Customer Reference Programs

My six year old niece started her first swim lessons this week. Monday she was nervous and thought about bailing out of lessons – little did she know that her granny was going to make her go in the water if she liked it or not. After 30 minutes of class with two other little kids and a whole lot of attention by the instructor, she was able to blow bubbles and get ¾ of her face in the water.

Tuesday she was much braver. She swam 42 loops (in the baby pool) with her arm bands on and loved it. She was really getting the hang of it yet still she wouldn’t put her face completely in the water – it was a bit too scary.

Wednesday I told her I’d give her $1 if she put her whole face in and low and behold, I’m $1 poorer today. She also was able to swim with the kickboard and holding on to the instructor. She went as far as the middle of the pool.

Today, Thursday, she was swimming by herself in the big pool. The instructor would stand in the middle of the big pool and she’d kickboard out to him. When she got to him, he’d pick her up and throw her back in the pool and she’d be completely under water. She’d pop back up, swim to the side and then head out back to him where he would throw her again to be completely submerged in water. She loved it!

Think of your references the same way. Sometimes your contact will not have done one before and might need some hand holding or guidance. Take baby steps with them and once they feel comfortable working with you on a press release and/or case study, introduce them to the idea of speaking with the press and then maybe an analyst or a video testimonial. They might even look to their PR or Legal department to get approval and might get shot down. That’s okay, my niece didn’t learn to swim or stick her head completely under water in a day but by the time she’s done with her lessons next week she’ll be a pro!

I haven’t found a ton of resources on the Internet regarding customer references but here are some sites and resources that can be helpful.

Net Promoter – These guys are pretty much the end all and be all of customer loyalty at this point. They are popping up all over the place from small companies to large Fortune 50 companies. They’re basic concept is that you have to have loyal customers and one way to find that is through the Net Promoter Score. I’ve read their book “The Ultimate Question” and found it pretty useful and it’s much cheaper than attending one of their 3 day seminars! With that said, I’d still love to attend one of their conferences which are held internationally in cities like London, Miami and San Francisco. At the end of the conference you can take a test and be Net Promoter certified.

Boulder Logic – This is an online tool for managing your references but if you don’t have the money or the need for the tool, the company sends out a newsletter every now and then about hot reference topics. A recent one was “Talking With Your Executives”. To sign up for the newsletter, visit this page. Boulder Logic also holds Webinars which are useful for the new customer reference professional.

I haven’t used the online tool but have gone through a few demos with them. I think it’s a great resource and beats the Excel document I use, but no company I have been with has been willing to pay for the tool or was ready to use it.

References Online – Like Boulder Logic, these guys offer an online reference tool. It’s been a few years since I’ve spoken to anyone there but I remember the tool was useful and very similar to the Boulder Logic tool.

Phelon Group – These guys focus on customer reference programs rather than the tools for managing the program. They can help you set up a program from scratch or help you refine your program. I have also found these guys very intelligent and understand the wants and needs of reference programs and what the professional has to do. They have a blog but it hasn’t been updated in quite a while. In fact, nothing on their site has been updated this year so this might be an old resource. Either way, there’s still a lot of good information on the site.

I haven’t done anything with them in about a year but they did have a reference professional seminar called the “Customer Reference Forum” that lasted a few days and I thought it was great – mostly because at that time I realized that there were other people out there that doing references too.

Customer Reference Forum and Point-of-reference are also another location for research. These sites are much more like the Phelon Group with information and they also hold events.

I have heard a lot of mixed reviews on if incentives programs work for customers. I personally have never had a point system for my references so my viewpoint may be a bit slanted. But let me explain my positioning.

It’s a lot of extra work. Having been the only reference person at my last three companies, I’d rather spend the time making sure customers were happy than having to add notches to their files every time they speak to someone. At the same time, because I was the only reference person, I had all this information in my head. I’m not saying it’s not important to keep track of how often you use your customer, because it’s very important so that you don’t overuse them and burn them out. I think that it’s just not important to give value to each type of reference because there are many more ways you can add value to your program.

How do you put value on references? Is a sales reference call worth more than a customer speaking to an analyst or speaking to the media? What if the media is BusinessWeek and considered a top tier publication for you? Would you give the same amount of points to a reference who speaks to a mom and pop shop as one who speaks to a Fortune company you’ve been trying to win for years?

Do this and I’ll give you free training or free products. Larger bonuses such as free training or products generally come from Sales. Have you ever told a sales guy you want to give part of his/her paycheck to the customer for free? Unless Sales suggests the free training or products, I’d stay out of this discussion. (But, do work with your sales people to get it in purchase contracts that the customer will do a press release or case study with you – that generally costs the Sales person nothing.)

There are better incentives than points.

What I have found through my years of running customer reference programs is that customers want to be appreciated. It’s not a matter of sending them shwag with your company logo but they want to know that what they’re doing makes a difference. Let them know they are important by giving the good reference customers access to your executives or product roadmaps or inviting them to special events or simply, sending them a thank you card for helping you out (yes, a thank you card, not an email, an old fashion hand written note!). Letting them have access to your company is much more valuable then having them walk around with a t-shirt with your company logo on it - that’s branding not loyalty.

One of the best experiences I had with a customer was when I wrote a press release and after it got published, my contact’s boss saw it, realized what was being done and how much money was being saved and promoted my contact. How can it get better than that? Not only is my contact happy, getting paid more, being recognized and rewarded for his hard work, but I was a step closer to creating a loyal customer – not just a happy one.