Why You Have to Check with Customers

Have you ever used a customer for a reference and then forgotten about them? You later give their name to a prospect to find out it backfired? Or maybe the customer approved the case study or press release, you waited to post the document, the day you post it you find out the customer hasn’t been happy since they sent you the thumbs up on the document? If this hasn’t happened to you, good! If it hasn’t happened to you because you don’t communicate with your Sales team and customers – bad for you!

One of the main functions of running a reference program is to know who is happy and who’s not. It’s not good enough to talk to a customer, find out that they’re happy and then keep them in the “happy” customer category. No one is ever 100% happy all the time. Things are going to blow-up at some point in time. It might be a small blow-up, but it’ll blow-up.

It is absolutely critical for customer reference professionals to be on top of the game when it comes to customers. Know who your customers are and always check in with them before you use them as a reference where they’ll be called. It doesn’t take much time and can save you a lot of headaches. Know what your customers are thinking of you before you hand them off to others.

“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional

#crlp Treat your customers as people – not just as a customer.

“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional is a weekly blurb to get you thinking. You can find content here on this blog or at Twitter under the hashtag for Customer Reference and Loyalty Professionals #crlp.

“Hi. My name is Maeve and I’m a reference professional” – Welcome to Your Support Group

Customer Reference professionals are a great breed of folks. We thrive on getting the right customer for the right opportunity. We get excited when we get a great customer to speak at a conference or a key prospect. We are the unsung heroes to large deals, great analyst reports, presentations and anything else where a customer is highlighted or needed.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of us out there, but the good news is that we are growing and there are resources for us. The Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network (CRKSN) is a group of customer reference professionals from different parts of the world representing a wide range of verticals. Think of it as your reference professional support group.

Eric Larson is the guy behind CRKSN and he has started a podcast show via Blog Talk Radio. The podcasts are a collection of online interviews for marketing professionals who work on customer references, customer evidence and customer testimonials.

Below is a link to all individual episodes. You can also visit the Blog Talk Radio Website where you can find all these great interviews.

Scott Monty, Head of Social Media, Ford Motor Company
Tune in to listen to Scott Monty talk about his experience using social media as the head of one of our country’s best known brands.

Sean White, Customer Reference Program, Red Hat
Sean White of Red Hat will explain how he has used Twitter to create a 2-way conversation with customers, and even successfully used Twitter to recruit customer references.

CRKSN interview with Forrester’s Laura Ramos
Laura keynoted the 2009 Customer Reference Forum. She talked about social media, and how customer marketing was transforming into community marketing. Listen to this episode for tips on how to take advantage of this trend and grow your customer reference program budget.

2009 Customer Reference Forum Recap
I will interview Bill Lee to ask him for his thoughts on the recently completed 2009 Customer Reference Forum

Rhett Livengood, Intel Corporation and Umang Shah formerly of Xerox and VMware
We will interview Rhett Livengood, Director, Worldwide Sales Development Intel Corporation, Enterprise Solution Sales and Umang Shah, formerly of Xerox and VMware before their Customer Reference Forum presentation on Thursday 2/18/09. Their session is titled “Workshop: Get Your Hands Dirty in Web 2.0: Bringing Your Reference Program Online in an Hour and a Half” Tune in to find out what you can expect during their Web 2.0 workshop.

Pooja Desai, Customer Reference Manager, 3PAR
CRKSN interview with Pooja Desai, Customer Reference Manager, 3PAR AND Steve Norall, CTO, TechValidate. 3PAR will be presenting at the upcoming Customer Reference Forum. Tune in to get a taste of this presentation. It is great content on how to drive metrics and use technology to help automate your program. Important topics in this economy.

Bill Lee, President, Customer Reference Forum
CRKSN interview with Bill Lee, President, Customer Reference Forum. For the next month, we will turn our focus to the Customer Reference Forum. So we’re going to start right at the top and ask Bill to tell us what to expect in Berkeley, CA February 17-19.

Lisa Hoesel, Director of Customer Conversation, References Online
CRKSN interview with Lisa Hoesel, Director of Customer Conversation, References Online. We will talk about how to integrate audio recordings and social media into your customer evidence program.

Paolo Tosolini, New Media Business Manager, Microsoft
CRKSN interview with Paolo Tosolini. Paolo is both ubiquitous and super-passionate when it comes to social media, particularly enterprise podcasting. We will talk about his experiences, predictions for 2009, and advice for those of you running or contemplating social media programs.

Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care for Comcast
CRKSN Interview with Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care for Comcast. He will tell Customer Reference Program Managers how to get started using Twitter and social media. His Twitter name is @comcastcares

Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network interview with Eric Weaver
On today’s broadcast, we will interview Eric Weaver of Brand Dialogue. We are going to talk about the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer. And we are going to talk about how social media and word of mouth relate to customer evidence.

Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network interview with Allison Solin
On today’s broadcast, we will interview Allison Solin, Director of Customer Marketing for Callidus Software. She is going to talk about her experience using Leverage Software to build an online community for Callidus Software customers.

Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network interview with Umang Shah
On today’s broadcast, we will interview Umang Shah, Manager of Digital Marketing for Xerox. He is going to share tips for how to get the most out of the evidence you produce and talk a little bit about social media. Note we will not produce a show on Thanksgiving, but will be back with you on December 4th. Happy Thanksgiving from CRKSN.

Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network interview with John Havens of BlogTalkRadio
This is a weekly audiocast for customer reference professionals and people who are passionate about customer reference marketing. This week we are interviewing John Havens, VP of Business Development for BlogTalkRadio. He is going to tell us how customer reference professionals can utilize the BlogTalkRadio platform.

To find out more about what your peers are doing, join the Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Close the Loop with Customers

Have you ever filled out a survey and wondered what happened to your thoughts and opinions once you hit the send button or dropped the survey into the wooden box? More than likely the company did one of two things. 1) they didn’t even read your survey and it ended in the spam folder or the garbage next to the wrapper from lunch or 2) the survey was read and the company made changes based on your feedback and those of other customers, but the changes are unknown to most customers because the results of the survey weren’t publicized.

If there was one thing I learned at last year’s Net Promoter certification class, it was that finding out what your customers think is very important, but it’s absolutely critical that action is then taken. Closing the loop with customers makes all the difference. By closing the loop, I mean getting in touch with customers after they have filled out a survey and thank them for giving you a 10 or asking them what could have been different during their experience. Sounds simple, but few do it.

A few weeks ago I went crazy and decided to join the world of BlackBerry. It has been years since I had one and those were happy years – the ones without the little red flashing light following me where ever I went. When I checked my email later that night I had a short survey from Verizon asking me how my experience was. I don’t remember how many questions the survey was but I do remember it was very short and at the end I had to score my experience on a scale of 0-10. I submitted the online survey and that was it.

Less than a week after I got my BlackBerry, I had a voicemail from Lee. Lee is the manager at my local Verizon store. His voicemail thanked me for working with Paul, the sales associate, and said that he hoped that I was enjoying my pink BlackBerry Curve. He thanked me for filling out the survey and giving my experience a 10. If I had any questions or concerns, I should feel free to call him and then he left his phone number.

Lee did two things that actually shocked me. He called. Yes, it sounds crazy, but after filling out numerous surveys in my 30+ years of life, it’s a very rare occasion to actually have the company follow up. The second thing that was shocking was that I was a person I wasn’t just a customer or some revenue for his strip mall store. He knew the name of my sales rep – whom I know for a fact I didn’t write in my survey – which phone I had and what I had ranked my experience. He was able to personalize his call to me. Rather than just saying “Thanks for filling out the survey” he made the call about me and my experience. I know that when I give my opinion, Verizon will listen.

When you ask for a customer’s opinion, close the loop. Let them know you listened. We all want our opinions to be heard and to know that we’ve been heard.

Must go, the red light is flashing.

“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional

#crlp When you ask for a customer’s opinion, close the loop. Let them know you listened.

“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional is a weekly blurb to get you thinking. You can find content here on this blog or at Twitter under the hashtag for Customer Reference and Loyalty Professionals #crlp.