One of the most important skills I have learned about reference programs is how to position requests to customers. When I first started being a reference manager I was somewhat hesitant to ask customers to do anything. I felt like I was bothering them and wondered why they would want to do favors for the company.
Over the years I have learned a few things. First of all, when you find the 'right' kind of customer references, customers who are truly advocates, they love helping you out! In fact sometimes these advocates will often ask you if there are ways they can help.
Second, it's really important to position all your requests as 'opportunities' rather than having the mindset you are 'bothering' them. I first heard of this concept when I was at a Customer Reference Forum conference in 2009 and listening to a panel. Elizabeth Stack, who works at SAS, was sharing how she was able to get so many government references. Her tip was that she positions all her requests as opportunities. When I heard that it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I had a paradigm shift. Since then I have always positioned my requests as 'opportunities'. Think about it. Customers want to get recognition for being a thought leader and one way to do this is to share their expertise publicly. This can include success stories, press interviews, webinars, etc. You are actually HELPING your customers by asking them to be references. Give it a try. I think you'll be surprised how well it works.
Third, always respect your customers. Ask them as soon as you hear about any requests. Customers want and need advance notice of requests. I know this isn't always possible but make it a priority to do this as much as you can. Make sure to be as specific as possible giving them all the information they need to make the decision and when you need to know by. I typically will e-mail the requests to the customers and then follow up with a phone call.
Fourth, always try to make things as easy as possible for your customers. One example of this was that I've had a few customers who wanted to fill out the success story questions via e-mail. That's not my preferred way of doing things but if that's how they want it, I will respect their wishes. When I sent them the questions, I filled in everything I could to save them time. I have done things from developed customer's presentations for customer events, developed tips for customers to help put them at ease during video shoots and so much more to save my customers time!
