As opposed to being company- or products-centric, customer advocacy is a \u201cput customers first\u201d way of doing business.<\/p>\n
It looks for new ways to elevate customer experience and satisfaction, whether that means answering all support tickets within an hour or recommending another plan (even if it brings in less profit).<\/p>\n
As a result of this customer-centric mindset, you’ll create customers who not only keep coming back to purchase from you, but also can’t help but tell their friends about what you have to offer.<\/p>\n
Why customer advocacy is important<\/h2>\n
A recent study reveals only 12% of people<\/a> believe when a company says “we put the customer first.”<\/p>\n To make matters worse, a whopping 42% of companies don’t actually conduct any customer surveys or collect feedback.<\/p>\n What does this mean? Companies claim to put customers first, but many don\u2019t put it into practice. And customers know it.<\/p>\n These days, customers are more informed and empowered than ever before. They readily share their experiences online, and do research before making a purchase (especially for B2Bs).<\/p>\n And with so many brands competing for attention, the power shifts to the customer.<\/p>\n This is what makes customer advocacy so important. By focusing on your customer\u2019s needs, they\u2019re more likely to stay loyal and share your brand with others.<\/p>\n Plus, it ensures all your future initiatives, whether it\u2019s a new product, service, or campaign, are aligned with customer demand.<\/p>\n Neglect your customer base, however, and sales will dwindle.<\/p>\n Source<\/a><\/p>\n Customer advocacy naturally comes with a deeper understanding of your audience. By taking the time to listen and actively improve your customer experience, you\u2019ll discover a wealth of insights.<\/p>\n Communicate with your customers, and you\u2019ll get a much clearer picture of what your market wants and where you need to invest more resources.<\/p>\n In time, you\u2019ll find that engaging with your customers leads to long-term, trusted relationships. You\u2019ll experience higher customer retention rates and increased customer lifetime value.<\/p>\n Even beyond your business, you\u2019ll see a growth in brand awareness, online reputation, and positive customer reviews.<\/p>\n Reviews are one of the best ways to gauge how your business is doing \u2013 both now and in the future.<\/p>\n As you can see, positive reviews and recommendations play a major role in driving customers to your business.<\/p>\n And the difference between getting a positive or negative review? A customer advocacy strategy.<\/p>\n In a perfect world, customers would instantly love your brand and customer advocacy would just happen.<\/p>\n In reality, you need to put a strategy in place to see customer advocacy success. With so many things going on with a business (product development, operations, marketing, etc.), checking on your customers can easily fall to the wayside. Customer advocacy strategies prevent this from happening.<\/p>\n A customer advocacy strategy is a plan of action to focus on customer needs and satisfaction within a company. It looks at every touchpoint, from first customer contact to after-sales support, and uses these insights to help achieve business goals and growth.<\/p>\n Here are a few popular ways to measure customer advocacy:<\/p>\n You\u2019re already communicating in various ways. But by integrating customer feedback into your overall strategy, you get direct insight into what the market thinks about your business. You know exactly what to do to create happy customers, which leads to better relationships and brand reputation.<\/p>\n As with all business strategies, it\u2019s important to have a goal. What does customer advocacy success look like for your business? It could be increasing the number of positive reviews, getting more referrals<\/a>, or receiving higher NPS scores. Whatever you\u2019re hoping to achieve with your customer advocacy strategy, it\u2019s best if you have a way to measure success.<\/p>\n How about a goal for your advocates? You may get a better idea after some initial feedback, but a few examples could be more available access to customer communities, better self-service options, or more referral program channels<\/a>.<\/p>\n Remember:<\/strong> This is a customer advocacy strategy. So it\u2019s important to put your advocates\u2019 goals before your own company\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n Customer advocates are the individuals or team assigned to prioritize your customer needs within the company. They\u2019re in charge of ringing all customer data<\/a> under one customer advocacy strategy, and represent the \u201cvoice of customer.\u201d In other words, they are your customer\u2019s advocate.<\/p>\n Customer advocacy vs. brand advocacy:<\/strong> Customer advocates are often confused with brand advocates. Brand advocates are your biggest fans, and actively use and promote your product to others. Read our in-depth article covering brand advocates<\/a>.<\/p>\n What do customer advocates do? This depends on your industry and company. But generally speaking, customer advocates:<\/p>\n While advocacy should be infused into every part of your company (or else it will seem inauthentic), having an appointed customer advocate will help streamline and standardize your entire customer advocacy strategy.<\/p>\n Successful customer advocates require a wide skill set. They need to have a firm grasp of your company\u2019s strategy and vision, but are also public-facing. The need to empathize with customers, but track all the touch points and create actionable insights.<\/p>\n Whether you decide to hire someone specifically to manage your customer advocacy strategy, or transition an existing team member, here are a few things to look for in a customer advocate:<\/p>\n Think of your last great experience as a customer. Odds are, it didn\u2019t involve anything monetary.<\/p>\n Great customer experiences go beyond the expected transactions. They\u2019re about connection and emotion. Below, we go over four proven ways to build a positive experience for customers:<\/p>\n Individuals instinctively gravitate toward like-minded groups and communities: Online through forums and group platforms, offline within clubs or team activities<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why not build a community around your customers? There are five notable benefits of a community<\/a>:<\/p>\n Customer communities can be more general or topic-focused. They can ride on existing social media platforms (i.e., Facebook groups, Slack channels) or custom-built using online community software<\/a>. Here are a few examples of successful customer communities:<\/p>\n How do you build an online community of your own?<\/strong> If you\u2019re a SaaS or provide a tech-based service, support communities are always a welcome place for customers. They\u2019re also useful for easing the load of customer support tickets.<\/p>\n If you sell a product, find out what makes you unique and excites customers (this is where customer feedback can really help!). Then form a community around that.<\/p>\n Remember, communities are for your customers. Listen to what they have to say and learn more about the voice of your customer. These are where you\u2019ll find the gems that will take your business to the next level.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll find your online community can be a key differentiator in the market. Aside from being a dedicated place only for your customers, it demonstrates your commitment in a very public setting.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let customer communication turn into a one-way street. When someone asks a question, send them an answer. If someone posts about your product, like and comment with a word of thanks.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to take over the conversation. Just be present, get to know your audience, and learn the voice of the customer.<\/p>\n Here are effective responses that foster customer advocacy:<\/p>\n Case study example<\/strong><\/p>\n Lululemon is a great example of an online community running on a social media platform. The brand\u2019s Instagram account<\/a> reposts pictures of customers doing all kinds of activities in Lululemon activewear.<\/p>\n The company mostly posts user-generated content on its social platforms. Their hashtag #thesweatlife has over 1.3 million posts on Instagram.<\/p>\n Showcasing real brand fans rather than airbrushed models has made Lululemon\u2019s strategy hugely successful.<\/p>\n The brand created a strong and powerful community of customers who encourage and support each other.<\/p>\n This is one of the easiest and most fool-proof ways to raise customer satisfaction. And it really doesn\u2019t take much. Let\u2019s look at a few small customer service acts that can go a long way:<\/p>\n These don\u2019t have to be done for every customer interaction. In fact, you\u2019ll want to offer these sparingly and keep the element of surprise. But the idea is to think outside the box when it comes to your customer service.<\/p>\n Customer-centric strategies should be baked into the way you do business. If a customer gets an amazing experience with one employee, but a terse response with the next, which one do you think they\u2019ll remember?<\/p>\n Customer service is something your entire company should know how to do \u2013 at least to a certain degree.<\/p>\n Make sure they\u2019re updated about insights from your customer advocacy strategy. Hold regular talks and training on how to sharpen their customer service skills. And empower them with what they can do (within their department) to provide the best customer experience possible.<\/p>\n The whole idea of customer advocacy is to let customers take the lead. You\u2019ll be surprised by what you\u2019ll discover!<\/p>\n Start by providing an environment where customers can speak freely and share their experience. Here are some ways you can set the stage:<\/p>\n Some of these will work, some won\u2019t. That\u2019s normal. You\u2019re still writing your customer advocacy playbook. The important thing is to keep track of how customers respond, and adapt your customer advocacy strategy accordingly.<\/p>\n Customer advocacy is a long-term strategy. Your customers are always changing, and your strategy should evolve too.<\/p>\n How do you know your customer advocacy efforts are bearing fruit? Aside from listening to what customers say<\/a>, look at their actions.<\/p>\n Check for an increase in referrals, social shares, brand mentions, positive reviews, active brand advocates, and the like. These tie customer advocacy back to your business, and prove its importance as a strategy.<\/p>\n Keeping tabs on all these customer advocacy metrics can quickly become overwhelming. Customer advocacy software can help automate routine tasks:<\/p>\n There are many types of software that can be used in your customer advocacy strategy. Look for one that fits the type of program you want to create, but is flexible enough to adapt to future changes.<\/p>\n See our other article that covers advocacy marketing software<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n With a customer advocacy strategy (advocacy marketing strategy<\/a>) in place, you\u2019ll notice customers are more open, engaged, and best of all, more satisfied with their experience. You may even see a rise in customers actively sharing your brand with others (brand advocates).<\/p>\n Ready to take the next steps? It’s time to start a customer advocacy program.<\/a> These programs recognize customers’ brand advocacy actions by awarding incentives, such as cash back, store credits, or free products.<\/p>\n Here are a few types of customer advocacy programs that can take your efforts to the next level:<\/p>\n If customers are already telling their friends and family about you, show them your appreciation. Referral marketing<\/a> programs turn word of mouth into a formalized, scalable channel. They give customers an easy way to refer others, with unique referral codes<\/a> and pre-filled templates, and an attractive incentive for bringing in new business.<\/p>\n Read everything you need to know about referral programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brand ambassador programs<\/a> can operate as more formalized referral programs, where you handpick your best advocates to promote your brand in the long term. They’ll become your spokespeople, but they’ll sound much more authentic than celebrities or influencers because they already love your products.<\/p>\n Similar to referral programs, customer loyalty programs offer rewards for specific behavior \u2013 which in this case is staying loyal to your brand. While customer advocacy can already increase customer retention, adding an incentive for actions like repeat purchases and leaving reviews gives it an added boost.<\/p>\n![\"experience,](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/experience-loyalty-advocacy.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nKnow what your customers really think<\/h3>\n
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Generate better customer relationships and reviews<\/h3>\n
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Building a customer advocacy strategy<\/h2>\n
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Step 1: Determine a goal for your customer advocacy strategy<\/h2>\n
Step 2: Appoint a customer advocate<\/h2>\n
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How do you find customer advocates?<\/h3>\n
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Step 3: Create a customer experience they won\u2019t forget<\/h2>\n
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![\"customer](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/customer-advocacy-stat.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nBuilding an online customer community<\/h3>\n
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![\"customer-advocacy-zapier-online-community\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/customer-advocacy-zapier-online-community.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nActively engage your customers<\/h3>\n
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![\"customer-advocacy-lululemon-instagram\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/customer-advocacy-lululemon-instagram.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\nLook for ways to delight your customers<\/h3>\n
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Empower your employees to deliver great customer service<\/h3>\n
Step 4: Take an adaptive approach to customer advocacy<\/h2>\n
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![\"customer-advocacy-happy-birthday-email-from-facebook\"](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/customer-advocacy-happy-birthday-email-from-facebook.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nStep 5: Find ways to prove ROI and scale<\/h2>\n
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Boost your customer advocacy strategy with a customer advocacy program<\/h2>\n
Customer referral programs<\/h3>\n
Brand ambassador programs<\/h3>\n
Customer loyalty programs<\/h3>\n