TRANSFORMING HP S SOFTWARE S CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH ADVOCACY WITH ADVOCACY

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1 TRANSFORMING HP S SOFTWARE S CUSTOMER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE WITH ADVOCACY WITH ADVOCACY How HP Software s Service Portfolio Management Customer Success team engaged, educated and delighted 1,000+ IT Service Management customers with an advocate marketing program

2 When you are one of the largest software vendors on the globe with thousands of employees and tens of thousands of customers, it can be incredibly challenging to maintain personal connections with each and every individual customer. At a certain size, that kind of 1:1 engagement can become impossible to manage at scale. But Chris Peltz, Chief of Staff of HP Software s Service Portfolio Management Customer Success team, thought it could be done. After 14 years in a number of strategic and customer-facing roles at the company, he had noticed opportunities he and his team could pursue with the right strategy but only with the help of their customers. MEET CHRIS PELTZ: Chief of Staff for HP Software s Service Portfolio Management Customer Success team With a background in computer engineering, Chris first joined HP in 2000 as a Senior Software Consultant. For 14 years, his passion has been connecting the dots : bringing information, technology and people together to optimize for success. In his current role, he is focused on increasing the renewal rate of HP Software s IT Service Management install base by delivering the best possible customer experience. What we were missing was that ongoing experience where customers could engage with us on a more intimate level and tell us what they wanted to see in our products each and every day. We believed that an advocacy program could deliver that. 2

3 HP SOFTWARE S ADVOCACY PROGRAM PILOT: SMALL, FAST & AGILE Chris and his colleagues devised a plan to get a small pilot up and running within the IT Service Management business as quickly as possible. With this strategy, they earned the support of key people and organizations within the company, including the head of customer success as well as the marketing, references and product management teams. It was important for us to get buy-in from these groups and establish early on what the advantages of this program would be for them, Chris says. He selected Influitive s cloud-based advocate marketing software, AdvocateHub, to create, launch and manage HP s very first advocacy program, the HP ITSM Insiders. With the help of a dedicated Influitive Advocacy Coach, the program was up and running in only three weeks just in time to launch to a small group of about 50 customers at HP Discover in Las Vegas in June Hundreds of HP ITSM customers joined the program within just a few months, generating thousands of survey responses and social shares, and educating hundreds of customers on HP s newest ITSM products. 3

4 BEHIND THE SCENES: HP S ITSM ADVOCACY TEAM STARRING ROLES: EXECUTIVE SPONSOR JEAN-MARC BRONOEL Head of Service Portfolio Management Customer Success GAME DESIGNER CHRIS PELTZ Chief of Staff - Service Portfolio Management Customer Success The game designer is the customer experience expert. Chris main role is to ensure that HP is providing an engaging experience that keeps customers coming back for more week after week, month after month. You ve got to make sure you re providing a fun, engaging experience by targeting the right types of activities to the right people, he says. ADMINISTRATORS SEVIN ABDILOVA Program Management Office, IT Operations Management CINDY CRUZ Assistant, SPM Products An advocate marketing program is not a set it and forget it type of program. On a daily basis, you have to be publishing new activities for advocates to do, and you also have to recognize and reward them to keep them motivated, Chris explains. A handful of people handle the day-to-day maintenance of the program on a tactical level. 4

5 REFERENCE MANAGER ELAINE KORN Worldwide Customer Advocacy Program Lead, IT Operations Management Existing reference customers were prime candidates for the program early on and eventually Chris could also help his colleagues identify new customer references. Once an HP ITSM Insider has been identified to share their success story, the production of that success story is handed over to the references team. The reference manager also provided ideas for specific reference-related challenges. SUPPORTING ROLES Marketing Product marketing serves a vital role in ensuring fresh and engaging content is made available in the hub. This includes identifying webinars to advertise to customers as well as helping to coordinate the online experience for events. The product marketing team provides additional assets to educate advocates about new product innovations. Product management Since a key goal of the program is to better educate customers about HP s products, the product management team engages with customers by answering questions and sharing best practices via the program. The Product Managers also play an instrumental role in ensuring that feedback from customers, e.g., through an NPS survey, are followed up on and addressed in a timely manner. 5

6 HP ITSM INSIDERS: GOALS AND RESULTS The quicker you can show value to key stakeholders, the better. Using Influitive, we could really see results quickly and share those results with our executives to get the additional buy-in and funding we needed to take the program from a pilot project to full production. CHRIS PELTZ 1 ESTABLISH STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS The HP ITSM team had customer references, but they were often at the company level rather than the individual level. Through the new program, Chris and his team aimed to increase advocacy by building personal relationships with the individual people within those accounts. 1,200 TOTAL ADVOCATES 1, MAY 2014 JUNE 2014 JULY 2014 AUG 2014 SEPT 2014 OCT 2014 NOV 2014 DEC 2014 JAN 2015 FEB 2015 MAR 2015 APR 2015 MAY 2015 Starting with 111 customers in May, 107 new advocates were invited to the program each month throughout the rest of To date, over 1,000 customers, partners, and employees have joined the ITSM Insiders program and it continues to grow. 65

7 2 INCREASE AWARENESS OF NEW PRODUCTS WITHIN HP S EXISTING CUSTOMER BASE We are doing a lot of really exciting, innovative things within HP Software and, in particular, the Services Portfolio Management business, says Chris. We wanted to make sure that all of our customers, including customers who have been in our family for years, were aware of these new product innovations, how they could take advantage of them and, more importantly, that they could help shape the future direction of our portfolio. HP ITSM customers have completed over 470 educational challenges, learning more about new products and services, best practices, industry trends and company news each time they log in to the Insiders AdvocateHub. 3 GATHER CUSTOMER FEEDBACK ON NEW AND EXISTING PRODUCTS Making their installed base more aware of product innovations wasn t enough. It was essential that this new advocacy program also provide a channel for HP ITSM s customers to share their feedback positive or negative about the company s products. These insights would allow the company to continue innovating and responding to the needs of their customers in a timely manner. To date, the ITSM Insiders have submitted over to 1,000 responses to survey questions, including NPS, generating invaluable insights for HP ITSM s product management, product marketing and customer success teams. 7

8 4 AMPLIFY THE VOICES OF HP CUSTOMERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA Enlisting the help of their customers to increase the number of discussions about HP ITSM products taking place on social media was another key goal. It s not only about our product marketing or product management folks tweeting or posting on LinkedIn about our products, he clarifies. It s also important to influence what our customers are saying and how they re spreading the word about all of our new innovations. HP ITSM advocates have posted more than 2,120 messages across social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn, spreading the word about new content and customer success stories, upcoming events and latest news. 5 CREATE A SENSE OF COMMUNITY A significant aspect of Chris vision for the program was encouraging HP customers to collaborate and engage with each other. We wanted customers to share best practices and learn from each other, he says, but they didn t want to remove or replace the existing communities that had already been established across the social web, such as on LinkedIn. We decided that our advocacy program should strengthen those channels by driving customers there to ask and answer questions, share best practices, and network with other IT professionals. HP s ITSM Insiders program has generated over 550 new blog comments, as well as hundreds of additional questions, answers and discussions across the social web on LinkedIn, support forums and customer communities. And, customers and partners are contributing their own blogs online. 8

9 IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT HP EVENTS HP Software was one of the first companies to leverage Influitive s new AdvocateHub Experiences functionality at a major event. Chris and his team used AdvocateHub Experiences at HP Discover in June 2014 to introduce the HP ITSM Insiders program to their first 50 advocates and engage with them throughout the event. AdvocateHub Experiences is a customized area dedicated to maximizing advocacy around events, launches or other key campaigns. Featuring an experience-specific leaderboard, challenges and activity feed, you can focus your advocates attention and boost advocacy, buzz and engagement. Learn more. We used AdvocateHub Experiences at HP Discover to get people to talk to each other, ask them to attend certain sessions and gather their feedback on those sessions as well as the overall event experience, Chris explains. Following this successful launch, they would go on to use AdvocateHub Experiences at other HP events, including the ITSM Customer Forum in Berlin where they engaged 70% of the participants before, during and after the event. 9

10 BEFORE THE EVENT Registrations Call for speakers Gather topics of interest Advocate introductions Event introductions Fun challenges DURING THE EVENT Upload photos from the event Real-time feedback on sessions Contests Points leaderboard Activity feed Social sharing Schedule 1:1 meetings with HP product managers & executives AFTER THE EVENT Evaluation and feedback surveys Registration for the next HP Discover event in Barcelona ITSM CUSTOMER FORUM EXPERIENCE RESULTS 70% of attendees participated 200+ social interactions, including 80 retweets, 71 tweets, 37 link shares and 32 Twitter follows 41 comments on blog articles 33 photos uploaded 62 pieces of feedback and comments 26 online evaluations per day 24 new advocate referrals 22 new LinkedIn group members 17 subscriptions to IT Experts newsletter 10

11 WHAT HP S ADVOCATES ARE SAYING Nice to give feedback on presentations / breakout sessions just minutes after they were held! Persuaded me to arrange a meeting with Product Managers that I may not have arranged otherwise. Great opportunity to interact with other people attending the Forum. Functionality was AWESOME! I heard about some new and exciting features and possibilities I know better where HP is heading. The HP ITSM Insiders team also challenged customers and partners to provide their best tips for providing world-class IT service management. As an answer to this call, ITSM Insiders from around the world responded with some excellent advice, all based on their own individual experiences. HP Software compiled 12 of their favorite tips into an ebook entitled: Reaching new heights with ITSM VIEW THE EBOOK 11

12 THE FUTURE OF ADVOCACY IS BRIGHT AT HP SOFTWARE The customer success team in HP Software s Service Portfolio Management business has achieved some incredible results in the first ten months of the HP ITSM Insiders program, but they re just getting started. Now that they ve successfully developed an active and engaged community of more than 1,000 advocates, the team has already launched their second hub for Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) customers, called the PPM Insiders. Here are Chris top five pieces of advice for anyone considering an advocate marketing program: SET YOUR OBJECTIVES AND STICK TO THEM First, it s important that you understand what your objectives are from the start, Chris says. Then, make sure you can track your progress toward those objectives and that each hub activity ties back to at least one of those objectives. 1 2 START SMALL AND ADAPT ALONG THE WAY Don t create a program where, from day one, you invite every single customer you have because it s a process that s very adaptive, he advises. We invited customers in waves, starting with a small set. Then, every month, we invited more and more customers into the program. This allowed us to grow and improve what we re doing within the advocacy program along the way. KEEP YOUR PROGRAM FRESH AND FUN It s important to keep your program fresh by adding new content and activities for your advocates to do each and every week. Don t make it all serious business either, Chris says: We ve heard from our customers that having fun in the program enables them to escape their day-to-day and release some stress, so mixing in some fun activities is a fundamental part of our program. 3 12

13 TARGET THE RIGHT ACTIVITIES TO THE RIGHT ADVOCATES Not every advocate is the same, so it s very important to segment them accordingly such as by region, product use or other factors and expose them only to the content and activities that are most relevant to them. Otherwise, your customers are going to get things they may not care about, he explains. 4 5 DEVELOP PERSONAL CONNECTIONS WITH YOUR ADVOCATES Go the extra mile and put that human element into your program. Take the time to understand each customer and get to know him or her on a personal level, Chris says. How? Look for opportunities to meet them face-to-face or to send them unexpected perks that are unique to their interests. That can really go a long way. Chris vision, strategy and expertise is also starting to spread throughout HP Software: other divisions of the company have noticed the success of the HP ITSM Insiders program and have started implementing advocate marketing programs of their own. Through the use of customer advocacy programs, HP Software believes they can improve the overall engagement and experience of their enterprise customers. 13

14 HP SOFTWARE HAS TAKEN THE LEAD NOW IT S YOUR TURN TO ENGAGE YOUR ADVOCATES AND TRANSFORM THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT YOUR COMPANY. The HP ITSM Insiders program is powered by Influitive s cloud-based advocate marketing software. AdvocateHub is a complete advocate management platform that helps B2B companies capture customer enthusiasm and use it to turbocharge marketing and sales efforts. With Influitive s AdvocateHub, marketers and customer experience professionals can build advocate communities where customers, fans and evangelists can complete highimpact activities, such as referrals, reference calls, product reviews and social sharing. VISIT INFLUITIVE.COM TO LEARN MORE