Monday, February 23, 2009

Using Your Customer Evidence to Create Word of Mouth Stir

Last week in the "newbie" breakout session of the Customer Reference Forum in Berkeley, I raised a point about how reference programs focus on customers and usually the sales organization as the liaison to customers. But, I reasoned, we need to use the customer information we have and close the loop internally. Are you sharing your info with PR? HR? Product Management? Others in Marketing?
Imagine this scenario...
You come into work and everybody - and I mean everybody - is talking about how Customer A is using your product. Your boss comes in and offers to buy you a cup of joe. Your co-workers invite you to lunch. You've never seen the energy so high! You are so awesome and finally your boss is talking about that promotion...
Okay, so maybe this is fantasy, but wouldn't it be cool if you could get employees talking about customers and the great things they're doing with your company's products?
I saw an example of this in the Gaspedal blog http://gaspedal.com/blog/. Maybe some of you are members of the Word of Mouth Association, WOMMA.
We are only scratching the tip of the iceberg with the way we're managing references today. I urge you to think less about references and more about customer evidence, customer conversation, and as Laura Ramos of Forrester Research said in her conference keynote last week, customer community.
Till the next post,
Barbara

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