Listening Beyond Words: Finding the Why Behind Customer Behavior
In today's fast-paced digital landscape, businesses are constantly searching for more effective ways to understand their customers and employees. Traditional market research methods like surveys and focus groups can tell us the who, what, when, and where—but they often miss the critical "why" behind consumer behavior and employee engagement. This gap represents a massive missed opportunity for businesses seeking to create truly resonant experiences and communications.
James Warren, CEO and founder of Share More Stories and creator of the SEEQ platform, is pioneering a different approach that combines storytelling methodology with artificial intelligence to uncover deeper insights. SEEQ (Stories to Engage, Explore and Question) takes a fundamentally different approach to understanding human experience by inviting participants to share personal stories rather than simply answering predetermined questions.
As Warren explains, most market research validates what companies already believe they know, rather than truly opening up to authentic customer or employee voices. The SEEQ platform flips this dynamic by creating a safe space for people to express what they're really thinking and feeling through personal narrative. This approach generates remarkably rich data, as participants reflect on sensory details and emotional responses that might never surface in traditional research settings.
What makes this methodology particularly powerful is how it transforms subjective experiences into structured emotional data. The SEEQ platform measures 55 different emotions, needs, values, and attitudes, creating an "emotional map" that helps organizations understand not just what people experienced, but why it mattered to them and how it made them feel. For communications professionals, this represents invaluable intelligence that can inform messaging tone, language choices, and content strategy.
One of the most compelling aspects of Warren's approach is how it addresses what's missing in most corporate communications today: authentic voice. Too often, PR and marketing messages are developed from the company's perspective rather than centering the voice of customers or employees. The result is messaging that feels distant and fails to resonate. By incorporating authentic stories and emotional insights into communications strategy, brands can dramatically shorten the distance between message and audience, creating that elusive "ring of truth" that drives engagement and loyalty.
The methodology has proven particularly valuable in industries like travel and tourism, financial services, energy, and health and wellness—mature sectors where customer experience improvements can drive significant competitive advantage. For example, Virginia Tourism Corporation used these story-based insights to reimagine their approach to reaching Black travelers, an underrepresented segment in their marketing. By deeply understanding these travelers' experiences and then creating a campaign that authentically reflected those stories, they achieved remarkable results, increasing Black tourism to Virginia and winning industry recognition.
What's particularly striking about Warren's work is how it challenges the trend toward shorter, more superficial content marketing. While many brands have responded to decreased attention spans by creating briefer messages, Warren recognized that this approach misses opportunities for deeper connection. By focusing on stories rather than sound bites, organizations can engage audiences in more meaningful ways that build authentic relationships.
The underlying message is simple yet profound: if you want to make a bigger impact in your organization, marketplace, or community, start by truly listening. This commitment to understanding human experience at a deeper level represents not just a better research methodology, but a more human-centered approach to business itself. By bridging the gap between what organizations think they know and what people actually experience, we create the foundation for communications and experiences that truly resonate and drive better business outcomes.
