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File this under The Hidden Wealth of Customers. Popular firms like Under Armour, Urban Outfitter and Skull Candy (popular headphone maker) are outsourcing customer service to a Salt Lake City start up called Needles. Needles provides the service by hiring its clients' "raving-fan" customers and paying them 10 bucks an... read more →

... or at least, today's best competivie differentiator. The world seems to consipire to make our choices ever more numerous, our information gathering ever more perplexing, our lives ever more complictated. Your competitors are doing this too. And there's your opportunity.  Stop trying so hard to WOW! your cusotmers, stop striving... read more →

Customer reference programs are generally part of a larger effort to engage with new or returning customers. References or advocates can influence prospects to do everything from attend marketing events, to participate in forums, join customer communities or  help close deals. In doing so, you'll often be part of some... read more →

We know that a lot of people are overworked working too hard (and not working smart).  The same is true for organizations. Is yours working too hard? Here are some signs of  impending organizational burnout. A better way to look at them would be as opportunities for reducing labor intensity while... read more →

This was the statement from an attorney representing doctors, in response to a lawsuit filed by a 20 year old patient whose arms and legs--all of them--had to be amputated when a bacterial infection got out of control. According to The Dallas Morning News, the hospital withheld appropriate antibiotics for... read more →

Some companies get too caught up in providing superior value to customers, because they regard value as something they provide rather than something customers perceive. "We strive for excellence in everything we do--especially if it's something that touches the customer," goes such thinking. But a lot of that "excellence" that... read more →

From the April edition of Reference Point. Gaining customer references and other advocates--and inspiring them to communicate passionately about your firm--are the bedrock for growing a business. Many firms, particularly B2B firms, get hung up on the utility of their products and services; things like business impact and ROI.  The... read more →

From my Harvard Business Review Blog post (see link below). Many firms assume that customers can do just one thing of real significance: buy their products and services. It's time to seriously challenge that assumption, as many companies are doing by looking to customers to fuel their growth engines. Facebook,... read more →

By now many of you have heard the very sad news about the passing of Pam Chamberlain, one of our  best loved colleagues. Pam was a long time customer reference professional, for years at HP and more recently at IBM, and a very generous colleague and peer to many of... read more →

Social media represents the biggest opportunity for customer reference programs--and the biggest threat, if they don't adapt. I'll be discussing this critical issue with Sean O'Driscoll--the world's leading authority on customer advocacy and social media--in a fireside chat at the 2012 Summit. We'll have plenty of audience participation. For now,... read more →