Many years ago a client, a top five strategic consulting firm, asked if we had any tools to help get her arms around the customer advocate program she recently inherited. It just seemed there were so many pieces and parts and some stakeholders yelled more than others, and that’s how the program evolved before she arrived on the scene. It didn’t seem to have a master plan.
In the consulting world, the standard “tool” for sizing up a situation is a maturity model. It provides a benchmark for companies seeking continuous improvement. We got to work on building a maturity model for customer advocate programs. By identifying 11 discrete parts of a program (or a collection of processes, if “program” is too generous), we found a way to simplify the assessment of each area and avoid getting overwhelmed. Analysis paralysis is so common in our field.
For each of these areas there needed to be a scale so that the current situation could be pegged to a stage of evolution. A user would need a way to identify each program facet with one stage or another, so we described four progressively more sophisticated stages in detail for all 11 elements.
The result is a self-assessment tool that helps all stakeholders understand what’s working and what’s not. It also provides a path to evolving to higher levels of performance and acts as a touchstone used monthly, quarterly and annually so that the big picture isn’t lost in the dust of the day-to-day.
What this tool does best is professionalize (shows method and discipline) the program, which is so important to executives being asked to bet on an unknown horse. Knowing there is a vision, and that the vision supports and aligns to the company’s growth goals―the most important of all― makes that bet a lot less risky, and in the hands of the right leader a sure thing. Read more about capturing and keeping C-Suite engagement.
The best thing about our maturity model is that it’s valuable for managers of existing programs, and to those tasked with putting a program in place. In both situations, it makes clear both the assets and liabilities of the current state and makes prioritizing next steps much easier.
When developing your plan, be sure to include both short and long-term goals. There will be many goals that will take time, and they’re worthy of accomplishing. However, short-term goals produce quick wins, and everyone likes to see progress.
In your quest to build a program that produces astounding results and has the highest visibility in your company, don’t forget to establish an advisory board for your program. This board is made up of the people who have the most to gain from your success (sales, marketing). Make this a team effort and see how much more engagement you garner and the results that come with it.
Click this link to download a PDF copy of our Maturity Model tool.
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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