Customer Reference Database | Point of Reference

Had enough of customer reference program management by spreadsheets yet?

ReferenceEdge

ReferenceEdge is a comprehensive customer reference management system. Each component addresses a specific program pain point such as recruiting, data maintenance, customer reference lead generation, customer rewards and metrics. It was designed to provide sellers with every form of social proof needed at every stage of the buyer’s journey, from customer content to reference accounts and contacts. Ultimately, the value of a program is measured by revenue influenced, and that is one of the KPIs included in our report package.

Why is a native Salesforce app superior?

If your company has invested in Salesforce CRM as the single source of truth, ReferenceEdge is the standard in the customer marketing community. A native application is installed in your Salesforce environment not merely integrated to it, like a plug-in. Native apps take full advantage of the Salesforce platform, provide UI consistency, real-time (not synced) data, workflows and much, much more.

REFERENCEEDGE FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Maximize User Adoption

For anyone who champions new technology for a department or a company, this is where the rubber meets the road. We get it. It comes down to 1) executive support, 2) awareness, 3) education and 4) data quality.

Change Management

Technology is great, but don’t forget who’s using it. Anytime people are asked to change the way they’ve done things, forever, they need help getting from current state to future state. We’ve created the Launch Playbook, an enabling framework for managing the people side of change. Playbook components are baked into our implementation methodology ensuring your program has the organization support for success.

Product Features

Relevant reference resources are suggested from the opportunity
Help assistants on every ReferenceEdge page
ReferenceEdge is designed to look, feel and behave like Salesforce, familiar from day one.
Data update automation ensures accurate and complete search results

Did we mention fun? ReferenceEdge includes a user rewards feature to accelerate and sustain user adoption.

Identify References & Build Your Database

A solid base along with a steady flow of new customer references is the lifeblood of any program. ReferenceEdge has 4 automation features to support your recruiting needs:

Nominations – Any ReferenceEdge user can nominate a customer as a reference
Reference Lead Finder – Automated follow up on recently closed/won opportunities to assess referenceability
Reference Prospector – Build a prospect list, and launch an internal campaign to gauge account referenceability
Profile Update Minder – Designed to automate the routine review/updating of reference profiles, new reference candidates may be brought to your attention as part of the process

Additionally, you use your marketing automation tool, such as Marketo or Eloqua, to create recruiting campaigns and automate the creation of nominations or reference profiles in ReferenceEdge from responses.

Centralize Reference Knowledge

Keep track of who is considered a reference, current status and for which reference activities they are available, all within Salesforce CRM, your company’s single source of truth.

The basis of any customer reference program or practice is knowing your reference customers. ReferenceEdge lets you tag accounts and contacts as program members, activate or deactivate their status with a click, or business process automation leveraging customer success insights, and tag records with the metadata―such as industry, use cases, product, personna―that users depend on to find relevant and up-to-date references.

Search References using Filters & Keywords

Searching spreadsheets is so cumbersome, and limited. Give users a powerful, easy‐to‐use tool for finding the best references for their sales opportunity or marketing needs. We’ve expanded and fine‐tuned search to meet the unique needs of reference searches for accounts, contacts, and customer content, leveraging Salesforce CRM’s powerful search engine. Filter by industry, product, region, etc., and/or enter keywords. Tag contacts with reference activities such as event speaking, press releases, reference calls, quotes, site visits, product betas―whatever is relevant to your stakeholders.

Automate Reference Call Coordination

Connecting a reference customer and prospect demands that a salesperson act like a border collie: bouncing between the two parties, identifying availability, staying on top of the process. It is both time consuming, and time-sensitive—hitting quota may depend on it! ReferenceEdge includes the Calendar Coordinator™ feature that takes the task and runs with it while the salesperson can keep selling.

Automate Reference Requests

Accelerate, track and manage what is often a big drain on Sales productivity: managing customer reference requests. ReferenceEdge alone offers scalable peer-to-peer request routing and process management initiated from within Salesforce, or Slack using our ReferenceBot app.

Close the Loop

Wouldn’t you love to have the time to follow up with the requester of a reference to see how the call, speaking opportunity, etc., went? But that requires those rare commodities: bandwidth, and the right timing. No worries, ReferenceEdge seeks feedback following a reference use so you know whether a) it didn’t/won’t happen, b) it’ll happen, but on a later date, c) it went well, or d) it didn’t go well. Imagine all the ways you can make use of these insights.

Reward Customers & ReferenceEdge Users

Reward points can be earned for completing activities. For customers those might include reference calls, webinars, and case studies.

For ReferenceEdge users, points can be earned for nominating reference candidates, assisting with arranging a reference activity or periodically updating reference profile information for an account they own. Salesforce leaderboards keep all ReferenceEdge users aware of their accrued points relative to their peers, stoking a little healthy competition. Motivate and make reference-related activities fun and rewarding to accelerate and maintain adoption.

Accrued points may be redeemed however you decide: cash, prizes, event attendance or services.

Capture Win/Loss Insights

Data Collector is a flexible feature that can be used to gather valuable data related to opportunities both won and lost. But that’s not all. It can be used to capture post project or engagement insights. Configurable survey forms can be sent to users at the perfect time, as defined by you. Data is collected in a database for analysis, and it can also become searchable content within the reference search page.

Reference Customer Data Maintenance

Customer reference profile information such as a customer’s activity preferences, use limits, and subject matter expertise has a shelf life. Whose responsibility is it to remember to update the profile as relationship changes occur? Often no one owns it, officially. It gets done sporadically and reactively. Not good enough given that reference search depends on reliable data. The Profile Update Minder automation feature identifies profiles that haven’t been updated in a period of time you define, and automates the review and update process, engaging those closest to the account relationship be it CSMs, account managers or sales.

Manage & Share Customer Content

Sometimes referred to as sales enablement, customer videos, case studies, press releases, and quotes are easily tagged, activated/deactivated, searched and shared with prospects. Extensive meta tagging in ReferenceEdge makes sure content is easy-to-find, which is the only way to realize a return on your content investment. Content is shared via microsites (land pages) that capture click activity and visitor ratings, providing valuable and timely insights to sellers, and to content development managers.

Gain Security Peace of Mind

Salesforce native applications such as ReferenceEdge are hosted by Salesforce.com, boasting a world-class security infrastructure. Breathe easy on the topic of GDPR, CCPA and other data protection regulations. Your IT and data security colleagues will be pleased and relieved to know:

ReferenceEdge, 100% Salesforce-native, is installed into your Salesforce environment
No data is hosted outside of Salesforce
No personally identifiable customer information leaves Salesforce
Your Salesforce admin team controls all system access

Analyze Real-Time Program Metrics

Gain instant access to real‐time data on customer reference program membership, activities and impact on revenue. ReferenceEdge includes 50+ pre-built reports and 20+ dashboard charts covering the most common program activities and metrics. And because we leverage standard Salesforce reports and charts you can easily modify, clone or create brand new reports to fit your needs. Schedule reports to be run for yourself or management; get out of the disruptive report fulfillment business.

Monitor Program Health

Program Health Monitor’s purpose is to help you align program goals with company growth goals, and continuously improve program performance. Set discrete program goals, track progress and compare to prior periods. Included are 26 quick start templates covering the most common program motions such as nominations, reference recruiting, requests, and reference searches. Set update notifications at whatever frequency you like so you always have a pulse on the program and adapt to changing conditions.

Prevent Reference Fatigue

Keep track of how customers are being used, how often and for what so you don’t wear out your welcome. Set limits on the number of times in a given time period a contact can be used for reference activities and ReferenceEdge will indicate when a limit has been reached, so important for those oft-requested marquee accounts.

Mobilize Your Program

Give your road warriors access to essential reference information in a familiar interface. Because ReferenceEdge is a native Salesforce app, reference search, requests, content sharing and other essential features, are accessible from within the Salesforce mobile app. Ensuring access to reference functionality at the right time yields higher usage, and therefore stronger program results.

Manage Data Imports & Exports

ReferenceEdge DM (data manager) is part of ReferenceEdge and designed for importing and exporting larger sets of data to and from ReferenceEdge objects. Imagine you just returned from your user conference and recruited 150 new customer references. DM makes quick work of converting that data to new nomination records, or searchable reference profiles. Best of all: RefEdge DM is a tool for ReferenceEdge administrators. No Salesforce administrator, or administrator permissions required.

Integrate with Related Technologies

ReferenceEdge lives on the Salesforce platform: part of the Salesforce ecosystem by design. Connectivity to key sales, customer success, and complementary customer marketing solutions is essential to the strategic value of the customer reference program. Native Salesforce applications are easily integrated, and SaaS applications outside Salesforce leverage the robust Salesforce API. ReferenceEdge offers integrations to Slack, Influitive, Gainsight, TechValidate by SurveyMonkey, and SlapFive.

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	a conversation with... Jennifer Ells Manager of Customer Advocacy Ceridian
Could you describe your program?	Our reference program resides with the Community and Advocacy team which is part of the Customer Success department. We are a team of two full time professionals and one intern. Our team is responsible for four different systems and programs. The reference program specifically supports our Sales, Marketing, Analyst Relations, Product, and Customer Success teams around the world. Any department that wants to proactively communicate and gain feedback from our current customers often starts with us to narrow the options. We strive for our teams to have a self-sufficient reference program with minimal involvement from us. We are fully deployed in North America and EMEA and are working on APJ right now.
Where did the initiative to start the program originate, and why?	I’m not sure the history of the program. I have been at Ceridian since 2017 working directly with customers as part of our Customer Success team. At that time, the reference program was owned by the Marketing team, but I have no recollection of how we did references prior to launching ReferenceEdge in 2019. In 2020, the reference program was taken out of marketing and moved to the Customer Success team. And the expectations were different. As such, the Community & Advocacy team was created in 2021. My direct leader moved into this role mid-2021, and I joined as reference manager in 2022. We both came in with years and years of customer success experience working directly with customers, understanding their needs and other things from a customer perspective which was a difference from how it was before. Also, because I was on the customer success side, I had worked with Sales a ton, so I had automatic credibility with that team. I knew ReferenceEdge from the CS side, but I had no idea from the Sales side. I didn’t know what they saw or what the gaps were. So, when I came in, the first mandate I gave myself was to stop the bleeding, talk to the Sales team, understand where the reference program was failing them because that's what was causing many downstream impacts. If we can understand the problem from a seller's perspective and solve it, then that will have a trickle-down effect and resolves the several other issues. That's how I discovered we needed to do a relaunch—and it wasn’t a relaunch on the ReferenceEdge technology or functionality, but an internal relaunch—we have new leadership running this program; we're making new training, new splashy stuff, new documentation. It's all new, it's going to run differently, let's move forward.
Who are your internal stakeholders?	I feel as though I have stakeholders from nearly every area of the company. As mentioned before, any department that wants to connect with our customers proactively to gain feedback often starts with us. We have a menu of advocacy opportunities ranging from Sales References Calls to Charter Programs. Sales Reference Calls are most common as there are new Sales happening every day. But we also work directly with Marketing, Analyst Relations, Product, and Customer Success employees.
What were your top 3 challenges before ReferenceEdge?	I can speak to the top 3 challenges I identified when I came into this role which resulted in an internal relaunch: credibility of the program, accuracy of the data, and user adoption. Previously, the program was being run on points and clicks, and relationships were not being built with stakeholders to achieve credibility. These challenges resulted in inconsistent experiences for the reference contacts and our internal teams. As mentioned, I knew the customer success side of ReferenceEdge but I didn’t know the Sales side. I sat with several people from Sales to better understand the gaps and why they weren’t using the program, mostly around data and lack of responses to requests. We closed some of those gaps, cleaned up a ton of data and relaunched seller training. We also created audits, reports, and dashboards to keep the data clean and show success. From there it was a PR campaign to show the ease of use and value. It was also critical to be highly responsive to requests to regain the credibility. Additionally, we’ve had a lot of new sellers join our company and their previous employer didn’t have a robust reference program. We spent extra time working with them to drive home the process and how different it is from where they came from. Soon we noticed more sellers starting to use the system consistently which resulted in a more cohesive experience for everyone. Last year was very much focused on relaunching the program to the sellers, while this year is focused on customer success and expanding globally.
Since launch, what has changed in terms of your company’s reference practices?	Since the relaunch, the program is much more organized, and the experience is more consistent for everyone involved. The biggest change is for our advocates who are getting the recognition they deserve. We use the ReferenceEdge/Influitive integration, and Influitive gives points for doing the references; the points are allocated when the feedback form is submitted. That process is being followed more consistently and we have an audit to ensure they are not missed. We are also rebranding our advocacy program and creating a new program specific to our uber advocates so those in that very top tier, they're going to get special benefits—that would have been really hard to track before because the data wasn't there. We are also rolling out a few other things this year where we're sharing influenced ACV (annual contract value) more readily to our CS team so they can have a call (with an advocate) and simply say "Hey, thank you so much for participating in that reference call—it closed this month." "Because of you, we got a deal closed—you did it—that's amazing!" That wasn’t done before; I never knew how my customer's reference panned out—so, in turn, they never knew either. We're trying to close that loop, too. Reporting on the program success has also become easier. There are less fire drills. Additionally, there is a higher percentage of closed-won deals with references than there was before the relaunch.
Since launch, how has your job changed?	When I first took on the role I was advocating for the program and helping sellers identify references nearly every day. I felt like 75% of my day was spent on the phone with sellers helping them use the system. Since we relaunched, we're able to push them to a location: "This is where the training is; here's the process guide." We're currently creating short videos—we're calling them “FAQ videos,” which are six 30-second videos that show the most asked reference search questions, this will enable us to point the teams to those mini trainings to get the information needed. Now, I probably talk to a seller maybe once a day if it's a busy month-end, quarter-end, something like that—but otherwise, I don't hear from them as often as I did, so I'm able to be more strategic; spend more time focusing on other initiatives like nurturing the accounts, expanding to other regions, and assisting other areas of the business in connecting with our advocates more proactively.
What feedback have you gotten from stakeholders? Leadership?	Prospects want to hear from our current customers. They NEED them to help validate their decision to move forward with us. The fastest, most efficient way to find those happy customers is through our reference program. I’ve had numerous occasions while talking to sellers where they say “this is really easy; I had no idea! I wish my old company had this.” I even had a seller send me a holiday card…in the mail! That’s the impact the program has made for him. The more our Sales team is successful, the more our company can be successful. At Sales kick off this year, our Chief Revenue Officer stood on stage and said, “big things are happening in the Reference Program.” Later, directly to me he said this program is “a hidden gem helping our company be successful.” I think the first thing in getting executive buy-in is understanding what is most important to them, and most of the time it’s listening to their team. If their teams are saying the reference program sucks—the executives aren't going to believe us when we challenge that—we didn't have the data to prove it. I had to roll up my sleeves, talk to sellers multiple times every day. Truly understood their pain points, actioned them and slowly got them to believe. Soon I was able to start reporting positive data while also acknowledging the data behind their sentiment. That data is now driving strategy through KPIs and how we're moving forward. So as much as I like to say "You have to focus on the executives"—which you absolutely must do—you also have to get into the nitty gritty with the people that are using the system, because their feedback goes straight to the top. If they're not getting what they want—you can't change the mind of an executive if their own team is telling them something different.
What aspects of ReferenceEdge do you value the most?	As we fully utilize Salesforce, having ReferenceEdge work so seamlessly is essential. Many people don’t know where Salesforce stops and ReferenceEdge starts. That is so important too because it helps us keep the data updated. Another big benefit is the Influitive integration. We're making it almost an onboarding platform for our customers—they get onboarded right away when they sign a contract, understand how to be a good Ceridian customer, and start earning points. This is also where we plant the seed of an advocate journey. The reference search is super important because our prospects need very specific criteria, and we must make sure we have that search criteria available. We use both peer-to-peer and managed processes, which is very important because the size of our customer will determine how our Customer Success team interacts, so the flexibility to accommodate both is wonderful. This also makes the Workspace vital for our setup. It would be impossible to keep track of everything. If you haven’t noticed yet, we are very data-driven so reporting is key. Without metrics, we have no way of identifying our success and areas that need focus. Without having those numbers easy to pull from the system, it would be very difficult.
How do you measure program success?	There are several ways we are measuring success. The one that I really like is what we call the “attachment rate”—it’s the percent of new Sales with references attached to them. That's a good indicator of how well our program is, both how it’s being adopted and how successful it is. The attachment rate is now one of my KPIs. This also validates another thing—how important references, and ReferenceEdge, are to new sales. If 65% of new deals require a reference, we must have someone to manage that as well as a system to help with it—that's a no-brainer! Another way we measure is percentage of book-of-business that's referenceable. This is a CS team KPI. Before, it was an overall number that needed to be referenceable, now we're switching it to a percentage.
How does Point of Reference service compare with other vendors with whom you work?	Our Account Director, Tammy, is phenomenal. We speak every week, but she never hesitates to jump on the phone if I need it or follow up with the tech team when required. Our program would NOT be as successful without her! She is a true partner for us. Because I come from her world—I’ve been in customer success for 15 years—I understand what's important in her job and I know what customers need and want from someone in that role. We were able to build a super great working relationship immediately. Her expertise in the system is essential. For us specifically, reporting—I really needed help with that. I never touched reporting in Salesforce before taking this role, it was so valuable to have her—without her, we would not be where we are today; we would not be as successful! I really feel like she's a true partner for us; I feel like she's almost an additional arm of my team, only sitting with Point of Reference.

	a conversation with... MaryAnn Rains Customer Advocacy Marketing Manager NAVEX
Could you describe your program?	NAVEX began a customer advocacy program in 2019 when the business scaled to the point where the team needed a proactive, rather than a reactive approach. Customer Advocacy and Events is on the Corporate Marketing team and is comprised of three members. We have key administrative stakeholders in Sales Operations, Business Systems, and our International Marketing team. One of the motivators to start a formal customer reference program was to support the bandwidth of our Sales Operations colleague who was pulling custom reports for sellers upon request. This wasn’t efficient or effective for any party involved. Sales Ops had to change their focus on a dime to prioritize requests, the seller didn’t know if the customer could say yes or would be available, and the customer wasn’t sure what they were saying “yes” to. We transitioned to ReferenceEdge in 2022 to help us run a more data-informed program that’s Salesforce-native to help with adoption. We had a phased approach for our implementation, first training our recruitment stakeholders (Customer Success, Product, Marketing), then onboarding our Sales team.
Who are your internal stakeholders?	We have a robust ecosystem of stakeholders to drive recruitment and adoption throughout the organization. We invested significant time building out relationships around the organization to ensure the program is aligned and mutually beneficial. Sales - Managers & Leaders: reinforcing process and seller accountability - Leadership & Development: training support - Account Executives: reference requesters and nominations from Farmers - Retention Account Managers: connectors to renewing customers - Sales Operations: supports the matching process for managed reference requests - Solution Engineers & Product Specialists: reinforcing the program in conversations with sellers and customer nominations Customer Success - Customer Support Managers: nominate and manage requests for their customers - Professional Services & Implementation: connectors to happy, knowledgeable customers Marketing - Product Marketing: alignment on product strategy - Marketing Analytics: support with dashboards Business Systems: support in configuring ReferenceEdge within Salesforce Product - Product Managers: nominating customers who are a part of Early Adopter Programs or advisory boards
What were your top 3 challenges before ReferenceEdge?	1. User Adoption: We had a challenging time getting our requesters to utilize the processes and systems, opting to connect with one another directly to find references instead 2. Seeing Gaps: We didn’t have a good pulse on where we needed to run targeted campaigns to address gaps in our current customer references, making the program reactive to last-minute requests 3. Influenced Revenue: We couldn’t speak to the ROI on our program and efforts
Since launch, what has changed in terms of your company’s reference practices?	ReferenceEdge is very accessible for our stakeholders, given the seamless UX with Salesforce. We benefit from having our CSMs more involved in reviewing and approving reference requests, given their strong relationships with customers. We’re also able to see program activity through reports and dashboards to drive our team’s strategies and build momentum and competition among our users. We’re empowering team managers with curated dashboards so they can see who is using the system with a leaderboard and who isn’t. Thanks to the dashboards, we can also speak to our KPIs and influenced revenue more accurately, which is getting more visibility than we could have imagined prior to implementing.
Since launch, how has your job changed?	Since implementing ReferenceEdge, I’ve had the opportunity to focus my role more on strategy and training to support our Customer Reference Program and other sales supporting activities. Where I used to spend my time reactively responding to requests or pulling data from various sources, I can more easily provide that same level of support for requests while also freeing up time to think and work proactively to strengthen our program. In addition, peers and leaders across Sales and Customer Success see the program as more user-friendly and engrained into our existing processes. As a result, we are now seeing improved success in training and adoption compared to our previous solution, especially when nominating customers for the program.
What feedback have you gotten from stakeholders? Leadership?	A few of the testimonials we’ve received from stakeholders: Retention Manager: “ReferenceEdge allows RAMs to identify happy customers upon renewal, providing Sales with a trusted list of well-vetted references, while delivering world-class customer service. The Customer Reference Program shows how cross-department collaboration drives NAVEX’s success.” CSM: “ReferenceEdge makes it simple to nominate customers with just a few clicks of a button. CSMs can quickly review and approve a reference request from Sales, and I love that we can track how often they’ve been contacted or when they were last utilized. This is a great value add for our collaborative efforts!” Executive Sponsor, Sales: "As executive sponsor for the Customer Reference Program, I see the ReferenceEdge tool as a strategic advantage for selling at NAVEX. There's an immeasurable value behind prospects hearing from their peers that NAVEX is the real deal, in addition to hearing it from us. Using this system in a timely way and sharing nominations to continually fill the reference pipeline that supports all of our deals enables us to remain customer-centric." We recently gave our first presentation on ReferenceEdge to our executive team and they were impressed with the customer-centric approach and dashboards.
What aspects of ReferenceEdge do you value the most?	To date, we have dedicated a lot of our time and training to educating our sellers on how they can help fuel our Customer Reference Program through nominations. By utilizing the nomination feature and automated notifications that encourage sellers to consider nominating customers after an opportunity has closed, we’ve seen a drastic increase in the number of nominations received and the quality of nominations. We have not yet run campaigns for nominations, but intend to in the future. By using the Peer-to-Peer capability to enable CSMs to review reference requests, we have not only freed up bandwidth of our Reference Managers but have also strengthened the bridge between our CSMs and AEs. By bringing CSMs into the reference request review, we’re able to more accurately judge and review reference requests by using their deep insight into the customer’s experience. This improvement has been very well received across our leadership as well.
How do you measure program success?	Our formal KPIs are based on influenced revenue and the number of approved nominations. Informally, we’re looking at overall program activity; including the number of nominations submitted, the number of requests submitted, and the average time for reference request completion. We’re in the process of developing our baseline, which will help us be more sophisticated in our success measurement over time.
How does Point of Reference service compare with other vendors with whom you work?	We can’t say enough about the implementation process and ongoing support. When looking for a customer reference solution, we were looking for a tool as well as best practices advising. We’re grateful for the responsiveness to inquiries, the support as we learn and our program grows, and best practices guidance to ensure we’re on target. Our account director is incredible! She is so responsive to our questions and shares helpful feedback to keep us progressing. We meet on a weekly basis to ensure we’re utilizing the right features and reports. While implementing, our Business Systems colleague mentioned this was the smoothest implementation she’d experienced, thanks to the very knowledgeable team. We are so thankful for the dedicated support.

	a conversation with... Jill Fox & Evan Sharp Customer Marketing Manager and Sr. Manager of Customer Success Lever
Would you describe your program?	Jill: We have customers all over the world, so the program is international in scope. Sales and customer success are our primary internal clients, but marketing could use it in the future for panel speakers, events, case studies, and speaker opportunities. We have about 25 reps from our sales organization and about the same from our customer success currently using the program. We mainly use it [ReferenceEdge] for reference calls, but we also have different referenceability types within the system to determine if someone is an appropriate contact for product research or cases studies; if they are currently in our customer advisory board, which we host twice a year; or if they are a candidate to be a part of the advisory board in the future. Evan and I both run the program. We tackle different aspects of it, and then there are two reference managers in Customer Success, focusing on other segments.
Where did the initiative to start a program originate, and why?	Evan: There has always been a need for customer references at Lever that usually manifests as new business account executives requesting referenceable customers to assist in closing new business sales opportunities. However, when I joined almost five years ago, we didn’t have a formal program in place – those requests just took place over Slack or email, or someone would just walk over and ask one of the CSMs. Shortly after I joined, we set up a slightly more formal process between new business and CS that ran uninterrupted, but with many areas for opportunity over the next several years. In various fits and starts, we wanted to see if software could help alleviate some of the friction that was in the process. And then finally, we got really lucky, and we hired Jill, and Jill picked up the effort to implement software in support of our program. And ReferenceEdge came out on top [in our vendor search] and has been running the program really, really amazingly ever since. So, to answer your question, we’ve always had a reference program, but it didn’t work that well. There have always been issues with it, not the least of which was there was no notion of a true peer-to-peer process, and now we have that, and that alleviates one failure point at the top, which we had previously. And now we have a much more robust and scalable solution in place.
What were your top 3 challenges before launching ReferenceEdge?	Evan: I was sort of the de facto manager of the reference program and so let’s take a moment to consider that I go on PTO, for instance, and I become one point of failure. I wouldn’t be actively managing the program when I wasn’t in the office. Or let’s say my bandwidth was really constrained because I’m working on end of the quarter activities. I didn’t really have enough time to dedicate to what was almost a full-time job. So, I think the single point of failure was one thing. Another big thing we had identified as being problematic was reference fatigue. We tended to hammer on the same happy customers quarter after quarter, year after year. And we didn’t have a good way of tracking the volume of requests we were disproportionately throwing at them, our most valuable customers. So, we were looking to solve the reference fatigue issue. And then – last but not least – I wouldn’t have had a term for this during our evaluation, but the thing that stood out to me was how much more seamless the peer-to-peer process is compared to a managed process. And we have a hybrid model now, but the majority of requests are peer-to-peer, meaning that an Account Executive can make a request directly to a CSM without relying on anyone else to put the customer in front of the prospect. It’s just been fantastic. So, those are the three things that come to mind. Jill: One more thing to add is seeing which contacts are referenceable because, from a marketing perspective, we were trying to source customers to speak on our customer conference panels. We didn’t have a single source of truth of which people we could reach out to. So, having that now in ReferenceEdge is super helpful. When selecting a product to run your program, what attributes were you looking for? Jill: So, when I joined Lever, the team had already evaluated a few different vendors. I came on and got a demo with ReferenceEdge. The two aspects that were very important and impressive to me were the native Salesforce ® aspect, to have everything in one spot because that’s where our CS and sales reps live. And then also the analytics and dashboards. I thought the out-of-the-box solution was already great from my point of view, and the ability then to build out different dashboards and views if our leaders or teams needed to see something different. Evan: Overusing customers was a big-time concern for us. So disproportionately, our largest up-market customers were being requested to provide references. This was natural because they are household names. The larger the customer, the more compelling the reference in many cases, so it was difficult to ask the same people repeatedly. And we didn’t necessarily know if they were being asked repeatedly unless we asked the CSM, when was the last time they did this with their customer? So ReferenceEdge is really solving a real need.
How did you kick off your new program?	Jill: With leadership, we had multiple prep meetings to let them know where we were in implementation and the next steps. We use Confluence internally, which is a way for us to post pages and information. So, we had a Confluence page showing the timeline and all the different steps and meetings that were occurring. And then to our CS and Sales team, we hosted a training on the day we launched. We also had multiple email communication going out in advance of the training to let them know it was coming. And then, we also communicated the nomination campaign spiff the day of the training to let them know it was happening, the deadline, and associated monetary rewards they would get for participating. For example, in terms of continual communication and training, we just ran the [ReferenceEdge] Profile Update Minder feature last week, so there were two email communications to the team about that. In addition, we announced the Q1 spiff yesterday, so that was an email and a Slack communication and Confluence pages associated.
Since launch, what has changed in terms of your company’s reference practices?	Evan: Certainly, my perspective is that I have a little bit more time back in my calendar. When I think about how the program has changed from a high-level business standpoint, I think our hope is that we can put reference-influenced dollars in front of stakeholders across the business just to prove that this is a really high-impact initiative. So, one of the big areas where we weren’t doing a great of before was reporting. Now we are able to take a look at the efficacy of the program across the board and by segment – slice and dice that data and go to our cross-functional leaders and prove out the value of the program. Jill: I would just add that there’s been enablement between sales and CS in the peer-to-peer process so they can talk to each other about which references would be appropriate and move forward that way, so, improving that aspect of it.
Since launch, how has your job changed? In other words, how is ReferenceEdge enabling you to do your job better or achieve program goals?	Evan: Basically, all roads led to me, which was a single point of failure, which meant that AEs and AE leaders were following up with me – and honestly, I didn’t have the time to prioritize all of that as a full-time job. Now my responsibilities as a reference manager are more streamlined. I can focus on approving nominations or managed requests for our strategic customers, so I think there has been a significant impact on bandwidth, which is much appreciated. One of our key deliverables for our cross-functional team members is whether we can decrease the time it takes to fulfill a request. And I sense that we’ve been doing that because we’ve eliminated some blockers there. My calendar and my time being one. I think that’s been a big shift and a positive one. That’s where I believe we are today. Time will tell if that continues to be the case, or we can continue to improve there.
What feedback have you gotten from stakeholders? Leadership?	Evan: I got some positive feedback from a Sales leader who said his perception was that the reps on his team were in the process a little more. And we’ve gotten some functionality questions and observations from the team with feedback on ways we can improve the program. For example, I just got a question asking me to make sure people couldn’t request a reference from deactivated clients. Overall, we’re pretty new, and the team is figuring it out. I would expect us to have higher-quality feedback in the next 30 to 60 days Jill: I will say that I’ve gotten questions about using ReferenceEdge and functionality. That at least lets me know that team members are using it. The fact that they have questions and are trying to figure out how to do certain things shows that they’re engaged.
What aspects or features of ReferenceEdge that you are using do you value the most?	Jill: I would say that the out-of-the-box reporting has been very impressive so far. So, we have just met with [our Point of Reference account director] yesterday and reviewed our dashboards. We ran a nomination campaign, right when we launched, for two weeks. So, now I just announced a new Spiff to our CS and Sales teams to encourage them to submit nominations and reference requests and do the profile update minder aspects so that we can keep our data clean and up-to-date. We have not yet announced any external rewards to customers who do reference activities. Historically, we’ve given them gift cards, but we are in the midst of looking at platforms to do gifting, so we aren’t doing anything just yet until we have something formal in place. We have the Slack integration, so, yes, we have that enabled to alert anyone internally in the program of nominations or requests. [Our Point of Reference account director]and I looked at the Program Health Monitor feature very briefly yesterday, but I wouldn’t say we’re using it quite yet.
How do you measure program success?	Jill: We have success metrics and goals set around the number of nominations and the number of requests that come through quarterly. And I don’t think we have a formal pipeline revenue goal yet.
What is your experience with Point of Reference as a vendor?	Jill: We’ve had a great experience with our account director so far. She was with us from the very beginning and helped out a lot during the implementation. Since we’ve launched, she’s super responsive and very knowledgeable. Evan: It’s kind of interesting because I lead a team of customer success managers whose roles are in part very similar to what our [Point of Reference account director]) does. My observation of her working with us is that I feel like she is delivering a rather bespoke and proactive up-market experience for us even though we are a smaller customer. I asked her what segment we were in, and she said we were on the smaller side, which I expected, but we never felt it, which is exactly the type of customer experience that we want to create for our customers. So, we’ve definitely felt well supported by her. I think the thing is that she’s just always available, and she’s very proactive and she drives the agenda, and she has recommendations. So, it’s almost like Customer Success on offense with her, which is definitely our goal. So, it’s been great.

	a conversation with... Alyse Chiariello Sr. Director, Customer and Events Marketing NICE InContact
Could you describe your program?	Our program is a global reference program that supports both the sales and marketing organizations in all geographies. I’m the Sr. Director, Customer Events and Marketing and I have two reference managers that roll-up to me. NICE InContact has had a reference program, at least in name, for five or six years.
Where did the initiative to start a program originate, and why?	Initially, before my time, the program was housed in the Operations department. It was called the Reference Desk. Operations didn’t have the bandwidth to manage the Reference Desk anymore. It was Operations part time focus. Marketing was given the opportunity to own References. Since I had built a Customer Reference Program in the past and had a passion for references, I was asked by the CMO if I would be interested in taking on the program. I jumped at the opportunity to build it from scratch.
What were your top 3 challenges before ReferenceEdge?	A huge issue was that no one believed in the old Reference program at all. As a result, the program was a shell. The program needed a department to fully focus on making it a success. We had maybe, a couple of dozen customers in the program. The data was a mess: old and unreliable. Everyone did their own thing when it came to finding a reference. Some of our salespeople had never logged into the old reference system. They were using their own networks of contacts. We didn’t have customer content. The program had no real relationship with customers, there weren’t customer advocates.
Since launch, what has changed in terms of your company’s reference practices?	Everything. Both our salespeople and marketing believe in the program and know it is there to support them. Everyone knows they are supposed to go through the Customer Reference Program for customer references. We’ve added hundreds of customers to the reference program. We didn’t have much content and now we have global customer content that we can use for advocacy and marketing. We’ve gone from no one using the program to significant user adoption. For our sales references, like reference calls, most of our salespeople now use the peer-to-peer functionality. Our marketing users’ requests often require a more in-depth conversation with the customer, so those needs are handled in a concierge service by our reference managers.
Since launch, how has your job changed?	When I inherited the program and brought it into marketing, I basically ripped out the old program and replaced it. This transition happened at about the same time that we moved from ReferenceStor to ReferenceEdge. In the beginning, my role was building relationships both internally and with customers. I set up QBRs [quarterly business reviews] and created training manuals. I still continue to actively promote the program and do our own PR. To have a successful reference program you have to do internal and external advocacy for the program. Now we have two Reference Managers that handle the day-to-day fulfilling of marketing reference requests, building advocacy, growing the pool of reference-able customers, etc.
What feedback have you gotten from stakeholders? Leadership?	Positive feedback. Sales is happy with the program and Sales leadership supports using the Customer Reference Program for references They see the value and promote it to the sales reps. The CMO is a big supporter. He keeps the program in front of the C-level executives. If someone complains to him that they need a specific type of customer for a reference use, he’ll ask them, “have to gone to the References team? Did you reach out to this group for help?”
What aspects of ReferenceEdge do you value the most?	The P2P [peer-to-peer] reference requests are great. Tracking customer use is very helpful. The new help wizard is a huge plus. It helps people remember how to use ReferenceEdge if they haven’t been in it for a while. The integration with Salesforce helps us keep up to date on our customers.
How do you measure program success?	We use several measurements. We report on the program's growth by both contacts and accounts. Our sales team is broken-out by different segments, so slicing the data by segments helps us to gain support from the segment leaders to get more nominations. We produce various types of customer content to use in sales and marketing initiatives. We track the number of pieces of content created per quarter. We also evaluate where we have gaps in content types or subjects. Just like the pool of reference-able customers, you can never have enough customer content. Then we track bookings with reference use to show the number of references used per request to identify if we are using too many references for an opportunity. Many times, Sales uses additional references than needed. Measuring this element enables us to determine if too many references were used for small deals, where one reference would have been sufficient. Finally, we measure Peer-2-Peer vs. Managed requests. Our goal is to grow the percentage of P2P reference requests. Therefore, we track reference requests by P2P vs. Managed per quarter and evaluate progress toward achieving our goal by comparing year-over-year.
What is your experience with Point of Reference as a vendor?	The support is beyond beautiful. Our account director is wonderful. We’ve had a weekly call with our account director from the start of the program. She helps us in so many ways whether it is how to do something we want to do or how the product works. She has a real gift in translating the technical aspects of ReferenceEdge into something anyone can understand. We couldn’t have this program the way it is if we didn’t have the support.

	a conversation with... Lisa Kaspari Global Customer Reference Program Manager Genesys
Could you describe your program?	The global customer advocacy program supports Genesys’ global Sales organization, including LATAM, APAC, and EMEA. The program itself is located in North America and dare I say Canada because that's where I'm based—but really everything is run out of North America. Today, we operate under Marketing. That is a very recent change; up until about a month ago, we were under Sales Operations. Even though now we reside in Marketing, our sole focus is Sales. Our program lives in Salesforce because everything lives in Salesforce. Our sales team lives in Salesforce, and that's where ReferenceEdge lives, which is awesome from my point of view. Our program offers three different paths that our sales team can take to find and request a reference. The easiest path is through the peer-to-peer request feature in ReferenceEdge, where the account executive who owns the reference relationship solely manages the request. Nine times out of 10 times, I do not get involved in those. It's the second path that I get involved in; those trickier, hard-to-find, one-off references for which you really don't have a big pool; you might not have any. So those are the ones that I get pulled into. We then have the third path for when executive advocates are needed. Our Customer Engagement Team manages this type of reference request. Their responsibility is to foster the relationships that we have with our C-level contacts. So, our program goes from the simplest—peer-to-peer—all the way up to managing those C-level relationships. And they all factor into what we put into ReferenceEdge.
Who are your internal stakeholders?	As far as our focus, it’s Sales. We also have stakeholders within Marketing—PR, analyst relations; and the RFP team. For example, the RFP team itself does not use ReferenceEdge, as we made it the responsibility of the account executive to find references for RFPs. If they can’t find what they need through a Reference Search, the RFP team can come to the reference team, and we will work together.
What were your top challenges before ReferenceEdge?	Well, one major challenge was identifying which accounts we could reach out to at any given time, and prior to ReferenceEdge, things were housed in Excel files. We all know how quickly Excel files go out of date. You keep references in your back pocket and one day, 'Oh, this company's no longer a customer!?' I was still seeing that back in 2016 when I first joined in this role, and I said, 'Wait a second—why do you have an Excel file when we have this really awesome tool that's in Salesforce based on information that account executives and the Sales teams put into Salesforce?' People were like, 'Oh, well, we don't know how accurate it is.' I said, 'Well, it's as accurate as the information you put in. And more accurate than that spreadsheet—just sayin.' The information in ReferenceEdge is continually updated. The information that's there is relevant, and it's current.
Since launch, what has changed in terms of your company’s reference practices?	First, we no longer use spreadsheets that become out of date quickly. The filters within Reference Search allow us to customize each search and provide the current references at the time of the request. We now have a single source of truth for reference information company-wide. And, of course, better reporting capabilities with standard reports through ReferenceEdge, which allows us to report on various factors such as revenue influenced by reference activity.
Since the launch, how has your job changed?	When I first joined, my responsibility was really to maintain the tool—so managing the information that was in ReferenceEdge and focusing on the data that the account executives see. Now, my role is more strategic. The majority of reference requests are peer-to-peer, which allows me to focus on getting new accounts into the reference program to help take the burden off of those customers that are the “go to” accounts for everyone. It also allows me to help with the unique reference requests as well.
What feedback have you gotten from stakeholders? Leadership?	We have the buy-in all the way up to my VP level. Their thinking is, 'Yeah, this is it—ReferenceEdge houses our reference information.' So, when anyone, anywhere in the company, looks for reference material, this is where they find it, and this is the team they come to; they come to the reference team. I know the sales leadership—they get it as well. The tool works for them. I jump on weekly sales calls just as a friendly reminder, 'Hey, remember, the reference team is here for you. You know, we have this tool. We get you're busy; we're here to help you.' When a request comes in, and an account executive says "Hey, I'm looking for this third-party integration", I can say, "You know what? I have this, this, and this for you. And guess what? Two of them are in the tool. So, I'm now going to walk you through how to find this yourself.” They’re hesitant at first: “Oh, but I've never done it before." I tell them, “It's okay. It's easy. Let me walk you through it." And then realize, "Oh, it actually is easy." I use these opportunities to foster relationships with the account executives.
What aspects of ReferenceEdge do you value the most?	Beyond the peer-to-peer request feature, another unique point is the Influitive integration with ReferenceEdge we’ve had since 2015. I'm very happy to say that the custom-built API that we've had starting in 2015 is now a standard integration within Influitive which allows transparency to our advocates as well as to our sales team. That's a pretty exciting integration for us because we use a points system for advocates. If you do a reference activity for us, you earn points, and we're always being asked: 'How many points do I have?' Having Influitive integrated completely to ReferenceEdge, there's no having to do anything twice. When it happens on one side, it happens on the other side. For our users, having no additional logins or credentials is key to adoption—everybody's in Salesforce; nobody wants to have to remember another login; nobody wants to have to click another window when they already have something open. The out-of-the-box reporting is awesome. For me, Salesforce reporting is complicated; I still have a big learning curve. But having those out-of-the-box reports is terrific. I can see the last active date on a specific reference profile and tie it back to revenue or see how many peer-to-peer versus managed requests we have and all that stuff. Another benefit is that ReferenceEdge is entirely scalable. We went through a pretty big acquisition in late 2016. ReferenceEdge was able to scale with our bigger sales team as well as increased reference accounts. I was very excited to see that we could scale, and it really wasn't painful; it just happened. I have tell you, the mapped attributes—100% valuable. It could not be easier to go in and see, 'Hey, there's a new picklist field I could use in the Search function. Oh, my goodness. Mapped—done.'
How do you measure program success?	Success is definitely assessed by the company in terms of revenue influenced. We measure how many wins have reference activity tied to them. Personally, I look at how many peer-to-peer requests come in that I didn't have to support. It keeps growing each year. Another thing that we're tracking this year is the number of [reference request] emails that go out—when we see someone send a mass email to All Sales, 'Hey, I'm looking for a reference,' and I think, 'Did you really just send a mass email asking for a reference? Are you new? Get to training!' Everybody's set in their ways sometimes. I know learning new software, whether it be Salesforce or changes to Word or Excel, some people don't take to the change. So, when we see the reduction in those types of emails, that's also a success.
How does Point of Reference service compare with other vendors with whom you work?	My account director is awesome. Every day, she goes above and beyond. When I send her those wacky questions where I think, 'I feel I should know this, but I'm going to ask it anyway.' She'll never come back and say, 'Oh, well, on page 20 of the user guide…' No, she gives me the answer, she gives me a screenshot—it's awesome. I have worked with the executive team for different things, most recently related to our integration with Influitive. The team, as a whole, is phenomenal. I've said this many times, and I'll keep saying it, that they're not just a vendor; they're really a partner. And you know, my success is their success is my success again when I suggest a product enhancement and they're like 'Yeah, that's pretty cool,' and then it makes it into a release. They listen—it's awesome. Honestly, sometimes, even when a situation isn't a ReferenceEdge issue, they still step up and provide suggestions. They might say, “Did you think of looking at this or looking at that?" And you know what? I hadn't, because Salesforce is huge. They help me, when a technical situation comes up, they put it into terms that I understand so then when I need to go to a Salesforce admin, I can ask intelligent questions. And not very many vendors will do that—if any. My experience with other vendors has been, "Oh, well, sorry—we don't handle that." The fact that Point of Reference is there to support us is phenomenal.
What are your future plans?	We're always looking for 'How do we make it easy? How can we make it easier for our sales team?' Providing the best tools for Sales to have easy access to success stories, to the database, to be able to sell and sell quickly. That’s our program in a nutshell. We're turning on ReferenceEdge content functionality within the latter half of this year, and really, truly giving our account executives that one-stop-shop. We are creating Reference content packages for use in Sales presentations. They will include talk tracks and links to any case studies or videos we may have with that particular customer. Our company-wide content is housed in Seismic today, and there is a lot of information to sort through. Sometimes all that is needed is the story of why an account chose Genesys. This content will give that information to the AEs through a platform they are in every day. By using the reference content feature of ReferenceEdge, we will be able to set review dates for each piece of content. This will allow us to keep the content current. We are also able to control if we need to pull a piece of content based on the customer’s reference status. In 2020, we are looking at doing more with ReferenceEdge through the Salesforce mobile app. It hasn't been our focus, but I think once we get past the content initiative, I think the adoption of the mobile app is just going to skyrocket. Then they’ll have the tool at their fingertips anywhere.