Analysts Join Customer Reference Discussion

One of the changes I've seen over the past five years in the reference program world is seeing more analysts talk about reference programs. I have seen analysts such as Gartner and Forrester share insights, research, attend reference conferences, etc. In fact Gartner is having a webinar on August 3 titled "How to Manage a Successful Customer Reference Program."

Other analysts to follow who talk about reference programs include:

• Richard Fouts
• Laura Ramos (Note - I'm not sure that Laura is working on this anymore as I haven't seen new blogs from her for a few months)

In the past six months we've even seen papers published by the analysts which is a sign of more awareness of the value of customer reference programs. Laura Ramos at Forrester published a paper called "Deepen B2B Tech Customer Engagement With Community Marketing". And Gartner put out a press release titled "Gartner Highlights Three-Step Process for Technology Marketers to Create Comprehensive Customer Reference Program" and more is covered in the paper "Marketing Essentials: How to Manage a Customer Reference Program".

Going forward, I think we'll continue to see more from analysts on customer reference programs as more companies realize the strategic value of a reference program on a their success (and bottom line!).