The best way for a customer advocacy program to survive long-term is to establish metrics and reporting functions early on that prove – to stakeholders and upper management – the value of the program, both at a high-level and in-depth. Read through this Q&A with Sr Advocacy Consultant Denise Taylor to learn more!

Program justification has taken a vocal seat at the table, education across departmental silos and stakeholders has never been more important. Proving the value of what you do is now, perhaps more than ever before, a business imperative. The “so what?” for customer advocacy is a question ringing loudly in everyone’s ears. Luckily, across the industry both the tools in use, and the practitioners using them, can loudly answer this query.

It has been evident in 2023 that customer advocacy has encountered many ups and downs. Within a year where program cutbacks, re-orgs, budget reviews and department shifts have featured heavily, the age-old question has come up time and time again: “can we do more for less?”

One of the most meaningful and powerful bi-annual metrics that we have in our portfolio, Client Lifetime Total Revenue and Longevity (CLTR-L) was developed to evaluate the dollar value of a client relationship over the length of the contract, and the longevity of the relationship. This metric enables us to quantifiably contrast the average value of active advocates against the average value of non-advocates. From this, we can help our clients demonstrate the tangible business impact that active advocates are making on just their part of the overall revenue.

Putting together a recruitment report using RO Innovation (formerly ReferenceView) is easy to put together, and easy to understand!

In part one of this series, I spoke about a way in which I put together a recruitment report for my clients using RO Innovation (formerly ReferenceView) that is both easy to assemble and to understand…

Customer marketing and advocacy, like all other departments, needs to demonstrate its value to the larger organization. When Referential works with clients, I and my colleagues strive to ensure the quality of work we deliver is timely and, most importantly, impactful. What’s the quickest way to demonstrate this?

How do you know when it’s time to adapt your metrics strategy, and how do you figure out which new accomplishments to report on? Read on for tips and examples of shifting company priorities that may signal it’s time to adapt your metrics and reporting strategy.

VLOOKUP can seem intimidating as it is a more complex Excel function, but this tutorial will walk you through the steps and explain common pitfalls when using the VLOOKUP function.

Pivot tables are one of Excel's most powerful Microsoft tools. A pivot table allows you to extract the significant data and trends from a large, detailed data set. When analyzing your customer advocacy program data, pivot tables can be excellent tools for efficiently gathering insights on your customer advocates and advocacy assets.

Metrics are an essential business tool that enable each customer advocacy program to evaluate its performance and impact over time. We at Referential track various key business parameters for each of our clients on a monthly and bi-annual basis. One of the most meaningful metrics that we have in our portfolio is Client Lifetime Total Revenue (CLTR).