Evolute enables industrial manufacturers to obtain scaled feedback from craftsmen. Companies can either use Evolute's recruiting service or invite their own craftsmen contacts to Evolute and ask them about their products using our software. 

Recruiting through Evolute or inviting your own craftsman contacts into the community?

Many manufacturers rely on our recruiting service because our data shows that contacts recruited by Evolute not only respond more frequently, but also in greater detail. No wonder: most of our contacts are already experienced Evolute users, already give feedback to other manufacturers and are therefore experienced in constructive exchange.

In addition, most manufacturers are not in the luxurious position of having their own customer club, with which they regularly organize a summer party, for example, or which are given special offers by the sales department. 

And yet they do exist: The manufacturers who have invested a lot of time and money in recent years to build up a small or large circle of customers with whom they maintain a (reasonably) regular exchange - for example at a summer party or a joint customer trip. If you have such a loyal customer community and can then survey them with Evolute, you think you're in feedback heaven, don't you? 

Not quite. Not always. And especially not immediately.

Unfortunately, for most of our customers who want to survey their own customers and users with Evolute, the reality initially looks different. And the reason for this is almost always the same.

So what's the problem?

Why our customers often initially fail to activate their own contacts for Evolute

We see it again and again in our customer projects, the process is almost schematic: onboarding has been completed, the product managers have been trained and even one or two initial surveys have already been sent to a community of craftsmen provided by Evolute as part of the project. The first results are available within a few hours, the feedback is meaningful and useful and the mood is euphoric.

Many product management managers said after the onboarding: "It's fantastic how quickly we got these results! Now we just have to repeat this with our own customers. I'll get the sales manager involved straight away and ask him to get us some customer data!"

Why inviting craftsman contacts through sales is a bad idea

For many in product management, the word "customer" immediately brings the word "sales" to mind: 

"The sales department is in contact with the customer. We will ask them to promote the Evolute app to local customers."

Unfortunately, product managers have often done the math without the host, i.e. the sales department. As much as we at Evolute would be delighted if we could outsource the advertising for our Evolute app to our customers' sales teams, we too have been caught up in the past by the reality that this is an extremely problematic undertaking. 

There are many reasons for this, but each one is logical and understandable:

1. full agenda at the customer appointment: If the sales representative travels to the customer every 6 months, she usually has a fairly full agenda that she wants to discuss with the customer. This agenda usually looks like this: points 1 - 7 are sales-related. And that's a good thing, because it's her job to sell new products to the customer. Item 8.c) on this agenda with the little note that she should "show the customer this app" is not part of her job (and her incentive structure) - the result: showing "this app" is often forgotten. 

2. the sales representative does not know Evolute: In most cases, the sales representative has had little to no contact with Evolute, so has not understood the advantages that Evolute offers for manufacturers and tradespeople/users. The sales representative is also trained to sell physical products - not digital products like our app. It makes sense that even the most talented salesperson finds it difficult to sell a product that they don't understand. 

3. salespeople like to be the only point of contact for the customer: In their self-perception, many salespeople see themselves as the single point of contact for the customer. In our view, this is an antiquated approach, because customer centricity is a task that involves the entire company. Nevertheless, many salespeople are reluctant to enable customers to speak directly to product management, as they fear that this will leave them "on the outside". 

We are convinced that it increases customer loyalty if craftsmen/users have a good experience with other contact points in the company. However, this blog article is not intended to bring about a rethink in sales, but rather to highlight the problem.

4. the personal approach to individual craftsmen is slow and inefficient: Assuming that the sales representative is willing to introduce the Evolute app to her customers and even does this well, the manufacturer still has a scaling problem: Many manufacturers plan for the sales representative to show the Evolute app to the customer during a personal meeting and thus win him over. The problem: a sales representative can only visit a very limited number of customers per day or week. It therefore takes weeks, if not months, for the sales team to complete the necessary number of customer visits to reach a relevant community size.

In practice, the sum of these factors means that manufacturers often fail to build up a relevant Evolute community with their own contacts even months later.

So what can manufacturers do to avoid this situation?

How Evolute can help manufacturers activate their own contacts

We have learned from our customers' experiences and offer two ways to help manufacturers activate their own user contacts to use the Evolute app.

1. Evolute email templates: The most efficient invitation method for manufacturers is still the email invitation. This is because contacts who are currently on their smartphone are most likely to be persuaded to install an app quickly. To this end, we have developed various templates and tested them intensively for conversion in order to tailor the tone of voice and the message to different target groups. All of our customers can use these templates.
   We have to temper expectations a little that existing customers can be won over to Evolute from a manufacturer CRM: Many manufacturers - if you have craft businesses stored in their CRM - only have generic info@elektromeisterfirma.de office email addresses. Never before has a general office email address felt targeted by an invitation to an app.
   
2. Evolute telephone acquisition: Telephone acquisition by our specialists is the most effective way to turn your existing contacts into a functioning community. Unlike the manufacturers' sales staff, our employees are trained to emphasize the advantages of the Evolute app for craftsmen - this enables us to achieve conversion rates of around 25%. The manufacturer has a say in how the conversations are conducted and receives detailed evaluations on how the contacts have converted and how the community development is progressing.
   

Why additional recruiting through Evolute is often a good idea

If your company does not have a close relationship with the contacts, it can also be difficult for Evolute specialists to win them over to their Evolute Community. Some customers simply don't want to give feedback - you have to accept that too. 

However, one thing is particularly important: your CRM often only contains the addresses of the commercial contacts, i.e. the managing director or owner. However, you can only expect really in-depth operational feedback on your products from them in the rarest of cases.

However, the contacts provided by Evolute as part of the craftsman recruiting process can be specifically selected by you for the position in question: For example, journeymen and master craftsmen can be recruited primarily for operational issues and managing directors and owners for commercial issues.

Whichever path you choose, we at Evolute always strive to provide you with the best possible support on your way to customer-centric product development - be it with our own contacts or those we recruit for you. 

We understand the challenges that industrial companies face when it comes to getting their customers to use the Evolute app. If you're interested in building your own customer community and reaping the benefits of our software, don't hesitate to get in touch. We will be happy to assist you and help you set up a system that will allow you and all your product manager colleagues to gather feedback from the market in a matter of hours.

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