Great customer testimonials and success stories are like gold for marketers. Nothing sells a product, solution, and experience quite like hearing about it from the viewpoint of a peer. But don’t mistake referenceability for actually having a customer with a compelling story. The former simply means they’re happy to tell a prospect about their own positive customer experience. Our job is to uncover those customers who have seen extraordinary results that couldn’t have been accomplished without us.
Along similar lines, Joshua Horwitz at Reference Success encourages us to Look Forward by Looking Back to Your Most Loyal. I like Joshua’s third point:
Find New Faces Don’t be afraid to ask who else might have stories to tell. We always recommend trying to find multiple contacts within each customer reference site, but that request gets easier as the relationship matures. Asking your loyal customer to vouch for how easy it is to be a reference for your company can make all the difference in recruiting others that may have new perspectives and new stories to share.
What’s worked for you in collecting those compelling success stories from your customers?
