We are busy analyzing the results of our groundbreaking study on customer advocacy in enterprise IT markets. The survey was conducted in late February 2011. We interviewed roughly 375 IT decision makers (CIOs, CTOs, and directors/managers of IT) and focused initially on four major IT vendors.  We will be going to field in the next month to gather data on another 10 vendors. The size of company surveyed was 100-plus, with 60% of the respondents coming from companies with more than 1000 employees.

Among this group the following table shows the advocacy scores. This is for the entire group, and findings by individual provider vary considerably. It is noteworthy that almost two-thirds of customers fall into the Advocate and Allegiant segments.



We have determined that customers who are Advocates are most highly prized. They have the following attributes:

• Generate six times more positive buzz than Alienated
• Have virtually no negative buzz
• Are twice as likely as Alienated to grow or maintain share of wallet with incumbent vendors

There will be more to come as we analyze the results so stay tuned…



Don Ryan is Vice President, Technology Practice at Market Probe. CLICK FOR DON'S BIO