Customer events are a great opportunity to capture strong customer references. Having spent time at the HP World Tour in South Africa in May, inEvidence’s very own Phil Oldham shares his top five tips on how best to leverage these opportunities.
- Arrange video interviews. Ahead of the event, contact customers registered to attend and find out if they’re willing to be filmed. Book a time and date, and ensure they’re fully briefed. Keep it fun, short and snappy. An ideal opportunity for media-confident customers.
- As above but without the camera. Either find a nice quiet spot, or use a lapel mic and capture some of the event buzz in the background.
- Go prepared. Create a set list of 10 standard questions or themes. Whenever you come across a customer use your checklist as the basis of your conversations, record the conversation on your smartphone (I’m a fan of the VoiceRecorder HD app on the iPhone) and transcribe post-event. Post event, mail the quote to the customer and them to sign off or amend.
- Shoot from the hip. During intervals have an interviewer and roaming cameraman circulate the crowds to ask attendees if they have a couple of minutes to answer some questions on-camera. Themes and topics can be kept simple: How are you finding the event? What are you looking to learn today? Which sessions are you planning to attend?
- Be the Anchorman. In the same vein as video interviews, set up some live anchor-style customer interviews on the event floor with a customer interviewee who is confident to speak in front of an audience in a live setting. Have an agenda but keep things conversational, and don’t be afraid to ad-lib.
If you’d like to talk to us about making the most of your next event to source your own customer reference nuggets, then please get in touch.