What customer advocacy covers
Customer advocacy is the broad category. It includes any activity where a customer speaks up for a product: taking a reference call, giving a testimonial, writing a review, appearing in a case study, speaking at an event, joining an advisory group or recommending the product to a peer.
A reference program is one part of it, focused on connecting customers with prospects during a sale. Advocacy as a whole is usually run by customer marketing, with customer success supplying the relationships and sales creating most of the demand.
Why it matters
Buyers give more weight to what a customer says than to what a vendor says about itself. Advocacy is how a company makes those customer voices available in an organized way, without leaving it to chance or to whoever a salesperson happens to know.
It matters to the customer too. Done well, advocacy gives customers recognition, a closer line to the vendor's product team and contact with peers. Done badly, it is a stream of favors asked of the same few people.
An example
Test Retail Group has been a customer for several years. Casey Test there has agreed to take an occasional reference call and to be quoted on the vendor's website, but not to speak at events. An advocacy program records those choices, asks only for what Casey agreed to, and says thank you afterward.
Common mistakes
- Treating advocacy as a supply of content for the vendor, with nothing in it for the customer.
- Asking for everything at once. Willingness differs by activity and should be recorded that way.
- Tying rewards to what a customer says. A thank-you for someone's time is fine. Payment for a positive opinion is not, and rewards should be set up with that line in mind.
- Having no record of consent, so nobody can say what a customer actually agreed to.
If you are not sure how developed your own program is, the reference program assessment is a short way to find the gaps.