LAS VEGAS – HR.com and Seventh Echo, a customer advocacy company, today announced a partnership that will provide comprehensive services to identify, activate and measure customer advocacy for HR solutions companies to accelerate revenue growth. The partnership builds on HR.com’s legacy mission to connect HR solutions companies with HR buyers and is the first in a series of announcements that will unveil the most comprehensive marketing products and services in the HR industry.
“This is a perfect partnership for HR vendor companies that work with HR.com. It helps them tell their story through their customers’ success while enabling them to continuously improve,” said Debbie McGrath, CEO of HR.com. “Customer advocacy is a challenge for nearly every HR solutions company that conducts a webcast or research project with HR.com. Now, they will be able to build a pipeline of customer-focused content with the added benefit of improving their competitiveness, as well as provide education for talent leaders and HR solutions buyers.”
Volumes of research underscore the value of Customer Advocacy, including a recent report by Qualtrics revealing that companies that cultivate customer advocates outperform competitors by 85%, have higher customer satisfaction and lower churn. The HR.com and Seventh Echo partnership will provide a scalable three-phase methodology and measurement capability for HR companies:
Phase 1: Internal Alignment and Messaging
- Articulate the story the company wants customers to share.
- Align and organize internal teams to embrace and enable customer advocacy.
Phase 2: Advocate Identification and Activation
- Identify advocates and detractors.
- Develop continuous flow of case studies, testimonials, references and other Voice of the Customer content.
- Flag and convert unhappy customers to reduce revenue churn.
- Provide feedback to appropriate teams for product roadmap, go-to-market, business strategy, business operations and other strategic areas for improvement.
Phase 3: Revenue Growth
- Develop and execute the Customer Experience to build and grow customer relationships including customer onboarding, customer feedback/communications and other Customer Success efforts.
- Develop customer footprint expansion plan, including upselling/cross-selling, Customer Success playbook and training and referral programs.
- Create customer community to enable best practice sharing, networking, product feedback and discussion forums.
Depending upon the company’s needs, Seventh Echo will provide strategy, planning, execution and measurement, or develop a sustainable foundation to hand off for internal management.
“This a powerful combination of cultivating and shaping powerful customer stories that can be told to the right audience at the right time,” said Patrick Rooney, CEO and Founder of Seventh Echo. “While many companies have some elements of advocacy in place, most do not have the time, resources or expertise to develop a customer advocacy program that is sustainable, scalable and focused on revenue growth. That’s what this partnership will do for HR solutions companies.”
“These are challenging times for marketers and even more challenging for companies that market to HR. The industry is flooded with vendors and it’s hard for buyers to differentiate between solutions or know who to trust,” said Brad Sutton, VP Global Sales and Customer Success for HR.com. “With this partnership, we are better able to serve HR solutions companies so they stand out from the crowd and convey competence and trust through the voice of their customer.”
Customer Advocacy Index
Until now, the ability to measure business outcomes of customer advocacy have focused on “execution-level metrics” including number of advocates or number of references. For the first time, Seventh Echo’s Customer Advocacy Index™ quantifies the business impact of customer advocacy. The Customer Advocacy Index is the first measurement approach to tie effort with effectiveness and business impact. In addition to using a company’s Net Promoter Score, the Customer Advocacy Index is a proprietary measurement methodology that tracks sixteen metrics related to revenue, including:
- New revenue from customer referrals
- Influence on new revenue
- Margins on referral revenue
- Cost of new customer acquisition
- Reduced revenue churn / increased retention rates
- Current customer revenue growth
“Most B2B companies recognize the importance of customer advocates but haven’t been able to justify the investment because they couldn’t track what they were getting from these programs,” said Patrick Rooney, CEO and Founder of Seventh Echo. “This partnership will make it easy for HR solutions providers to draw a direct line between advocacy and business success.”
About HR.com
At HR.com, we are committed to creating inspired and informed workforces by maximizing human potential around the world. Over 1.75 million HR professionals rely on HR.com as the foremost, trusted industry resource for education, career development, networking and compliance. Offerings include the largest network of HR executives, leading-edge industry research from the HR Research Institute, 13 monthly HR themed epublications, innovative HR education including 250+ annual webcasts, the most comprehensive HR certification exam preparation program supporting SHRM and HRCI certification, as well as helpful HR tools and legal compliance updates. HR.com has the largest knowledge base of HR practices globally and offers unparalleled training and networking for HR professionals all over the world… 24/7… 365. Visit www.HR.com to maximize your HR potential.
About Seventh Echo
Seventh Echo is a Customer Advocacy company that helps business-to-business companies identify, cultivate and activate customer advocates to drive growth and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. With a focus on achieving scalable advocate-driven revenue growth, we help companies reduce churn, align internal teams, create compelling customer stories, and grow revenue through footprint expansion, recommendations and referrals. To learn more, visit www.seventhecho.com.
Contact Information:
Debbie McGrath, CEO
HR.com
dmcgrath@hr.com
Patrick Rooney, CEO
Seventh Echo
patrick@seventhecho.com
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