Sarah Miller

I haven't done this before, but love the idea. From being an advocate before, a parting gift from a vendor that I'd appreciate would be something smaller branded alongside something larger unbranded. Branded notebook, more expensive pen. Branded apparel, gourmet foodie gift. Branded drinkware, higher value coffee/gift card. Etc. And I'll pile on the vote for a personalized/handwritten note!

Thank you! I figured it would be a trick to get numbers on potential impact, since I already know it can be hard to measure actual impact. If anyone has their own metrics to share, maybe I can average the impact and apply it to my org. In any case, I'll keep looking and share any good stuff I can find.

I worked a lot with freelancers who conducted the interviews and wrote the case studies according to template/style/etc. We were in the ~2k range, as well.

Rachel Ward, which LMS are you putting your community in? I'm still hunting for a community spot inside a tool we're already paying for or as cheap as I can get it. 🙂 And I'd think about theme words like "live, open, interactive, meetup, open house, office hours, drop in," etc. to distinguish it from formal, structured webinars.

I've done emails that were super simple and tied to thanks for whatever advocacy they had done before they officially joined the program. Like a "thanks for doing X. X is just one way you can share your experience and success with Company. I'd like to invite you to be an official member of community/program where you can take part in other opportunities to (your value proposition) and (your reward/recognition pitch). Check out this (link/attachment) and (mechanism for joining)." Then the brochure or landing page is where you lay out the whole program, detail of your value proposition, rewards/recognition, types of advocacy, etc. I'm building a customer marketing function from scratch in my current role, but here's an example from my previous org: https://www.nice.com/clubs/shine

I would see if the CS tool is already using the vetting points you mentioned to come up with a CS rating/color/score that you can say if a customer is X or above, Advocacy will consider them good to approach. Maybe even, Advocacy will send the CSM a notification of intent to approach a customer and if they're X or above, and CS have not declined in 2 days, Advocacy will proceed to approach them.

What are your organization's CMS and/or CS tools, if any? And how do you define referenceable, customer has agreed to be contacted at some point or customer is happy enough to be contacted? I have some thoughts, but it would vary based on what you're working with.

For refreshes, I've gotten some success by using updates from internal sources (CSM or other already-tracked measures) and sending the customer the rewrite with a bit of flattery ("your story has been so well received, that we wanted to add an update. It really stands the test of time, etc.") and an offer of "is there anything else you're proud of that you'd like to add?"

With retention that high and the problem just slow contract signing, I wonder if the comms/asks aren't clear or if there's something about the renewal process itself that feels onerous. I'd look into that. Maybe add it to the agenda of a regularly schedule/recurring call, if a call is even necessary. And follow up with a "lovely talking to you, here's a link to docusign the renewal. We look forward to working with you in [X timeframe] and beyond!"