Turn your customers into ambassadors

Word-of-mouth still ranks number one when it comes to spreading positive news about a small business, so the question is how to get people talking about yours?

One cost-effective strategy is to create what I call a ‘best customer advisory board.’ It serves two purposes: you’ll benefit from the collective brainpower of people you trust who already buy and like your products or services. Secondly, as members of your advisory board, they will feel more engaged and happy to spread the good news about your business to support your success.

Big companies rely on all sorts of advisory boards. For years, I served as a member of the small business advisory board for a major financial services company. During a two-day retreat at a nice hotel, we reviewed proposed products, scrutinized upcoming ad campaigns and brainstormed for hours on the company’s behalf. We also pitched our own ideas to the company and several of us earned consulting contracts.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time or money to set up your own best customer advisory board (BCAB).

Here’s how to do it in less than a day:

1. Make a list of five to seven of your most loyal customers. Pick ones you trust and enjoy working with. Choose a mix of people who will be enthusiastic about investing time and energy in your business. If possible, include a few high-profile, respected members of the community or industry leaders.
2. Draft a short letter (not email) explaining that you are establishing a best customer advisory board and would like to invite them to join. Explain that being a member won’t take a lot of their time. Once a quarter, they would be asked to review products and marketing materials. Then, the BCAB would meet via conference call or if possible, in person at a breakfast or dinner. (Be prepared to pay their travel expenses if they are based out of town).
3. Once they accept your invitation, prepare a package of materials and product samples to send to them. Include catalogs, brochures, business cards, sell sheets and printed screen shots of your website. Be sure to send a short email with links to your website and other materials for review.
4. Set the date for the first meeting and poll the group to schedule subsequent meetings far in advance. Everyone is busy and appreciates knowing the dates of future meetings.

Not everyone will attend every meeting, but that isn’t important. The important thing is that you are tapping the energy and brainpower of people who like you and want you to succeed. It’s important to emphasize that while you value their opinions, you expect them to be honest with you and welcome constructive criticism.

I promise that establishing a BCAB will set you apart from your competition. Entrepreneurs often let their ego get in the way of soliciting outside opinions. That’s why having this core group of customers you trust is so important to your long-term success.

Between meetings, establish weekly communications to keep them informed and engaged. Send a short, weekly update via email and perhaps a longer, monthly communication.  Present what’s new in a short, informational style using bullet points. Keeping in touch with your advisors is critical to keeping them engaged and enthusiastic.

If you feel a bit more enterprising, then you can start a private blog that only the group can access via login. Tumblr offers an easy-to-use platform that lets you regularly post updates and notify members via email, as do other free blog platforms.

And, don’t forget to ask them to recommend and refer you and your business to their colleagues. Spread the word even more by sending out printed discount coupons and referral cards for your advisory board members to share with their friends and family.

Once you have established the BCAB and started collecting feedback, the next step is to expand your efforts to solicit opinions about your products and services from the rest of your customer base. You can send out a short survey via a perforated ‘bounce back’ post card. Limit the number of questions you ask and offer some sort of discount or ‘two for one’ offer as an incentive to those who return it.

You can also create an online survey with a platform like SurveyMonkey. These email surveys just take a few minutes to set up and offer easy results reporting when needed.

No matter what format you use, try to limit the questions to fewer than ten. Ask your customers specific questions about your products or services. The more specific your questions, the better the feedback you’ll receive.

Here are some sample questions (some questions should have multiple choice answers):

1. What do you like best about our XYZ product?
2. What do you like least about the product?
3. What would you change to make it better?
4. Would you buy it again?
5. If not, why?
6. Would you recommend our company to a friend or relative?
7. If not, why?

Finally, the most important aspect of the survey is reviewing the responses. Assign one or two members of your team to review and collate the responses. Spend some time really absorbing the feedback and thinking about how you can improve your products or services. Most online survey tools aggregate responses for you. This gives you more time to focus on improving your products or services.

Remember, business owners who operate in a vacuum are usually sucked into oblivion.

Save time by printing postage yourself with pbSmart Postage. Find out more here.

Jane Applegate is an expert on small business marketing. She is the author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business and can be followed at http://201greatideas.com/. Jane is not a Pitney Bowes employee and shares her insights on this blog as a paid contributor.