June 24, 2009
Recently I had a chance to sit down and chat with one of our favorite clients, Abby Atkinson. Atkinson is Senior Director at Infor, where she pioneered the Infor Ambassador Reference Program. We spoke about the many things that have made the Infor program unique and such a success.
One of the main things that makes their program different is that they use a “butler service”, where the program is managed by a centralized reference department, rather than the more typical self service mode. This has allowed for better documentation and tighter control over reference usage.
Atkinson said that recently due to the tougher economy, her budget for the reference program was threatened of being cut. She had to defend the value of the program in order to keep it staffed and active. Using key metrics and simple figures, Atkinson was easily able to determine the savings Infor was achieving with the program as well as the negative impact they would feel without it. By the time she was finished Atkinson had increased her budget by 60%.
Click here to read the whole story.
Leave a Comment » | 
Customer References | Tagged: Case Study, customer reference management, Customer References, Infor | 
Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz
June 18, 2009
Looking for Qualified Customer References to add credibility to your PR efforts?
Boulder Logic and Projectline would like to invite you to join us for our upcoming webinar
Event Title: Helping PR Succeed With Customer References
Date: July 9 at 11 a.m. PST
PR is critical to building credibility and raising awareness around your products, services and technology. Engaging customer references from the onset helps PR become even more compelling. Yet, many organizations do not have a formal intersection in place between enterprise customer reference management and the public relations functions.
This webinar will focus on the importance of customer referencing and how it positively affects the Public Relations discipline. We’ll offer tips on how to improve the connection between customer references and Public Relations and provide recommendations for maximizing customer reference potential in PR.
Some topics we will discuss:
- How PR/AR typically interact with customer references today.
- The challenges to PR/AR and the entire organization with this silo approach.
- The benefits of an integrated program to the entire organization.
- The business justification for this approach.
- The implications of increased business focus on social marketing.
When: Thursday, July 9
Time: 11 a.m. PST
Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/442075658
Leave a Comment » | Customer References, What's happening | Tagged: customer reference management, PR, webinar | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz
June 16, 2009
If you are a reference professional in the New England area, you may want to attend the next meeting of the Boston Area Reference Professionals Group, organized by our friend Kara Manfredi of Deltek.
The next Boston area reference meeting is scheduled for August 14th from 9:30-12:30. Elizabeth McCann from Intuit has offered to host the next meeting in Waltham, MA. Dan Raun from DS will be joining the meeting to discuss the online community he is in the process of developing in partnership with Beeline Labs, targeting the aerospace and defense industry. Beeline Labs will also be joining Dan in the discussion. We are hoping to have a representative from SAP join our discussions of how they are using online community with their reference customers. If you are interested in attending this meeting please e-mail Kara Manfredi at karamanfredi@deltek.com or at 617-528-2601. Also, if you are not located in the MA area, but would still like to join the Boston user group please contact Kara. Kara’s group has members that dial in from NY, RI, CT, and SC.
Leave a Comment » | Customer References, What's happening | Tagged: customer reference management, Customer References, Deltek, Reference Program | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz
June 8, 2009
Recently I had the chance to talk with Marketing Sherpa about how Boulder Logic approaches customer interviews. We talked about an alternative approach to the classic customer case study (situation, challenge, solution, benefits). Our approach uses a recorded Q&A format that makes it easier to get customers to discuss their experiences. Because the interview is published verbatim the approval process is faster and the end result is a great read.
The full article will be available until June 11, 2009. Check it out
2 Comments | Customer References, Program Tips | Tagged: Case Study, customer interviews, customer marketing | Permalink
Posted by Joshua Horwitz
