*evangelist 有传道者的意思，又可直译为死忠粉丝等等。
在Quora读到一个很有意思的问题，然后又一些很有意思的回答，记录如下：
How do you convert your users into evangelists ?
在问题标注里，提问者说明Apple估计是对此最在行的公司，”他们的用户真的都是传道者一般。”那么，对于初创公司，要做到如此，该关注哪些领域以便打下基础？
这位毕业于伯克利的Rohan Jain回答有很长一段，试读译如下：
如果你问苹果用户，你们为什么这么喜欢苹果（产品）？大多时候你会得到答案：漂亮、做工好什么的。然而，这并非真实原因，因为世上其他的产品也能如此漂亮，做工也不差。但为什么会出现果粉？他们只爱苹果产品，而对PC不屑一顾。而且，即使是更低价格更多牛逼功能的PC，果粉也不为此买单。
那么，为什么？想一想，苹果好像从来不登广告，而且一直信奉 Think Different，更重要的是，这一信念烙印于苹果所有产品中。
如果你想让你的用户成为产品的传道者，你所作所为的一切都得与公司的目标一直。如果你是公司的领导，你得让雇员、用户们深深地相信，你的所有决定都与公司的目标一致。当你一直坚持（让用户觉得你站在他们那边，代表他们的利益），慢慢地你的用户也会跟着相信你……作者随后提到，这就是为什么在机场、咖啡厅，人们都会很傲娇地摆出他们的苹果机，他们就是要拿出来炫。这已经属于一直社会认同，一种符号……（果粉真可怕不是）
接着作者开始质询为什么那么多米国公司，用户的忠诚度那么低呢？答案就是很多公司的领导都不知道如何将公司领向长期而实在的增长。很多人都目光短浅。然后就是一些分析，世界上除了果粉之外，还有其他粉：Y-Combinator ，Quora ，Amazon。
到最后才是对初创公司的建议：
How To Turn Your Users into Evangelists
- 找出你公司的目标是什么（如果是为了赚尽可能多的钱，你别指望你的用户会成为产品的传道者），你为何创立这公司？
- 枕戈待旦吧……不，谨记你的目标。你做的每个产品每个决定每个服务，都将要与你公司的目标一致。做什么不要紧，紧要的是目标始终如一。
- 就你的目标，持续地与他人沟通，合伙人、雇员、用户，都可以。让他们知道你的目标立场，你公司的构想。
- 绝不绝不背叛用户，就算是为了那些钱。
Joshua Ledgard的回答更简单些：
你可以成为乔帮主，不过还是现实点吧。做好用户体验：
图片出处 Experience = Stuff / Time 接着：
访问设备 – 人们是怎么体验你的产品的？你是不是只考虑过电脑？移动设备呢？
人 – 当用户使用你的产品时，他们与谁互动？你？其他用户？你不能只顾你自己嘛。
品牌 – 你是初创的，没人知道你，你现在所做的一切就是你的口碑。.
渠道 – 人们怎么买你的产品？美食固然好，可是收银员很粗鲁的话我估计你也不会去第二遍。.
内容 – 这就是人们所需。然而，由于每个人都可以做，所以，要做到独一无二也就很难.
客服 – 这也是用户体验的一环，不能忽略.
Then you can focus on the “Second Conversion”
七个Tips增加你的用户好感
- 易于分享；
- 创立一个”任务”，并让你的用户参与进来；（比如你说要在下月达到10000个用户，让你的用户知道，如果他们喜欢你的产品……）
- 个人的感谢 （对于忠诚用户的感谢）
- 找出为什么人们不分享你的信息
- 奖励推荐者；
- 举行有奖推荐活动；
- 持续营销；
附录：
How do you convert your users into evangelists?
If you were to ask an Apple user, “Why do you love Apple so much?,” you will usually get a response of “It’s well-built, sleek, and beautiful. It just works.” Contrary to popular belief, this is not why people love Apple. Sure, their designs are beautiful and their products are well-built, but so are many other products in the world. Why is it that Apple users are so much more extreme? Design and beauty don’t justify why Apple users stand overnight in the freezing cold just to be first in line for a new product. Design and beauty don’t justify why Apple users are willing to pay much higher prices for their laptops. Design and beauty don’t justify why Apple users want nothing to do with PCs, even if there is a new PC with amazing features at a much lower price.
Apple users are evangelists of the company not because of the products’ sleekness and beauty, but because of the purpose of all of these products. Think Different. Have you seen an Apple commercial? It rarely even shows the products. It shows people who share Apple’s beliefs. It shows messages that challenge the status quo. It shows users who “Think Different.” Most importantly, all of their products are a reflection of this belief. The company has always innovated things that actually do “Think Different” from what the mainstream version of the product is.
It’s not a coincidence that the leader of Apple held the same beliefs as the company. Steve Jobs was a misfit. Everything he did in life followed the mantra “Think Different.” In fact, you can even argue that one of the reasons he died is because of this belief. He never agreed with society’s way of doing things, and as a result did not want regular medical treatment for his cancer; he foolishly believed that things like a vegan diet would help cure him. Everything that Jobs did in his life challenged the status quo, and everyone knew this. As a result, every Apple employee knew what Jobs stood for, and made sure that every Apple product did indeed challenge the status quo. It doesn’t matter if you look at the iPhone, the iPad, or even the Apple II; they’re all just different products with the exact same purpose.
What I am trying to get at is that if you want to turn your customers into evangelists, everything you do and create must be in alignment with the purpose of your company. If you are the leader of your company, every employee and customer must truly believe that all decisions you make are in alignment with the company’s purpose.
If you (as a leader) live a life that embodies your company’s meaning, and you make sure that all company decisions are a reflection of this mantra, your users will slowly begin to join your crusade. Your users will start to advocate for you, and truly believe that your company is a representation of who they are. They will start to believe that you always have their best interests, without even questioning you. This kind of loyalty has nothing to do with design or features; this is about the innate need of social creatures (humans) to join groups that represents their values. This is why people open up their Apple laptops at airports with extreme pride, ready to show it off to the world. Apple is more than a company to these users; it’s a symbol of who they are. These users feel like they belong to a group that challenges the status quo, simply because everything that Apple produces is a reflection of that.
So why is it that there are so many companies in the US that do not have a strong, loyal following?
The problem is that most people leading a company do not actually know what leads to true, long-term growth. Most companies see the short-term gains of sales, promotions, and nice features and think “Wow, if I keep doing this, my company will continue to grow and eventually I’ll have a strong user base.” While this might work for the short-term, this is by no means a long-term strategy on how to develop loyal customers. In fact, this will have quite the opposite effect. Once your sale or promotion comes to an end, you will see that your users will stop buying, or even worse, get upset with your company for suddenly increasing its price.
The easiest way to take a further look into this concept is to examine some other companies that are turning its’ users into evangelists:
Y-Combinator: Everything that Paul Graham does is a reflection of his beliefs. His company is based around helping startups succeed. His blog gives advice on how to help startups. Shit, even his wife is an advocate for the startup community. Paul Graham literally eats, breathes, and sleeps his belief in helping startups change this world. It doesn’t matter what product he creates, his purpose is always the same. Do you know what would happen if Y-Combinator released a DVD tomorrow about helping startups scale? Thousands of startup founders would buy it in a heartbeat. Why? Because they trust that Paul Graham has the best intentions. He has shown us time and time again that his life is a reflection of this mantra. Everything that he does is in alignment with his belief of helping startups.
Does this mean that the DVD he creates will have more valuable information to startups than any other DVD in the world? No. But that doesn’t matter to startup founders. They trust Paul has the best of intentions. So even if some random person was to create the most amazing DVD on helping startups grow, people would still recommend Paul’s DVD over random Joe’s because they know what Paul stands for.
Quora: I would say that I am a Quora evangelist. Whenever someone asks me “How do I do X?” or “What should I do when Y happens?” I almost always say, “Check out Quora.” In fact, I will even tell people who aren’t asking me questions to go check out Quora for valuable insight. Does this mean that Quora always has the best answers to every question possible? Absolutely not. But to me, that doesn’t matter. I trust Quora because everything that this company does is in alignment with its beliefs. Quora forces bogus answers to collapse, has strict policies on what kinds of questions can be asked, and even has moderators constantly editing questions. These are all just different outputs with the same purpose: to help create the most intelligent discussion and responses for its users. Having your question edited by one of the Quora mods can be irritating at times, but the company is doing it in order to make sure everything aligns with its bigger goal of creating an arena with the most intelligent information.
Even though I don’t work at Quora, I am 100% certain thatAdam D’Angelo & Charlie Cheever constantly reiterate to their team what the purpose of this company is. That’s where it starts with. You need to first communicate to your team what you’re striving for, so that employees will know what decisions to make even without you being there. I’m sure Quora mods can look at a question and say, “Man, Adam would never approve of this” just the way that Apple designers can look at a product and say “Man, Steve would never approve of this.”
Amazon:This company has created millions of evangelists (me included). How did they do it? In Amazon’s early days, people heavily criticized Jeff Bezos for allowing users to leave negative reviews on books. People told Bezos that he was crazy for allowing all this negative feedback on the site; critics stated that no one would ever buy anything off Amazon if he allowed people to leave poor reviews of books. That didn’t matter to Bezos though, because he was not concerned with the easiest way to make the most sales; he was concerned with providing accurate and honest details to help customers make the most-informed decision. And guess what happened? Users slowly began to trust Amazon. They started to realize that Bezos was behind all of their best interests; he wasn’t some money-hungry CEO trying to con his way into making sales. This trust was critical for Amazon to be able to succeed in all of the other services that the company later went on to offer (EC2, Mechanical Turk, Payments,etc). Thereason why they have been able to excel with so many different products is becausetheir users continue to trust that the company still has their best interests.All of the features that Amazon has implemented are a reflection of the company’s commitment to creating the smoothest purchasing experience (Recommendation Engine, Amazon Prime, Honest Reviews, 1C, etc).
In the eight years that I have ordered stuff from Amazon, I have never had even one delayed or missing package. The excellent pricing and fantastic customer service put this company at the top of many people’s lists. In terms of execution, Bezos has been absolutely flawless. No matter what feature he is about to implement, he always makes sure that benefiting the customer is the heart of each new service. I trust Amazon more than I trust any other company in the world, and this is only because Bezos has proven time and time again that his only concern is to create the safest and simplest online shopping experience.
How To Turn Your Users into Evangelists
Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Adam D’Angelo all have great minds, but they can’t build a successful company with loyal customers alone. In order to turn your customers into evangelists, you first have to turn your employees into ones.
If you are creating a startup, here are the steps to follow:
1) Figure out what the purpose of your company is (If your purpose is to make as much money as possible, your users will never become evangelists). What cause is your startup fighting for? Give your users a crusade to join.
2) Eat, breathe, and sleep your purpose. Every product you create, every decision you make, and every service you provide should be in alignment with upholding the purpose of your company. It doesn’t matter if you are creating a blog, or if you are creating an electronic… your purpose should still be the same.
3) Constantly communicate your purpose to everyone. Co-founders, employees, users. Let everyone know what you stand for, and what the big picture of your company is. The CEO’s life should be a walking symbol of the company’s purpose.
4) Never, ever betray your employees or users. You must lead by example. Once trust is lost, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to regain. Why does Groupon get so much more hate than LivingSocial, when in reality both companies essentially provide the same service? This is due to the fact that no one believes Groupon actually helps small businesses because their actions are not in sync with their purpose (contracting aggressive salesmen to hassle small businesses, poor customer service after the Groupon is done, taking money off IPO, etc).
Turning users into evangelists is not an easy task. It usually takes yearsof consistently making the right decision before users will open up and truly trust a company. As your startup grows and adds more team members, it gets harder and harder to uphold all of the same values that the company was originally founded upon. But everything starts with your leader. The leader must live a life that aligns with the company’s purpose, and also make decisions for the company that are absolutely in sync with its meaning. The leader must then constantly communicate to everyone what your company is striving for.
If your life becomes a symbol of your company’s purpose, and you constantly reiterate to your co-founders and employees what you’re fighting for, your team will be able to make the right decisions without you even being there. This is how a company grows to thousands and still holds the same values. This is how Apple employees can make high level decisions without Steve Jobs guiding them each step of the way. This is how your customers will slowly begin to join your crusade and start advocating for your cause. This is how you turn your users into evangelists.
What is Customer Experience?
Here is a good recent post…
Devices – Where/how do people experience your product. Are you only thinking about the desktop? What about mobile? This is sort of a tech play that anyone can copy… but it’s hard to get right everywhere.
People – Who do your customers interact with while using your product? You? Other users? You can’t scale yourself… your product may not be social… so this may be something you can’t control.
Brands – You are a startup… you have none. Your brand is what you make it right now. But no one has heard of you.
Channels – How do people buy your stuff? The food could be great in the store… but if the checkout lady is rude you won’t shop there again.
Content – This is what you build that people consume… sorry.. in most cases anyone can do it. So it’s hard to be unique here.
Services/Support – For most startups THIS is the part of the experience where you can easily stand out. You need to create an impecable service and support the heck out of your first customers.
Then you can focus on the “Second Conversion”
Via: http://blog.kickofflabs.c
Here are seven tips to increase the likelihood of your users putting the word out on your behalf.
1. Make it easy to share
You need social share buttons in obvious – but non-obtrusive – places and the actual process needs to be smooth as silk or it’s all over. No one is going to jump through hoops to tell the world about you, but if you’re truly remarkable and you make it easy for people to spread the word, they will!
2. Create a “mission” your customers can get involved in
We all yearn to be part of something meaningful, worthwhile and bigger than ourselves.
So let’s say your goal is to get 10,000 customers by next month. Tell your customers; if they like you and the way you’ve positioned your cause, they’re very likely to help you achieve your goal – or at least go a long way to doing so.
3. Send a personal thank you note
At the very least, email anyone you notice sharing the love and genuinely thank them! If you have their mailing address (because they’re a customer), hand write a personal note from you, the Founder, and pop it in the post. Do you think that would have a positive impact?
4. Find out why people aren’t sharing your message
Reach out to your first 1,000 customers personally and find out if they’ve told anyone who might be interested. If not, find out what it would take to get them to do so.
This might sound rather tedious, but you’ll learn very decisively what you need to do (or do better) to earn this kind of recommendation organically. The fact is, most of what you do to get your name out there will fail whereas we both know personal recommendations work. So tedious it might be, but it’s also a very effective way to uncover things about your market you probably don’t yet realize.
5. Reward referrals resulting in conversions
Hundreds of thousands of companies use refer-a-friend rewards programs and you can, too. An example is how Netflix adds free months to your account when you sign up a friend using your unique referral code.
Yes, it requires specialized programming skills – or the willingness to outsource the job to a reliable web developer – but the return on investment could potentially be very large if a lot of people get on board and start recommending your product or service.
6. Run a referral contest
A variation of the previous tip is to hold a tell-a-friend contest, where the customer who generates the most referrals (paid or trial, that’s up to you) within a designated time period wins a prize. Make the prize relevant to your customers’ interests as well as worth the effort. A common prize for these kinds of competitions at the moment is an iPad.
7. Don’t stop selling!
Be sure to keep extolling the benefits of your product or service to your existing customers. Remind them every week what tremendous value they’re getting and all the ways their life is now easier as a result…“And, uh, by the way, shouldn’t you be telling all your friends about this unparalleled awesomeness? Yes, you’re right; you should! Here’s how…”
Josh Ledgard