In today's ever-changing business environment, there's one constant: the power of customer feedback.
More than just a tool for reputation management, customer feedback fuels growth, innovation, and market presence. As demonstrated by ActiveCampaign, automated review generation is one of the most effective ways to achieve customer feedback.
ActiveCampaign combines email and marketing automation with sales CRM functionality. Users can easily create and implement automated marketing and sales processes to significantly boost their business performance. This allows businesses to engage more effectively with their customers and prospects throughout their lifecycles.
Hailey Whitney, Senior Manager of Customer Programs & Intelligence at ActiveCampaign, chatted with us about their approach to review generation and how customer feedback is viewed as a cornerstone for development within the company.
A holistic approach to review generation
ActiveCampaign started their review collection journey by assessing customer touchpoints. This helped them determine where customers are most ready for responding to feedback. They strategically wait 90 days post-conversion to solicit reviews, ensuring that customers have had ample time to use the product and are out of the onboarding period.
When their algorithm detects that a customer is a match based on product usage, they’re prompted to leave a review. This process includes tailored messaging designed to resonate with each user's role to increase review conversion. For example, review asks would be personalized differently for an account owner and an end user, as the former has a different perspective and use case for the product.
They also take into account the timing of the ask. If a customer is actively working with another team member, they don’t want to be insensitive and ask for a review, as it could cause a fragmented customer experience and demonstrate a lack of organizational cohesion.
“Personalization done well, at scale, requires you to show that you are aware of those experiences and touchpoints.”
Hailey Whitney
Senior Manager, Customer Programs & Intelligence, ActiveCampaign
Additionally, their review collection strategy involved experimenting with triggers and taking into account various customer personas. They've observed that while some customers write reviews based on incentives, others are motivated by the opportunity to establish thought leadership.
However, if incentives are offered, every reviewer receives one – regardless of the review's sentiment.
To prevent review fatigue, they've implemented a mechanism to detect if a customer has already left a review. It waits a year before asking them to leave an updated or new review to reduce touchpoints.
These steps ensure that they have a deep understanding of their customer’s journey and their experience.
Consistency leads to success
ActiveCampaign’s perspective on G2 extends beyond looking at it from a buyer’s point of view, and they leverage G2 as a valuable feedback resource.
Each piece of feedback, which is more than 10,000 reviews, is systematically categorized. This information is then shared across the entire organization, offering insights into their market reputation.
“G2 has a fair review structure that allows a balanced perspective.”
Hailey Whitney
Senior Manager, Customer Programs & Intelligence, ActiveCampaign
Review outcomes are then tied back to the customer’s profile in their CRM, and each submission is tagged depending on whether further action is needed, like if the review needs to be escalated or if one-to-one outreach is required. All qualitative data is further categorized for customer sentiment and customer voice reporting to provide the Product team with more insights on how they can improve based on feedback.
Hailey adds that you would be surprised at how much your customers want to help you and leave a review.
Up to 600 ActiveCampaign customers leave new reviews every month, highlighting their ongoing commitment to capturing fresh insights. And by prioritizing the customer experience, they provide a positive interaction that naturally leads to good reviews.
If a competitor is increasing their review generation efforts, they mirror their actions. The reason they were able to reach the milestone of 10,000 reviews is attributed to their consistent automation, rather than sporadic campaigns.
ActiveCampaign’s philosophy centers around a continuous commitment to review generation, where every single day contributes to this ongoing effort.
Transforming challenges into opportunities
Addressing negative reviews is also a crucial aspect of ActiveCampaign’s approach. After all, critical feedback is actionable feedback.
After receiving feedback about support wait times and response protocols, they took a comprehensive approach to revamp the customer experience. This input prompted them to make substantial changes to ensure a smoother customer journey.
And this change didn’t happen in a silo. The feedback was disseminated to everyone internally to ensure an organizational commitment to improving the process and addressing the concerns raised.
Efficiency through automation and collaboration
Contrary to initial assumptions, managing reviews is less time-consuming than most anticipate. ActiveCampaign established an efficient process where incoming reviews are automatically converted into Zendesk tickets and appropriately categorized.
They've emphasized creating a streamlined operational workflow. This approach has been pivotal to their success, as it eliminates the need to manually visit their G2 page and individually examine each review, jotting down notes.
Additionally, they’ve taken a collaborative approach to review feedback. They realized it's crucial not to place the entire burden of every review on a single person's shoulders. By involving multiple team members, they ensure that digesting feedback isn't confined to just one person.
This strategy allows them to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the feedback's nuances and implications.
Going beyond reviews
ActiveCampaign recognizes that generating reviews is a collective responsibility, and consistently dissects their market reputation every month and shares these findings across the entire organization. This practice helps them gauge market sentiment and identify overarching trends.
To maintain a proactive approach, they continuously filter all the feedback from G2 into their Voice of Customer system. This enables them to categorize feedback based on sentiment and focus on areas that are receiving positive attention as well as those that present opportunities for improvement.
Both the product and customer organization are deeply involved in this process, and the executive team also plays an integral role.
And while generating reviews is crucial, exploring other factors that resonate with buyers on a deeper level is equally vital. A strong market presence is about more than just reviews; it's about grasping the full picture of what buyers want and considering their feedback.
A commitment to customers
ActiveCampaign places a significant emphasis on the importance of customer feedback in shaping business strategies and fostering growth. The company has created a culture that values input, and their approach to gathering and analyzing reviews underscores the fact that every piece of feedback is an opportunity for improvement.
Ready to embark on your own review collection journey? With G2 Review Generation, empower your clients to share genuine and trustworthy insights about your offerings.
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