Here's a scenario. One of your customer's has agreed to be a customer reference. In February you ask him for some quotes. In March you ask him to be in a press release. Then you go back to him in June and ask him to help you do a case study. And then in August you go back to him to ask him to do a video testimonial. Well in the course of seven months you have bothered your customer four times and taken up an incredible amount of his valuable time. There has to be a better way right?
One way to do this is to re-purpose your customer reference materials. Right now I am working with a client who is developing customer video testimonials and is very smart about it. They asked extra questions at the video shoot and then they had the video transcribed. All that it required of the customer is a two hour video shoot and from that we can get a video, quotes, and their story for a potential case study and press release.
Another example of this is if your customer does a webinar for you. Make sure to get their presentation and also transcribe the webinar and voila you have the material to need to write up a case study and quotes for various marketing materials. Of course, you should go back to your customer to ask them if you can use their comments for quotes and a case study.
I think some customers say no to helping with customer references because they are worried about how much time it will take. They already have a full-time job and it isn't their responsibility to help you with yours. Make it easy on them. Try some of these ideas out and come up with some of your own. Let's make life easier on our reference customers. I promise they'll love you for it!
