Layla Al Mansoori

Turn a customer testimonial into a short, honest case study

Builds a structured case study from a testimonial and call notes without inventing numbers, flagging gaps as questions to send the customer.

At a glance

Best for: Small B2B companies with happy customers but no case studies yet, who have a testimonial and some call notes to work from.
Tested on: Claude · Opus 5.5
You fill in: usecustomer_materialproduct
You get: Tidewater Books went from "a whole Monday" of reordering to "done by lunch" Snapshot Tidewater Books, independent bookstore, Norfolk, Virginia 2… (full result below)

Prompt

Turn this customer material into a short case study for {{use}}.

Customer material (testimonial, call notes, emails: everything I have):
{{customer_material}}

Our product: {{product}}

Structure:

1. Headline stating the result in the customer's terms, with a number only if the material contains one.

1. Snapshot: customer, location, size, what they use us for (3-4 short lines).

1. Before: the problem and what it was costing them, in their words where possible.

1. Why us: what made them choose, including anything they tried first.

1. What changed: how they use the product day to day.

1. Results: only what the material supports. Separate hard numbers from impressions.

1. Pull quote: the strongest direct quote, unedited except for trimming.

Rules: never invent numbers, quotes or details. Where a case study would normally need something the material lacks, put [ASK CUSTOMER: specific question] inline. Respect any request the customer made about how they're described.

After the draft, list the questions together so I can send them in one email, plus anything the customer should approve before we publish.

Fill in

{{use}}: Where the case study will appeare.g. our website and sales deck
{{customer_material}}: Everything you have from the customere.g. Testimonial: 'We finally know what's on the shelf vs. in the back room.'
{{product}}: Your product in one linee.g. Shelfwise, inventory software for independent bookstores

Example input

use: our website and sales deck
product: Shelfwise, inventory software for independent bookstores
customer_material:
Testimonial (review form, March): "Shelfwise saved my sanity during the holidays. We finally know what's on the shelf vs. in the back room. Ordering takes me half the time it used to." (Dana Okafor, owner, Tidewater Books)
Notes from a 20-minute call (June): Tidewater Books, Norfolk VA, 2 locations, 6 staff. Were on spreadsheets plus their POS's basic inventory. Tried another bookstore system for 2 months in 2024: "too many clicks, staff wouldn't use it." Chose Shelfwise because barcode scanning works on staff phones. Uses it for receiving shipments and weekly reorders. Weekly reorder used to take "a whole Monday," now "done by lunch." Holidays: "We didn't run out of a single bestseller," then "well, maybe one." Transfers between the two stores now logged. Wants better used-book support.
Email (August): "Happy for you to use our name. Just don't make it sound like we're a big operation."

2.2k0

Generated Outputs (1)

2 hours ago

Claude

Opus 5.5

2 hours ago

Generated Output

Tidewater Books went from "a whole Monday" of reordering to "done by lunch"

Snapshot

• Tidewater Books, independent bookstore, Norfolk, Virginia

• 2 locations, 6 staff

• Uses Shelfwise for receiving shipments, weekly reorders and transfers between stores

Before
Tidewater ran its inventory on spreadsheets and its point-of-sale system's basic inventory. The weekly reorder took owner Dana Okafor "a whole Monday," and the team couldn't easily tell what was on the shelf and what was in the back room. [ASK CUSTOMER: Can you give one example of a stockout or a mix-up between the two stores before Shelfwise?]

Why Shelfwise
In 2024 they spent two months on another bookstore system but found it had "too many clicks, staff wouldn't use it." They chose Shelfwise because barcode scanning works on staff's own phones. [ASK CUSTOMER: Did anything else weigh in, such as price or setup time?]

What changed
Staff scan shipments in on their phones as they arrive, and transfers between the two stores are logged. Dana runs the weekly reorder from Shelfwise instead of a spreadsheet.

Results

• Hard numbers: none yet. [ASK CUSTOMER: Roughly how many hours did the weekly reorder take before, and how many now?]

• In Dana's words: ordering "takes me half the time it used to"; the reorder is "done by lunch"; far fewer bestsellers ran out over the holidays.

Pull quote
"We finally know what's on the shelf vs. in the back room."
Dana Okafor, owner, Tidewater Books

---

Questions for Dana (one email)

1. Can you give one example of a stockout or store-to-store mix-up from before Shelfwise?

1. Roughly how many hours did the weekly reorder take before, and now?

1. Besides phone scanning, what made you choose Shelfwise?

1. Are you comfortable with us mentioning that you tried another system first, without naming it?

For Dana to approve before publishing

• The headline and pull quote.

• The holiday line. She first said they "didn't run out of a single bestseller," then corrected herself to "maybe one," so I've written "far fewer bestsellers ran out." Don't use the first version.

• The snapshot. She asked not to sound like a big operation; "2 locations, 6 staff" is modest, but confirm she's happy with it.

I left out her request for better used-book support. It belongs with your product team, not in a case study.

Why it works

"Never invent numbers, quotes or details" plus the inline [ASK CUSTOMER] marker is what makes this safe: case studies are where AI most readily fabricates impressive metrics, and a fabricated metric in a sales deck is a real liability. Separating hard numbers from impressions keeps "half the time" from being dressed up as measured data. The batched question list turns gaps into one easy email to the customer, and the approval list builds in the sign-off step that's easy to forget.

When not to use it

If all you have is a one-line testimonial, you'll get more placeholders than case study; do a 20-minute call first. For customers in regulated industries, or any case study naming revenue or savings, get written approval of the final text, not just of the idea. Don't use it to stitch several customers into one composite story.

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