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Anyone who has done customer awards… we are looking at doing an “advocate of the year” award, a customer from our advocacy program. We would love to do “Innovator of the Year” (that is the name of the members of our program) but have received some pushback internally that it’s not super meaningful. We’ve been asked what we might name this category if the focus was more on what the individual/organization can “tout” as being our most engaged advocate? What have they done for their peers and the industry that they’d want to share far and wide? (think like why would they want to share this on LinkedIn) - any ideas or examples of what you have done for a similar award at your org? Other thoughts have been like “Community Contributor of the Year”, etc.
We did this last year at our conference for the first time, but a little differently. We had a "wall of fame" essentially where we had about 10 different customers who were recognized for their different areas of participation (Torch Network Member of the Year, involved in customer trainings, most involved in community, most referrals, etc) and had a brief bio about their participation. It was a huge hit with the customers who won, as well as good buzz for people who wanted to be "on the wall". It gave us great justification and allowed us to have an easy conversation this year when we asked to transition it into a more formal 'award' on the main stage.
I love that!
I run awards programs for a few clients and we actually had a CMA Weekly adhoc chat on Awards last week!
I would hesitate to create anything where you are essentially awarding your favourite customer. For example, if your internal marketing team identified an advocate you wanted to win an award and just pushed ahead with it ... as it gives the impression of your company choosing its favourite customer which is never ideal.
Instead, I'd recommend you come up with some criteria (number of engagements in community or advocacy asks, number of organic advocacy posts, etc.). This way you can demonstrate how you determined your winner. However, I do always think it is a stronger move to build out a full criteria + nomination form + judging process so your customers feel part of a program versus that they are just receiving a participation award. If you're just looking to do something to recognize their participation, I'd look at something along the lines of what Emily suggests above OR doing a thank-you gifting campaign with an award tied to it (ie. most sales reference calls, most amount of content, etc.).
@Alexie Glover can you share a good example you may have come across of criteria and a nomination process? thanks!
@Amy Are you looking for criteria specific to an advocate award? If so, I don't have anything available off hand. If you're looking for criteria for an overall customer awards program, there's lots! I'd be happy to dig up some of my fav examples.
Happy to share 🙂
Drinking my own champagne a bit here. But do a great job!
Other examples I like to keep my eyes on:
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• (from 2023)