In every relationship there are moments of pure gold when both participants are delighted with the way things are going. When it comes to business relationships, that’s the time to catch the best recommendation from your customer, so you can use (and re-use) it in your marketing activities. 

When is the ‘golden moment’ for your customer?

– Your salespeople have sold exactly what people have expected to receive (neither undersold, nor oversold).

– The customer start-up experience has proved to be as easy, or easier, than they anticipated (in software terms – the implementation has gone smoothly).

– The product is doing what they expected it to do.

– The customer’s customers (in software terms, their end-users) are happy…

In short, the customer is delighted with your product or services.

This is the time when your content manager can swoop in and sweep up a glorious testimonial that shows the true value of your product/service. Because, at this moment in time – your customer isn’t just happy, they’re advocates of your product.

But capturing that golden moment is only half of the story. What comes before, and what happens next, is the secret to capturing that golden moment (that point when your customer loves you) and making it last forever.

10 tips to help capture that golden moment:

1. Build relationships across the business so that your customer has a strong experience throughout their time with you.
2. Get someone they know and trust to introduce your interviewer.
3. Always be polite, friendly and helpful – it goes a long way.
4. Set expectations up front – let them know what the process will be and what’s expected of them.
5. Smile on the phone when you speak with them, especially during the interview process.
6. Type-up or record the interview as it’s taking place – so you capture their real words, not a summary of them.
7. Write and deliver the case study when you say you will.
8. Always make sure they can add/amend the case study before its live.
9. Make it pretty (clean, clear design; no spelling or grammatical errors; strong callouts and enough white space).
10. Be honest.

And, of course, make sure that your customer is kept happy throughout the process. Because a golden moment may just be one point in time, but it requires a lot of effort to keep the customer happy enough for them to go up the ‘

ladder of loyalty’

from being a customer, to being a supporter, to being an advocate for your product/service.  

Want to know more about customer storytelling?

Come to the

B2B Marketing Summit

at The Brewery, London, on the 18th of June, where I’ll be speaking about this in more detail – together with a customer who explains what’s in it for him.