Bill Lee has published a really interesting piece on the HBR Blog about creating True Consumer Advocates. This seems like a pretty hot topic to us, as it has been reaised separately by two or three clients over the last fortnight.
Bill suggests some really practical solutions.
We completed an innovation project for the super-premium Insurance Company Hiscox last year where the brief was to come up with initiatives that would get their claims handling performance discussed in a positive way at dinner parties! In a market not know for great service, but where Hiscox claim resolution regularly was exceptional, the key turned out to be remarkably simple, just tell claimants when you had done something positive for them that went above and beyond what was required!
We've been using Consumer Closeness and Safari tools to gain empathy with target consumers and understand when, where and with whom they are already having brand related conversations … and Co-Creation & Incubation techniques to creatively explore how we can tap into and encourage more of this behaviour.
In this way, when we set about turning them into advocates, we're building on an existing behaviour, not trying to create it from scratch.
Maybe you should find out how we could help you do this for your brands.