Benefits of Social Media for Customer Reference Programs

Ever since Jeremiah Owyang wrote his article back in 2007 called "The Impacts of Social Media on Corporate Customer Reference Programs" it's been a hot topic in the customer reference community.

If you haven't embraced it yet, it's time to take another look. The benefits I have found from using social media with my reference program include:
• Increase awareness and generate sales leads
• Provide reference assets on channels where my prospects are and in language they are used to
• Thought Leadership and an opportunity to showcase your reference customers
• Humanize your Brand (Make it about your customers not just your products)

Personally I find social media beneficial BUT it's important to remember that social media is just part of our customer reference program mix and not the be-all end-all of your customer reference program. For example if you are the marketing director for a company you would never spend all your dollars on ONE item like Google ads. Instead you would spread your marketing dollars in different mediums including online advertising, lead generation programs, webinars, print ads, email campaigns, social media campaigns, etc. The same needs to apply to customer reference programs. If you spend 100% of your time doing social media you will miss customers and prospects that are NOT using social media. The other day I heard a statistic that 20% of Americans still aren't Internet users. If you are at a B-to-C company this is really important because you will automatically miss 20% of your audience if you only rely on internet marketing campaigns.

One of my favorite definitions of social media is "A new set of tools that allows humans to do what we love most: tell stories, connect and commiserate with one another." As customer reference managers, that's what we do. We tell stories.

Happy referencing!

A Simple Thank You

A few years I heard a GREAT tip at a Customer Reference Forum that was really impactful. The person said they write hand written notes to thank their references. At that time I was a new to the role and working quite a bit and wondered how I would ever have the time to do hand written thank you notes. However I have become a big believer of doing these. I try to send out some every Christmas thanking 'key' customer references for their help over the past year and wishing them a happy new year! I will also do this throughout the year if a customer goes above and beyond in helping out. It's funny because they has carried over into my personal life. If someone goes way out of their way to help me I send their company a thank you email or call their manager. I might only do this a few times a month which doesn't take much time at all but imagine if we all started doing this what a different world it would be!

By the way if you haven't signed up yet for the next conference you might want to look into this! It's a great way to network, learn best practices, help with challenges you might be facing, help with your program planning and so much more! Bill Lee of the Customer Reference Forum has these on the east coast too but I usually go to the west coast event. I love that they are only two days long so I am not out of the office too long. Learn more http://customerreferenceforum.com/event2011/index.php.

A Paradigm Shift - Asking for References

When I first started out working with references I will be honest that it was a little hard hearing no. When I had been a salesperson years ago I was very good and was able to close almost any deal. But here I was as a reference manager getting no and quite a bit. What I started to realize was that no matter how nice I asked sometimes customers just say no. And honestly there's no way to know why they say no. There are many reasons they say why no including they are too busy, company policies, too shy, they aren't satisfied with the product etc. Whatever you do don't take it personal!

Here's the paradigm shift. There are customers who WANT to do these reference requests. Here is an example. I am working on a press request and I got someone who said thank you for asking because they are non-profit and don't have budget to do PR and this helps them with their company PR.

The bottom line is don't assume every customer will say no. Approach every request as if it's going to be a yes! Years ago I learned in sales that having the right positive attitude can really affect your sales and being a reference manager is very much like being a sales person. IF your customer says no, thank them and move on. There is someone out there who is waiting for you to ask them!

Good referencing!

Detective Work & Customer Referencing

Sorry for neglecting my blog so much but I have been so busy at my new job at ShoreTel! ShoreTel is doing incredibly well and along with that comes a ton of customer reference requests! In fact last Monday before even getting into work I had received seven reference requests! The good news is I work at a company I love, with coworkers who are awesome and customers who are incredibly happy. The challenging part is that I have to manage my time well or it can be very overwhelming and I will work 24 x 7.

One part of my job I enjoy quite a bit is when I get to put on my detective hat. This can be with reference requests, PR requests etc. For example, if we want to do a press release around a certain industry I will need to go out and research who the top customers are in this industry, which ones have the best brand and then find out which ones are willing to be references. Another one of my favorites when I get a specific request for a customer in a certain industry who are running a certain scenario. One of the biggest tips around this is to learn all the various resources that are available to you including people, systems, data etc. One of my first tasks at ShoreTel was finding customers to mention on our earnings call. To do I gathered data from various sources including sales reps, sales managers, closed win reports and e-mails. And by next quarter when I need to get this information again, I will have more ways I have found to help me get this information or maybe someone else I have gotten to know who might be able to help me. It's so much fun being a reference manager, I love it and out of all the hats I wear as a reference manager, my detective hat is one of my favorites!

Happy referencing!!!

The Happiest Customers on Earth!

As many of you know I have been doing references for five plus years and have recently joined ShoreTel. In the five weeks I have been at ShoreTel I have been blown away at the raving ShoreTel fans we have! ShoreTel has a simple but powerful message. We offer brilliantly simple Unified Communication (UC) solutions based on our award-winning IP business phone system. We offer integrated, voice, video, data, and mobile communications on an open, distributed IP architecture that helps significantly reduce the total cost of ownership. Learn more about ShoreTel at http://www.shoretel.com

I love this product myself! I love getting voice mail messages right in my Outlook in box, the presence feature which lets me know who's available real-time, to so much more! The bottom line is that is great to be a customer reference manager at at company that is doing amazing! From strong sales to increased market share, ShoreTel is a great place to work!

The Power of "Stories That Sell"

How powerful are your success stories? Do they just tell a story? Do they
talk about the customer's success? Or are they just something you check off that you've done every quarter?

One of my favorite writers, Casey Hibbard, covers this information extensively in her awesome book "Stories that Sell" and her great blog with the same name.

Casey is always talking about why it's important to include measurable results in your case studies and gives some tips. If you haven't visited
her site take a look. She's even been holding some webinars lately for case study writers great stuff.

One thing I really like about Casey is how she understands what a story needs. Stories need to be compelling AND include some measurable results, for example dollars saved, productivity time increases, avoidance costs, etc. A success story is like a cake. Cake by itself is fine but if you add some icing it take it to a whole new level! A success story without measurable results is fine but if you add them the story turns out so much more powerful. And plus you'll get some great quotes or value statements that your corporate marketing team can use!

Happy Referencing! I am off to eat some cake (with frosting)!

Not all Customers are Created Equal

In my post dated July 27 2010 I talked about the need to know your customers. I am a firm believer that in order to build a relationship with someone you need to know them first. Here are some thoughts from that post and some other things I've been thinking about lately on why it's so important to understand who your customers are:

• You need to know who the main contact is at the company. Will you be working with the IT Admin, Database Administrator, Chief Marketing Officer etc?" It's very different working with an IT Manager versus a Chief Marketing Officer.
• What industries does your customer work in? Although IT managers are similar there are differences between an IT manager at a university and one at a Fortune 100 financial services company.
  
• What types of business challenges do they face? For some it might be something easy as they needed a new phone system or is it complex like a global implementation that will include four very different products.


• What size company do they work at? It's a very different world for an IT manager at a huge enterprise company versus a SMB company.


• Even location plays a factor. Many years ago I managed phone representations for Matrix Marketing and I taught that it was important for the reps to parrot their customers including rate of speech, tone, formality, etc. While I don't recommend going to that extreme, I do recommend that you be aware of differences such as east coast/west coast personalities, fast/slow speakers, etc.

How well do you know your customers? Happy referencing!

What is a Customer Reference Program?

Recently I had someone ask me what a customer reference program was. They were wondering if a company has success stories and video testimonials does that mean they have a customer reference program?

This is how I see it. Someone has a reference program if they have a reference manager dedicated to managing the program and processes for references, success stories and testimonials. Now what you can have is different levels of maturity that your program is at. Point of Reference, a customer reference program vendor, has developed customer reference assets around Customer Reference Program (CRP) Maturity Model. This self-assessment tool helps you understand the current state of your program and chart a course for success. Find out more about this tool here

They have some other great whitepapers and resources too. Check out their "Customer Reference Tools & Knowledge"" website

Happy Referencing!

The Only Way to Eat an Elephant...

One of my favorite sayings is "The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time!" I love this saying and it's very applicable to many things in life including home projects, work projects, personal goals and so much more! As a reference manager at a new company it's a saying I need to remember over the next few weeks and months.

It's easy to get overwhelmed as a reference manager. There are always requests coming in and it can be a challenge to balance everything from requests, success stories, video testimonials, reference tracking, etc. And if you are type A passionate reference junkie like me you already have your own lists of 25+ things you want to work on too!

Here are a few tips to help new reference managers (including myself) remember this important principle in our stressful roles. First, don't panic! It can be overwhelming when you start getting reference requests. You will get emails from sales and just about everyone else in the company who needs a reference and needs it today. Honestly panicking is the worst thing you can do. You need to step back, write all the requests down, take a breath (maybe a few ones), prioritize them and get to work. The first few weeks might be rough as you are suddenly one of the most popular people in the office. Second, know what references resources you currently have. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the existing references and reference assets. Once you know what you have, then set some goals on what you'd like to have in the next 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Keep in mind while it would be nice to have a fairy godmother that could wave her magic wand and make all these assets appear, it's just not going to happen. Third, remember to plan and organize. This has saved my life numerous times. I don't know if it's my age, that I drink too much diet Pepsi or what but I just don't remember things like I used to so I track everything. I have a project tracking book, I have a matrix with about 20 tabs etc. I am not kidding when I say I track everything!

Honestly I feel very blessed at my new job because I think Shoretel has awesome products, fabulous customers and great employees. It's only week one but I think I found my dream job! Happy Referencing!

Expanding your Customer Reference Portfolio by Industry

An interesting phenomenon I noticed when I first became a customer reference manager was the number of education customers who volunteer to be customer references. One of the first things I did at LANDesk when I got there was to review the existing customer references and success stories by many areas including industry, geography, company size, product/solution, etc. I don't remember the exact number but it was somewhere around 20% of the existing references were education. This got me investigating why it was such a high number. Wouldn't you want to have references for industries that have bigger budgets and/or are growing rapidly like financial services, healthcare, etc? Also don't you want to align your customer references and reference assets to the industries you want to sell to?

After five years of being a reference manager I now understand why education customers are typically references. First, IT teams at colleges and universities are usually early adopters and like to participate in beta programs. Second, they usually don't have to get approvals like customers at Fortune 500 customers do. And third, they are some of the nicest customers I have ever worked with!

Bottom line is that it's fine to have educational references but be sure to expand your reference and reference asset portfolio to include other industries as well.

Happy referencing!

How to Avoid Customer Reference Burnout

Whether you are a new reference manager or a long-timer one of the biggest challenges you will face is trying to avoid customer reference burnout. Your customers are your biggest assets and if you annoy your customer references by overusing or abusing them, you not only hurt your reference relationship but it can impact your company's bottom line as well. This is especially challenging when you have a customer reference for a new product/solution and you have to ask them for various reference requests. Here are some tips I've learned over the years:

First of all, track your reference requests! Whether you use cool reference software from companies (BoulderLogic and Point of Reference) or an Excel spreadsheet, you need to track your customer asks so you make sure you are overusing them. This is also helpful so you can follow up on them. I know it takes time to track these but this is a critical activity to avoid customer reference burnout.

Second, if possible try to funnel all reference requests through yourself and the sales rep. I remember at one company when I called a customer to be a reference and the customer said they had also gotten a call from a product manager, someone in PR, and someone in sales. This can be so frustrating to customers. Make sure to communicate internally that you are the reference manager and that reference requests should be funneled through you and the sales rep. Or at least establish ONE contact that works with the customers on reference requests.

Third, build up the number of customer references you have and have a good variety of references by industry, geography, size, product/solution, etc. I heard recently about a multibillion company that has two PR references that the PR team uses. This was astounding to me as they are a multibillion company and I would think they would have a much bigger pool of references to choose from.

These are just a few of my ideas. What do you do to prevent customer reference burnout at your company?

Mapping Reference Assets to Sales Cycles

The sales cycle is the sequence of phases that a typical customer goes through when deciding to buy something. As a reference manager there are many opportunities you have to provide reference tools to help move customers through the sales cycle. Did you know that by mapping your customer reference program materials to your sales cycle can help move prospects through the sales cycle faster which ultimately closes more deals?!!! For the sake of this blog article, awareness is when a company realizes they might need a solution and are starting to do research, prospects are those that actually spend time on your website downloading assets etc and a lead is someone who is qualified by budget, request for a sales rep to contact them, identified timeframe, etc.

Awareness - Video testimonials, customer names/logos, success stories, customer success resources on company website, webinars, blogs and tweets
Prospect - Success stories, analyst reports
Lead - Sales References, Press releases/articles, white papers, RFPs, success stories and site visits

If you haven't done this exercise before, take some time and review your website to see what customer reference assets you have available for your prospects. It's a very eye opening experience I promise you. Have fun!

Reference Program Collateral - Customer Success Examples

One of your most important responsibilities as a customer reference manager is to share your customer successes. A few years ago I came up with a internal collateral piece that has been very successful. It's a customer success examples document. This document contains the following information: Industry, Company Name, Pain, Solutions, and Benefits. This success example document is used primary for your sales teams but also for employees, executives and even partners.

Tips to create a powerful customer success example document:

• First and foremost when possible your benefits should always be in metrics for example, dollars saved, productivity increased by x%, headcount reduced by x%
• Second, makes sure the information in the pain and benefits columns are in short concise bullet items. These should be succinct points not wordy sentences.
• Third, take the time to develop this document. It would be easy to throw something together but if you take your time to gather the information, this document could become the most valuable tool the sales team uses.
• Fourth, depending on how many customer successes you have, this document could be huge! If you need to narrow it down then narrow it down by industry and make sure to include the most powerful metrics and numbers you have!
• Fifth, share this document with everyone! It is helpful for all employees to be able to share customer successes and this document is concise enough that it's easy for employees to memorize a few successes.

Customer Reference Program Research

If you are just starting a program or wanting to start one, one thing you'll probably be interested in is research around customer reference programs. Maybe your manager wants you to justify headcount/budget or maybe you just want to know best practices around this exciting field. Here are some resources that I have found and please leave others if you know some. Thanks!

• Analysts such as Forrester and Gartner have done research around this topic. If you have a relationship with them reach out to your representative there to get you the research. Richard Fouts is the analyst at Gartner and Laura Ramos used to cover this for Forrester.
• Vendors - There are many vendors who are experts in customer reference program management. There's Big Sky Communications, BoulderLogic, Metia, Point of Reference and Bill Lee of the Customer Reference Forum.

Organize Your Reference Program for Improved Sanity

One of the biggest challenges I faced when I became a customer reference manager was being organized. Being a reference manager involves so many responsibilities, stakeholders and requests that at times it can become overwhelming. If you aren't careful you'll spend all your time being reactive dealing with requests rather than being proactive. One way to deal with the chaos that comes with this role is to get organized. Here are some suggestions that have helped me organize customer reference programs.

• Develop processes - You can develop processes for sales reference requests, success story development, video testimonial development, and so much more. It takes a little time to develop processes but once you have them it's very helpful in keeping you focused, follow-up, etc. You can also share these processes with others if needed, such as your success story writer so they know the process as well.
• Establish turnaround times - I found early on that it was very helpful to have established turnaround times. One example of this is a 48 hour turnaround for sales reference requests. While sales reps usually wants references immediately they have been respectful of the 48 hour turnaround time. There are exceptions of course and sometimes I would provide the references even quicker. But having the 48 hour turnaround was helpful so I could manage my time better and have enough adequate time to provide a qualified reference that was the right fit. I also established turnaround times for success stories and videos. I learned it helped me keep them on track. My usual turnaround time for a success story was one month but I did turn some around in a few days!
• Track your customer reference information - Whether you use a reference database, Salesforce or whatever, make sure you have your customer information captured somewhere. For instance if someone asks you for a customer that will talk to a prospect, where and how do you have this information captured? This is especially important as you get specific requests like the prospect wants to talk to a customer in the financial sector who has implemented x, y and z products and has a similar environment. As a reference manager you need to be able to quickly provide this information.
• Track requests and projects - This is a great one! Let's say you get four requests today including a press request, analyst and two sales references. Is there somewhere you would track this so you know the actions you took and the follow-up needed? It is also very helpful to track projects like success stories. There are sometimes 20+ steps you have to go through to get a success story produced from getting approval from customer, writer interview, legal review, management review, putting success story in layout, posting to the web, getting them included in employee and customer newsletters etc. It's very helpful at a glance to know what stories you have in the pipeline and where you are with them. This is really great to keep everyone else on task and follow-up with others when needed.

How to Get Customers to Help with Requests

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!

Sharing Customer Success Through Stories

Another powerful tool in your company's marketing arsenal can be your success stories. Success stories seem to come in three flavors: product-focused, nice fluffy stories and then metrics-filled compelling stories. Your mission, if you choose to accept it is to produce the later kind. To help you out with this mission, I want to share some suggestions.

First, if you have budget get a writer to help you out. There are writers who specialize at success story/case study writing and are very good at this. Some of the great writers I've worked with include Ken Baker and Casey Hibbard. When you get the right writer they know the right questions to ask, how to ask follow-up questions and how to get the important information out of customers!

Second, the most valuable success stories are ROI focused and include plenty of metrics. What was the customer's pain before and include numbers like hours, percentages and dollars? And what benefits have they have seen and make sure again to include numbers like hours, percentages and dollars. The best scenario is if your company has an ROI tool that you can complete with your customer to identify the ROI. When I worked at LANDesk we had an ROI tool and one customer identified one million dollars in savings just from headcount cuts, productivity improvements etc. It was a great experience for me to see the difference that measurable ROI results can show.

Third, try to help promote the customer's company and them as thought leaders. Some ways to promote the company include: if your customer has been recognized with a prestigious award then mention that in the opening paragraph when you introduce your customer and finding out their company objectives or initiatives include those in the success story. Try to make writing a success story a win-win for your customers. Ways to promote your customer as a thought leader include spotlighting their innovatiness, their knowledge, include great quotes etc.

Last but not least, read up on what makes a great success story. Here are some of my favorite success story blogs:
- Stories that Sell
- Compelling Cases
- Savvy B2B Marketing

Customer Reference Program Maturity Models

Customer Reference programs come in all shapes and sizes. But whether you are building a reference program for a small company with 50 employees or an enterprise with 50,000 employees, one reference program concept is consistent. That is the concept that reference programs are at different stages of maturity. Point of Reference provides solutions to help companies build their reference programs and has developed software to help reference managers track references.

The four maturity levels of customer reference programs are:

• Level 1 - Underdeveloped
• Level 2 - Emerging
• Level 3 - Focused
• Level 4 - Advanced

Visit Point of Reference website to download their white paper titled "Customer Reference Program Maturity Model" or to access their other tools. How mature is your reference program?

How Reference Programs Drive Customer-Driven Cultures

One benefit of customer reference programs I've seen over the years is that often when you get the right person managing your reference programs it typically will drive a customer-driven culture. One of the ways this happens is that a company that is willing to invest in a customer reference program is usually one that cares about their customers. One a reference program gets started typically it will either drive more customer programs, influence employees to be more customer friendly or both! Here are some ways I've seen reference programs drive a customer reference culture:

• Communication - For many companies, sadly the only time they actually communicate with a customer is when the sales rep asks for a renewal. I worked at one company when a customer said I was the first person to reach out to him in eight months. When I hear stories like this I am astounded. Have we become such a digital world that we think we need to only communicate with customers over email and find out their feedback only through online surveys? Customer Reference Programs give you the opportunity to talk to a customer and to build a relationship with them!
• Feedback - This is another area where I think most companies fall short. It's estimated that less than 20% of companies do customer surveys and probably half or less of those follow-up on the results! Even more important, I wonder how many of them include the Net Promoter questions which to me are the most important questions to include! When you have a reference program, customers provide positive and negative feedback through their conversations with the reference manager and hopefully it gets forwarded to the right person for follow-up! I love Oracle's customer organization which has the customer reference program and feedback team in the same organization! That's brilliant!
• Customer Satisfaction - One of the goals of a reference program is to find happy customers therefore a reference manager is very driven to want more happy customers. Through their hunting for happy reference customers, they will often come across processes that are broken and opporunities to deepend relationships with customers. Often this will spread across the organization when the reference manager is passionate about creating more happy customers!
• Customer Focus - According to one of my favorite books, Discipline of Market Leaders, companies need to focus on "one value discipline--customer intimacy, product leadership, or operational excellence." When you have a reference manager who drives customer focus for their reference program often this will permeate throughout the organization.

Customer Advisory Boards as a Reference Benefit

One way to incent your more invested and strategic customer references is to invite them to participate in your customer advisory board. This is an activity that benefits not only your customer but is a huge benefit to your company as well! Whether you are a startup or an established company, customer advisory boards are an incredibly powerful activity that requires some investment but the payoffs are astounding. Honestly some of my favorite times in my career were when I participated in the customer advisory boards at LANDesk Software. I could spend weeks talking about this topic (and maybe I will in the future) but here are some highglights.

Customer Benefits

• Opportunity to give feedback on product development
• Exchange ideas, best practices and recommendations with other customers
• Meet company executives and senior management

Company Benefits:

• Work with key customers to ensure products meet needs
• Build relationships with key customers
• Help close sales deals in the pipeline and identify new opportunities
• Learn how your customers are using your products
• Validate ideas for new products and features
• Learn about future technologies your customers are evaluating and how this will impact your product's future

Want to read more about customer advisory boards? Learn more:

• Customer Advisory Boards Industry Association
• Customer Advisory Councils on Wikipedia
• Geehan Group
• Pragmatic Marketing Article