B2B buyers now enter the purchasing process already considering at least one vendor. Increasingly, AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft 365 Copilot inform their choices. These tools are becoming one of the first places buyers turn for vendor insights. If a company doesn’t appear in these AI-generated answers, it risks being excluded from buyer shortlists. To improve visibility, companies must strengthen their answer engine optimization strategies by leveraging their customers.

Forrester research shows that the vast majority of purchase influencers enter the B2B buying process with at least one vendor in mind. How do they build their list so quickly? Previous experience with a seller. Word of mouth from colleagues. Insight from experts they trust.

And just as often as those traditional sources of validation: AI-powered answer engines.

B2B buyers turn to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft 365 Copilot to inform their purchasing decisions. These answer engines are one of their first stops. If your company doesn’t show up there, it’s likely to be your last stop. 

How do you address this predicament? How will your answer engine optimization (AEO) strategy change?

Call in the cavalry: your customers.

How Can Customers Help Your Search Strategy? 

AI systems favor original, expert-driven, human-authored material. Who better to share success stories, in language their peers recognize, with credible results, than the successful customers who did the work?

Real customer experiences shared through reviews, testimonials, published case studies, and community activities provide authentic third-party evidence that AI models prioritize. These stories add credibility and reflect the language and concerns of actual buyers, making them invaluable for search discoverability. They don’t just inform, they help guide decisions.

If your customers are showing up, you are, too.

How Can You Activate Customers To Tell Their Stories? 

If your company has spent the time and resources to engage advocates and understand how your customers influence buyers, you’re already ahead. But you don’t need a fully developed customer advocacy initiative to start making customer stories visible and useful to buyers using AI for research. The new report Successful Customers Are Your Edge For AI Answer Engine Results (Forrester license required) contains strategies for both mature and less mature B2B companies. 

Work With What You Have

Your existing testimonials, case studies, and other referenceable material can find new life with a refresh to optimize them for AI answer engines. Answer engines cross-reference stories, mentions, and data, so consistency is crucial across content.

How? Identify powerful content already in play and consider a revision. Assess consistency across the content and the internal teams creating it. 

Seize The Teachable Moment

Does everyone in your organization understand how to optimize success story content? If your teams are accustomed to stuffing case studies full of acronyms, neglecting outcomes, or encouraging customers to use company language instead of their own perspective, start by changing habits.

How? Provide clear guidelines on using genAI and encourage your teams to think about how a buyer will truly search, rather than how you’d like them to search. You’ll be in good company: 76% of B2B decision makers who contribute to content have created new guidelines or reviewed steps to support quality and brand consistency as more people in their companies use genAI tools. 

Let Customers Seek Their Comfort Zone

Customer advocates will shine when they share their stories their way. Some customers will embrace posting on Reddit; others will lean toward the confines of LinkedIn. C-level executives are more comfortable speaking at an event or in a video than less experienced professionals. Generation X has different online habits than Generation Z.

How? Put customers in the driver’s seat based on their preferences and goals, rather than squeezing them into a poor fit: Their own experience should matter as much as the benefit their story brings to your reputation. 

If you’re thinking about how to find and activate customers to share their success with your audience, schedule a conversation to learn more about Forrester’s data and guiding research.