“My definition of customer experience is it's the process of putting the customer at the center of what you're doing very simply. For marketing and marketers, it is ingrained in your marketing strategy and everything you do. It is driving the usage and adoption of your products.
It's in the DNA of how we work day-to-day. It affects brand loyalty. It affects customer retention. It affects bottom-line revenue.
The experiences that we create, both good and bad, are some of the largest determinations of customer retention.
Many marketers know the data is there. It shows which customers see the value of what you're selling and are more likely to buy. It's about acquisition, but it's also about retention.
That's what marketing is ultimately doing: it's creating experiences.”
- Angela Earl, VP Global Marketing, RFPIO Inc.
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To listen to more The Life-Long Customer podcast episodes, follow us on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelifelongcustomerpodcast/
Follow the host Brad Hammond https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-hammond
#thelifelongcustomerpodcast #customerjourney #marketingleadership #b2bmarketing
“My definition of customer experience is it's the process of putting the customer at the center of what you're doing very simply. For marketing and marketers, it is ingrained in your marketing strategy and everything you do. It is driving the usage and adoption of your products.
It's in the DNA of how we work day-to-day. It affects brand loyalty. It affects customer retention. It affects bottom-line revenue.
The experiences that we create, both good and bad, are some of the largest determinations of customer retention.
Many marketers know the data is there. It shows which customers see the value of what you're selling and are more likely to buy. It's about acquisition, but it's also about retention.
That's what marketing is ultimately doing: it's creating experiences.”
- Angela Earl, VP Global Marketing, RFPIO Inc.
//
To listen to more The Life-Long Customer podcast episodes, follow us on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelifelongcustomerpodcast/
Follow the host Brad Hammond https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-hammond
#thelifelongcustomerpodcast #customerjourney #marketingleadership #b2bmarketing
Introduction: 0:04
From Revenue Rhino, I'm Brad Hammond, and this is The Lifelong Customer Podcast. We're interviewing successful sales and marketing leaders in discussing ways in which they're building lifelong relationships with their customer.
Brad Hammond: 0:19
Welcome to The LifeLong Customer podcast. I'm your host, Brad Hammond.
Ice Artificio: 0:23
Hey, I'm Ice Artificio.
Brad Hammond: 0:25
And today, we have Angela Earl from RFPIO. Angela, it's really nice to have you on.
Angela Earl: 0:31
Nice to be on the show. Thanks for having me.
Brad Hammond: 0:33
Totally.
Ice Artificio: 0:34
Thank you so much for hopping on to this, Angela. Before we get started, we'd like to know more about you and your story behind RFPIO.
Angela Earl: 0:42
I'm a marketer, joined RFPIO in January of 2020 full time, but been around since their beginning. So it's been a really fun journey. I came up through marketing and sales operations. So definitely, I like to get my hands dirty in the data and technology and measure what matters.
Ice Artificio: 0:59
Sounds great. So you've been there since the beginning of RFPIO. What does it stand for? Let's start with that.
Angela Earl: 1:06
RFPIO. It's not an acronym. We started in the world of RFPs, and so it is meant to be RFP and then IO is input output.
Ice Artificio: 1:15
Okay, that makes sense. So can you tell us more about how the marketing space looks like in your industry?
Angela Earl: 1:22
Sure. Yes, and it's a fun industry to work in, because response management has been come to known or RFP software proposal management software has really been growing since before we got into it five years ago. It's really been one of the last men standing as far as manual process and sort of resistance to digital transformation. And so over the last five-plus years, we have seen companies like Microsoft reporting literally millions of dollars in savings through the automation.
Brad Hammond: 1:51
Love that. So let's dive in to today's topic, and that is customer experience. So what it is, why it's important and the role that it plays in marketing. So maybe for those listening, you can just give us an overview of how you define customer experience and then we'll dive into why it's important and the role it plays and all that.
Angela Earl: 2:12
Lots at stake. Yes, absolutely. My definition of customer experience is really, it's the process of putting the customer at the center of what you're doing very simply. For marketing and for marketers, that means that it's ingrained in your marketing strategy and that it is both driving usage and adoption of your products, but also it's in kind of everything you do. It's in the DNA of how we work day to day.
Brad Hammond: 2:34
I love that. So why is it important? Why should companies care about customer experience and look at it and track it and measure it and all that?
Angela Earl: 2:42
There's a lot at stake, too simple an answer. No, I think it affects brand loyalty. It affects customer retention. It affects bottom line revenue. The experiences that we create, and that's what marketing is ultimately doing, is creating experiences, both good and bad, are some of the largest determinations of customer retention, and many marketers know already the data is there that shows that customers who already see the value of what you're selling are more likely to buy. So it's about acquisition, but it's also about retention.
Brad Hammond: 3:13
I love that. Yes, if we look at some of those indicators that you look at as a marketer, I think you mentioned so like retention, brand loyalty, all this. What are the top indicators you look at and measure when it comes to the customer experience?
Angela Earl: 3:27
Yes. I mean, some of it, I kind of added myself by saying, I came up to operations and I believe strongly in measurement. Some of it is measurable, I think, and some of it is sentiment and perception. And I think both have to- you have to play in the balance of the two. It's as much about your NPS score as it is about the day-to-day volatility of how your customers feel about your brand.
Brad Hammond: 3:49
Totally. So let's talk about customer reviews and how they affect purchasing decisions. I think it's one of those things that I think it's so important to think about is like what's the perception of the online or reviews of all this. How do you go about looking at that? What lens you look at it through? And tell us a bit more about that.
Angela Earl: 4:10
Yes. I mean at RFPIO, we lean heavily on G2. We've been friends and partners of theirs since their early days. It's really fun to kind of have been growing with other people. You become that much closer and that much more loyal, seeking of customer loyalty and customer experience. They've been good to us, and we lean into that a lot. And so we're proactively looking for ways to engage our customers with G2 to capture how they're feeling, tell others how they're feeling, which helps us be better partners, and it also helps other customers or potential customers make informed decisions. Certainly, they're not the only game in town, but they're the ones that personally we like working with.
Brad Hammond: 4:47
I love that. And for those maybe not so familiar listening, my understanding is that G2 is like online review website and all that stuff for software.
Angela Earl: 4:57
It is. And one of the reasons that we early on kind of linked arms with them and kind of leaned into buyer reviews, and this was again in four or five years ago before it was so widely adopted. They're up to like 300,000 reviews now, which is crazy to think, but we've all watched the B2B buyers journey evolve. And different perspectives from Gartner and Forrester and all of the thought leaders have all sorts of maps and journey maps and what have you to inform on it.
But bottom line is B2B buyers are spending less time with their potential suppliers. Our salespeople get to spend less time with a prospect than they used to. Those prospects are doing their own research. They're talking to other people. They're talking to other users and review sites like G2 and others are one of the places that they're going to for information. And so if I'm only going to get to spend 5% maybe of the purchase cycle with my buyer, I'm going to look for other ways to influence what they're hearing and feel about my offering and about our customer service. And that's really where that experience comes in.
Yes, it's about the customer that you are delivering that experience to, but it's also their propensity to tell a friend, right? 'Tell a friend' used to be like forward this postcard, right? Take this discount, and it's really evolved in almost real time. I can have a bad experience, I mean, not almost real time, literally real time. I can have a bad experience. And on my way out of that bad experience, I'm already putting on Twitter how I feel about it.
Brad Hammond: 6:21
Yeah.
Angela Earl: 6:22
Right? And immediately, tens of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands of people know. And the influence we have is shrinking. We've got to be really, really careful with those moments in those interactions.
Brad Hammond: 6:33
Totally. So maybe, I'm a marketer out there, and I'm just stepping into the role and our company is going great guns on marketing. How do I get started with making sure we’re on these review sites, we're listed in G2. Where do I start? And what should I pay attention to and what's important?
Angela Earl: 6:49
Yes. I mean I'm a big fan of simplicity and focus. So to take this advice with some grain of salt. I would pick a partner. We picked G2, pick the one that you think your buyers are going to be on and that is going to resonate with your audience. And then kind of go all in on it and see what they have available to bring your customers there. Don't try and spread yourself too thin. I’ve seen a lot of companies try and be everywhere, and you kind of scratch the surface of a lot of places. I have found more success in really going deep. And we've done that successfully managing, whether that's getting reviews, breaking on a grid, sort of consolidating our efforts. And also, let us be focused to where we have one signal to watch instead of 10.
Brad Hammond: 7:31
I like that. I think my initial gut feeling would be like to go out and go crazy and get like cross-listed everywhere. Why is this so beneficial to really have that focus and pick one partner and not just try to go everywhere and get the company listed in all places?
Angela Earl: 7:48
All the things like that one meme that's been around forever with like stick head figure with crazy hair, right? I think it's not just review advice. I think focus is something that we desperately need in marketing and in B2B specifically. There are so many options, whether it's review sites or technology or campaigns, everything from the small little tactical things to the big strategic things. Really, there's a wealth of options. And so picking a couple and really investing in them, I think you can just move the needle.
The example I used to my team, a lot of stomping in a stadium. You have a couple of people or some toddlers that are running around on Tier 3. Nobody is really going to hear them in the white noise of an event. You get an entire stadium stomping, right? You really hear it, and it makes an impact. And I think that's what focus brings. It brings that consolidated energy and effort to truly drive outcomes.
Brad Hammond: 8:39
Yes, exactly. So if we think about reviews and even more broadly, customer experience, do you solicit them? Do you like go out and say, hey, post review here? What drives the people to actually review? And how do you make sure people that are really happy with the product are reviewing, not just the ones that are maybe frustrated with this bad experience?
Angela Earl: 9:02
Yes, it's a concert of efforts. It's not any one thing. We work really closely with our friends and customer success to intersect moments of feedback. So whether that's they've just had a call or they've just completed implementation or upgrade, we intersect those key moments of opportunity. We run campaigns with incentives.
So sometimes fall, everybody wants a warm cup of coffee or tea, so we'll run like Starbucks gift card campaigns where it's like, hey, we'll make some reciprocity in there. If you can give us a few minutes of your time, we'd love to buy you a coffee. Other times, it's a big push for a certain feature, where we'll say, hey, we'd love to see more feedback on our sales force integration. And so we'll do a blitz to those users of that integration just soliciting. We'd love to know how it's going for you.
I think the important part is not to just intersect at good moments. I think it's tempting to say only- I'm only going to ask for people who I know are going to give me a top review. But in reality, the data behind review usage by buyers is five-star reviews companies that have a perfect rating are unbelievable, right? We're sort of jaded as buyers. We think it's too good to be true. You almost get more positive results at like a 4.5 than you will a five.
And so you really want that balanced approach. Plus, you want to learn. Hopefully, you're in this authentically and genuinely trying to get actual user sentiment out there, not just making a facade of positivity. And so I think if we ask at those intersections and get a variety of feedback, you can learn. And over time, you really get genuine reviews then that really truly reflect the experience of customers are having across the board.
Brad Hammond: 10:39
I like that. So if I'm a marketer out there and I'm really focusing on customer experience and setting up reviews, all those stuff, so where are the traps? What are the landmines that I might run into or problems or challenges that I might experience? And how do I avoid and steer around those?
Angela Earl: 10:57
Yes. I mean I think one of the strongest pushbacks is time. The fact that time is limited, and we all get only so much of it, getting someone to invest the time in writing a review is really the trickiest part. Whether it's an incentive like that Starbucks gift card or just really leaning into the customers that have had such positive experience, reminding them, hey, here's the great things you've already experienced with RFPIO or with whatever solution you're having, would you mind telling someone?
And we're all usually willing to help somebody out. So if you can frame it in a way, that's where marketing comes in. It's all about messaging and positioning, but we want to remind them of why. Getting back to the purpose of the review, which is really to help their peers make informed decisions.
Brad Hammond: 11:38
Totally.
Ice Artificio: 11:39
That's very good. Now let's zoom out a little bit, Angela. You said you've had quite a journey in marketing. And definitely, there's a lot of stories in there. We'd love to know what's the craziest marketing initiative you've done in the past.
Angela Earl: 11:53
Craziest, huh? I don't know about an initiative necessarily. The craziest marketing moment I probably had was early on in my journey in marketing, I was sent to BSides Las Vegas, which is an InfoSec event. I was the newest in marketing, so I don't know if I just sort of got the short straw or if they wanted someone that hadn't been completely drank the Kool-Aid yet, but I got sent to Vegas to make friends and build relationships and spent two days picking locks and making some really amazing friendships that I've literally kept in touch with those people, and they're some of my dearest, dearest friends, so.
Brad Hammond: 12:26
It's amazing.
Ice Artificio: 12:27
It sounds like it turned out so well, so that's great.
Angela Earl: 12:30
And I can pick a mean lock.
Ice Artificio: 12:32
Yes, that's true. So we know who to contact for that. I will keep your number for that.
Brad Hammond: 12:37
Very cool. Well, as we're wrapping up here, what key words of wisdom or advice that you have for other marketing leaders listening today?
Angela Earl: 12:45
I think customer experience falls within these terms that can be considered jargon, right? We hear so many buzzwords, and it can seem bandwagon-ish. I think at this point, we've been talking about customer experience long enough, I could easily fall into that. And to those, I would say, lean into it. I think we've overused the term now more than ever, so I'm hesitant to say it. But coming out of or at least at the tail end, hopefully, of the season of the pandemic and being remote, the experiences we've had have really changed what we expect from brands, and buyers are expecting more. And part of that more is personalization. It is prioritization of the experience they're having. They don't want to spend time with people they aren’t enjoying working with. And so I think it is more important than ever that we provide a positive experience and that we can make it joyful and genuinely helpful.
Brad Hammond: 13:34
Totally. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of your thoughts and words and wisdom and advice on customer experience. Really appreciate it.
Angela Earl: 13:42
Thank you for having me.
Brad Hammond: 13:44
Totally.