4 Tips to Turn the Loyal Customer into an Evangelist

An article by TheEvilGenius    2 Comments

The Repeat Customer, the Loyal Customer, the Evangelist and the Fanatic

Let’s get one thing straight from the outset.  A repeat customer is NOT an evangelist.  They are not necessarily even a loyal customer. A repeat customer can be someone who is driven by convenience, price, or lack of options.  An example of this is you continuing to use your cable provider or cell phone carrier. If you were presented with a better option, you would jump ship if the benefit exceeded the pain of doing so.

A loyal customer stays with you through the up and downs.  They have a belief in what you are doing, share you vision, and don’t mind the minor setback (or the occasional crappy product) because they believe in the greater cause. They will stick with you, but not necessarily push other people on to you.

An evangelist is not only a loyal customer, but they also feel compelled to share your products with others. These are the people who post on their blogs about you, post on other peoples blogs about you, and come to your defense on forums.  The perfect example of this phenomenon is the hoards of evangelists for Apple.  In their eyes, it is their obligation to share with everyone they know the “sheer awesomeness” of using the latest Apple PC, Ipod, or iPhone.

The holy grail of customer evangelists I will call the Fanatics.   The Fanatics as a group not only share with everyone you story, but will do so at personal expense.  The best example I can think of is a sports fan paying for your ticket to check out their favorite football team, or someone offering to take you out to dinner at a restaurant you “just have to check out.”

So the question becomes: How do I turn a loyal customer into an evangelist or better yet a fanatic?

Method 1: Give them a cause.

Getting your customers to rally around a cause offers several benefits. In addition to making the world a better place, it also helps build an emotional, not financial connection between you.  Also, people have a tendency to self-organize around an established cause.  A perfect example that comes to mind is Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Not only do they donate a large portion of their net profits to various charities and events, but they serve as the rally point for millions of customers to contribute their time and effort towards a higher purpose.  Oh, and they buy their Ice Cream.

The cause does not have to be completely altruistic, but I would not discourage you from doing so.  Another example that would be perfect in this market is the cause of helping struggling entrepreneurs get their heads above water and on the path to independence.

Method 2: Invite some customers with potential inside the velvet rope.

If you have some customers that you have recognized as being more active or influential than others, invite them into a special VIP velvet rope section. The key to this is to not only lavish them with “insider” information, but to also make their ascensions as public to other customers as possible. 

Let’s face it: Having a Porsche does not mean anything. Somebody seeing you in a Porsche does.

The important thing is to also give these VIP members some responsibility. You need to set the expectation upfront that in order to keep their elevated status, some work will be required on their part. Let them know that there are dozens of others clamoring for the same spot they are in.

Method 3: Make it cool to be like you

This tactic is fantastic if you can pull it off, but not everybody can.  Why do you think the current evangelism for Apple products is off the charts right now? Are Apple products exponentially better now than they were 10 years ago?  My guess would be no.  They are better, but not THAT MUCH better.

What has changed is that Apple, largely due to Steve Jobs, is cool.  That makes you, raving about their current gadgets, cool by association. Since everybody inherently wants to be cool, getting people to evangelize your product, and in turn, make them cool for both using it and being knowledgeable about it, is a piece of cake.

Method 4: Give Customers a Community to use as a Rally Point

Customer evangelists are all about sharing your message with others.  Well to do that, they need to be given a place and the tools to make that happen.  If it does not fit within your model to have a forum, at least provide the tools to make it easy for evangelists to share you information. Social marketing links to easily post or comment your content on digg and del.icio.us and access to your reports to post on their own sites and others.  Do everything you can to make it easy for them to do what they do naturally. You have people who are willing to spend their time and effort on sharing you with the world.  Giving them the ability to do it faster means that they can reach even more people on your behalf.