In the latest edition of our Referential “Employee Highlight” series, the first of which you can read here, we are once again providing our global team of consultants with an opportunity to shed light on themselves and their experiences working in Customer Marketing with some of the most visionary companies around the world.

These are organized into a Q&A format, and each will focus on a specific theme, or one of Referential’s nine pillars of service. In this edition, our focus is on recruitment and best practices to build trust. Our discussion is with Advocacy Consultants Kristian Gallego and Robert Lisama.

Please introduce yourselves:

Rob Lisama:
I’m an Advocacy Consultant with Referential, and in this line of work, it's all things customer-centric! My responsibilities vary from client to client, but generally include customer onboarding and recruitment, reference fulfillment, asset expediting, tiering a program, CAB oversight and more. The fact that we get to wear multiple hats and play to our strengths is probably my favorite part of this work, and in particular we’ve built a strong process that is very successful in recruitment.

Kristian Gallego:
I’ve been an Advocacy Consultant at Referential for several years, and as Rob alluded to, a big portion of the role is recruitment. When we contract with an organization, we assess where its advocacy program is on the maturity scale. We offer expertise at all levels of customer engagement, whether a client is starting from scratch, or has a mature program, and everything in-between.

What are some common challenges businesses face related to recruiting and onboarding customers for advocacy programs?

Kristian Gallego:
Databases and bad data, for one. Two, clients often have trouble identifying happy customers, which can be seen as a red flag, but we approach this as an opportunity to source feedback and improve relationships. It’s ideal to use recruitment as a way to create greater dialog leading to more happy customers, which grows the program: Make an advocate out of a badvocate!

Rob Lisama:
It starts with identifying, internally, whom to contact to find nominations. Is it the Account Executive (AE), Regional Sales Manager (RSM), Customer Success Manager (CSM)? Are they responding back to us? In many cases, we have to introduce or reintroduce the program, sometimes rebrand it, and educate them about what it means for customers to be part of it. We are consistently advocating for our advocacy program internally, which can sometimes be an uphill battle!

Kristian Gallego:
Rob and I have been most successful with building relationships with client’s customers and developing trust between them and our client. The greatest success happens when we’re given creative freedom in our outreach and engagement; the customers truly value us acting as internal advocates for them and reciprocate with external acts of advocacy.

How do you go about building both trust between you the client, as well as between the customer and the client?

Kristian Gallego:
Accountability, 100%. We do what we say we're going to do, and we do it in a timely manner. We keep everything very clear and transparent for them in terms of our communication with the customers. Once our clients observe that we're just as invested as they are, if not more, I think that's when trust in us builds up. We completely understand that our success is directly tied to their success and we go the extra mile for their customers.

Rob Lisama:
Process education is essential, we always communicate every step of the way. We also measure each step and provide regular results. We can communicate the heck out of a thing, but if we’re not providing any kind of results… no trust gets built.

Kristian Gallego:
By acting as an internal advocate for the customers joining a client’s program – often connecting them with internal resources and seeking feedback to share with specific roles – the trust between the customer and the client is naturally built over time.

Does “one size fit all” with regard to recruitment?

Kristian Gallego:
Everybody's different and every company operates a little differently. Once we get to grips with it, it's easier to efficiently do what we need to do. As active advocates start to buy more because of their deepening engagement with our client, the nomination flow from AEs/RSMs/CSMs for potential new advocates can change from being slow to a deluge!

What role does technology play in enhancing customer recruitment efforts?

Rob Lisama:
Reference Management Systems (RMS) or Customer Advocacy Platforms (CAPs), are all way more efficient than just using spreadsheets. Upland RO Innovation, Base.ai, SlapFive, ReferenceEdge, Orca, Deeto – if the tool helps to sort and search a database, as well as report metrics, it has my vote!

Kristian Gallego:
Tools have the potential to speed up progress. Referential is platform agnostic; we have expertise in them all. Technology is great so as long as you know how to use it. I personally like anything that gives us notes so we can see history and any type of interaction that’s taken place.

Rob Lisama:
Exactly. The best part about technology is that it can help keep us be organized and on the same page: Tracking whom we’ve reached out to, when our next follow-up is due, running monthly reports, and keeping a quick pulse on the program’s health.

How do you measure personal success?

Kristian Gallego:
Success isn't just about recruiting and building those numbers, that's a byproduct of having a good, healthy, transparent client-customer relationship. If we’re doing things right, those results will naturally come. When clients must either move on from us because of budget cuts or priorities shifting, I want them to be sad, to know they're missing out on the value that we brought.

Rob Lisama:
We've had clients that have had to end a contract with us and then, a couple months later, come back because the program wasn’t working smoothly without us! Building, fostering and growing client-customer relationship relationships, trust and engagement is what it’s all about.

What advice would you give to companies looking to Referential to improve their recruitment strategies?

Rob Lisama:
#1: Trust that we offer expertise, trust and know that between our staff we've got hundreds of years of experience related to recruitment, and all aspects of customer marketing and advocacy.

Kristian Gallego:
While one of us may be the face to the client every day, there is a whole teams of experts behind the scenes sharing latest innovations and best practices to help hone processes for optimal results. Our success is directly tied to our clients’ success.