Your Best Customers Can Do More Than Renew

How customer communities and advocacy programs can become meaningful drivers of growth.

When we talk about the value of Customer Success, the conversation usually starts with retention. Are customers renewing? Are they adopting the product? Are we identifying risks early enough to prevent churn? These are important questions, and I've spent a considerable part of my career building teams and programs around answering them. But I think there's a much bigger opportunity that often gets overlooked. Some of your most successful customers can do considerably more than renew their subscriptions. They can become advocates, references, sources of referrals and, perhaps most importantly, a community of people who help one another become more successful.

I saw the potential of this firsthand when we built a customer community and advocacy program that became an important part of our overall customer experience and go-to-market strategy. What made it work wasn't simply our ability to identify customers willing to say good things about us. It was creating something customers genuinely wanted to participate in.

Give customers a reason to connect

One of the challenges with traditional customer advocacy programs is that they can become overly transactional. A company needs a reference for a prospective customer, a quote for a case study or a positive review on a third-party website, so someone reaches out to a happy customer and asks for a favour. There's nothing inherently wrong with those requests, but if that's the extent of the relationship, we're missing a much larger opportunity.

We wanted to create an environment where customers could connect with one another, share experiences and learn how others were using our software to solve real business problems. So we invested in building a customer portal where they could exchange ideas, discuss challenges, share success stories and discover different ways to get value from the product. It wasn't simply another place to find documentation or submit support questions. It was a community where people with similar responsibilities could learn from one another. Sometimes the most valuable advice a customer can receive doesn't come from the software vendor. It comes from another customer who has already solved the same problem.

Make participation rewarding

Of course, creating a portal doesn't automatically create a community. We needed to give customers reasons to visit, contribute and stay engaged. One of the ways we accomplished this was by introducing elements of gamification and recognition into the experience.

We developed a points-based rewards system that recognized customers for participating in community activities and contributing to our broader advocacy efforts. Customers could redeem points for merchandise, gift cards, experiences and charitable donations. We also celebrated their contributions through awards at our annual customer conference, recognition in newsletters and opportunities to participate in webinars and other events.

These initiatives helped make participation enjoyable and gave us opportunities to recognize customers who were generously sharing their time and expertise. But the rewards weren't the foundation of the program. The foundation was the value customers received from connecting with their peers, developing their knowledge and sharing their successes. The recognition simply helped reinforce those behaviours.

There are established technology platforms that make managing these activities considerably easier, from tracking participation to administering rewards and identifying potential advocates. But the technology is only an enabler. Without a compelling reason for customers to participate, even the most sophisticated platform will struggle to create a meaningful community.

Turn customer engagement into advocacy

As the community developed, we began to recognize another opportunity. We had created a place where customers were voluntarily sharing their experiences, celebrating successes and demonstrating enthusiasm for the product. Those interactions helped us identify people who might be interested in participating in broader advocacy activities.

We could invite customers to serve as references for prospective buyers, contribute to case studies, share honest reviews on third-party platforms or introduce us to organizations that might benefit from our software. These activities became an important extension of our go-to-market efforts, giving Sales and Marketing access to credible customer voices.

The sequence was important. We weren't building a community simply to generate marketing leads. We were creating an experience that delivered value to customers first, then giving those who wanted to participate opportunities to share their experiences more broadly. And while recognition and rewards encouraged engagement, advocacy needed to remain authentic. The objective was never to purchase positive opinions, but to make it easier for genuinely successful customers to share their stories.

A growth opportunity beyond retention

There's a commercial dimension to this that I think deserves more attention. Customer acquisition is expensive, and building credibility with prospective buyers takes time. Strong customer advocacy can support both. References help buyers make confident decisions, independent reviews strengthen market credibility, and referrals can introduce opportunities that might otherwise be difficult to reach.

Meanwhile, the community itself can contribute to better customer outcomes. Customers who learn from their peers, discover new use cases and become more capable users may develop stronger relationships with the product and the organization behind it. In other words, a well-designed community can create value in both directions.

Looking back, one of the most rewarding aspects of building our program was seeing customers help one another succeed. The advocacy opportunities were commercially valuable, but they were also a natural extension of the relationships we'd helped create.

I think Customer Success leaders should be asking themselves a broader question than whether their customers are likely to renew. Are we creating experiences that customers value enough to talk about? Are we helping them connect with others who share their challenges? And are we making it easy for satisfied customers to become advocates when they want to?

Because a customer who renews is valuable. But a customer who succeeds, shares that success with others and helps bring new customers into the business can contribute something much greater.