Ashley Ward

#general - November 14, 2024 at 07:49 PM

@Kevin Lau Thank you and that would be amazing! This is so closely aligned to how I'm building this out. I would especially love to hear more about the influencer programs - I was thinking about having Influencer + Exec together, hoping we could tap into the Execs to build out the influencer program.

Currently we've been trying to build out an influencer program but it lives in DG and it's just not aligned to our teams priorities but I think there's huge opportunity to move this into CM and build both out together.

#general - November 13, 2024 at 07:19 PM

Hi Everyone! I'd love to hear about any Executive Programs people have found success with!

One of my primary goals for 2025 is to help up level relationships w/in our customer accounts. Our users love us, and today that's where most of our CM programs focus. But we want to make sure execs understand the value we bring to help with NRR, Expansion and Advocacy.

#random - October 22, 2024 at 10:27 PM

I offered him a second, larger gift card if they become a customer, so hopefully I win! 😆

#random - October 22, 2024 at 10:23 PM

Here's a fun one! Got a reference request for a customer who has experience using our product and a competitive product. Got someone, introduced them to the prospect.

Prospect responds the next day that the competitor introduced him to THE SAME PERSON as their reference. 🤯☠️

#discussions - October 22, 2024 at 10:04 PM

We have been using Google Forms. It does the job, but it's super basic and it's not ideal since it puts all the responses into a spreadsheet, so I can't say I recommend it

#welcome - October 07, 2024 at 10:59 PM

So happy to see you here!! 🎉

#general - September 09, 2024 at 08:07 PM

oooh I like this too! Thank you!

#general - September 09, 2024 at 06:45 PM

@Lauren Turner this is amazing - thank you!

#general - September 09, 2024 at 06:37 PM

Hi everyone! I've been pretty lucky to manage case study approvals with our POCs over email, but I'm looking at getting a little more formal and sending over something at the beginning of the process to set expectations around timelines, where we can/will use logos, quotes, stories, etc. Can anyone share how they are doing this today and any templates or examples? Thank you!

#general - June 05, 2024 at 07:47 PM

@Maura Frost we ask customers "would you be willing to be a reference?" in various surveys post training/certification events, this is also included in G2 reviews - this has given us a great pool to start with. It's super vague but is a great place to start building a base.

#general - June 05, 2024 at 07:45 PM

@Mary Green (Owner CMAweekly) nope! just a pilot so verrrrrrry simple - email our customers > ask them to submit a form > send to sales to schedule demo > pay customer when demo is done

#general - June 05, 2024 at 07:42 PM

Launching a referral program pilot - would love any tips people have!

#general - April 16, 2024 at 05:52 PM

I probably spend an hour on the outline, maybe 30 minutes on edits. My last story I was able to send a draft to the customer less than 24 hours after our interview. 🙌

#general - April 16, 2024 at 05:50 PM

I usually listen back to the interview and draft a rough outline (like bullet points). This is my prompt:

Hi! I'd like you to write up a compelling customer story for the software LeanData. Please review these pages to learn about our style. Then I will submit an outline that I'd like you to use to write the story. While I'll be providing mostly bullet points, please write something that is aligned to the example format. Target tel:500-1000|500-1000 words.

Examples:
Add 3-4 links to your best stories

#general - April 16, 2024 at 05:46 PM

My experience is usually 1-2 weeks to have a writer turnaround a first draft. I’ve been using Gemini to turn around first drafts immediately after the interview. GAME CHANGER.

When I send the draft to a customer, I usually ask for a timeline on their end. Like “is approval by next Friday realistic for your team?”

Once approved, we have graphic templates but that can take 3-4 days and can probably be done while the draft is waiting on approval from the customer.

I would hope for no longer than 4 weeks from start to finish.

#general - April 02, 2024 at 05:42 PM

Following!

#general - April 02, 2024 at 02:49 PM

Update if anyone is interested:
I put together this email template that we're using for this small set of customers. CSMs/AMs are sending it out for this initiative.

Moving forward I'll use this or something similar to proactively reach out to customers who have had success. (I have alerts set up in our call recording for key words and get other signals via PS/CS/AM teams.) Wanted to share in case anyone needs something similar:

I hope you’re having a great week so far!

At [Company Name], we're constantly striving to showcase the success stories of our valued customers like yourself. Your experience with [Company Name/Product] has been impressive, and we believe it would be a valuable resource for others considering [Company Name/Product].

With that in mind, we'd like to request your support on a few things:
• Logo Usage: Would you be open to allowing [Company Name] to use your company logo on our website and marketing materials? This would help us demonstrate the trust and positive experiences our customers have with [Company Name/Product].
• Success Quote: We'd love to feature a short quote from you that highlights how [Company Name/Product] has positively impacted your business. Sharing your success story can inspire others and showcase the capabilities of our platform.
• Customer Story Interview: Would you be interested in exploring the possibility of a brief interview with our customer marketing team? This interview could potentially be turned into a customer success story featured on our website and in other marketing materials. Of course, you would have complete editorial control over the final content.
We understand your time is valuable, so we'd be happy to keep any interview concise and convenient for you.

Please let me know your thoughts on these requests. We appreciate your continued partnership and look forward to hearing from you soon.

#general - March 29, 2024 at 06:40 PM

Hi everyone! I'm looking to quickly gather some customer logo approval and potential quotes for a specific industry. Does anyone have any experience doing email outreach or a logo drive type campaign? My plan is to work through the CSMs to get some quick responses, but I'd love to hear if anyone has done something like this or has a template asking at least for logo approval?

#reviews - January 23, 2024 at 10:07 PM

we pay for it - This is my second time/company and in both I've seen higher response rates to the emails that come from G2 so the campaign management is worth it to me.

we also pay for the content package but i think that really depends on your category, your placement, your plan for content and promo, etc.

#announcements - January 17, 2024 at 05:18 PM

Thanks @ - this is helpful!

#announcements - November 22, 2023 at 05:19 PM

Thank you all so much!! So many great examples, I appreciate it!

#announcements - November 20, 2023 at 09:18 PM

We use a shared Google Calendar for customer comms. Historically we've only had emails + events, but we recently added Pendo in there. It's...fine. But maybe Airtable or something might be a little more visually appealing.

#announcements - November 20, 2023 at 07:32 PM

Can't wait! I'm thinking about not only how to do this, but with limited team/resources also how to do this at scale!

Salesforce has this series called "Solve It Series" where they essentially ask the same 3-5 questions and they have a standard template they pop it into.

For me, I'm thinking something similar could work where each interview is focused on one specific use case or problem being solved. We have a pretty technical product that can do a ton of things and customers love learning from other customers and like the nitty gritty details, so this could allow me to get into the weeds a bit, without getting too long.

#announcements - November 20, 2023 at 07:27 PM

Yeah these would be great!

I would be focused on that last bullet as I'm really trying to help w/expansion vs New Business which I think our current stories and reviews cover pretty well.

#announcements - November 18, 2023 at 05:03 PM

Hi everyone! Looking for some inspiration! Does anyone have different types/levels of customer stories? Like stories that are focused on one specific use case rather than your standard overall story? Any examples to share?

Background: This week we ran some workshops w/sellers around customer expansion and the primary feedback was that they need more customer examples/stories around specific use cases that could lead to growth.

I'm thinking about something like a series of templatized micro-stories, but would love to hear how others are approaching this. Thanks! 🙂

#random - September 08, 2023 at 05:45 PM

Thank you! @Kristine Kukich and @Alexie Glover. We don't have any tool for this, but we could just create a badge like these ones and recommend they add to their LinkedIn profile right? Anything I'm missing?

#random - September 08, 2023 at 04:34 PM

@Kristine Kukich - do you have an example of a digital badge? We give them graphics for LinkedIn and make recommendations on where to add it to their profile, but I'd love to send something digital that felt more personal to each person! 🙂

#random - September 06, 2023 at 03:35 PM

Hello! For Awards programs- Curious to hear what people are doing for physical awards? We have limited budget and typically order one trophy per winner, but our awards are usually for a team, and so many teams being remote this seems outdated. Would love some fresh ideas!

#announcements - July 20, 2023 at 04:24 PM

GORGEOUS!

#linkedin - July 11, 2023 at 07:43 PM

Thanks @Amy Payne! Ours are industry awards, so open to anyone to submit, but most of the submissions come from our customers and we always use social to promote - we have CSMs promote as well as we're all connected to a lot of customers.

But, most of our customer specific programs are a different story and we're always going back and forth on what is relevant there - so that totally makes sense! :)

#linkedin - June 13, 2023 at 06:25 PM

Seriously these are THE BEST. We have our Awards in September and I'm going to do my best to incorporate this! ❤️

#jobs - June 07, 2023 at 06:07 PM

I will also likely have a role opening up next week - I will post here for sure!

#random - June 05, 2023 at 08:40 PM

thank you...I really needed a sanity check since this started coming up all of a sudden

#random - June 05, 2023 at 07:32 PM

Random question - thoughts on setting up reference calls between competitors?

This keeps happening to me:
Sales: "Do we have any references at Company XYZ"
Me: "Yes, we do!"
Sales: "Great we have a competitor of theirs looking for a reference"
Me: 🫠

I don't feel like that's the greatest ask of our existing customer, and in many cases we have lots of other references that will probably be a great fit...but I'm wondering others thoughts?

#announcements - May 12, 2023 at 07:01 PM

Love seeing all the babes! I have to get it in on this too! Lucas (7) and Mackenzie (almost 5) ❤️

#random - May 05, 2023 at 07:48 PM

Am I the only one who can't stop refreshing the Review Activity page in G2 when you launch a review campaign? 🫠

#random - April 14, 2023 at 06:33 PM

So that means you don’t want to buy this list of super valuable leads?!

#announcements - April 05, 2023 at 03:39 PM

Hosting an in-person customer lunch & learn today and thinking about launching a referral program for people who were advocates/certified in our product but now work at prospect accounts...

#announcements - February 21, 2023 at 04:16 PM

Working on the final stages of a new Learning Center for customers, launching reg for an in-person customer event in March, prepping for a Q2 Customer Programs planning/sync with our CX leadership, and.....onboarding a new coordinator on my team! 🙌

#random - February 02, 2023 at 05:46 PM

These "reviewers" have real LinkedIn profiles but if you dig in you can tell they are fake. Many have reviewed the same 2-3 products, so it seems like part of a bigger scheme and they are just sophisticated enough to beat the system.

In our case, it says they are sourced and incentivized by our competitor, so that's the frustrating part for me.

I spent a good couple of hours last week digging in - the whole thing is super fascinating and also super frustrating at the same time, given we're going up against this in our category 🫠

#random - February 02, 2023 at 05:35 PM

Hi Katlin - thanks! I reported them - about half got removed the others didn't. I escalated the rest to my CSM (who is amazing) - when you look at them collectively it's so obvious.

But overall, with ChatGPT and other things, I'm just curious what G2 and other sites will and can do to prevent this? And is there any penalty for companies seeking reviews this way? I'm sure there is something in the contracts about this.

#random - February 02, 2023 at 05:26 PM

Yes! I love the new in two also!!

#random - February 02, 2023 at 05:26 PM

I will be in the call today about reviews, but question for the group:
Has anyone seen or dealt with fake reviews or bots on G2? I'm curious if this will become more of a problem moving forward...We have a competitor with a lot of obviously fake reviews and today I got an email from TrustRadius about how important quality is to them...so just wondering if this is a theme?