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Welcome to RO|ReferenceView's web resource center. Below you will find short articles for improving your current customer reference program and ways to optimize your customer reference technology to its fullest.
                                                                                                                                                                                               

5 Tips for Writing Customer Reference Program Opt-In Agreements June 15, 2011

Many companies with formal customer reference programs provide customers with formal opt-in agreements. While these agreements (which are a formal way for a customer to agree they will participate in reference activities) are not a requirement for a reference program, the formality of signing one often makes the program feel more legitimate to the customer. That being said, we’d like to provide some tips and best practices to keep in mind when crafting your agreement:

1. It doesn’t need to be fancy – Just because it is a formal opt-in agreement, doesn’t mean it has to be chalk-full of legal jargon. Actually, we have seen that agreements that are overly complex or overly formal tend to alienate customers, decreasing the chances they will actually opt-in to your program. Since this is the first impression they have of what a customer reference relationship with you will be, you want to take a more friendly approach to put them at ease while giving them the confidence they understand what they are undertaking.

2. Let them sit in the driver’s seat – Give your customers the assurance that just because they are signing a formal agreement, they aren’t signing their life away. Assure them that they are still in control by providing a section that lets them choose which reference activities they want to participate in (calls, site visits, video reference, etc.) as well as the frequency in which they want to be contacted (as often as needed, a few times a year, only once a quarter, etc.).

3. Give a timeframe – The opt-in agreement should also include information about how long the agreement lasts. Some agreements are only good for 6 months and require the customer to renew their opt-in, while others are good for as long the customer remains a customer. The duration varies from one company to the next based on reference needs, customer relationship strength, and relevant lifespan of typical reference content, among other factors, but definitely should be included in the contract.

4. What’s in it for them? – What benefit does the customer get from participating as a reference in your program? Do they earn incentive points for participating that can be cashed in for rewards? Do they get additional exposure for their company? Networking opportunities? Whatever the benefit you offer your customer, be sure to make it clear in the agreement. We recommend providing an overview sheet of your program along with the opt-in agreement, and including a paragraph in the agreement reinforcing what the customer gets out of the deal should they opt-in.

5. Make it “easy-peasy” – The ultimate goal of an opt-in agreement for your program is to get customers to agree to participate. Thus you want to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. If you plan to mail the agreement to their office, include a self-addressed envelope that already has correct postage. If you plan to save some trees and use the web, ensure that it is easy for the customer to 1) find the opt-in form, 2) complete the form, and 3) that the process of submitting the form is free from technical difficulties. Perhaps make it an online form that is pre-populated with the majority of their customer information. This will cut down on the required effort, increasing the likelihood they’ll join your program.

Remember that not all customers are created equal, and some may be more skeptical about joining your program than others. Opt-in agreements can be a great asset for your customer reference program, and can help increase participation and grow the size of your program when used correctly. RO|Innovation has experience working with a variety of customer reference program structures, opt-in agreements, and more. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have. Contact one of our experts today!

When it comes to customer references, enterprise sales forces are often met with the following scenario. A salesperson is in the process of closing a sale, when the prospect asks for a reference, and all of a sudden, a mad scramble ensues. Frantic emails get sent around the organization sounding something like this:

• “Does anyone know a customer in telecom who can take a reference call from my prospect?”
• “Who’s a customer reference that is using product version 8.0, and is at least a $100M company?”
• “I think we can get one from ACME Widgets, but you’ll have to talk o their account manager. I think that’s John Smith.”
• “The deal won’t close until customer references are provided. How long will it take?”

How can you avoid these “Hail Mary” emails in the 4th quarter of a deal? Increase the ability for self service in the field with customer reference technology. If you can relate to one or more of the situations below, technology solutions like RO|ReferenceView may be the answer you seek for increasing self service in your company.

1. We manage customer references in an Excel spreadsheet. The hurdle to overcome here is accessibility.

When the document is not shared with the sales team, sales reps do not know what types of references are available because they cannot see the customer reference database. Furthermore, when the sheet is updated, it can be a pain to notify the sales team. Customer reference technology platforms make information easily accessible by the sales team, at any time, ensuring the data they see is the most up-to-date. Reference management technology is also built to handle reference request workflows, making it easy to track usage of customer reference assets and giving sales visibility into the status of the request. RO|ReferenceView also gives managers a medium in which to share new references, ensure visibility, and have an adaptive, flexible solution to support customer reference efforts as a program grows.

2. Live reference calls are burning out our best customer references, and take too much time to schedule.

There is a way to replace the need for live calls, while still leveraging the candid insights of real customer reference interactions – create audio and video references for sales to access on-demand. Video and audio references are a “have it now” solution for the sales team to use with prospects. They also still provide the credibility of sharing customer experiences, candid descriptions and insights that a prospect gets from a live call. Audio and video references are powerful ways to showcase customer satisfaction, help prevent overuse of live references, and enable self-service because the reference or testimonial can be pulled when needed.

3. We need a way to increase sales rep self service, without creating additional workflows.

Customer reference technology platforms often are built to synch or integrate with your current CRM platform, like Salesforce.com. Since sales teams often access the CRM daily, and are already familiar with it as a sales tool, integrating your customer reference database with your CRM is an easy way to help them help themselves. Directly from the RO|ReferenceView tab in the CRM, sales reps can see what references are available in the database, submit a request for fulfillment, and track the status of the request with greater visibility. Additionally, short reference request forms provide the reference manager with required information upfront, eliminating back-and-forth to match the right customer reference for the selling situation while speeding up the fulfillment process.

Remember, just because you are increasing the availability of self service for your sales force, doesn’t mean you are giving up control. Technology systems give you the ability to measure the use of references and manage to and preserve customer relationships. Contact the RO|Innovation team to see if our customer reference technology, RO|ReferenceView, is right for you.

Companies in the medical sector are passing out thousands of iPad tablet computers to salespeople to spruce up their pitch to doctors and increase levels of engagement. It is estimated that time-pressed physicians typically give salespeople only 30 seconds per interaction.  The pharmaceutical industry is finding that presenting on iPads give salespeople a quicker, lighter and more attractive way of displaying drug-related product information, surgical implant techniques, video animations, images and more. The quick start up time means sales reps can jump into their presentations before doctors lose interest.

While some companies are still in the testing phase, giants like Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc and Boston Scientific Corp are among the major drug and medical-device firms that have made the move to mobile. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports:

• 65% of the Fortune 100 companies are either deploying or testing the use of iPads
• Medtronic Inc recently bought 4,500 iPads for its sales and marketing teams, and could buy as many as 1,500 more
• Heart-device maker Boston Scientific recently bought 2,000 for its sales team’s usage
• Orthopedics company Zimmer Holdings Inc is rolling out more than 1,000 iPads
• Drug and medical device maker, Abbott Labs, ran a pilot earlier this year and rolled out 1,000 iPads in the last few months

While it makes sense that mobile is the wave of the future for the medical industry (many physicians already use iPads to show patients clinical results at their hospital bedside) we still wonder if these medical companies are putting the cart before the horse. Many of them reportedly don’t even have applications to run on these “miracle” iPads yet! Plus, with notoriously bad network availability in most medical offices and hospitals, having purpose-built apps is a must for presenting on site without technical issues.

Medical device maker, Philips, realized this. Even with a comprehensive reference management program built on the latest platform, their reps needed a better way to showcase customer reference videos and other marketing collateral to prospects in environments that lacked internet connectivity. They approached RO|Innovation to make it happen. After a collaborative development effort with RO|Innovation, Philips now uses a purpose-built app that makes their reference assets readily available and puts sales tools at their reps’ fingertips, regardless of the availablility of network connectivity. They report the benefits of this app to be outstanding – helping reinforce trust and reach new levels of engagement with prospects during opportunities of greatest influence – in person.

With the success Philips has had with the new mobile app, we expect to see others in the medical and pharmaceutical markets follow suit.

See a free demo of the RO|ReferenceView mobile app – the first and only of its kind on the market – and read more about Philips’ mobile app story here . Talk with our team of experts about getting your own customer reference or sales enablement mobile app today!

Top Tips for Getting a Reference Program Started May 19, 2011

Define Your Reference Program. The first thing you need to do is define your reference program. Knowing what your program goal is, the role it plays in your marketing/sales program and the metrics it is aimed to achieve are critical. Having this foundation is important in order to define the value a formal program will bring to the organization. It also helps in getting management buy-in and stakeholder support for the use of your program if you can clearly articulate the benefits gained by a formal program. Ask yourself: What is its purpose in your company? How will you control the reference request workflow, manage reference relationships and measure the ROI for the program?

Get Management Buy-In. After you define your program, this is your #1 priority! Without executive support, you won’t get very far. You will need support to get the program going, to build momentum, get necessary funds, and ultimately get the program used. It is ideal to have this buy-in from the very top and have it trickle down, but you also will need it at the lower levels as well to drive the benefits of a formalized program. Because they will be the primary users, getting the buy-in from the sales reps and their managers is key to your success.

Persuade With the Expected Value. Present the business case for the value a formal program will bring and the value of having a reference database in place. Will having a formal customer reference program increase sales revenue? Will it make someone’s job easier? Will it free up time to focus on more important things? Will it be easier to track activity because everything is under one roof and make ROI calculations easier? Business always comes down to the question of time and money. If you can show that having a program will create more of one or both of those, you’ll have an easier time securing buy-in and high utilization.

Find Sales Champions. You need to have champions willing to work with you and support you from within sales. Secure the support of a handful of key reps, perhaps those with the highest demand for customer references, that will really stand behind getting a customer reference program going. They will not only help give you the impetus you need, they will most likely be the biggest users of your program and can help you build your library of references (especially from the larger accounts) at the beginning.

Decide to Build It or Buy It. In theory, customer references databases can be managed by things as easy and simple to use as spreadsheets or CRM databases with additional query fields. IT departments can also build a homegrown solution to help you manage references. Then again, you could pour your own foundation for a new home too. Of course, you can also buy and implement a third party software platform. Evaluating the way you are currently providing references and deliverables to the sales organization in this step will help you decide what the best solution is. Perhaps ask yourself the following: do you have the correct resources and bandwidth to build and manage an internal platform yourself? What is your reference request fulfillment process, and how could it be managed and streamlined with a technology solution? Could you benefit from a centralized process and single, searchable repository of references accessible by multiple functional teams without burning out your best customers? Can you realistically build and maintain one? Would the program be used more if it integrated with current sales platforms, like your existing CRM?

RO|Innovation has worked with organizations with reference programs in all shapes and sizes. We’d love to chat with you about your program’s goals and how we might be able to help you achieve them.
                                                                                                                                                                                  

Getting Validation When You're a One Man Shop April 27, 2011

• Lack of efficient way to record reference activity and effectively report on it
• No clear way for sales reps to know what references are available to match reference requests with prospect needs
• Lack of executive buy-in and support for the program
• Uncertainty about what metrics should be measured and how often

While customer reference technology platforms like RO|ReferenceView often help solve the challenges above and help customer reference managers “do more with less,” what really got me thinking during my conversation with her was not just the fact that she was seeking answers to these challenges, but the ways she was going about doing so. Here are a few ideas for customer reference managers who are an “army of one” in their organization for ways to collaborate, learn and evolve when you’re a one man shop. Hopefully these thoughts can illuminate how to get the validation and answers you seek to run an optimal reference marketing program.

Attend discipline-specific networking events – Networking events, either online or in-person, are a great way to connect one-on-one with other colleagues in the industry facing similar challenges as you. Talking things through and bouncing ideas off other customer reference professionals not only gives you the objective third party feedback you want but can also validate that you are on the right path or suggest areas for opportunity/change.

Talk with your technology partner – Think of your technology provider as more than a vendor but rather as a partner that can help you navigate the landscape. Chances are your customer reference technology provider works with a depth and variety of customers, which means they have experience working with an assortment of customer reference program models and challenges. Having a conversation with your vendor-partner about a specific issue you are looking to overcome might give you ideas or even specifics on how you can address it. What’s more, ask your provider about what THEY are doing. The insight they provide may be just what the doctor ordered.

Use social media forums – As the space continues to grow, we are seeing more and more social media networking groups and forums develop. Groups such as the Customer Reference Knowledge Sharing Network (CRKSN) on LinkedIn are great places to go to ask your questions, get answers or recommendations, hear what others are doing, network with other like-minded professionals and get validation for your current tactics.

While you may feel the stress and frustration of being an “army of one” right now in your customer reference program management, take comfort in the fact that it most likely won’t always be that way. As your program becomes more successful and organizational usage increases, chances are your customer reference program and staff will grow. Start a conversation with us today about the ways ReferenceView has helped solo customer reference managers like you improve their program performance and efficiency in ways that increase ROI and bolster executive support.
                                                                                                                                                                                  

Increasing Promoters with Your Content April 15, 2011

• Companies with ingrained NPS programs are almost equally fanatical about providing valuable, relevant content to their customers.
• While always branded, collateral is not always promotional in nature.
• Brands seeking a high Net Promoter Score have found that the more value they provide to their customers through collateral, the more likely those customers are to recommend the company to a friend or colleague.
• No matter the industry, companies that make the most visible investment in customer content also rank the highest among their competitors in relation to Net Promoter Score.
• Companies with high-quality content tend to lead the competition in market share.
• Companies that invest in developing and producing content valuable to customers tend to incorporate their content in integrated cross-channel programs.

The article can be boiled down to this message: the more value you can provide through sharing content with customers, the more likely they are to become your promoter. So create great, highly-relevant content to your customers and watch the number of promoters (as well as your market share) increase.

Don’t forget to take your promoters, especially those new-found promoters and leverage them in your customer reference program…their testimony can be new valuable content to help you even more! Ask us how to best leverage Net Promoter Scores, customer advocates and customer reference technology platforms today!

                                                                                                                                                                                  

What do you do when references temporarily stop singing your praises? If your business depends on positive, credible feedback from third party customer references to “close the deal”, when a long-standing positive customer reference goes dark – or worse, becomes a toxic voice in the ear of a prospect – it can be devastating. Here are a few ideas to help you keep your customer reference program strong and thriving, despite the day-to-day realities of business.

Record testimonials and references on audio or video.
Use this “evergreen” strategy to combat the possibility of references going dark. When prospects can actually SEE and HEAR from a prospect on audio and video versus a written case study, there is often more weight placed upon that recommendation. Plus, when their testimony/interview is captured in a digital format , it can be used time and time again despite the current issues that are keeping them from live participation with prospects. The key in these recordings is to conduct the interview in as neutral a format as possible to ensure maximum impartiality and authenticity, as well as to encourage variety of usage situations.

Increase the number of references in your program.
When you’re constantly infusing the number of new customer advocates in your program, the variety and number of references you can draw upon to replace the “rogue” reference increases. This not only makes your program stronger and more robust, but also eases the stress it can cause when issues with references arise that prohibit use.

Keep your thumb on the pulse of the overall health of your references.
Monitor the health of references with specialized, purpose-built customer reference software that can enable references to be de-activated should an issue arise. Of course, that software can also make it easy to re-activate a reference when the situation corrects itself. You’ll also want to make sure that customer reference software integrates with your customer intelligence programs and customer satisfaction metrics such as Net Promoter . This will help you find not only the “problem” customers and act proactively, but also find customer advocates not yet participating in your program.

These tips are just some ways companies can react and respond to reference’s ever-changing status, but we’d love to hear yours too! Start a conversation with us today about your customer reference marketing strategy or to discuss your best practices for keeping references fresh, relevant and timely.

These days, proving the investment in a customer reference program and/or your reference management technology platform to the C-Suite often comes down to showing measurable, quantitative, trackable results. At the beginning of your program, these metrics start with having the right processes in place and gathering a base of customer reference assets to draw on. But as your program evolves, it is essential to measure other areas to ensure proof-points and build a use case to increase your available budget and maintain executive buy-in. So what are the five metrics your organization should be measuring to prove your customer reference program’s ROI?

Accessibility & Company Awareness – this is a basic measure of your reference management technology usage by others in your organization. Take a baseline of the following measurements and re-visit the data at the end of your recording period. Areas you should be measuring include:

• The number of sales reps that access your reference management technology
• Growth in the rate of reference platform adoption rate
• Frequency of system awareness communications (ex: simple reminders on functionality with screen shots)

Ease of Use – chances are if you aren’t making it easy for your sales & marketing teams to use your reference management technology platform, they aren’t using it, which means you aren’t seeing the return on your investment. You can get a reading of this by surveying or interviewing your top users to get their opinions and figure out ways to make it even easier for them to use and get value out of. Areas to measure include:

• Steps and time it took to find the correct reference asset
• Number of questions the team has about platform features

Relevancy – a customer reference technology platform does you no good if it is not being used for managing reference requests from your internal team. For this metric, some things you should be measuring:

• The number of requests being fulfilled within your platform
• The number of unfulfilled requests due to assets not being found by your team
• The need for reference materials (case studies, testimonials, etc.) to be current and on-point with product messaging and market positioning.

Impact on the Business – this area perhaps has the most quantitative metrics to bring to management, because you can clearly see it from running reports out of your technology platform.

• Number of deals that closed using references during the sales cycle
• Utilization of reference materials in the sales cycle
• Number of on-site reference visits
• Number of closed upsells/cross-sells using references
• Total number of new customers joining the program
• Total number of new customer references by type (industry, geography, solution, etc.)
• Amount of time sales reps saved by using the system
• Relevant alignment of references with the right stage of the sales cycle (assets used earlier in the sales cycle, near the close of the sales cycle, and for special circumstances like an RFP)
• Impact on customer relationships
• Usage of references by type (product segment, industry, etc.)
• Usage of each unmanaged reference asset

Program Goals – besides these basic metrics, you should also be measuring any internally set goals that further prove value and importance of your reference management technology platform. Examples include:

• 20% increase in reference nominations in 6 months
• 25% increase in audio reference assets
• 30% decrease in time it takes to process requests

The data gathered from these metrics can be used to evaluate productivity and efficiency, project future plans, set tangible goals for your team, as well as provide information conveying platform significance. Value is always determined by comparing the end result to the initial baseline measurement, so it is important to be taking note of certain data points within your system on a regular basis (if you haven’t already) to get accurate readings and meaningful analysis.

When it comes to proving the ROI of your customer reference management technology platform to executive management, identifying and capturing the right data, then constantly reporting on and promoting your program’s progress is the key. A disciplined approach to reporting your program’s performance, coupled with presenting the information in meaningful, easy to digest indicators for the executive team means that you not only will strengthen your customer reference program year over year, but also increase your budgets with amplified executive support.

Take a tour of our customer reference technology platform , and see how easy it is to monitor these metrics and show the value of your customer reference program today.

The bottom line is, your customer advocates are out there, it's just a matter of finding them and inviting them to participate in your customer reference program. Install the LinkedIn widget today, and increase customer reference nominations using social media as an easy tool to see results.

Continue the conversation with us and find out other ways you can increase reference nominations in your customer reference program. Schedule a tour of our customer reference management technology, RO|ReferenceView and see the specific features that foster reference nominations.

There is no question that over the past decade the customer reference management space has matured steadily and gained momentum in many organizations across the U.S. I recently teamed up with my colleague, Joy Milkowski, to discuss and predict what we think are going to be the biggest customer reference trends for SMBs heading into 2011. The following is just a quick summary of some of the high points, but you can read our in-depth analysis by downloading the full report.

Purpose-Built External Technology Solutions
Besides the obvious high cost of building their own systems from scratch, the key reason we predict many mid-sized companies will decide to implement external customer reference management platforms is the ability to leverage the expertise and experience third party specialists can offer. Established technology solution providers have already incorporated best practices into the design and function of their solution, and often offer their professional services for ongoing support and optimization as a part of the SLA – giving the biggest bang for their buck.

Increased Sales Adoption
Customer reference managers are great at getting customer content produced, managing requests and reference nominations and tracking customer reference usage.  A common problem is once the customer reference content is produced, sales doesn’t always use it, causing a gap in effectiveness. Reference management technology platforms are becoming the solution of choice for overcoming this sales adoption challenge. Platforms are streamlining reference request fulfillment workflow, creating a centralized place to store and find references , and incorporate references more completely in ready-made templates for “grab-and-go” functionality.

Integration with Social Media Strategies
More and more B2B buyers are actively participating in social media for their research and are using social media platforms as a preferred way to connect with vendors. With the adoption of these platforms becoming an integral part of many customer’s daily routines, businesses are finding these online communities as great ways to showcase references, reach out to customers in and informative  and authentic way, and create conversations on a more personal level. As such, we expect to see the inclusion of these online social forums in customer reference management strategies to increase significantly. There are reference management technology platforms that offer features that allow sales and marketing personnel to invite customers and prospects to view content and relevant conversations via popular social media platforms.

Integration with Mobile
Another trend in customer reference management taking the business world by storm is the adoption of mobile technology in everyday business practices. With regard to enterprise customer reference programs, a major challenge today is the difficulty of equipping sales professionals with authentic customer testimonials to use with prospects – especially when they are constantly on-the-go. RO|Innovation currently has the only mobile app in the market for the iPad and iPhone 4. The app keeps the latest reference testimonials and marketing assets at the fingertips of sales forces to help persuade prospects to close deals, spark meaningful conversations, and increase efficiency and effectiveness when they have the best chance of influencing prospects – in person!

Greater Visibility into Health of Customer Reference Programs
Even with signs that the economy is starting to improve, many executives still have a very close eye on the ROI of marketing, sales and customer reference activities and initiatives. That is why it is becoming more important than ever to have visibility into the overall health and wellness of your organization’s customer reference program. It is important to establish and track metrics related to the overall health of the program, even if they are only able to be studied a couple times a year to PROVE your program’s ROI. Having the right reference management technology to gain visibility and insight into your program makes it easier to study metrics with greater frequency and adapt/react to data as it is available in real time to stay effective.

Customer Intelligence Tools
Another trend we have been seeing is organizations using their customer reference technologies for double duty – for management and as customer intelligence tools . They are using their customer reference platforms as a central repository to host all sorts of information about customers, creating a one-stop-shop for storing and mining data about current customers that gives their platform more power and a higher ROI. Not to mention, managers stay more efficient, because they only have ONE platform to manage all this information on.

The demand and accessibility of customer references – particularly in enterprise B2B selling situations – is growing and being incorporated as a vital part of the sales process. As the customer reference space continues to mature, it will be imperative for organizations to have a well-defined approach for integrating their sales, marketing, customer experience and customer reference departments and leveraging their cooperation through customer reference management platforms.

Continue the conversation with us and find out how our customer reference technology features can help your organization thrive in 2011 and beyond.