Advocacy Tracker

Manages customer advocacy programmes -- references, case studies, reviews, testimonials, and NPS follow-up. Turns satisfied customers into active advocates through structured programme management. Part of the Customer Advocacy & Community pillar.

This is a tracking and coordination skill. It manages the pipeline and logistics. The relationship work -- asking a customer to advocate, coaching them through a case study, maintaining the goodwill that makes advocacy possible -- is entirely human territory. Advocacy is a withdrawal from the relationship bank account. The skill ensures you make smart withdrawals; the CSM ensures the balance is sufficient.

When to Run

• Triggered: When bi-health-score identifies a promoter-level NPS response or sustained health score >85 for 90+ days
• Triggered: When pa-value-reporter generates strong, quantifiable ROI evidence (potential case study material)
• On-demand: When sales or marketing requests a customer reference for a specific use case or segment
• Scheduled: Monthly advocacy pipeline review and advocate health check

Core Execution Logic

Step 1: Identify Advocacy Candidates

Score accounts for advocacy readiness using a composite of signals:

Advocacy readiness score: Weighted sum of signals (0-100). Accounts scoring >70 are candidates.

Critical filter: Never ask a customer to advocate if they have an unresolved issue, declining health, or active risk signal. This is absolute. No override, no exceptions. An advocacy ask on an unhappy customer does not just fail -- it actively damages the relationship and confirms to the customer that you do not understand their situation.

Step 2: Manage Advocacy Types

Each advocacy type has different preparation, execution, and follow-up requirements:

Step 3: Manage the Advocacy Pipeline

Track each advocacy opportunity through defined stages:

Step 4: Match Advocates to Requests

When sales or marketing requests a reference or case study:

1. Filter by request criteria: industry, company size, use case, product tier, geography
2. Filter by availability: has this advocate been activated recently? (See fatigue management below)
3. Filter by suitability: is this advocate articulate, senior enough for the prospect's audience, and genuinely enthusiastic?
4. Present matched candidates to the CSM for approval before any outreach
5. CSM decides whether to make the ask based on relationship context

Step 5: Prevent Advocate Fatigue

Advocacy fatigue is the silent killer of advocacy programmes. Track and manage:

Rotation principle: Spread requests across the advocate pool. Relying on 3-4 go-to advocates while ignoring others is the default failure mode of most advocacy programmes. The skill surfaces the full pool and flags over-reliance.

Step 6: NPS Follow-Up Workflow

NPS responses trigger immediate structured follow-up:

Output Format

{
  "programme_health": {
    "total_advocates_active": 18,
    "pipeline": {
      "candidates": 24,
      "csm_approved": 12,
      "customer_agreed": 5,
      "in_progress": 3,
      "completed_this_quarter": 8,
      "declined_this_quarter": 2
    },
    "fatigue_risk_advocates": 2,
    "overused_advocates": 1
  },
  "active_advocates": [
    {
      "contact": "Tom Chen",
      "account": "Acme Corp",
      "account_arr": 85000,
      "account_health": 88,
      "advocate_since": "2025-06-01",
      "types_completed": ["case_study", "g2_review", "reference_call"],
      "activations_6mo": 2,
      "last_activated": "2026-02-15",
      "fatigue_risk": "low",
      "available_for": ["reference_call", "event_speaking"],
      "notes": "Enthusiastic advocate. Well-spoken. Best for mid-market prospects in SaaS"
    }
  ],
  "pending_requests": [
    {
      "request_id": "REQ-2026-0034",
      "request_from": "Enterprise AE -- Tom Rivera",
      "criteria": "Financial services, enterprise, reporting use case",
      "matched_candidates": 3,
      "status": "awaiting_csm_approval",
      "requested_date": "2026-03-08",
      "needed_by": "2026-03-20"
    }
  ],
  "nps_follow_up_queue": [
    {
      "contact": "Lisa Park",
      "account": "Gamma Corp",
      "nps_score": 9,
      "response_date": "2026-03-09",
      "verbatim": "The automation features have transformed how our team works",
      "follow_up_status": "pending",
      "recommended_action": "Thank them. The verbatim is strong testimonial material. Assess willingness for a case study"
    }
  ]
}

Handoff to Human

Confidence and Limitations

• High confidence for pipeline tracking and advocate management -- structured data operations with defined lifecycle stages
• High confidence for fatigue detection -- activation counts and dates are factual
• Medium confidence for advocacy readiness scoring -- health and NPS data are strong signals, but willingness to advocate depends on personal disposition the agent cannot assess. A healthy, satisfied customer may still decline because they do not enjoy public endorsement
• Low confidence for predicting advocacy quality. A willing advocate may not be an effective spokesperson. Some customers are enthusiastic but inarticulate; others are reluctant but compelling when they do speak. The CSM assesses fit
• The critical filter (no advocacy asks on unhealthy accounts) is absolute. This is not a recommendation -- it is a rule. The skill will not surface accounts with active risk signals as candidates regardless of other factors
• Cannot predict the impact of an advocacy activity on the relationship. Some advocates feel valued by the recognition; others feel used. Post-activation sentiment tracking is the feedback loop
• Case study timelines are typically underestimated. The bottleneck is almost always customer-side approval (legal review, executive sign-off, wordsmithing). Budget 2x the expected timeline

Dependencies

Required:

• CRM API (account data, contact data, advocacy activity logging)
• bi-health-score (advocacy readiness filtering -- the critical filter)

Strongly recommended:

• Survey tool (NPS data for follow-up workflow and readiness scoring)
• pa-value-reporter (ROI evidence for case study material)
• ra-stakeholder-mapper (champion identification for advocacy routing)
• ra-engagement-tracker (engagement health as readiness input)

Downstream consumers:

• Marketing team (case studies, testimonials, review site content)
• Sales team (reference call matches)
• CS leadership (programme health metrics)
• cc-report-generator (advocacy programme data for quarterly reporting)

References

• references/advocacy-playbook.md -- Best practices for each advocacy type, asking frameworks, and fatigue prevention strategies