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Hot Topic: Big brother! Success stories.
20 Questions to help you see if you are getting the
process right
One mark for yes, nothing for no!
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No
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Item
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Yes/No
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1
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Producing customer reference stories is a
specific task that appears in at least one manager's personal
objectives. |
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2
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The appointed person or manager has direct,
or effective, control over the necessary resources. |
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3
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Resources are in place to research,
write copy and produce finished collateral. |
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4
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The level of resources is deemed
adequate for the targeted level of activity and is "ring
fenced" to ensure that resources are only used for this
purpose. |
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5
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Formal objectives and numerical
targets are defined. Mechanisms for regularly measuring performance
are in place. |
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6
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A documented process is in place
so that members of staff who might be in a position to identify
a potential reference story would know what to do, or would
at least know where to look for this information. |
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7
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The process does not depend only
on the sales person to initiate potential reference stories. |
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8
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The responsible sales
person or account manager does not have the sole authority to
halt progress on a reference story - or power of veto. |
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9
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The process includes
an independent mechanism to automatically contact every customer,
following a sale or services engagement, to ascertain their
willingness to act as a reference account, and as a safety net
to ensure complete customer satisfaction with the products or
services supplied. |
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10
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A documented process is in place
for recording all potential reference stories and their current
status. |
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11
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Review of the "story
funnel" is a fixed item on at least one regular management
team meeting agenda, ideally monthly but quarterly as a minimum. |
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12
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The editorial team meets regularly
to review and prioritise the stories in story funnel, in line
with current marketing initiatives.
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13
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The approval process is documented.
Specific approval steps are either assigned globally to named
members of staff or assigned on a per story basis. Members of
the editorial/approval team understand this process |
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14
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The approval process contains
specific performance targets - e.g. turn documents around in
2 working days |
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15
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Every member of sales team who
identifies a potential reference story understands that they
can nominate a customer as a reference story and knows how to
initiate the process. |
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16
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Other members of the customer
facing teams who identify a potential reference story understand
that they can nominate a customer as a reference story and knows
how to initiate the process. |
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17
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The style guide, template or
other formal tools that define the copy writing style and creative
treatment in line with company current practice is documented
and the appropriate copy writing and graphic design teams are
fully briefed and kept up to date. |
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18
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The copy writers have been appraised
of the company's current strategy and key messaging themes.
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19
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A formal process is in place
to keep this team up to date with changes to strategy and key
messaging themes. |
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20
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The copy writers have been approved,
individually if necessary, to have the appropriate skills and
sensitivities to talk to your customers directly, or a mechanism
is in place to facilitate the interview under supervision or
in a controlled environment. |
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Bob Brown
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Also in this issue . . . .
| Feature
Article: |
Filling
your leadership pipeline:Carol
Glaser of NextGen Leaders has written this piece for Cambashi
to suggest methods of filling the leadership void in your
company.
|
| Hot
Topic: |
Big
brother!
Customer Success Stories: Part
2 - Getting the process right. In our last e-zine we looked
at best practice in the area of customer success stories.
This month Bob Brown talks about the process.
|
| Book
Review: |
Homepage
usability: 50 websites deconstructed by
Jakob Neilsen and Marie Tahir
by is reviewed by Mike Evans.
|
Cambashi researches best practice
and assists IT suppliers in best practice implementation. For more
information on Cambashi services please email info@cambashi.com
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© Copyright 2004 Cambashi Ltd
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Questionnaire Print Version