Monday, May 3, 2010

 The world's largest educational and research organization for customer reference programs, Customer Reference Forum, announced today a new offering of onsite workshops. "It was time, for a number of reasons," says Bill Lee, President of Customer Reference Forum.

That's because with today's rebounding economy, companies need:

• Just-in-Time customer references that can have a substantial impact on marketing, sales and social media efforts quickly.
• Access to relevant, high-impact reference management practices that ensure a steady stream of advocates.
• Customer reference initiatives tailored to specific firm strategy and customer profiles.

"With the recovery picking up steam, companies want to move now to get their key customers into their marketing and sales efforts," says Lee. "They can't wait for next year's conference. And they certainly don't want to waste time 'reinventing the wheel' when we can bring a wealth of knowledge about innovative reference program practices right to their doorstep."

The two workshops being introduced are:

Creating Just-In-Time Customer References, and

Customer Advocacy Online: Bringing References into Social Media and Lead Generation

"We're also providing Customized Workshops for certain firms as well," says Lee.

The advantages of getting effective customer reference practices in place are considerable, based on proven experiences from leading reference programs:

• Create measurable increases in sales productivity,
• Gain competitive advantage (in many industries, passionate customers are the only competitive advantage),
• Foster substantial Improvements in social media marketing efforts that can result in dramatic improvements in lead generation and branding,
• Kick start PR and Analyst Relations efforts by gaining notice from media and industry analysts, who find customer evidence and testimonials more credible than corporate statements,
• Improve the success of new product launches, by providing both the beta testers as well as the testimonials that are critical to their success,
• Deepen relationships with senior decision-making buyers, gaining access to their rolodexes of peer contacts.

. . . and much more.

For more information, see the Customer Reference Forum website.