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How to Create True Customer Advocates Socxo socxosocxo How to Create True Customer Advocates socxo index INTRODUCTION 3 WHO ARE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES? 4 THE CUSTOMER ADVOCATE CURATION PROCESS 6 STAGE 1: DELIGHT THE CUSTOMER 7 STATGE 2: FACILITATE THE CUSTOMER 8 IMPORTANT POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION 11 ABOUT SOCXO 13 REFERENCES 14 2 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo introduction Customers today are both demanding and knowledgeable. They no longer fall for the marketing hype, and rather seek genuine reviews and opinions from their peers, before they make a purchase. It doesn’t help that they face a constant barrage from different brands. An Accenture study estimated that when evaluating options for a product or service, 56% of U.S. consumers consider more brands now, than what they did 10 years ago. According to Nyerr Parham, marketing expert, “The challenge for brands today is making the transformation from traditional advertising efforts to holistic strategies for reaching customers through genuine, lasting relationship with advocates.” In such a scenario, the role of customer advocates has become more crucial than ever before. The case for advocacy becomes even stronger considering 92% of customers trust recommendations from people they know, and word of mouth recommendation is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchases. 3 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo WHO ARE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES? On the face of it, customer advocates are happy and satisfied customers, who can vouch for the brand or product, and recommend it to their peers and others in their circle of influence. However, not all satisfied customers are customer advocates. Beyond mere satisfaction, what distinguishes customer advocates from the “rank and file” satisfied customers is an emotional connect with the brand, which transcends other crucial points of delight, such as price, convenience or even habit. Such an emotional connect can stem from previous experience with the brand and its products, the product adding extra value to the customer’s life, the product being a source of some delight, and so on. An emotional connect may develop on its own, if the conditions are in place, but advocacy does not happen by default. Marketers have their task cut out to identify potential advocates from their customer base, and cultivate them to become true advocates. 4 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo Voluntary Advocates A few customers, due to the emotional connect with the brand, are prepared to indulge in advocacy on their own, and many do so anyway without any prompting from the brand. Identifying such potential advocates is not very difficult, as long as the marketer spends quality time on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Marketers can easily empower these advocates to share reviews and content with their social circles. However, not everyone, even when they are satisfied with the brand and have an emotional connect, become voluntary advocates. Mercenaries Many marketers are tempted to offer incentives to existing customers, in the form of rewards, discounts, or even direct payments, for speaking favorably about the product. However, any gains from such endeavors are transitory, and such a model of cultivating advocates is clearly unsustainable. Mercenaries are never true advocates in the first place, with their ‘support’ ending the moment the incentives stop. 5 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo THE CUSTOMER ADVOCATE CURATION PROCESS An Accenture study estimated that 31% of consumers are willing to recommend providers and brands to others. However, there is no real shortcut to identifying these potential advocates. Firstly, marketers have to work diligently at delighting customers, or creating conditions that not just satisfy customers, but also increase the chances of customers developing an emotional connect with the brand. Next, they have to develop systems to facilitate advocacy. “True influence isn’t about reach numbers. It is about impacting behaviors through passion, relevance, and trust. Advocacy is the highest expression of brand love, and therefore, when nurtured, becomes influence” - Ekaterina Walter, Marketing Innovator and author 6 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo STAGE 1: DELIGHT THE CUSTOMER Deliver High Quality Be Responsive Products and Services Customers do not always get ticked off Consumers rarely vouch for the brand when when a product fails or does not perform pushed into it. Rather, they fall in love with the to expectation. What angers customers brand, and recommend it when they receive a is the company ignoring their genuine high quality product, backed by exceptional complaints. A proactive approach in customer service, and a consistently assuaging the customer and fixing what has enjoyable experience. gone wrong cultivates genuine enthusiasm among customers, and goes a long way A study by Social@Ogilvy, CIC, Salesforce in developing the emotional connect that Marketing Cloud, and Visible Technologies, is crucial for advocacy to germinate. An covering about 7 million brand, ranks ongoing, responsive delivery and service product features as the number one driver relationship is the bedrock on which of customer advocacy. When the product positive customer advocacy rests. in question delivers superior features and fulfils customer expectation, customers are most likely speak favorably of it. Understand the customer In today’s hypercompetitive age, marketers A September 2015 study by support.com need to go beyond prompt responses. estimates that about 66% of consumers Marketers need to engage with the customers regard features, design and quality of proactively, to understand what they want, and product or service as the leading factor that fulfil it to the best of their abilities. They need determines brand loyalty. to ask what customers think of the product, 7 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo the extent to which it matches expectations, Engaging with customers, and taking steps and get feedback for improvements. to rectify the pain points not just offers the opportunity to fix glitches and show the Social media makes the task of engaging customers the brand cares, it also allows with customers easy. In fact, marketers can marketers to delight the next batch of even gather information without speaking to customers upfront. Product innovations customers directly. What the customers are based on customers feedback is the best way not saying can also reveal crucial information, to make customers feel honored. such as whether the product is not delighting customers the way it should. STAGE 2: EMPOWER THE CUSTOMER Creating happy customers who are hooked to the brand is just the first step in the path to creating brand advocates. Advocacy begins when the marketer offers happy customers an opportunity to advocate the brand and products. Create a platform and reviews, and conduct interviews, and Offering content to share through Facebook more. They can include customer reviews and Twitter is the basic step, but it requires and other comments in their white papers, much more for advocacy to flourish. For case studies, tweets, and other content. starters, marketers need to empower advocates, and make sure their voice is The marketer also needs to connect heard. Marketers should provide customers customers with executives and managers. the opportunity to air their views, opinions, Live events and teleconferences are two 8 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo popular initiatives in this direction, setting imagination, clear communication is a basic the stage for advocates and the key personnel prerequisite. The marketer needs to be very clear from the company’s side to exchange ideas, when communicating their expectations of the and learn from each other. Higher level program from the advocate, and they need to be customers would prefer providing inputs for equally clear on what the advocates can expect in product and solution development, which return. The emotional connect notwithstanding, managers can gain from. most advocates are in it for the recognition they receive, and the marketer needs to be clear on this Most advocates are in it for the recognition crucial factor, to keep the initiative running. they get, and marketers need to go all out to ensure it happens. Again, while “cash-for-advocacy” is not a sustainable strategy, there is no harm in warming up to advocates with material rewards, such as Aim for Sustained discount coupons, vouchers, and other sops from time-to-time, as tokens of appreciation for Engagement the good work done. The problem comes when Advocacy requires ongoing engagement. A the prospects for material rewards become the one-off Facebook post, a quick tweet, or an overriding motive. email is not engagement. Real engagement takes time, attention, and sustained effort from There is no hard and fast rule regarding the shelf the advocate. The challenges before the marketer life of any advocacy program. Many initiatives is twofold: convince and motivate the customer are endless, lasting indefinitely until it runs out towards such a sustained engagement, and of steam on its own. Many companies prefer to provide platform and opportunities for sustained rotate their advocates every six or twelve months, engagement. depending on the resources on hand, the budget constraints, the overall marketing strategy, product While the possibilities are limited only by positioning, and other internal considerations. 9 HOW TO CREATE TRUE CUSTOMER ADVOCATES socxo Be Authentic brand, it may not always be what the marketer expects them to say. For instance, a mobile The importance of authenticity is highly brand might want their advocates to talk about underestimated. In today’s “smart” world, mobility, devices, and public safety, whereas customers can easily identify authentic the advocate may talk about the features of the messages from propped up marketing posts. smartphone he purchased. Authentic tweets and posts are sure to set the brand apart. Getting a sync is a big challenge, and a crucial point on which the success of the advocacy However, marketers still face the challenge rests.
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