What is a customer advisory board?
A customer advisory board, or CAB, is a group of people that help firms with market and consumer research. A customer advisory board is a group of consumers that meet regularly to discuss their opinions and suggestions with a company. A customer advisory board’s members are often high-level executives at their companies who can contribute in-depth market knowledge.
A customer advisory board is a carefully selected group of customers — often high-level executives who can provide in-depth market insights — who gather regularly to advise businesses and share their own experiences as consumers.
The Importance Of a Customer Advisory Board
Businesses form customer advisory boards to:
● Obtain information about the market
● Product concepts should be validated (or challenged).
● Marketing messages should be shaped.
● Make brand ambassadors a reality.
It is also possible to create deeper engagement with high-value consumers by maintaining an active CAB. Customers want to be confident that you understand their shifting needs due to digital transformation and a quickly changing company and end-user environment.
Regular, in-depth communication helps instill trust in your customers that they made the proper choice in purchasing your product.
Members are typically selected from the ranks of essential consumers or clients. They are requested to provide feedback on its products, services, and operating practices and provide their general opinions of the brand or company.
The Customer Advisory Board (CAB) assists product teams in understanding what customers enjoy and dislike about their products and what they’d like to see next. As product strategy evolves, their insights can help product managers make more informed decisions about where to direct their efforts and resources. Another important argument for having an open forum with customers is that it can assist a company in developing its strategic direction.
CABs also provide vital guidance to help shape the product roadmap and development process.
CABs provide market intelligence that might not otherwise be available, such as information on how they use products, what features and functions they value the most, and what additional functionality or tools they would like to see. This information can be critical in the prioritization of product development.
Benefits Of Customer Advisory Board
Businesses that assemble customer advisory boards find many benefits from the gatherings they host with their CAB members.
They can help guide the company’s strategic direction by creating an open forum where key customers can speak candidly and at length. They can discuss why they’ve chosen your company over the competition, what they like about your products, and what they’d like to see next can help your team get a better sense of where to focus your strategic efforts and resources.
Customer advisory boards can assist you in better understanding your company’s products from a different point of view. Their input can help you better understand your clients’ demands, problem spots, and goals.
They can assist in the development of the product roadmap. A customer advisory board may provide insight into how consumers use your goods. What essential or valuable features and other components or tools do they feel might complement or enhance your offering?
They have the potential to build client loyalty. One of the most significant advantages of having a customer advisory board is that members of your CAB are more likely to spend more money with your firm due to their participation. According to Ignite Advisory Group data, B2B organizations with customer advisory boards get 9 percent more new business from CAB members than their whole client base.
CABs are also used for improving your knowledge of the end-users in your market by conducting research. As a Manager, you can find senior beta testers for new products or services here.
How To Use a Customer Advisory Board
Serve as a sounding board for ideas and proposals to assist them in being validated.
Aid product managers in determining whether the product roadmap is in sync with customers’ needs or the company’s overall direction.
While it is certainly not a guarantee, inviting senior executives from large clients to join your advisory board may enhance the possibility that they will spend more money with your company, resulting in some financial rewards.
Customers want to be included in the decision-making process. They will express their gratitude by increasing their devotion to the company and, in some instances, becoming brand ambassadors.
And last, product teams will benefit from CABs providing them with the unvarnished truth, straight and honest input that hasn’t been filtered by sales teams (who tend to stress the good) or customer support teams (who naturally focus on problems and complaints).
How To Get The Most Out Of Customer Advisory Boards
CABs are often coordinated and managed by product managers collaborating with internal product stakeholders who wish to participate in the process.
Any customer advisory board should be composed of individuals representing the company’s target market in terms of geography, product categories, industry sectors, and job titles. It should consist of a diverse group of clients who represent as many different market segments as feasible,
When building a customer advisory board, it is beneficial to concentrate on the most valued customers and invite them to choose someone to represent them on the board of directors.
Customers may be served by between 15 and 25 customer service employees in a standard CAB.
In addition, it is excellent practice to ensure that everyone agrees on the aim of board meetings to avoid the sessions being hijacked by unrelated issues.
A customer advisory board is an excellent approach to spending quality time with actual consumers, developing your relationship and transforming them into ardent supporters, verifying your ideas, and building your strategic roadmap.
