A Masterclass from Katlin Hess & Emily Malis Greathouse

The voice of the customer is indispensable when your product is outstanding.

From sourcing amazing quotes to highlighting market sentiment and everything in between, so many options are available for you to choose from. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the countless opportunities that lay before you.  

G2 is the world’s largest B2B marketplace, where software buyers go to assess a diverse range of products and services. Software vendors that realize the power of customer advocacy find success on G2 for numerous reasons.

Any software brand can use G2 to acquire new buyers and keep existing customers. With a bit of know-how, you can find your way to the top of the Grid Report in no time.

As part of Reach 2022, our very own Katlin Hess and Emily Malis Greathouse gave a masterclass on customer advocacy on G2. This session was packed with a ton of excellent best practices and information sellers can use to maximize review collection and improve their overall presence along the way.

Didn’t get a chance to catch the masterclass? No worries – this article breaks it down for you.

The anatomy of G2 Scores and Grid Reports

The world of B2B software constantly changes. Customers’ feelings about a product or service may shift in weeks or months. G2’s scoring methodology considers this and attempts to create scoring that reflects the dynamic nature of customer software reviews.

For new and established sellers who want more from G2, it’s crucial to grasp the components of your G2 Score. Emily Malis Greathouse, Director of Market Research, spoke about this and other concepts at length, so let’s look at how G2 processes data, which will help us understand G2 Grid Reports later.

If a company has an average Satisfaction score of 70 and a Market Presence score of 60, its G2 Score is 65. In other words, improving satisfaction and market presence gives a profile a greater chance of performing better on G2 Grid Reports.

How G2 calculates satisfaction scores

The satisfaction score considers multiple indicators from G2 review
data to provide a single score beyond star ratings that shows how happy reviewers are about using your solution.

Listed in order of importance, the following elements impact satisfaction scores.

• Customer satisfaction with end-user product attributes based on reviews
• Popularity and statistical significance based on the number of reviews received by G2
• Quality of reviews received
• Age of reviews
• Customers’ satisfaction with administration-specific product attributes based on user reviews
• Overall customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score® (NPS) based on ratings by G2 users

How G2 calculates market presence scores

Market Presence is a combination of 15 metrics from G2’s reviews, publicly available information, and third-party sources. Here’s a look at some of the most critical information G2 uses to measure Market Presence.

• Overall review count
• Review count from the last 90 days
• Number of employees
• Web presence
• Social presence
• Employee growth and web presence growth
• Seller age
• Employee satisfaction and engagement

Understanding G2 Grid Reports

Released every quarter, G2 Grid Reports represent the crème de la crème of B2B software. Grid Reports contain data from both verified user reviews and vendor information from trusted online sources comparing products based on Satisfaction and Market Presence scores.

But ranking high on reports isn’t just for pride. Your inclusion in reports heavily influences how prospects decide on a software platform. Here’s a breakdown of the different types of Grid Reports:

• Category Grid Reports
• Momentum Grid Reports
• Regional Grid Reports
• Segmented Grid Reports
  • Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
  • Mid-Market
  • Enterprise

The last concept to understand about Grid Reports is how decay affects your reviews. Essentially, the older the review, the less valuable it is.

Building a review generation strategy

For the remainder of the masterclass, Katlin Hess, Director of Customer Marketing, focused on sharing tips and best practices for utilizing G2 reviews to drive customer advocacy. To start, you’ll need more reviews, and Hess lays out a couple of great ways to ramp up your collection.

The four pillars of review collection

We’ve mentioned how the recency of reviews plays a big part in your profile performance in G2. Consider that 85% of consumers consider reviews more than three months old irrelevant.

If you want to get a high G2 score or claim the top spot on a Grid Report, review collection should be an ongoing effort, not a one-and-done exercise. To provide a general framework for your efforts, Hess briefly discusses the four pillars of review collection.

1. Ask everyone for reviews: Customers turn to reviews for social proof to help validate their purchasing decisions. Because of this, reviews need to be verified and authentic. Positive and constructive feedback both provide opportunities, so ask everyone!
2. Ask for reviews consistently: Explore different ways to automate review requests and reiterate the importance of reviews with internal team members.
3. Ask for review updates: Lean on strong relationships with long-time customers for review updates. You’ll gain insights into what keeps them returning and their reviews contribute to recency.
4. Provide customer service by responding to reviews: Constructive feedback is as valuable as positive. This allows you to acknowledge the customer’s concerns and validate what they’re experiencing while also bringing attention to their issues. 

Types of review campaigns

You can try three distinct ways to collect more reviews on G2. Consider utilizing all of them simultaneously; each is a proven method worth considering.

1. G2-managed campaigns: If you upload a list of your customers, we’ll send three emails on your behalf asking for reviews. These review gen campaigns can expedite review collection significantly and are excellent for preparing for upcoming Grid Report releases. Also, you can now request to set up a review campaign in your my.G2 dashboard!
2. Self-run campaigns: You reach out to your customers to solicit reviews across your customer touchpoints.
3. Always-on collection: You can embed review asks directly into your product using our native API or an integration partner. Check out this case study to see how Truckstop increased reviews using Pendo.  

How to respond to customer reviews

When you’re capturing authentic feedback and reaching out to your customers, you’re probably going to get some reviews that aren’t exactly favorable.

In truth, you should respond to all reviews if you take customer feedback seriously. Doing so

• Builds trust with customers and prospects
• Humanizes your brand
• Gets ahead of potential churn
• Shows your customer that you value their input
• Lets prospects know that you take care of issues and listen to customers

Metrics for measuring success

With review collection firing on all cylinders, software vendors ultimately want to know how these activities on G2 drive success in other areas. To justify their efforts, marketing and sales teams must quantify and measure the return on investment (ROI).

It all comes down to the goals you’re trying to achieve. Below you’ll find the metrics that matter most with regard to your success on G2.

Become a customer advocacy powerhouse

G2’s Reach had a ton of great information. In this masterclass, attendees got the inside scoop on how to better utilize the customer voice and prioritize authentic feedback. 

With these tips, you’ll scale your reviews, understand your G2 Score, and figure out how to respond to customer reviews with intelligence and kindness. In no time, you’ll reach the summit of the Grid Report and prove why your customers love you.

Interested in seeing more from Reach? Watch all of the on-demand recordings of all the sessions to get great insights from the experts.