How Businesses Can Cultivate Superfans … And Can AI be Part of the Answer?

A devoted fan-base is no longer just the preserve of rock stars and cult entertainment franchises. Clever technology can help companies turn both customers and employees into ardent champions.

Fandom doesn’t get much more enduring than tattoos. In April, a tattoo studio in London’s Soho area hosted a two-day pop-up event so that fans of the TV show Game of Thrones could get iconic symbols and quotes from the series inked into their skin. The event formed part of a UK publicity campaign for the show’s final season.

But even without the special occasion, tattoo parlours are accustomed to designs inspired by pop cultural icons as followers roll up their sleeves and convert themselves into devout superfans.

Their value is not lost on TV and film studios, record companies and publishers. In a world of seemingly infinite choice and distraction, superfans are far less likely to be tempted away. They also spend a higher proportion of their income, for instance, on special deluxe editions, spin-off merchandise and tickets to live events. And perhaps more importantly these days, superfans can be relied on to create such a buzz on social media that even diehard sceptics take note.

But while this kind of obsessive fandom can seem like a magical bond akin to falling in love, its mechanics can be broken down and better understood – to the extent that superfans no longer need to be the preserve of the arts and entertainment industries. With the right insights and tools, every business can take steps to turn customers into fanatics.

Nick Baggott of the Chartered Institute of Marketing says the role of superfans as brand ambassadors rather than just a pool to whom businesses can sell extra product is becoming more and more important. “Typically, we think of influencers as being synonymous with finding celebrities with large reach,” he explains. “[But] consumers increasingly want to hear from authentic users of a brand’s product or service, rather than listening to celebrities who they do not believe to be experts or genuine users of that brand.”

Mary Kedzior, director of brand and content at software company SAP Concur, agrees: “Superfans acting as the voice of your brand can be even more powerful in influencing others than your brand marketing.”

Kedzior says companies need to think about the human connection to a brand. “Passion goes beyond creative products. A superfan can be found anywhere there is a human connection with a brand,” she says. “In order for a brand to become a common name you need advocates or superfans to help drive your mission.”

Often, the first step when it comes to cultivating superfans is to figure out exactly how and why a given customer feels connected to your product or service. While customer research has been deployed for this purpose for years, today’s technology has supercharged the potential data that can be gleaned from everyday interactions with your customers.

This is one reason why systems and processes for interacting with existing and potential customers have grown increasingly important. For instance, the latest customer-relationship management (CRM) systems – a staple tool of sales, marketing and customer service – are no longer just about improving your internal processes and your customers’ experiences; they now also provide real-time data, insights and analysis that can help you impress customers by giving them the right experiences and messages at exactly the right time. This has been a focus of the latest CRM solutions provided by SAP, Europe’s largest software group and the parent company of SAP Concur.

In addition, earlier this year, SAP bought a US company called Qualtrics that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to delve even further into the bonds between businesses and customers. The aim is to help businesses strengthen customer loyalty and predict when loyal customers are likely to turn into superfans – as well as when at-risk customers are likely to walk. For example, Yamaha, the musical instrument maker, used the insights gleaned from Qualtrics to alter the user interface of its Montage keyboards, swapping out sliders for dials.

But there is another dimension to the superfan phenomenon that is a key focus for both Qualtrics and SAP Concur, which provides systems for managing expenses, invoicing and travel: the experiences of a company’s employees. This is because, in today’s world, companies need superfans not just among the end-users of their products or services, but within the business itself.

After all, creative companies have long known that sometimes the best advocates of their brand, products and services are their own employees. Think of all the people who work in the music and publishing industries who champion their own artists. This particular aspect of superfandom has become even more important in the age of social media where employees have their own media channels for publicly expressing their thoughts and feelings and championing things they are passionate about.

This means that employee experiences can sometimes be as important as the experiences of your customers. SAP Concur products that ease the burden of some of the most menial and energy-sapping admin tasks, such as expenses and invoices, can have an outsize impact on an employees’ enthusiasm for their job – and, by extension, their enthusiasm for their companies.

And of course, this can also have a knock-on effect on productivity. Surveys have shown that a workforce that is listened to and that enjoys efficient in-house services from administration to HR make a material difference to profits – with a study by the University of Warwick finding that if workers are happy, they are 12% more productive.

And as with a business’s interactions with its customers, employee-facing systems such as expenses automation resonate best when they feel seamless and simple, which is where automated solutions from SAP Concur that rely on machine learning come into their own – inspiring their own legions of superfans.

SAP Concur provides intelligent solutions to help your business automate admin tasks such as expenses and invoices – freeing up your employees’ time and energy. To find out more about how SAP Concur can help you combine efficiency with intelligence, go to concur.co.uk