How to make your promotors your brand ambassadors

In a previous blogpost I talked about how important it is to listen to your detractors and why there's no reason to fear them.  

Your promotors, on the other hand, are customers who responded to your NPS survey with a 9 or a 10. They represent success and behave like loyal customers:  

• they make repeat purchases; 
• they give your company a large share of their spending; 
• they talk about your company or brand to their friends and colleagues; 
• they take time to respond to surveys and they offer constructive feedback and suggestions.

Your promotors aren't necessarily your ambassadors

The fact that your customers gave you a high score, doesn't mean they're your ambassadors. It may sound easy to see your promotors as ambassadors, but that's a misconception. As listening is important for your detractors, follow up is important for your promotors. It would be bad for your customer relationships when all communication stops after you've received such a high score from them. 

That follow up starts with thanking your customers for their effort, by sending them a brief message. But pay attention! Don't thank them with discounts! Your promotors paid the full price and gave you a high score. Giving them a discount after their purchase might make them mad: they won't appreciate the fact that they get a discount after their purchase.  

Imagine buying a brand new (and pretty expensive) iPhone 6S Plus. After your purchase, you get a survey about your buying experience. You're happy of course, so you give a high score. After the survey you get a thank you email with a coupon … with a discount for a new Apple device. Now that could come in handy, if you want to spent another large amount within the same month. But in every other case, you would have wanted to use that discount for your iPhone 6 Plus, wouldn't you? 

How do I activate my ambassadors? 

You probably have a lot of customers and lots of them will be your promotors. Don't just ignore the fact that they're there. Start with enriching your CRM with the fact that someone is a promotor.

Personalize your content

After updating your CRM,  analyze your promotor's data and send them personalized messages. But pay attention! Don't push it, don't simply send them messages to buy new products. Send them information that is interesting to them, information that they might want to share with their friends. This will give your promotors the right tools to become your ambassador. 

Use print media

Don't forget printed media! A personalized birthday card for example, attracts way more attention from your customers than an email in their mailbox. That inbox is probably filled with promotions and newsletters they'll never read. Your customers have no time, so your messages have to be short and sweet, to really attract their attention.

Respond to social messages​

When you've found some promotors that are sharing content about you, make sure to interact with them. Did someone write a good review on Facebook? Like the review and react with a thank you message. Did someone post a message on social media? Interact with them! When someone mentioned you on Twitter, try to answer within the hour. This will make people tweet about your level of service and your product. Go the extra mile. It's not just the person you helped that will appreciate the effort, but also everyone else who found out about it. 

With these tips you should be able to get started. Need more tips? On April, 26 Vinddevis is organizing a Marketingcafé about how to turn your customers in ambassadors. (Dutch spoken event) Bram De Vos, our Chief Customer Officer will talk about the importance of continuous measurement that evening.