On this episode of The CustomerX Files, Alison is joined by Tjitske De Vries, Global Community Relations Manager at Malwarebytes, to discuss the ways that advocacy has evolved over the past five years - and how it impacts us personally as well as professionally. This "winding road" discussion covers everything from being a working mom and woman in tech, to the differences between advocacy in B2B and B2C worlds, and arrives at a final destination of how advocacy can be used to permeate and improve overall corporate culture.

On this episode of The CustomerX Files, Alison is joined by Kevin Lau, the Senior Director of Customer Advocacy & Experiential Marketing at F5. We know there are many reasons why customer retention is important; but perhaps it’s even more critical as the economy continues to shift and customers (rightfully so) have reason to ask more of their partners and vendors. Kevin and Alison discuss just that - how do we (re)focus our attention as marketers on customer retention?

On this episode of The CustomerX Files, Alison is joined by Joe Kevens, Director of Demand Generation at PartnerStack. Most agree that there are things that just go better together: peanut butter and jelly, Bert & Ernie, and yes, customer marketers and demand generation professionals. Yet, even though part of the same team, different goals and areas of focus often leave demand generation professionals and customer marketers out of sync. Joe & Alison discuss how we can bridge this gap and improve/inspire collaboration, better alignment, and they air some typical grievances between the two groups along the way - in the spirit of problem solving and collaboration, of course.

Not all reviews are going to be sunshine and rainbows.

What do you do when customers aren't willing to leave a review? Maybe they won't take the time or are unresponsive.

Marketing professionals may be entering into a new budget reality due to the current economic downturn. Learn from 3 senior marketing gurus on how to best prepare yourself and your team and what to expect in the coming months.

What should you, as a marketer, look for in a review platform so it delivers the most value, not only from a reviews perspective, but also for you, your KPIs, and the things your team is focused on?

You're trying to secure customer reviews, but you have roadblocks--your internal partners, unfortunately.

On this episode of The CustomerX Files, Alison is joined by Kyle Yantis, Associate Director of Customer Success at SlapFive. It’s no secret; the past several months have been hard on marketers. Budgets and resources diminished, workloads increased, and transformation of roles. It’s no longer worth debating whether strong metrics belong in customer marketing. Metrics and showcasing ROI belong in marketing, period. It doesn’t matter which area of marketing you sit, we are the intersection of science and storytelling. In the episode Kyle provides concrete, actionable examples of ways to apply discipline and measure outcomes in areas such as operations, governance, and organizational impact. During a time when buying and implementing new technology might not be happening, it is advantageous to do the hard work - gain relationships, internal buy-in, and capital so when it comes time to expand a program, implement a new tool or technology, or ask for another resource, you’re well positioned for success.

On this episode of The CustomerX Files, Alison is joined by Valeria Gomez, Customer Marketing Programs Manager at AirTable. We’ve experienced a lot over the past couple of years, from a global pandemic to an economic roller coaster. We’ve all been impacted personally, of course, and many of us have felt the whiplash professionally as well. So what do we do when our customer advocacy outlook changes - lack of tools and technology resources, slashed budgets, reduced headcount. Does this mean the end of our advocacy efforts? Absolutely not - it simply means that we get creative and turn to a more grassroots approach - an approach which can still deliver a maximized program and experience for customers.