control over these companies.

Kennedys O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22 Lawyers from the firm’s motor insurance practice and its technology subsidiary, Kennedys iQ, developed a platform that helps insurer clients manage motor accident and injury claims. It analyses medical evidence and recommends whether claims should be accepted or contested.

Linklaters O: 6; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 22 In May 2023, the firm rolled out its due diligence management platform, ReportIQ. It aims to make each stage of a deal process more efficient and consistent. Since launch, it has been used on high-value transactions including a €12bn deal, for which about 300 lawyers collaborated via the platform . Commended individual: Timo Engelhardt

Eversheds Sutherland O: 6; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 21 The firm has worked to manage due diligence on client transactions more consistently. Its legal services subsidiary, Konexo, helped to select the best technologies for each stage of the process. The firm is now rolling out more standardised processes, guidance notes, and wording for its due diligence work.

Norton Rose Fulbright O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 In 2022, the firm developed a tool called NRF Litigation Manager. This service has helped property group ECE manage its portfolio of retail spaces at shopping centres across Europe, by tracking the state of legal claims. The system has since been rolled out to two other clients.

Shoosmiths O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20 The firm created a searchable database of UK merger and acquisitions deals that it has advised on. This can provide lawyers and clients with an overview of common terms applied in UK acquisitions, to help them evaluate the likelihood of the other party accepting an offer.

Cuatrecasas O: 5; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 19 In 2023, the Spanish firm developed a tool to help its lawyers track stages of arbitration proceedings across different jurisdictions, backed up by precedent documents drawn from about 600 sources. The system has been used in 194 international arbitrations, supporting the disputes team across six countries.

Morais Leitão O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19 The Portuguese firm expanded its due diligence service for takeovers to include an initial assessment of documents and make more informed decisions in deals that have complicated contractual and compliance requirements.

Arthur Cox O: 5; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 18 In 2023, the Irish firm launched a revamped cyber incident management team made up of lawyers, consultants, and former law enforcement personnel. It aims to help clients take preventive action and provides post-attack support, identifying compromised data and offering legal advice on how to proceed.

Littler O: 5; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 18 In November 2023, the firm — which advises businesses on labour issues — published its latest European Employer Survey. The report, now in its sixth year, draws on information supplied by 780 human resources executives, in-house lawyers, and business leaders across 15 European countries.

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How To Use AI Customer Service: Full Guide & Examples

Artificial intelligence is probably the biggest buzzword of recent years. And no wonder, since its impact on our lives and work has been immense.

But there’s one area of business that can benefit from AI particularly well—customer support. 

Conversational AI customer service has the power to improve user experience, scale businesses, optimize the workload of support teams, and cut costs. 

How to get started with AI customer service? How to use its potential to the fullest? And what are the best tools?

This article is the only guide you need to explore on the topic. 

Let’s get straight to it!

In this article:

• What is AI in customer service
• Use cases and real-life examples
• Benefits of AI customer service
• How to integrate it into your business
• What to consider when choosing the system
• The future of AI customer service

Supercharge your customer service with Lyro by Tidio

Interested in learning more about offering stellar customer service? Check out these pieces:

• 8 Steps to Build an Excellent Customer Service Strategy
• 10 Best Practices for Ecommerce Customer Service
• 19 Best Customer Service Training Ideas and Resources

Let’s start from the basics—

What is AI customer service?

AI customer service refers to the use of tools powered by artificial intelligence to automate support and improve its efficiency. The software can respond to customer inquiries, welcome new users, recover abandoned carts, answer FAQs, and more. 

The crucial components of AI customer service include:

• Natural language processing (NLP)
• Machine learning (ML)
• Input analysis
• Dialogue management

AI customer experience has become the focal point of many companies looking for innovation and growth. And no wonder—when done right, AI can dramatically improve customer support efforts, retention, and user satisfaction. 

What are your options when merging AI in your business? And how do you make the most of them?

Let’s find out.

Examples of AI in customer service

Artificial intelligence in customer service comes in many shapes and forms. Each of them can improve your support processes and help you excel at your communication with visitors. 

Here are some examples of AI in customer service you should consider when looking to offer stellar support.

1. AI customer service chatbots

When thinking about AI customer service solutions, chatbots are usually the first thing that comes to mind. And it makes sense, especially since AI chatbots are powerful tools that use machine learning, predictive analytics, and natural language processing to provide exceptional customer service and assist visitors.

How do chatbots work so well?

Essentially, they’re designed to quickly recognize common speech patterns and chat triggers in order to provide relevant information based on their knowledge sets. You can design conversation flows for your bots, use ready-made templates , or choose LLM-powered (Large Language Model) chatbots, like Lyro , that learn from each user interaction they have.

The good news is that many AI-powered chatbots do not require any coding skills to set up. The steps you need to take involve choosing the channels and the chatbot provider , designing the conversation flows, and pre-testing the chatbot. 

Saying that every business needs a chatbot is not an overstatement. From huge names like Sephora , Starbucks , and Spotify to smaller local businesses and 1-person companies—everyone can benefit from exceptional customer service automation . 

Make AI-powered customer service a reality for your business

Read more: Learn everything about how to create a chatbot for your website in our dedicated article.

2. AI for omnichannel customer service

AI for customer experience can become a great addition to your omnichannel support strategy . Essentially, omnichannel is a user engagement and lead generation approach. It ensures the company provides a consistent customer experience across different channels, devices, and platforms. In fact, studies show that the omnichannel approach results in almost 10% annual revenue growth for businesses.

How does AI fit here? 

Actually, it fits perfectly. Seamless AI customer service can positively impact your omnichannel strategy by routing shoppers to the right support channels. For example, if the issue is complex, AI can direct customers to a live chat agent who can help quickly resolve it. AI can also offer to chat on Instagram, Messenger, or WhatsApp for more convenient communication. 

One of the well-known examples of AI omnichannel support is Uber . Apart from the mobile app with chatbots, it offers email and social media automated support, real-time updates, local support centers, and a dedicated platform for corporate clients. 

3. AI customer service for sentiment analysis

This is where it gets even more interesting. Sentiment analysis is a type of NLP (natural language processing) that uses AI to recognize the sentiment and emotional tone expressed in text. 

AI tools can answer customer requests with their sentiment in mind, which prevents the feeling of “chatting with a robot”. Advanced AI solution that conveys the brand’s voice, values, and respect for clients helps to improve the user experience. 

Apart from scraping requests and customer questions to support, AI-powered sentiment analysis tools can also help with social listening. They monitor brand reputation, catch user feedback comments on social media, and gather insights for product improvement. 

This is important, since every day, around 328.77 million terabytes of data is generated on the internet. Users write more than thousands of comments and status updates on Facebook and Twitter every minute. AI can make sense of this data and analyze it as it comes, generating actionable and timely insights.

Read more: Check out our complete guide on conversational AI and how to use its fullest potential.

4. AI for support request prioritization

As artificial intelligence customer service is a true assistant for your business, it should work in sync with your human agents. And this is the main purpose of request prioritization and intent analysis. 

Automation means that AI takes care of all basic customer queries and repetitive tasks. This allows humans to focus on more complex challenges that require human intelligence, emotional involvement, and attention. 

AI tools can identify keywords and analyze the nature of the request to understand if they should direct it to a human agent. Afterward, if needed, the software tags the right customer service representatives to take over the case. 

The software also allows your customer service team to grow and develop as professionals. Instead of spending hours answering similar questions, they can focus on really complicated support tickets that allow them to apply their skills and professionalism in practice. 

Read more: Learn more about Tidio’s inbox tool and what it’s capable of. Also, discover the best automated ticketing systems available on the market today.

5. AI for self-service 

AI can help customers with necessary self-service resources at every stage of their customer journey . 

How exactly?

Well, AI knows your website and the knowledge base like the back of its (nonexistent) hand. It scrapes FAQs, offers discounts, and often knows how to solve a particular problem before it even occurs.

From browsing the website to completing the payment process, customer self-service allows your clients to get the necessary guidance and help without any human involvement. This helps to streamline the shopping process and minimize the chances of leaving the page before making a purchase.

Read more: Learn all you need to know about AI knowledge base including its elements, tools, and benefits.

But how exactly AI customer service is changing the business landscape and the world of communication between a brand and its shoppers?

We’ve got all the details, so read on to find out. 

Key business benefits of AI in customer service

It can be easy to get lost in all AI capabilities. It’s even easier to get confused about all the things this technology can do for your company in particular. However, once you’ve connected the dots, the benefits are extremely tempting.

Here are some of the most important ones:

1. AI makes customer support workflows more efficient

Artificial intelligence for customer service is getting more and more advanced. There are plenty of tools that learn from each visitor’s conversation. These AI solutions become virtual shopping assistants working together with human support agents.

This approach increases agent productivity and decreases wait times without losing the human touch. The result is that the service interaction meets all of the customer needs and increases their satisfaction with the brand.

In fact, over 78% of representatives agree that AI enhances their efficiency at work.

Read more: Discover how Suitor used Lyro to automate customer service and slash response times.

2. AI customer support is available round the clock and in multiple languages

No matter how efficient and productive your support team is, they need to rest. That’s where artificial intelligence technology comes in handy. Customer service AI tools are on the clock 24/7, speak multiple languages, and answer requests in seconds.

It’s also great news for your customers reaching out to the contact center. No matter when, where, and how urgently they require assistance, users can count on you. Such speed combined with the competence of your human support team can help turn your website visitors into loyal customers .

In fact, studies show that about 73% of buyers say that AI improves their customer experience.

Read more: Learn how Gecko Hospitality decreased response time and boosted leads with 24/7 AI customer service.

3. AI customer support gathers and analyzes data for better user insights

The amount of customer data AI can gather and analyze is truly impressive. AI customer support tools simplify collecting big chunks of information to establish behavioral patterns, get a single client view, and work towards hyper-personalization.

Implementing AI-gathered insights and personalizing customer service experience is crucial. This way, clients get all the relevant information and feel that the brand’s communication is specifically tailored to them.

Read more: Learn the key metrics and chatbot analytics to measure your results more effectively.

4. AI customer service drastically cuts your support costs

The truth is, hiring dozens of support agents is a thousand times more expensive than implementing an AI customer service tool . So, not only do AI solutions bring a lot of money to your company, but they also save plenty of expenses. In fact, more than 28% of business leaders already use AI to cut company costs.

Often, AI tools don’t require a big initial investment to install the software on your website. They have freemium versions to play with, allow you to only get the customized features you need, and come with pre-designed conversation flows and templates. This drastically reduces your support costs and allows you to do much more for much less.

Read more: Check out a full guide on chatbot pricing and analyze different pricing models to pick the right one for your needs.

5. AI boosts customer satisfaction

Personalization, short response times, efficiency, and relevance of customer communication can reach an all-time high with artificial intelligence tools. Modern-day customers are picky and demanding, with as many as 79% claiming they wouldn’t complete their order if customer service was unresponsive. 

However, AI customer service tools know a way to win them over by turning first-time visitors into paying customers who stay loyal to the brand and keep returning. In fact, as many as 57% of businesses are already using AI to improve their customer service. Customer satisfaction is everything when it comes to the ultimate goals—increasing revenue and growing your brand.

Since you know the benefits and examples of how to use AI in your customer support, let’s check out how to integrate it into your business.

We’ll use Tidio to demonstrate how to implement AI in your customer service.

How to integrate AI and customer service

Firstly, you should choose a platform that offers AI for customer support. This will depend on the website provider you’re using, as well as the features you need the software to offer. Let’s have a look at how to implement AI into your business in a few simple steps using Lyro, Tidio’s conversational AI. 

1. Log into your panel and go to the Lyro tab

2. Press Start using Lyro , read the restrictions, and click Accept if your sector is not on the presented list

3. Choose to import your FAQs from your website or provide a URL to an external FAQ page

4. Insert the link and click Import —Lyro will automatically gather all the question-answer pairs from the page provided

5. Check all the questions by going to the Configure tab 

6. Edit any questions or answers by clicking on the three dots next to the question

Here’s a video tutorial for a more visual guide:

Read more: Discover how to train your chatbot with tips and a step-by-step guide.

With that out of the way, here’s what you should keep in mind when picking your AI customer service.

What to consider when choosing your customer support AI?

As customer service leaders increasingly look to AI to boost efficiency and enhance the shopper experience, the choice of which AI solution to implement is a critical one. There are several key factors to weigh when evaluating potential customer support AI platforms. These include:

Impact on your team

Your representatives can be apprehensive about the technology, so gather the atmosphere and ensure your service teams that AI is meant to augment their capabilities, not replace them. Emphasize how AI will empower your employees to be more productive and efficient, allowing them to focus on providing exceptional, personalized, and high-quality customer service.

Trust and reliability

Although AI technology is advancing rapidly, there are many concerns relating to its trustworthiness and accuracy of responses. Concerns about privacy and reliability should be taken seriously and must be addressed carefully.

But, basing your AI system’s data on your organization’s trusted CRM and existing knowledge base can help to address concerns around the accuracy and reliability of the AI’s outputs. 

Cost and implementation

You might worry about the cost of developing AI customer service software. In that case, you should look for an affordable platform that offers artificial intelligence as part of the functionality. 

Now let’s take a look at what the future holds for customer support.

The future of AI in customer service

The future of AI-powered customer service is one of increasing automation and augmentation. As generative AI customer service advances, we’ll see it integrate deeper into workflows.

For example, AI can enhance messaging with clients by giving support teams the right context to automate routine tasks, like conversation summaries. It allows customer service agents to focus on more complex, high-value client interactions that require their unique problem-solving and interpersonal skills. 

AI customer service: key takeaway 

AI customer service is destined to become the standard in the business world. It improves customer support in a multitude of ways, cuts costs, and makes the work of your support agents more efficient. Most importantly, it boosts customer satisfaction with the power of state-of-the-art technology. 

As AI customer support is becoming more advanced, businesses shouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to implement AI-powered solutions that could take their growth to the next level. 

The great news is that there are tools available not only to large corporations that could afford a fat price tag, but also to small and medium businesses. 

Lyro by Tidio is one of them. Why not give it a try?

Boost customer engagement and satisfaction with AI

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Content Writer at Tidio with a love for the written word. She scouts around for digital trends and ways to help small and medium businesses grow.

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