Customer advocacy means putting clients first and adjusting your product or services according to their needs and desires.
If you want to improve customer advocacy and turn every business relationship into a long-lasting one, we will guide you through the necessary steps.
🤝 Customer advocacy represents a company’s constant effort to find, implement the best solutions for their customers’ needs, and support them throughout their journey.
The customer advocacy concept is focused on meeting customer expectations and anticipating new ones. This way, you can create custom-made solutions for their problems and deliver a complete customer experience that is going to differentiate your company from the competition.
Clients don’t just go for features or prices when they choose a product. They want the full package: excellent customer care, occasional discounts, tailor-made offers, and seamless communication.
Customer advocacy can drive company growth, but it’s crucial to understand the definition of advocacy in your context. Staying focused on how you can improve your clients’ experiences with your brand has the following benefits.
When customers embrace the advocating definition through active engagement, it’s not just a one-way street benefiting businesses. There are tangible advantages that customers themselves enjoy as well.
Let’s explore the essential steps for recognizing customers who could become valuable advocates for your brand.
Your company’s efforts to optimize the customer journey will never stop. Here are a few ways to increase customer advocacy, plus examples from companies that are already doing these things very well.
Personalization starts with subject lines and ends… well, never. Marketing is no longer about emphasizing product qualities and leaving out possible downsides. It’s about creating and telling the story that your customers want to hear.
This includes every type of customer communication: welcoming messages, loyalty discount campaigns, drip emails, tutorials, and any type of content you can customize according to the user’s profile.
How do you get an accurate profile of your typical customer? You map a buyer persona, which is a detailed description of your target audience. After you’ve completed this process through extensive research, the next step is targeting your “ideal customers” with customized campaigns based on more personal notes.
Grammarly offers a great personalization model. The company sends weekly emails that are directly linked to the user’s writing style and performance. The reports include frequent errors, the latest milestones the user has reached, and possible weak spots to improve upon.
Image source: support.grammarly.com
How do I connect with my customers on a more personal level?
You trace a map of their customer journey and ask yourself questions like:
Knowing their needs at a specific time will let you predict what they want in the future. TextMagic carefully considered every piece of client feedback and gradually introduced the requested product features. In time, this led to the development of our new product, Touchpoint — a complete customer service platform.
Turn every reference you get from your clients into something meaningful.
Get any type of information related to your product. It doesn’t matter the format.
One-on-one customer conversations provide valuable insights into specific, possibly overlooked needs. Their challenges might resonate with other clients, enhancing their connection to your brand.
Now that we covered the theoretical part, let’s look at a great customer advocacy example that illustrates how appreciation can become your company’s best business card.
Shopify, a well-known e-commerce platform, has cultivated a substantial YouTube following by leveraging a highly successful video marketing strategy. What does advocacy mean in the context of Shopify’s approach? A great understanding of their target audience’s needs.
Shopify excels in creating engaging “How To” videos and tutorials tailored to aspiring entrepreneurs and digital business owners. These resources are thoughtfully crafted with their target audience in mind, featuring checklists and templates that aid in skill development and growth.
They go the extra mile by sharing inspirational success stories from customers who have embarked on their entrepreneurial journeys using the platform. These narratives serve as a source of motivation for those contemplating the launch of their startups, offering real-world examples of individuals who have achieved success through their own businesses.
Image source: Shopify.com
Social listening is a very simple process that involves monitoring all social media channels to find discussions about your brand, what users think of it, what they’d like changed, etc.
It’s not just about your products or brand in particular; useful insights include discussions about your competition and, more broadly, the industry. You are looking for recurring consumer trends or buying behaviors, as well as what triggers them.
Social listening is powerful, effective, and costs practically nothing. You can use it to both identify your company’s strong suits and weak spots. It answers questions like:
🤳 Social media advocacy is all about collecting feedback from every channel you can think of and engaging potential customers in a relationship that is mutually beneficial.
Customer feedback is not always extremely actionable. Some clients offer very generic opinions or deviate into other topics when asked about a certain brand. The key to collecting relevant feedback is asking the right questions.
Be as specific as possible. Ask for timeframes, location, and context. A question like “How do you feel about our product?” won’t do. Instead, focus on specifics:
You can steer customers in the right direction whenever you feel like their answers are too generic, but don’t make them feel like their answers weren’t enough to begin with. Encourage them to share more of their experience using positive phrasing: “This sounds really interesting. Would you like to tell us more about how this product made an impact?”
🤝 Asking for specific details will result in more detailed answers, as well as tell the customer that their opinion matters — a prize in its own right.
Like it or not, customer service matters in your customer’s journey. It is also your most valuable source of information for improving your product.
Customers turn to customer service to signal product malfunctions, complaints, and requests. Use that information to your advantage.
How do you take customer service from mediocre to top-rated? Here are a few pointers on how to improve communication across all channels:
🛠️ Customers often feel more satisfied when they feel someone is working on a solution instead of just handing them a spur-of-the-moment solution, which the customer may see as a temporary fix for a problem that is only going to get worse.
Many businesses recognize that fostering customer advocacy is not something left to chance. Instead, they recognize that nurturing customer advocates is a deliberate effort. Consequently, various customer advocacy strategies, such as customer loyalty programs, have emerged to formalize the bond between brands and their customers.
A thriving customer advocacy program usually comprises the following key elements:
A customer advocate plays a pivotal role in ensuring customers’ voices are heard and their needs are met. This job description example explores the responsibilities and qualifications required for this key position.
Here are five steps to help you measure and assess the effectiveness of your customer advocacy program.
Customer advocacy is your company’s best shot at securing long-lasting business relationships with its best brand ambassadors. It is a long-term investment in your own business and a gift that keeps on giving, provided that you never lose sight of what your customers want.
When it comes to supercharging your customer advocacy efforts, consider the role of customer service platforms like Touchpoint. With its secure and compliant support request handling, it is an invaluable ally in nurturing client relationships.
Iustina is a curious copywriter with an analytical mind and a demonstrated history in the advertising industry. She likes mixing words with data and is passionate about human behavior. When she's not at her work desk, you'll probably find her enjoying refreshing tea flavors, spilling stories on paper, or binge-watching true-crime documentaries.
Find out how you can identify and manage customer expectations from our latest guide.
Customer communication does not have to be complicated. Let's examine six simple ways that will help your support team master it.
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