Every business in the B2C arena knows that personal recommendations can be a highly lucrative means of promoting a brand, service or any range of goods. People listen to the recommendations of colleagues, family and friends. Moreover, any negative comments are certainly appreciated too and can, if not kept in check or rebuffed, sound the death knell for a marketing campaign.
Social networking sites have changed how businesses and their customers alike interact with each other. The traditional model of push marketing is now being rapidly replaced with pull marketing as consumers take the high ground and create their own mass test groups which are willing to offer their opinions on any product or service that is currently available.
Companies like Amazon and Play which have pioneered the use of customer reference programs (CRPs) with their highly successful reviews that appear attached to almost every product these stores sell, are now being joined by legions of consumers who are turning marketing on its head.
The proactive nature of today’s customer has certainly evolved, particularly over the last few years. Consumer generated content has given many businesses in the Web 2.0 sector an advantage over traditional enterprises who have stayed stoic with marketing models that have changed little in decades.
The B2B enterprise can learn from the B2C community, which has had several years to develop customer referencing technology. The B2B sector has special requirements but as this market develops expect to see an increasingly focused supply of tools that can be mounted on the desktop or webtop aimed specifically at the B2B enterprise.
One question that all B2B enterprises should be asking themselves, is how is customer referencing cementing strategic partnerships. Joshua Horwitz, president and founder of Boulder Logic, which supplies its own reference manager, says, There are plenty of examples of companies that use references as part of joint marketing campaigns typically advertising. We have one client where a core part of its CRP involves actively approaching its customers with a formal marketing plan built around being a reference program. This includes a full set of activities and implies a tightened relationship. This has worked well for it, particularly because it has a strong brand itself which its customers like being associated with.
However, Nigel Southern, MD of customer reference specialist Reference Sites, believes that the technology that underpins CRP has to be used within the context of a deeper understanding of the customer itself. In terms of a ‘solution’ I don’t think there is one. The CRM systems already out there manage the important aspects of customer reference programmes, such as an ability to capture contact information. But the challenge is building a customer-centric philosophy in an organisation that recognises the value a customer can have in helping develop a positive corporate profile among key stakeholders, he says.
The B2B organisations with relatively few customers when compared to household brands can make even better use of customer referencing and testimonials. With a high-ticket price of certain goods and services, attaching first hand positive evaluation of your businesses products or services can mean the difference between a highly lucrative long-term contracts and losing market share to your competitors.
The key players in online marketing have been quick to exploit the desire by customers to create content for their fellow consumers. Leaders like Salesforce.com have cemented their system platforms with new additions. In the customer reference sector it has Reference-OnDemand that can (as Salesforce.com describes), Reference request process, increasing utilisation of key references and reducing reference fatigue. What’s more, as with its other services, the system is delivered via an IP connection alleviating the need for additional infrastructure in your business. Other CRP systems to consider include References-Online and Customer Reference that have a small business and enterprise version of its applications available.
Standalone and IP based references systems are beginning to appear on the market as this component of the business support market matures. One example is eDigitalResearch’s eProductRating that launched last year. It allows the cost effective collation of consumer generated content with ‘star’ ratings attached to product evaluation. Fuller says, Web 2.0 has allowed increased collaboration and interaction, and immediate expression of opinion. As a result, e-retailers are missing a trick if they do not take advantage of their customers’ growing enthusiasm in providing their feedback.
Building your own customer referencing systems is certainly possible. Simple surveys on your website can quickly generate feedback that your marketing department can collate as a resource for a sales team. Systems like SurveyMonkey offer a quick and simple means of generating raw data from customers. What is important, however, is to understand what data you are collecting and how this will be used.
CRP platforms should not be used in isolation. What is key to their successful implementation is an understanding of how the data that is collected impacts on every aspect of your business’s marketing activity. Southern succinctly points out, The linkage between sales and marketing when it comes to managing customer information and developing CRPs is vital. The lack of good working practices between these two operations is the number one cause of failure of CRPs.
As with all marketing activity, CRP has had to fight for legitimacy in the boardrooms of many companies that still attach little commercial value to this branch of their marketing activity. The reality of the situation is that most organisations do not understand the long term value of a CRP, if they did they’d all be doing them, says Southern. The pressure to deliver the next quarter’s numbers tends to mitigate against the successful development of a CRP and marketing managers are pressured into using their budgets for either events or advertising. These activities are perceived to be better at generating short-term business. What is needed is a balanced approach that takes into account short, mid and long term marketing activities. It typically takes a year for a CRP to start delivering value.
The CRP technology that is available today offers an insight into the customers that every business needs to survive. In the B2B sector CRP technology can provide a valuable additional layer of marketing insight that if exploited fully can give your business an edge over its competitors. The B2C sector has show how customer referencing can work and there is no reason that these basic principles can’t be applied to the B2B sector as well albeit with some modifications.
Horwitz concludes, I believe customer references are a valuable tool for B2B marketers in pretty much any area, however the adoption of technology needs to be driven by specific needs and objectives and ultimately supported by a process to ensure success. Quite a lot can be done with basic lists and simple tracking, but it’s quite hard to maintain control and demonstrate impact. I’d say the technology is best for organisations that already have an eye to using CRP for competitive advantage and need the tools to take the effort up a level.
The future looks very bright for CRP systems that will find their way into the marketing arsenal of every business, as without them they will be at a distinct commercial disadvantage. What is clear is that CRP sourced data must be taken more seriously across all B2B enterprises. This data has immense value but continues to be largely overlooked with limited resources allocated to develop and exploit the captive audience that CRP platforms can deliver to a business’s marketing teams. Today, CRP has matured into a strategic value resource that few businesses can afford to ignore.
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