“Things to Think About” for the Reference Professional

#crlp Smile when you talk to customers – even if it’s over the phone.

“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.

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.

Know thy prospect?

The idea of my dad finding me a date scares me to death. My dad is 70 and from the old country…Ireland. What he would view as a compatible spouse for me is completely different than what I would. Either way, bless his heart, he’s thinking of his daughter’s future. He recently told me that he had a guy in mind.

I started asking my dad some basic questions about Mr. X and although I wasn’t totally turned off, I wasn’t super excited. Apparently this guy is really nice, drives a nice car, likes to garden and cook and goes to Church. My dad met him at a gardening club that they both belong to and the guy is going to join a Church group my dad also belongs to. Not so sure I want to be dating anyone that’s spending that much time with my dad (cough cough). When I asked about his age my dad said, “He’s younger than me”. “Me” as in my dad. Um, I’m 35 and not really into guys double my age! My mom piped in and said she thinks he’s either in his 40’s or 50’s. Getting better.

We discuss this a bit more and I asked how they know he’s single. Well, you would have thought that the Pope was standing beside Mother Teresa and my parents had to decide which one they wanted to have dinner with. They looked confused, thought for a minute and then said they had no idea if he was single or not. They didn’t even know if he is married.

Besides telling you too much about me, there actually is a point to this little story. You have to know who your customers are. They could be a Fortune 10 company with a gazillion dollars in revenue, using every single product you have and meet all the requirements of your “perfect” customer but are they happy with your products? Do you feel comfortable putting them in front of prospects? Is there something you don’t know that you should?

Just as my dad left out a key component to playing match maker, it’s critical that you know your customers and your prospects. A customer might be a good fit for a particular opportunity, but not for all prospects.

When asked by Sales to find a customer to be a reference, I always ask a few key questions…

1- does the vertical matter?

2- are there specific products that the prospect is looking at?

3- are there specific functionalities that the prospect is interested in?

4- is there a certain deployment type the prospect is looking at?

5- what’s the deadline?

What to take from this? Know what your prospect is looking for because you always want to find the most appropriate customer for each opportunity. There’s no one great customer for all opportunities.

Did you vote today?

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!