What Is Customer Advocacy And Why Is It So Important?

A customer’s importance for a business is unparalleled. If you’re fortunate enough, some customers will even be super-fans of your products or services.

Companies nowadays depend on marketing strategies to promote their brand like vehicles depend on fuel to run. Business owners go out of their way to fund a unique marketing campaign. All this is great, but as someone rightly said, “self-praise is no praise.”

Customers look to fellow customers for a credible word of mouth. While it is still the most powerful method of recommendation, it might not assure success. Debates on what might be the most powerful marketing campaign is ongoing.

But we can end this confusion once and for all: with customer advocacy!

This article is all about customer advocacy and why companies need to adopt this conventional marketing technique.

What is Customer Advocacy?

The term itself should be enough to interest companies that are customer-centric. Customer or brand advocacy allows companies to organically acquire new customers as a result of their positive attitude towards the brand.

Whereas customer advocacy marketing refers to a technique where customers are persuaded to be the spokesperson for your brand. When customers love your brand and your products enough, they will spread positive word-of-mouth without any push from your end.

It is a smart way to leverage those passionate customers and amplify your brand presence and sales. In the race to be different from your competitors, customer advocacy can really take you a long way.

How to Identify your Customer Advocates?

It’s a no-brainer — customer advocates belong to the ‘highly-satisfied’ lot of your target group who would take that extra step of mentioning and supporting your brand without any incentive.. They act as pillars for your brand’s reputation across various mediums of communication.

How are Customer Advocates Different from Brand-Ambassadors?

Customer advocates are more than just brand ambassadors and unlike influencers, they are your everyday customers who are much more relatable.

Additionally, brand ambassadors are people praising your brand because you paid them to do so. Customer advocates, on the other hand, operate on a voluntary basis. Yet, when it comes to credibility, customer advocates can hold more sway than brand ambassadors.

What is the need for it?

With the advent of the Internet and smartphones, customers have started exploring more in order to make an informed purchase decision. For instance, going through MakeMyTrip for holidays and hotel bookings, BookMyShow for movies, and Amazon customer reviews before placing even an online order worth peanuts.

Basically, customers have evolved from playing a passive role in their buying decisions to becoming highly active and informed when making choices. Therefore, consumers prefer word of mouth from their fellow consumers rather than a one-way marketing approach followed by brands.

This significant change in consumer behaviour can also be seen in the tourism industry, where about 74% of travellers plan their holidays using the Internet, says a report by Amazon.

While customers actively look for unbiased information, other customers are able to share this information on various social media platforms. These platforms have created a situation where a single buyer can connect to millions of other end-users for their recommendations.

There is growing frustration relating digital ads, spam advertisement, calls, telemarketing and other types of targeted advertising and communication. It is believed that the top reason why people would block a website is because of the annoying pop-up ads. Therefore, marketers are looking for alternative and non-intrusive ways to reach out to their target customers.

Consequently, the decline of online advertisement has led to the rise of the demand for word-of-mouth. There are a number of other factors that contribute to the effectiveness of customer advocacy that we must understand.

Should we Always Incentivise Customer Advocacy?

The question is tricky but difficult to avoid. All businesses moving towards customer success or brand advocacy will come across this dilemma at some point.

It’s a dilemma because, on one hand, you’d want more and more people to advocate for your brand and support it publicly. On the other hand, it might seem unprofessional and can be detrimental to your image.

Hence, the option of special rewards and discounts for some customers still remains.

Therefore, businesses should always proceed with caution. When offering freebies or discounts, be careful that your customers don’t feel tied down to certain expectations. Below are a few ways to incentivise your brand value, without overdoing it:

1. Let your customers meet fellow customers

Organise teleconferences or webinars using efficient tools like cloud telephony solutions and let your customers interact with each other. This will foster security and trust and will bring in delightful customer experiences.

2. Send over reading material

Reach out to your customers via electronic mediums by sending across relevant blogs, white papers or case studies. This way they can relate better to the customer challenges and how you, as a business, assisted them. You can even create personalised case studies for important customers.

3. Let them take the spotlight

Invite customers as speakers for your events, conferences or seminars. Give them a higher pedestal and make them feel important. This will strengthen your customer relationship and hence, will lead to a stronger customer base.

4. Take responsibility

In situations of conflicts, admit when you’re wrong. Neither your business nor your customers are perfect. Taking responsibility and owning up to your mistakes makes you a strong integral brand.

Why is it so Important?

On a macro level, people advocate when they feel associated with something that’s bigger than them. For example, people supporting a specific football team with their faces painted, or a political party or an environmental cause. They do it out of belongingness to an exclusive group, ideology or community. Customer advocacy, therefore, is the bedrock of your business.

Let us look at some statistics to support this statement.

• 83% of customer advocates are more likely to share brand information than regular customers
• 50% more likely to influence someone else’s purchase decision
• 90% of consumers agree that word-of-mouth influences their buying decisions

Taking you back to our initial question about the importance of customer advocacy, here are some points:

1. Drives more revenue

Businesses spend a considerable amount on creating unique marketing campaigns to lure audiences and acquire more customers. This cost can affect the overall budget of any organisation. While it cannot be overlooked, the lifetime value of a customer is also an important factor.

According to Bain and Co. a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profitability by 75%.

Customer advocacy, however, makes up for this cost by bringing in revenue in more ways than one. They persuade people more effectively as compared to non-advocates to make a purchase. Efficient customer service leads to an increased base of customer advocates. This in turn, makes up for your extended sales team and drives your revenue.

1. Fosters trust

People trust people’s opinions more than they trust brands. In fact, most of their purchases are in some way or the other affected by a friend, relative or an online influencer.

Social media has made all types of information accessible to all types of users. According to a report, 29% of people use social media to look for product reviews and information. In an era of transparency, trust is crucial for a customer-centric brand to thrive. With customers being your advocates, you don’t have to worry about maintaining trustworthy relationships.

2. Customer loyalty

Advocates express their love for a brand by being loyal to them. Customer advocates ensure that brands become their best version, inciting them to become industry leaders.

Brand advocates are usually emotionally connected to the brand and often brag about the benefits and value it has added to their life. They do so via different mediums, social media being the most prominent one.

The immense loyalty and devotion towards a brand is another reason why organisations should focus more on customer advocacy.

3. Creates a strong community

Contemporary users are very active in the way they consume products and services and are constantly looking to establish a social connection with others. This need for establishing a social bond is the driving force to join such inline communities. These are exclusive platforms where people come together and share their experiences.

Since these communities are not bound by geographical restrictions or social barriers, they are being looked upon as a new marketing approach. People in this community are free to express their views, hold debates and be a part of various social interactions and events.

How can you Increase Customer Advocacy for your Brand?

The word customer advocacy itself answers this question by 50%. Customers and everything relevant to them can help you boost your customer advocacy.

Here are a few points that can cultivate a culture of turning your customers into valuable advocates.

1. Focus on customer service
2. Train your staff on customer service skills
3. Highlight your customers and their success stories
4. Make your customer journey as smooth as possible including replacements and return processes
5. Keep an eye on quality management through strong call-center metrics like average resolution time, response time etc.

You should be on a mission to serve your customers, always, even if it means a lesser profit in some transactions. Customer advocacy flourishes when you have the intent to help clients at all times.

Wrapping up:

There is no excuse to neglect customer advocacy anymore. Just by being a little more empathetic and considerate towards your regular customers, you can develop champions for your business.

Maintaining customer relationships always require reciprocation. You should know the challenges they face and the reasons that prevent them from being a true advocate to your brand. Once you get your customers talking about the benefits offered by your products, you automatically magnify your reach.

Buyers would hear real-time stories, which would make them stop and relate to your brand at a higher level. Customer advocacy will have a domino effect on customer success and will positively impact the overall customer experience.