Creating Effective Customer Advisory Boards

We recently interviewed Lisa Nirell on the subject of Customer Advisory Boards. Lisa is the “Chief Energy Officer” of EnergizeGrowth LLC. She and her team help growth companies who struggle to consistently attract great clients and reach their company’s full value potential.  Over the past several months Lisa has conducted extensive research into Customer Advisory Boards and came up with some interesting results and excellent guidelines for those interested in starting an advisory board or improving one they already have in place.  Below is the Podcast from our interview with Lisa as well as an excerpt from a recent article she wrote on the topic.  If you want to learn more about Lisa’s research you can visit her blog to read the full article series on Customer Advisory Boards.

Listen to the Podcast of our interview with Lisa Nirell on Customer Advisory Boards

Podcast – Interview with Lisa Nirell on Customer Advisory Boards
(the audio may take a few seconds to load)

Here is an excerpt of Lisa’s article on Customer Advisory Boards titled “The Secret Life of Customer Advisory Boards.” You can read the full article here.

Customer advisory boards differ from focus groups, impersonal satisfaction surveys or celebratory recognition events. They are infinitely better than relying exclusively on your sales team to report second hand information. Most importantly, they serve to create a long-term, collaborative container for deepening your customer relationships and community impact.

While researching companies who deploy CABs, we found that their sponsor companies had several common traits:

• They are sincerely growth-oriented.
• They believe in gathering unfiltered feedback to refine their future plans and services.
• They are passionate about developing trusted advisor relationships with senior decision makers and industry influencers–and making a difference.
• They need to adapt quickly to industry and regulatory shifts to ensure continuity.
• They are action-oriented, and are willing to implement actions that advisors recommend.

If these traits describe your firm, you may just be well-positioned to build a strong CAB program.