Customer Evangelism and How to Identify Your Evangelists

It was during our weekly sales meeting this morning, that I directed our team to this great post on one our favorite blogs - Church of the Customer. The subject of customer evangelism is little understood by most businesses today and yet it is truly right in front of us each day, when we interact with our best customers.

I asked a simple question of our team today. What are the top three reasons our customers buy from us (we build web applications for real estate agents). Well, the responses were on the table very quickly. "Our search engine postings," said one, "the quality of our leads," said another and "our great marketing package," said a third. They were all correct, but they were also all wrong. Here's why...

Two weeks ago we were at a real estate convention in San Francisco and met some of our customers face-to-face. We had sent out invitations via email asking our customers to visit our hospitality suite while at the convention, meet the team and see what was new with our company and products. During the meet and greet we had some great opportunities to hear what our customers really think about us. It was an informal time over a light lunch and with a short, but sweet presentation by yours truly.

As the gathering was concluding, one of our customers was on the way out the door and, as he shook my hand he said, "I always new there was more to being a part this network than just the leads and the websites." This is a potential customer evangelist.

A few weeks prior to the convention, I was reading a real estate mailing list and saw someone asking a question about our company. It was one of those questions that was more like an accusation. "Have any of you heard of these guys, they're trying to sell me really hard and I have never heard of them." Well, I was a little concerned about this and waited patiently for the digest of the list to arrive in my email the next day. When the digest arrived I quickly scanned the headlines to see if there were any responses. There were two.

The first was from a guy who hadn't any experience with us, but suggested that they not bother with us if we were too high pressure. The second post made my day. It was from one of our customers. She said, "I have been dealing with this company for 4 years. They are one of the most professional, trustworthy and helpful companies I have dealt with. I would give up all the other online companies I use through my broker, franchise and relo divisions, before I would give up working with them."

Wow, was I relieved! She IS an EVANGELIST. This customer made that leap that true evangelists make. She didn't have to put her name and reputation on the line, but she did and she is OUR customer! Do you think we should do something special for her?

My advice to you. Go ask your sales or customer service staff to be on the look out for your best customers. Ask the right questions to find out who they are and then.... treat them very special. What will happen? Well, I'm not going to tell you, you'll just have to find out for yourself.

Glenn