Planning a Pathway from Retention to Advocacy gives you the structure to create unparalleled value and loyalty by connecting customers and brand experts to support each other, share knowledge and reduce reliance on customer success teams. A community is the best way to keep customers frequently engaged and build a better product or service with their input.
Exercise 4.3 - Pathways | Retention to Advocacy
The purpose of this Pathway is to find a repeatable, methodical way of levelling up customers to become active members of your community. Fully engaged customers drive 23% more revenue than the average customer.
A well managed and organised community allows you to segment your customers to provide personalised experience and deepen human relationships. Just like with Adoption, giving access to the right knowledge at the right time means members are continually learning and becoming experts. As members become experts and more regular contributors of ideas and feedback, you can start identifying who has the potential to become an advocate.
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Starting action
First specify what will trigger someone to begin this Pathway. This will be informed by how you defined retention and what member groups related to that stage in exercise 4.
Ending action
Pathways are all about guiding someone from A to B, so now you have A defined, B should be the action someone has to take before beginning an advocacy process. Unlike other stages of the flywheel, ideally retention never ends, you have a customer for life. This ending action does not represent ending their relationship with your business, rather levelling up to an advocate.
Key actions
It’s important when planning the key actions to guide someone from your starting action to your ending action to not constrain your ideas by tools or initiatives you’re already using. The most effective key actions are engagements which help the member solve their needs mapped in exercise 1. The best way to define your key actions is with a measurable outcome, for example - answers another member’s question or contributes a guest post.
For retention to advocacy it’s useful to think about how you can continually educate your customers to become expert members of your community. Your key actions should therefore mirror your member value proposition from exercise 3. The community needs to provide your members value but also give them the platform to share their knowledge and experience with others.
What subjects will generate ongoing curiosity? What new skills can they learn? What new features will they enjoy? What events can they make new contacts at?
At this stage in the flywheel, your community becomes an extension of your customer service. Offering a direct line to your brand and other customers alike creates deeper bonds and relationships that make it more and more difficult to leave. Existing customers should feel taken care of and revel in see limitless value in their access to experts. Members who aren’t yet customers can witness these interactions first hand and be nudged closer to acquisition.
Potential catalysts of key actions
Content & Courses
To retain customers through community, there must be a clear incentive to engage on a deeper level. This could be access to exclusive content created by recognised thought leaders or courses with certifications. Allowing members to continually unlock new, relevant knowledge will create a ladder up to advocacy.
Resources & Events
Giving your customers a platform to share their successes and insights with other members builds their profile in the community and get value out of helping others. By championing your customers in webinars or in-person events, you also show members at earlier stages of the flywheel the benefits of progressing.
Discussions
Discussions are a key way to collaborate with your customers. Creating exclusive spaces for announcements, support, ideation and feedback provide an opportunity to shape the future of your community, product or service. The more customers feel they have a say, the more invested they will become in your success.
Contacts
If members have successfully found support or mentorship in your community, they clearly see the value in reciprocating and helping others. Members who proactively help others are bought into the value your community creates and therefore make great potential advocates.
Target impact
Your target impact should reflect retention related business outcomes documented in previous exercises. To make your Pathway effective and impactful, your target impact should be a direct outcome of your Pathway’s ending action.
Indicators of impact
Customer retention is always impacted by many internal and external factors, but investing in the success of your customers has a huge impact on long term success. Depending on the key actions you set out, it may take some time before enough members have been guided through your Pathway and you have hard evidence of ROI. Indicators of impact should be desired outcomes of your key actions which you feel confident you can measure to track progress.
What’s next?
Next up, mapping your advocacy to acquisition Pathway.
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