Learnings from Decades of Amplifying the Voice of the Customer
Today, customer advocacy is an established discipline; there are industry conferences dedicated solely to the practice like the Summit on Customer Engagement and CustomerX Con, as well as professional associations such as the Institute of Certified Customer Advocacy Professionals and countless company initiatives designed to elevate customer voice like Finastra’s Game Changer program and Talend’s reference customer program.
This recognition of customer advocacy as a business essential is the result of a thoughtful evolution in the concept of “customer references” and a concerted effort to recognize both the myriad of ways customers imbue value back into an organization and the opportunities companies have to provide more value back to their customers.
In the article ‘What I’ve Learned from Seventeen Years Amplifying the Voice of the Customer’, Lisa Hoesel, voice of the customer program manager at Upland Software, provides a firsthand account of customer advocacy’s evolution and reviews the qualities of a best-in-class advocacy program in 2020. Chronicling the growth and improvement in the discipline, Hoesel discusses some of the key shifts in customer advocacy that have helped catapult the practice to a place of prominence in conversations about customer centricity and its mission-critical impact on strategic growth.
For example, she cites the development of advocacy management software beyond simple repositories of customer content for use during the buying cycle to multifaceted, customer-intelligence platforms that facilitate the identification, recruitment and nurturing of customer advocates and the inclusion of customer voice across an entire company’s operation. Also noted in the article is advocacy’s influence in transforming customer engagement from one-off asks to detailed strategies for regularly connecting with customers and tailoring engagement with meaningful milestones throughout their relationship with an organization.
In addition to sharing the many lessons she’s learned from the evolution of customer advocacy, Hoesel calls on leaders from Upland Software’s voice of the customer program to share their insights on the discipline’s growth and role in business today. Capturing the business need driving the demand for more and better customer advocacy, Referential’s very own managing partner and founder, Helen Feber, is quoted:
"Customer advocacy is now a business imperative. Look at how the sales cycle has turned on its head in the last decade.
Today, somebody who has a business issue immediately reaches out to their network of friends, colleagues and peers to ask for recommendations for how to solve it…When a proposed solution surfaces, they talk to their colleagues to get connected to someone that’s currently using that solution and the cycle of customer advocacy starts. In the meantime, the vendor of the solution has no clue that it has a prospective customer until way down the buyer’s journey when a lot of advocate conversations have already happened.
Eventually, the vendor gets approached when someone says, “Here’s an RFP,” but they’re oblivious to the customer advocates in their installed base that have facilitated this engagement. The critical turning-point is when the vendor engages with their advocates in such a way that the advocates willingly self-report the early stage conversations and help the vendor build a strong funnel of leads.
Many solution providers are just experiencing the dawning realization that any of their customers can get tapped at any time through social media and that means they have to keep their customer base happy, engaged as active advocates and able to self-report leads. If this is done right, it’s a self-fueling upward spiral of growth and market game-changer. Customer advocates are mission critical today."
With the uncertainty of current world events, and looming growth in market competition for a limited supply of new business, even stronger customer advocacy programs will be paramount for success. To be ready for what lies ahead, use this current time to take care of nurturing your customers and keeping them informed.
What have you learned that will help prepare your advocacy program and company for the changing market landscape?
