This is a guest post courtesy of Lior, back again to share his extensive knowledge with BGB.
He currently advises to a company that created a Passbook application for following credit card charges and also works with Jive; developers of one of the best collaboration software solutions online for businesses.
Keepin’ pretty busy wouldn’t you say?
Please make him feel welcome in the comments below and be sure to check out his other posts here and here, respectively.
While a loyal customer is vital to the success of a business, the popularity of social media means that many companies are seeking to tap into the influence of brand ambassadors who enthusiastically tell others about the brands they support.
In other words, brand ambassadors are essentially unpaid members of your marketing team who want to make sure others enjoy the same positive experience they have had with your company.
There are three kinds of brand ambassadors: your customers, your employees, and yourself.
Here’s a look at what it takes to foster brand ambassadors for your company.
How to Turn Customers into Brand Ambassadors
A brand ambassador is not “out there.”
Most likely, you’ll find every brand ambassador you could ever need right in the ranks of your existing customers.
In fact, by simply providing superior service, you may win over a number of brand ambassadors.
A happy customer with a resolved issue will tell four to six people about their experience according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs.
Duke Chong of Mashable writes that being quick is also vitally important-
“Social media users expect a response within one hour, and 6% expect a response within 10 minutes.
If you allow a support issue to dangle for too long, you risk being perceived as a company that either doesn’t know the answer or doesn’t care enough to reply promptly.”
Generating positive feedback is often tied to not keeping customers waiting.
When interacting with customers online, don’t be afraid to message them publicly.
They may have friends with similar questions who may benefit from your conversation.
In addition, it’s good for the general public to see your company reaching out publicly to customers. Being publicly available online is central to preventing online criticism, shopping cart abandonment, and losing customers.
As customers connect with your brand’s social media accounts and follow your company’s website, the next step is to give customers something to do in order to mobilize and motivate them to interact with your brand.
Todd Wasserman of Mashable writes that many successful brands ask a question or give customers an activity that they can post about on the brand’s Facebook page or share via Twitter or Pinterest.
Empowering Employees as Ambassadors
By fostering a positive and empowering company culture, you can create powerful brand ambassadors internally from the ranks of your employees.
Lisa Davis of Market Wire writes–
“Employees need to understand what their brand represents, what their company stands for, and what makes it different from every other company.”
The better informed an employee is, the more likely he or she will be to address customer complaints and to generate positive experiences for the customers who are expected to be brand ambassadors.
Your Own Story
You most likely have a story of your own to share about why you believe in your products or invest so much of your time in your company.
In addition, you most likely have your own social media accounts that you can use in order to talk about your own brand and what you like about it.
Mind you, being your own brand’s ambassador isn’t quite the same as a customer’s friend validating a shopping decision.
However, Forbes Magazine is quick to point out that-
“Everyone owns their own personal brand. Companies and leadership must see the value of this concept for a successful social workplace recipe.”
With that in mind, you too have your own story tell and can even model what successful brand ambassadorship looks like to employees.
While developing brand ambassadors is a lot of work, there’s no doubt that the process is not mysterious.
Superior service, empowered employees, and authentic public engagement.
All of these go a long way toward building customer loyalty and prompting them to start talking about your brand.
Over to You
How’s your attempts at creating brand ambassadors going? Feel free to share your stories in the comments below. And if you found this post useful, I’d appreciate your help sharing it!
