“Why Forrester is Bullish on References” – an interview by the Customer Reference Forum

Bill Lee manages the “Reference Point” newsletter which is a monthly newsletter discussing customer reference ideas/topics/issues. The September issue recently came out and I was intrigued by the title of one of Bill’s articles “Why Forrester is Bullish on References”.

I’ve been in the business of customer references for quite some time now and this is the first time I’ve seen analysts talking about customer references. I’ve given countless customers to analysts for Magic Quadrants and Market Scope reports and research reports but I’ve never seen them talk ABOUT rather than TO references. I know the importance of references – especially when giving them to analysts – but am happy to see that what I’ve been taking from my programs is exactly what Forrester sees as being important too.

Below are some highlights I have taken from the interview that Bill did with Merv Adrian, Sr. Vice President, and Laura Ramos, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research. To read the full interview, check out to the September issue of the Reference Point newsletter. I have taken the liberty of highlighting comments that I have made before that are being reinforced by Forrester.

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Q. Forrester is getting ready to publish articles and conduct research in the area of Customer Reference Programs – which will be presented at the 2009 Customer Reference Forum. What prompted your interest in this field?

A. Our clients: Marketing, Sales, and AR professionals – are all deeply interested in customer reference programs. Customer testimonials are deeply connected to how B2B firms market their products since the most popular source of information to inform and validate product or service purchases is peers and colleagues. B2B marketers must focus more on their installed base – leveraging customers they have is much more cost-effective than attempting to build on new names alone. Our research shows that many vendors are not leveraging higher value programs that can create loyalty retention and advocacy the way that effective CR programs can.

Q. A lot of Reference Managers think that the rise of Web 2.0 — social media, online communities, customers controlling conversations about companies – will completely change the nature of Reference Programs. I know this is one of the things we’ll be researching, but what are your early thoughts on that?

A. We don’t believe it will “completely change the nature” of the programs – but it will expand the ways customers can meaningfully participate. Not enough customers are engaged in these efforts – many hate participation in programs that chew up their time. Social media gives vendors other avenues to make participation easier- like creating a blog post on the vendor’s behalf, but expressing the customer’s unique perspective done at his/her convenience. Or customers could participate in a podcast conducted over the phone from their office, contribute to a wiki or other threaded discussions, participate in online surveys – all these take less time and effort than conventional reference tactics. Web 2.0 technologies enable these and other avenues – and they can be tracked, measured and managed much more precisely with the emerging technologies.

Q. Forrester is, of course, one of the leading technology analyst firms in the world. What are the three most important things a Reference Manager should know about working with analysts?

A. Customer references are used a lot in analyst programs, of course. And the same guidance applies in other uses:
1.) Ensure freshness – an old, untested reference may not be a good one. CR Managers should always know the state of a customer before using them.
2.) Manage appropriateness, defined as fit to need. Most analysts are looking for references for a specific reason – just like sales prospects or press are. Get the fit right – know why it’s needed.
3.) Follow up. How good was the reference? And how did the analyst, or press, or prospect talking to them find the interaction? Was it useful? Measure results, not activity. And as long as you’re following up, give the reference a stroke – check in with them, ask them the same questions, uncover any current or outstanding issues, and thank them.

Thank you Forrester for bringing customer reference programs to the forefront.  Hopefully more companies will realize the importance of loyal customers and having a program to support them rather than having someone spend a minimal amount of time on references – time that is, if they have nothing better to do.  Reference professionals need more support so again, thank you Forrester!

“Inside Web 2.0″ – a newbie’s perspective

Last night I attended “Inside Web 2.0 – Learn how to succeed in the Web 2.0 economy” hosted by the Commonwealth Club. There were four panelists consisting of Michel Veys, COO, Jajah, Josh Elman, Program Platform Manager, Facebook, Seth Sternberg, CEO and Co-founder, Meebo and Christa Quarles, Managing Director, Thomas Weisel Partners and was moderated by Amy Shuen author of “Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide”

The program was pitched as “Web 2.0 makes headlines, but how does it make money? Businesses both large and small are thinking exponentially and powering up with new and creative online opportunities.”

Oh, Web 2.0!

I was asked by ZDNet blogger, Jennifer Leggio, to do a guest blog on the evening and here’s what I wrote “Inside Web 2.0” – a newbie’s perspective.

Marketing the blog

With the help of my friend Jennifer who is a great with social media, I have been able to make some updates to my blog. Most of them are back-end updates, but one of the fun things is that you can now register for an RSS feed. It should also be a bit easier to find my blog when you’re surfing the Internet.

Feel free to leave comments, suggestions or just a hi.

If you want to check out what Jennifer has to say about social media, visit her blog at ZDNet.

Social networking is more popular than porn?!

You think that just because you’ve been running a successful customer reference program for years that you’ve got it all down and don’t need to make any changes? Think again. Today in “Telegraph” (Britain’s No.1 quality newspaper website) there was an interesting article called “Social networking websites more popular than porn”.

Here are some key bullets from the report:

- Bill Tancer, a self-confessed ‘data geek’ who analyzed the search habits of more than 10 million web users, said that internet searches provide an up-to-date view of how society is changing.

- “As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased…My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites,” he said.

- Mr. Tancer also noted that in some instances, the speed of dissemination on the web had led to the spread of disinformation.

Hmmmm…but why do I care you ask? Because if your customers aren’t talking TO you, they’re probably talking ABOUT you.  Don’t fret, you can find out what they’re saying. Start spending more time online reading blogs, getting hooked up on Twitter and checking out the likes of Facebook and see what people are saying.

Not sure where to start? Go to Google and set up an alert here https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount Not only do you get your company’s news, but it’ll also pull in some blogs that mention your company.

It’s too dangerous to ignore the impact that Social Media has. Worse case scenario, you spend a little too much time finding out what your customers are saying. Best case scenario, the customer you were going to hook up with a Fortune 100 prospect blasts your products via their blog and you read the blog before you hook them up. Wouldn’t it feel great to be a hero! So go out there, search and read. Educate yourself!

Don’t waste your customers’ time

I received an incredibly annoying call this week from someone trying to “confirm” information about me. It was for a publication that I had subscribed to online – this then implies that I filled out a questionnaire and who I am and what I do. After confirming my company name, my name and email, she confirmed my phone number. Um, didn’t you just call me on this number and didn’t I answer. Okay, that might be a bit picky because she could have called me on my cell when I want my work number listed. I’ll give her that one.

She then jumped into the job role questions. What’s your title? I told her senior manager in Marketing. What’s group do you belong to? Sales, Marketing, Finance? Um…I thought I just told you that. Then she asked what level I was C-level, executive, director. Um…I thought I just told you that. After asking me the same two questions about three different ways I finally jumped in and said “I’ve already told you I’m a senior manager in Marketing.” Then she goes on to the decision making questions. Do I have buyer approval, signature authority, do I suggest new technologies and the list goes on and on and on. I told her half way through that when it comes to true IT decision making revolving around her publication and who they target, I don’t have any. Her response…”please pick a category that closests represents your authority.” I told her again that based on her magazine’s target audience I have no authority when it comes to products. She still didn’t like that answer. There’s nothing to hide…I’m not an IT person and don’t play one on TV. Finally, I lied and said I had to go into a meeting.

When you are getting customers queued up to speak to prospects inform them of as much information as possible. Let the customer know that the prospect is interested in buying new staplers (if that’s your product) for all the schools in the city (if that’s the prospects goal/application). The more the customer knows of what’s going on, the better off they’ll be because they can prepare accordingly. And, it will in turn make the call for the prospect better because there won’t be wasted time on silly questions that could have been answered before.

Likewise, if you’re having a call with a customer to write a press release, case study or other Marketing material, know as much about the customer as you can before you hop on the call. Know if they have international locations, know if they’ve used a competitors product, know which products they’re using. Don’t waste their time on questions like “Where are you located? What does your company do?” If you or someone else at the company has previously spoken with the customer, get a download so that you can use your time with the customer to build on what’s already known rather than recreating information. Due your research ahead of time. The more informed you are, the better the call will go.

A great way to start calls (even if a meeting has already been scheduled and accepted) is to ask if now is still a good time to talk.  In essence, you’re asking for their permission to still speak with you.  Who knows what could have just happened before you called!

We’re all really busy. Just as you don’t want your time wasted, don’t do it to others.

Social media and customer references

Today’s Marketing VOX newsletter has a very interesting article on the use of Social Media and how it relates to purchasers. Here’s a link to the article but in summary, the article states that social networking is dissolving the effectiveness of email Marketing.

According to JupiterResearch, “more than one-fifth (22 percent) of email users said they use social networking sites instead of email, with higher numbers indicating they have used instant messaging (IM), text messaging, and cell phones instead of email.”

But I run the customer reference program why would / should I care about Social Media? It comes down to word of mouth. Consumers aren’t spending as much time “listening” to email blasts from companies as they are on social networking sites and listening to their peers. This means that as a reference professional, you need to be aware of what your customers are saying about you / your company on these sites. Word of mouth is incredibly powerful (good and bad) so make sure you know who’s saying what about you!