Welcome to the Referential Blog!

As a team of consultants embedded in dozens of unique customer advocacy programs at any given moment, Referential is constantly exploring, implementing, and improving on strategies and best practices.

Join us as we discuss the latest tips, tricks, and techniques in customer advocacy and customer marketing.

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Recruitment, Best Practices, Customer Engagement Emily J Feber, Advocacy Consultant Recruitment, Best Practices, Customer Engagement Emily J Feber, Advocacy Consultant

Assumptive Recruiting: Getting On Their Calendar

Catch more advocates with a proactive 'assumptive invite' strategy. Referential’s personalized approach respects a would-be participants’ time while highlighting the value of joining an advocacy program. Opt-out options and flexibility ensure a positive experience. Learn how to boost your recruitment rates today!

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Metrics and Reporting, Data Management Emily Feber, COO & CFO Metrics and Reporting, Data Management Emily Feber, COO & CFO

Metrics to Help With Budget Justification

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.

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Customer Engagement, Best Practices, Program Management Ryan Quackenbush, Principal Customer Engagement, Best Practices, Program Management Ryan Quackenbush, Principal

Program Management of an AdvocateHub: Let’s Talk Naming Conventions

When you become an admin of an Influitive AdvocateHub, it is essential you think both short and long term about overall strategy. This post explains a simple best practice that enables admins to see the dates, target audience, challenge creator and more at a simple glance and, more importantly, with a simple search!

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Employee Highlight: Advocacy Program Management at a Fortune 500 Company

This blog features a Q&A with Senior Advocacy Consultant Barbara Leavy, in which she speaks about her experience managing the advocacy program at a fortune 500 company. Topics include navigating acquisitions, setting client expectations, the challenges of massive product portfolios and more!

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Training and Certificates Ryan Quackenbush, Principal Training and Certificates Ryan Quackenbush, Principal

On-Demand ICCAP: A Perfect Pick-Me-Up for the Post-Pandemic Professional

Are you looking to build a database of active customer references but don’t know where to start? Are you having trouble determining the ‘what, which and how’ of metrics you should track? Are there more questions than answers? …Or are you looking for a real, in-depth refresher course to help polish your resume and knowledge base?

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Data Management, Technology Anonymous Data Management, Technology Anonymous

Best Practices for Integrating RO Innovation with Salesforce

Have you ever dived into fulfilling an urgent reference request only to spend the next precious minutes hopping back and forth between your CRM and reference management systems, verifying that you’re using the most up-to-date customer data to identify the best-matching reference? Having easy, seamless access to current, real-time data – like account ownership, product usage, customer location and contact titles – can make a world of difference in how efficiently you can hone in on an ideal match for a reference request.

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Company News Ryan Quackenbush, Principal Company News Ryan Quackenbush, Principal

Because a Team of Consultants is Better than One

Though each of our consultants dedicate their time and focus to the programs of specific clients, our team regularly exchanges tips and best practices with one another. As a result, we’re constantly building on our collective knowledge and enhancing our ability to serve the needs of different clients.

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Materials Creation Alex Feber; Manager, Creative Services Materials Creation Alex Feber; Manager, Creative Services

Capturing Customer Testimonials During a Pandemic

As the US slowly starts to get back on its feet from the Covid-19 quarantine, businesses just like ours are starting to look at how we can adapt and overcome new social etiquettes. As the head of our video production team, it has been a challenge for me to develop new ways in which we are able to continue to create customer testimonial videos, but I have developed some strategies for navigating our new normal.

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Program Management Barbara Leavy, Senior Advocacy Consultant Program Management Barbara Leavy, Senior Advocacy Consultant

Keeping Customer Advocacy Programs Alive and Well in the Age of Mergers & Acquisitions

We all know that every company has a different view and investment in their customer advocacy program (if they even have a program at all). When going through a merger and acquisition (M&A), these are some helpful considerations to keep in mind while adapting your customer advocacy program to the new business.

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Data Management Lynn Watts, Advocacy Consultant Data Management Lynn Watts, Advocacy Consultant

“What Came First, the Data or the Customer Advocacy Program?”

As Advocacy Consultants a lot of our time is spent reaching out to and learning about customers, either via email, phone, at events or through the internal support and sales teams associated with a customer. Each time we make a connection, we find out new information; customer insights that need to be added to our reference management systems (RMS) to ensure the most up-to-date details are available to use. Of course, over time, this information can become old and incorrect, or gaps may appear, but inaccurate data is of little use to its users!

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