We are just back from our networking and educational experience at the Summit on Customer Engagement (SCE19). Putting a little tiredness aside from the 22-hour return trip to San Francisco and jet lag, we couldn’t wait to share a round-up of what our team took away.

Customer Evidence is a must-have for any company wanting to build trust or strengthen its market position. This explains why most already have at least a few customer stories – or case studies – published on their website. But for many companies, that’s it. The content is produced, they’re happy about it, they promote it across different platforms, and they move on.

Let’s imagine you’re in charge of your company’s Customer Evidence Program, and the end of tax year is looming. As usual, your boss asks “How did your program perform this year?” as a prelude to next year’s budget planning. Now, do you have meaningful info to answer that question?  

If you’re already running a CE Program, I’ll give you 10 seconds to respond. If you have a great answer please put it on the comments, otherwise I hope this article will spare you some headaches.

If you’re not running a program yet, please read on, you won’t regret it. And by the way, have you already contacted Melis Hamurculu, our CE expert for a free consultation? 

Good customer evidence tells an interesting story.

It can be a short clip, a written story or anything in between. But one thing these all have in common is that they tell a story about your customer. A story so gripping that you want to watch or read till the very end. One that won’t see you skipping to the end because you don’t want to miss any ounce of the information right at the very the middle.

 More and more businesses are getting interested in customer evidence and with good reason. It’s not enough anymore to stick with traditional sales and marketing methods, with cold calls and bombarding customers with slogans and jingles in TV ads. Right now, everyone craves a relatable, authentic, and engaging story.

But while you might have such customer evidence in place, such as your case studies or customer stories, infographics, videos and so-on, how should you use these to their full potential?

From the perspective of customer evidence, a quote is a powerful and concise way to showcase impact and value.   

In a world where short and sweet reigns supreme, a quote grabs the attention of audiences with limited attention spans. A quote is easy to consume and to share.   

With just one sentence, a quote from an advocate customer can get you noticed, potentially sway an opinion or influence a purchase. A quote is therefore a powerful ally to sales and marketing teams.

In my experience, one of the questions regularly posed by organizations and teams is “How do I get customers to engage in reference activities?” And it is a very valid one that begs to be answered, in full, by anyone considering a deeper dive into a customer evidence program.

Indeed, for those in sales and marketing responsible for getting customer references, it’s a question that doesn’t ever really go away.  And, with no simple answer to solve this predicament forever, it’s no surprise that collecting customer references becomes an ongoing challenge.

Why is this? Because each customer is different, your organization is different and everyone has different and often conflicting incentives and priorities.

The approach taken varies because each customer is different and each organization is different. However, from my experience working with organizations creating amazing customer evidence there are best practices you can follow to reach your customers and get their buy-in to your own evidence program.

I hope the following recommendations are the start to customer relationships that quickly transform into true partnerships -  for you and your organization.

If the main goal of customer evidence is to bring authenticity and credibility to a brand and its benefits, what do you do when customers refuse to put their name to a testimonial? Maybe their industry is set up in a way that disclosing their technology stack, setup or partnerships would expose them to risk. Or maybe it’s internal policy. Either way, creating customer evidence can become a difficult task when customers ask to remain anonymous. Well, worry not - we have a number of suggestions to help you find a solution that will benefit all parties.

Maybe you’ve heard of customer evidence programs, where a business shares the story of a satisfied customer with an emphasis on their perspective and success that also shows the effectiveness its own solutions?

You may have heard about customer evidence; stories told from the perspective of satisfied customer that talk about how your solution helped them overcome a challenge they were facing. But what you may not know is how these stories can be beneficial to many different departments within your business - making the time and effort necessary to create them well worth it.