![\"Extending](\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/crm\/files\/2022\/07\/Extending-Customer-Experience-Programs-into-the-Partner-Ecosystem.jpg\")
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As part of Solutions Review\u2019s\u00a0Contributed Content Series<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u2014a collection of contributed columns written by industry experts in maturing software categories\u2014Erik Vogel, the <\/span><\/span><\/strong>High Tech Industry Director at Qualtrics<\/a>, shares insights on how companies can extend their customer experience programs into their partner ecosystems.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Firms with expansive partner ecosystems face a double-edged sword. On the one hand, partners provide a quick and efficient means to scale their business, enter new markets, and access skills and technologies that could take years to develop internally. On the other, firms are less able to control the experience being delivered to customers. While the partner might be providing the product or service, the parent firm’s name is still on the box, and poor delivery will negatively impact their reputation. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The solution? Start thinking about partners as customers and<\/em> employees and build an experience management program that extends through partner channels to improve the experiences they are delivering to customers. Get it right, and the channel will return on the brand promise. Get it wrong, and risk a partner revolt.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Understanding and managing the experiences delivered by a partner ecosystem is a challenging prospect. Partners generally own the relationship with the end customer and are reluctant, if not unwilling, to share customer data. It’s also not uncommon for partners to compete, driving further reluctance to share information. And creating partner incentive programs aligned to the customer experience is difficult due to the subjective nature of experience metrics and inconsistencies in how data is collected and analyzed. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through working with several high-tech companies with large partner ecosystems, my team and I have identified five effective strategies that a firm must employ to listen, analyze, and act on the experiences their partners are providing.<\/span><\/p>\n Partners are, in many respects, a customer of the firm. As such, the firm needs to provide an excellent experience for partners to enable them to increase sales of products and services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What might not be as intuitive is that partners also need to be treated as employees in that they need to be engaged, inspired, and valued as extensions of the firm itself. <\/span>Incorporating best practices from programs that listen to both customer and employee voices can reveal insights into their experiences and prompt actions that close experience gaps and support the development of world-class partnership programs. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Data about customer interactions\u2014including survey distribution lists and email frequency\u2014is valuable, meaning partners will want that data shielded from their competitors. However, this data is essential to benchmark the experiences partners provide and will need to be obtained in any successful partner program.<\/span><\/p>\n Centralizing that customer data is critical to companies that want to drive <\/span>consistent methodologies and approaches, enable effective benchmarking across partners, and provide reliable data protection and security. It also allows smaller firms to access enterprise-grade experience programs and technology when they might not be able to deliver it themselves.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Early versions of partner experience programs focused on punitive outcomes for partners that did not meet the expectations of the parent firm. For example, without meeting specific metrics, partners may have been prevented from moving to gold from silver status. As a result, partners learned to game the feedback system.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n1) Treat Partners as Customers and Employees<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
2) Centralize Partner Programs<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
3) Update Partner Incentive Programs<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Download](\"https:\/\/solutionsreview.com\/crm\/files\/2019\/06\/crm-speedbump.jpg\" "\\"CRM")
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