Customer evidence is critical to building a successful B2B communications program. Journalists, analysts, influencers, prospects and even other customers want to hear the experiences of those who have gone before them.
But gathering customer evidence can be difficult for the Corporate Communications team as they aren’t front and center with the customer either during the sales cycle or during implementation. With a little work, however, you can build a great customer reference program that helps fuel your media relations, analyst relations and social media programs while also helping your sales and marketing colleagues close deals and build killer marketing content.
In the first three parts of this series, I detailed how you can build partnerships with sales and with customers to develop customer evidence assets as well as how you should database that information. The third key to building a great customer evidence program is constructing a killer database of information on those customers that can be utilized across your organization.
Once you’ve gotten a customer to participate in your customer evidence program, you should recognize them. Customers often have to jump through hoops internally to help get your press release approved, get permission to share information or gather success data. Rewarding them for their effort will make it more likely that future requests are met with enthusiasm.
Rewards can take many forms – personal, professional or commercial.
- Personal rewards recognize the individual involved and are intended for their use. Rewards don’t have to be overly grand but should be tailored to what you know about that customer. A personal gesture goes a long way. Gift cards will do but better if you can identify their interests and give them something that is designed just for them. Some customers may not be able to accept gifts from vendors so it is best to ask before you send something to them.
- Professional rewards are still focused on the individual but are designed to have a positive impact on their work life. This could include recognizing their contribution with a note to their boss, colleagues and others in the customer organization acknowledging their contribution and the positive impact it has had for your company. You may also offer to pay their way to a user conference or industry event. Reviews on a professionally-focused networking site might also be appreciated. Tagging them in your social media posts can help them build their following online. Providing them final materials, whether that is a case study, media clip or video that they can use to showcase their skills is also a great way to show them the impact they have had.
- Commercial rewards are focused on providing the customer’s organization with benefits tied to the product or service you deliver. This might be additional training, customer support, user licenses or free products. These benefits will require more work to gain internal alignment within your organization but are often easiest for the customer to accept.
It’s important to think about and plan your rewards ahead of time. I can take some time to identify the right rewards, get organizational alignment and acquire any necessary items. It’s also far too easy for organizing rewards to fall to the bottom of the “to do” list once you’ve gotten what you need from the customer. You really want that reward to land soon after the successful completion of the effort.
What other rewards would help recognize the efforts of your customers? Comment below.
The wraps up our four-part series on generating great customer evidence for your communications program. Feel free to leave us a comment or message with other great ideas that can help Corp Comm pros supercharge their programs.
Finally, once you’ve gotten a customer to participate in your customer evidence program, you should recognize them. Customers often have to jump through hoops internally to help get your press release approved, get permission to share information or gather success data. Rewarding them for their effort will make it more likely that future requests are met with enthusiasm.
Rewards can take many forms – personal, professional or commercial.
- Personal rewards recognize the individual involved and are intended for their use. Rewards don’t have to be overly grand but should be tailored to what you know about that customer. A personal gesture goes a long way. Gift cards will do but better if you can identify their interests and give them something that is designed just for them. Some customers may not be able to accept gifts from vendors so it is best to ask before you send something to them.
- Professional rewards are still focused on the individual but are designed to have a positive impact on their work life. This could include recognizing their contribution with a note to their boss, colleagues and others in the customer organization acknowledging their contribution and the positive impact it has had for your company. You may also offer to pay their way to a user conference or industry event. Reviews on a professionally-focused networking site might also be appreciated. Tagging them in your social media posts can help them build their following online. Providing them final materials, whether that is a case study, media clip or video that they can use to showcase their skills is also a great way to show them the impact they have had.
- Commercial rewards are focused on providing the customer’s organization with benefits tied to the product or service you deliver. This might be additional training, customer support, user licenses or free products. These benefits will require more work to gain internal alignment within your organization but are often easiest for the customer to accept.
It’s important to think about and plan your rewards ahead of time. I can take some time to identify the right rewards, get organizational alignment and acquire any necessary items. It’s also far too easy for organizing rewards to fall to the bottom of the “to do” list once you’ve gotten what you need from the customer. You really want that reward to land soon after the successful completion of the effort.
What other rewards would help recognize the efforts of your customers? Comment below.
The wraps up our four-part series on generating great customer evidence for your communications program. Feel free to leave us a comment or message with other great ideas that can help Corp Comm pros supercharge their programs.
