Table of Contents
Customer Advocacy Starts with the First Click
Product Onboarding Matters
As digital experiences continue to shape our lives (and in some cases completely replace traditional procedures), we become more accustomed to a certain expectation of what the look and feel of “being online” or “operating software” should be like. In fact, 50% of the world is already online, which is astounding to think about, given that the online world only took its modern form around the 1990s. This means that almost half of the earth’s population understands:- What technology is
- What technology does
- Who is the audience?
- What does this audience expect from this product?
- What kind of onboarding experience will you have?
- How will this improve your user’s daily life?
Customer Experience Drives Customer Advocacy
“Customer Experience (CX) is the new brand” we hear from Forbes. Yes, it has been proven that an investment in the customer experience is a good investment – CX is more than just another buzzword that loses its novelty as soon as it is the next quarter. CX is a business strategy that reaches target customers from both a pre-sales and post-sales perspective. A true CX strategy addresses the customer from every single touch within the customer journey and does not leave any room for misinterpretation. If you want to have a customer experience-driven product, it means that you are willing to adapt new measures to go beyond the business needs and put customer needs first. This is one of the most important steps when developing a customer-centric business model. But while most businesses understand the importance of the customer experience, they lack the insights or the ability to deliver the kind of outcomes that the customer expects. According to a Gartner report, “Eighty one percent of customer experience (CX) leaders report they will compete mostly or entirely on CX, but less than half have established the rationale for why CX drives business outcomes.” Customers want fresh approaches that are tailored to their specific needs and will not settle for less. In fact, solely providing what you said you would provide with your product or service is not enough anymore. The customer has already seen what your product can do and most likely also what your competitor can do. This means that they expect you to deliver something beyond their expectations if you want to make a lasting impression. And that’s a tall order! How can you start? There are many ways you can begin investigating where you can improve and how you can improve. Using Gartner as an example again, they developed a CX Pyramid which is a framework they use to measure and evaluate what separates good customer experiences from the bad. This pyramid visually displays 5 different stages within the customer journey based on the following criteria:- How the experiences are triggered
- The amount of effort from the customer
- Completeness of the solution
- Emotion and change in perception
Source: Gartner CX Pyramid As we can see, there are 5 stages: - Stage 1: Communication – Provide customers with useful information that they can use in the right channel at the right time.
- Stage 2: Responsive – Respond and solve the customer’s problem quickly and efficiently
- Stage 3: Commitment – Listen and be available, make the effort to understand and resolve customers’ unique needs.
- Stage 4: Proactive – Think one step ahead: provide experiences that resolve needs before customers ask.
- Stage 5: Evolution – Make customers feel more empowered than they did before working with you.
Customer Advocacy Programs to Increase Engagement
Although we live in a digital world, the offline world is still just as valuable when it comes to customer advocacy. According to Base One, “56% of B2B purchasers look to offline word-of-mouth as a source of information and advice, and this number jumps to 88% when online word-of-mouth sources are included.” What is also interesting is that “70% of people trust consumer reviews online,” according to Hubspot. What does this tell us? Everything you are doing with your business, from product to customer service, matters, a lot. Customers are checking a variety of outlets to get themselves informed before committing to a purchase. Getting customers engaged and organically motivated to talk about your business takes time and maturity, but there are a few ways you can actively promote this behavior. Customer advocacy programs work with clients to build their own social capital by promoting their brand in parallel to your brand. These programs can also lead to other crowd-sourced content, such as customer stories, which, for marketers, is undoubtedly valuable and attractive content. This is when you can mobilize your content and your advocates to generate referrals and create more awareness around both brands. The most important factor about customer advocacy programs is that they help alleviate the fear and the risk associated with signing a contract. This could be the determining factor of whether you acquire new business or not. For example, Tesla found a way to mobilize their loyal customers by offering referral packages that gave the referee and the existing customer 1,000 USD. They even went a step further and offered customers the opportunity to purchase a Founder Series of the brand’s Model X SUV that wasn’t sold to the public to customers who referred 10 people. To add fuel to the motivational fire, the first person to refer 10 people could get the car for free. If you have the budget and a special customer base, it may be worth taking risks such as these to promote advocacy for your business.
Incentivizing Customer Advocacy: Yay or Nay?
At some point, the question on whether it makes sense to incentivize certain desired behavior from your clients will arise. On the one hand, you want to try and keep the advocate pipeline full, and on the other hand, it could come off as unprofessional and negatively impact your relationship. So the question is – should you offer your customers incentives with certain things such as special rewards, discounts, or even payments of some sort? From research and from my own personal experience, the answer would be: proceed with caution. If you decide to give an incentive, you need to present it in a way that does not make them feel tied down to a certain expectation. Preserving integrity is key for these situations and for keeping customers happy in general. Here are a few ways to support your value proposition without crossing the line. Connect customers with each other: Offer teleconferences and encourage participation with one another during the event. Invite customers to join forums where other customers discuss their experiences with your product or services. This way they feel more secure about where they are in their customer journey and that they have a better feel for what they can expect for the future. Send over white papers/case studies: Reach out to your marketing team for relevant case studies to send over to current customers so that they can learn about how your business approaches certain challenges. Perhaps they also want to be mentioned in their own case study? Give them the spotlight: If you are attending any events or have a speaking slot available, consider inviting your customers to join you onstage to talk about their success thus far as a result of your partnership. Or why not even find speaking positions just for them! Admit when you are wrong: Neither you nor your business is perfect. Owning up to your mistakes upfront will save face and show that you are a responsible partner.
