Case studies and customer reference program

New business wins and case studies

Case studies are an effective representation of business solutions because they explain the product or service in a real life situation. Recognition works with clients to qualify reference sites that are willing to be profiled and manage the case study process.

We interview the appropriate spokespeople, both customers and staff, and produce this as a new win release initially and a case study six to 12 months after the customer first began work with our client.

Appropriate photography will be arranged and the story pitched to a relevant publication. With case studies, this is usually on an exclusive basis (or at least ‘first run’ basis).

Additionally, we will write the case study as a piece of marketing collateral for use with both internal and external stakeholders.

Recognition has extensive experience in managing customer reference programs for clients.

Using a dedicated database which is available in real time using our secure website the database tracks customers who are willing to be references and the extent to which they are willing to be referenced – ie willingness to:

• speak to media
• speak to analysts
• provide a reference directly to prospects
• host site visits
• participate in marketing case studies
• participate and be profiled in advertisements
• participate in market research.

Do you want to:

• give your team online access to complete, detailed
• customer reference data?
• see approved customer reference activities at a glance?
• download written customer case studies and images?
• view customer information by almost unlimited categories?

Introducing a satisfied customer to a prospect is one of the most successful sales strategies known.

However, anyone who has run a customer reference program knows the customer’s permission is often conditional and management of the program is time consuming.

It’s a mine-field for marketers and getting it wrong can cost customers and prospects.

That’s why Recognition PR offers a hosted, online customer reference program. It will make your sales team more productive and help you manage critical customer references more effectively.

Using this system you can:

• identify gaps in your reference program according to geography, industry, product, partner or any other variable you specify.
• see which account managers or partners have contributed the most reference accounts (great if you’re running incentive programs)
• allocate different levels of access to different users (so a telemarketer never accidentally rings the CIO of your biggest customer!)
• be automatically reminded to refresh customer information
• set triggers to communicate with reference customers
• store additional documents users can download or view such as contracts, case studies, biographies or pictures.

Extending your customer reference program

Keeping an accurate record of your customers is only the beginning of a great reference program. To make it even more powerful Recognition can:

• build sales and marketing programs that leverage reference customers
• build loyalty programs which reward customers for reference participation
• work directly with customers to keep their information up to date
• liaise with account managers to update customer history
• interview and manage customer approvals for use in marketing programs.

Customer reference checklist

Use this checklist to see if you have the right information about your valuable reference customers.

Do you have:

• customer and account manager contact details
• channel partner name and contact details
• product or service implemented
• sale and go live date
• site story in summary (why did they buy, what did they buy)
• reference method agreed to: direct mail, websites, public presentations, telemarketing, advertisements, site visits, speaking events, road shows
• approval for logo use (any exceptions or limitations?)
• date of induction into reference program date of most recent customer communication
• copies of approved materials for external use.