When customer advocate/reference programs came into being, they were typically tasked with one or two objectives: create case studies, and/or find customer references to help Sales move forward and close opportunities. As such, the function existed more or less disconnected from most of the enterprise. They weren’t viewed as an enterprise-wide resource, but offered benefits to just one or two departments.
Somewhere along the way executives, CMOs in particular, recognized that customer advocates could help a myriad of scenarios, and by the way, seemed to have more credibility with buyers, analysts, the media, and investors, than conventional advertising and marketing efforts that did not feature customers and their real-world successes. This was the beginning of legitimate customer advocate programs. While there was general head nodding around the concept, what didn’t always happen was the cultural shift that was necessary to integrate the program across the enterprise in terms of planning, collaboration, and two-way SLAs.
Customer advocate programs are about as cross-functional as it gets. What they offer is valuable to nearly every department in an organization. In that way, they inherently have strategic potential. But only with skilled, competent program leaders and meaningful buy-in from executives and team managers.
Many years ago we worked with a client at the early stage of building its inaugural customer advocate program. After defining the scope of their program, there was a deep conversation about how they would interact with each stakeholder team; and where the synergies lay. The give and take, the reciprocity, between a program and its stakeholder teams is typically informal and assumed. But we felt—and this client organization was fertile ground for a test—that formalizing these relationship commitments would be a way to ensure accountability and success.
The process begins with taking inventory of how each stakeholder group (executives, Sales, events, PR, demand gen, etc.) will benefit from the program, and how the program will benefit from the stakeholder group.
Here are a few examples:
Customer Advocate Program ⇒ Executive Team
Executive Team ⇒ Customer Advocate Program
Customer Advocate Program ⇒ Sales
Sales ⇒ Customer Advocate Program
Customer Advocate Program ⇒ Events Team
Events Team ⇒ Customer Advocate Program
This benefits statement then defines stakeholder agreements: commitments each party needs to make to realize the benefits. Your list of commitments, by stakeholder group, should be the result of a collaborative effort with each team, perhaps starting with team managers. This is an opportunity to educate and to explain how an effective working relationship will help them achieve their goals, and ultimately, success. This is a fundamental tenant of change management: Awareness.
Once the commitment list is finalized, it can be dropped into a simple agreement, specific to each team, to make it official. Following is an example for Sales:
This becomes a touchstone document, which should be revisited over time as a means for keeping the parties accountable, and ensuring it’s still accurate and complete. You may think the signatures seem excessive, but there is something about putting ink to the agreement that gives it weight.
Transforming customer advocacy from a side project into a core strategic function is essential for corporate growth. That transformation demands a unified commitment and collaboration across all departments—because customer advocacy is, after all, a team sport. By doing so, you not only elevate the voice of your customers, but also amplify the collective success of your organization. Most programs don’t begin with this premise, but it’s never too late to reinvent and create a center of excellence in your organization. Learn how we can help you grow your customer advocacy program to make a real impact on your organization’s bottom line.
As this infographic illustrates, a mature advocacy program is responsible for continuously identifying advocates, maintaining accurate advocacy data, protecting customer relationships, and aligning with top company goals to accelerate growth.
The infographic contains six key components. Here's a description of each for you to translate into your own talking points.
Every advocate starts as a customer.
The journey begins when account teams, customer success managers, support teams, and services organizations create positive experiences that build trust and confidence.
As customers achieve success, some become enthusiastic supporters of the company, its products, and its people. These customers are identified as potential advocates and introduced to the advocacy team.
The advocacy team interviews these individuals, learns about their experiences, captures important details about their interests and expertise, and creates a searchable advocate profile.
The result is a discoverable advocate: someone who can be found, matched, and engaged when the business needs credible customer voices.
Without this process, valuable customer relationships remain hidden inside co-workers’ heads or team spreadsheets, unavailable to the broader organization.
Great advocates are rarely discovered by the advocacy team alone. It’s really just too much to ask of any one part of the organization. Every customer touchpoint plays a part in cultivating and retaining advocates.
Customer success managers see customer enthusiasm firsthand. Account teams hear success stories during business reviews. Support teams witness customer loyalty. Product teams interact with passionate users who influence future direction.
A successful advocacy program creates a systematic way for all customer-facing teams to identify and nominate potential advocates, as well as a means for customers to self-identify..
Think of it as building a talent pipeline.
The broader the participation across the organization, the stronger and more diverse the advocate community becomes.
This collective effort ensures the advocacy database reflects the full spectrum of customer success stories across industries, products, geographies, and use cases.
The advocacy team serves as the steward of the organization's advocacy data.
Their responsibilities fall into three primary areas.
First, they recruit continuously. Advocates change jobs, priorities shift, and customer enthusiasm naturally evolves over time. Maintaining a healthy advocacy community requires constant replenishment.
Second, they keep information current. Customer stories, product deployments, business outcomes, and willingness to participate all change. Outdated advocacy data quickly becomes unreliable.
Third, they measure and report value. Advocacy programs must demonstrate their contribution to business outcomes such as customer acquisition, retention, and expansion.
Beyond maintaining records, the advocacy team actively shapes the composition of the database to align with company growth objectives. This is essential if the program is to be seen by executives as a strategic lever vs. a low-level function an intern can run.
If the company’s strategic direction includes expanding into healthcare, launching a new product, selling through a new channel, entering Asia, or targeting a specific buyer persona, the advocacy team ensures the advocate population evolves accordingly.
In many ways, they function as portfolio managers for one of the company's most valuable assets: customer credibility.
Most organizations initially think of advocacy as a sales resource.
Sales certainly benefits from customer references, but advocacy creates value far beyond the sales organization.
The common thread is credibility.
Advocates provide something no marketing budget can purchase directly: authentic proof from real customers.
Most mature advocacy programs include additional components that extend value for both advocates and the business.
These activities are connected mechanisms that strengthen relationships, increase engagement, and create additional opportunities for customers to contribute.
Together, they help transform advocacy from a transactional activity into an ongoing customer experience.
The ultimate purpose of customer advocacy is not activity.
It is business impact.
In Summary
Advocates are valuable assets. The advocacy team's job is to make sure those assets are available when needed, protected from burnout, and aligned with the organization's most important priorities.
When done well, customer advocacy transforms customer success into measurable business value. It is an enterprise capability built on trusted relationships, reliable data, and authentic customer voices.
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