I recently read a very interesting article from Forbes Insights called The Case for Face-to-Face. Forbes surveyed over 750 business executives about their meeting and travel preferences, and what they see as benefits from different meeting options. While 58% said they are traveling less for business, and 59% said they are using technology-driven meetings more since the recession, 84% of executives expressed an overwhelming preference for face-to-face meetings. The reason? Here is what 85% of respondents said: “Face-to-face meetings help build stronger, more meaningful relationships.”
Not surprising. I've seen the power of face-to-face executive dialog in a variety of customer program settings - advisory boards, executive sponsor programs, summits and more. When you have a seat at the table with your key customers for input and direction on how you can help solve their business issues, you gain collective knowledge to help guide your strategic direction. These in-person engagements foster collaboration, brainstorming and sharing of best practices ... and more importantly, build solid customer relationships.
It's so easy to "tell" your customers all the great things you can do for them. But when you sit back and "listen" to their issues, their challenges, and the things that keep them up at night, something amazing happens … you begin to understand with more clarity than ever precisely how you can help them be successful.
At a recent Advisory Board meeting, I witnessed the power of listening once again. The agenda we developed with our client included several discussions focused on topics their customers wanted to address with peers as well as the client. Through a voting process, breakout groups convened to address top issues from the group.
The outcomes of these discussions gave our client much to consider! They now have a view into their customers' areas of concern along with recommendations from those customers on how and where they can help. What could be better than that? Answer: our client now has an invitation from their customers for one-on-one meetings to further explore these issues ... a huge reward for "listening."
The more you listen and understand your customers, the better armed you are with solutions to meet their needs. You’ll gain the added benefits of retaining customers, enhancing relationships and ultimately growing those accounts.
As I wrote about the 10 keys to success, each one seemed to be "the most important one." I found myself thinking, "I can't stress this enough," or "this one is really critical to the success of your advisory board program." The truth is, each and every step is essential, and it's the sum of the parts that yields success. Building and sustaining a world-class program with your most strategic customers will help:
- Accelerate sales
- Retain and grow top customers
- Increase customer loyalty
- Enhance executive relationships
There are so many moving parts to any program initiative, and certainly each one is unique. I hope my experiences and best practices have helped answer some questions, or perhaps help you get started building your own customer advisory board program.
If you have some best practices or unique experiences you would like to share, I would enjoy hearing from you!
-- Karen
Last but certainly not least on my list of keys to advisory board program success is the overarching
program management process. To effectively manage any initiative, especially one involving your most strategic customers, you need dedicated resources to commit time, talent and energy to make it valuable and successful.
While many of these best practices may seem obvious, sometimes executive leaders don't realize the degree of complexity, organization and resource management it takes to maintain a successful customer program. Ensuring you have these program management elements in place will keep internal stakeholders aligned to the initiative, include your board members in the communication loop, and provide a framework to track the ROI of your customer program:
- Maintain a schedule of program activities
- Develop a timeline and critical path for execution
- Align and schedule resources throughout the program planning and implementation process
- Ensure regularly scheduled updates occur with team members and in turn, advisory board members
- Develop evaluation tools to measure success and socialize results internally
Successful customer program management requires effective communication and a collaborative spirit ... plan well and be flexible. Customer programs are not "just another meeting with a customer," they are
ongoing initiatives and should be treated with the same care and respect you give your most important account. It is an incredible opportunity to enhance executive relationships, retain accounts, accelerate sales and build customer loyalty!
My 9th key to success is vital to your initiative -
continuous communication and engagement. This includes between-meeting activities and touch-points. While you don't want to over communicate to members, you do want to share relevant news and updates with them. You'll get "high marks" for including them in the process and keeping them connected between the face-to-face meetings. Here are a few ideas for activities you can include:
- Issue tracking and integration of board ideas/suggestions
- Regular update reports on progress of action items
- Small "working groups" of members and host team experts to dive deeper into a key challenge or recommendation discussed at the meeting
- Invite members to an industry event you're hosting, and include post-event meeting time with board members to gain their feedback
- Special welcome for new advisory board members to help bring them up-to-speed on board activities
- A member-only website to include board updates, accomplishments, current meeting information, past meeting archives, a blog area, etc.
Staying engaged with your strategic customers in a programmatic way maintains momentum. They will appreciate being notified of the progress made, and see that their feedback is truly making a difference.
Powered by Compendium