How to Leverage Gartner Peer Insights at Events

We’re excited to work with you to collect firsthand feedback from your customers. These reviews help shape your product and customer journey while, ultimately, helping you to meet your customers’ needs.

This guide explains how you can implement Gartner Peer Insights as a customer advocacy tool and referral program for your products at your events.

Download Full Version of Preparation Guide (PDF)

Going Virtual? How to leverage Gartner Peer Insights for your digital events:

Download Digital Event Preparation Guide (PDF)

• arrow_downwardPre-event
• arrow_downwardAt The Event
• arrow_downwardPostevent
• arrow_downwardCase Study: Ivanti

Pre-event

• arrow_downwardOverview
• arrow_downwardEvent Planning Checklist
• arrow_downwardTPT: Product Alignment, Team Access and Creating Your Event Campaign
• arrow_downwardReview Process: How it Works
• arrow_downwardIncentive Program
• arrow_downwardPerfecting Your On-site Presence (signage templates, references for booth builds)
• arrow_downwardSocial Media Cheat Sheet

Overview

We designed Gartner Peer Insights from the ground up as an enterprise reviews and ratings platform that allows you to virtually extend your personal network to more than 135,000 peers. It’s open to everyone (and their teams!) free of charge.

Gartner is transforming the way enterprise software is bought and sold by creating the industry standard for reviews and ratings. Each rating is verified by Gartner professionals. Reviews cover the entire IT life cycle (product evaluation and implementation to service and support) and represent the unfiltered, firsthand experience of enterprise technology buyers.

Event Planning Checklist

This checklist will help you to prepare in the months leading up to your event

Download the Checklist (PDF)

Technology Provider Tool (TPT)

You can now source reviews across all of your products and markets in a single campaign. Or, you can focus your campaign’s targeting and messaging on a single market while still accepting reviews for all products in that market.

Get set up in the TPT to manage your products and review sourcing campaigns:

1. Product alignment
2. Team access
3. Setting up your event campaign

Click here to learn more about how to create a campaign.

Review Process: How It Works

We help you leverage your event to collect reviews of your business software on Gartner Peer Insights.

Your product is listed on the website. Attendees who have used it in the past two years can write a review of or any other of your company’s software products

---

To vendors:

• What’s the Catch for Reviewers? (i.e., what do you need to communicate to them on-site)?

  Other than being opted in for more opportunities to write reviews after their first one is published, there is no catch! Peer reviews help software buyers and users make more informed decisions. Just make sure that the reviewer indicates that they’ve received a gift for their honest review by selecting the appropriate box in the survey.

• How does Gartner Peer Insights Use Reviewer Contact Information?

  Gartner has a comprehensive Community Guidelines that explains how we collect, use and safeguard your contact information. We also have a set of Rules of Engagement that govern your use of our website and Terms of Use that set rules around the review submission process.

• Validation and Moderation Process

  Please refer to Validation and Moderation questions in FAQ for more details.

---

To reviewers:

• Do I have to write a positive review?

  No! All we ask is that you write an honest review. In fact, negative reviews are vital to adding authenticity to the software-buying process.

• Where does the review go?

  Once approved by our QA team, reviews are published in the product pages on Gartner Peer Insights. Think of it as if you wrote a review about travel on TripAdvisor and the review got published on the destination’s page. You will receive communication from our team notifying you when your review has been published.

Incentive Program

If you’d like to offer incentives in exchange for customers writing an honest Gartner Peer Insights review, here’s a few things we suggest.

1. Gartner policy states that any incentive must be made available to all reviewers who submit honest reviews, regardless of the rating they ultimately give the product they are reviewing.
2. Incentives of nominal value ($25 or less) are acceptable to give away in exchange for a review submission. Popular items we have seen are:
   • Portable Wi-Fi plugin
   • Vendor-branded swag (shirts, dress socks, coffee mugs)
   • Small electronics (USB charger, flashlight)

Perfecting Your On-site Presence

Here’s everything you need to successfully collect user reviews at events:

• On-site review collection kiosk platform
• Booth and signage templates
• Promotional items
• Attendee communications
• Staff training guide

Download Guidance on These Steps (PDF)

Social Media Cheat Sheet

Learn how to use these five ways to leverage social media to engage attendees before, during and after your event.

1. Create an event specific # (hashtag) to start a buzz
2. Paid, targeted social promotions
3. Push event-related digital content and promotional opportunities
4. Support your hashtag during your event
5. Track your hashtag and encourage positive attendee feedback

Download the Cheat Sheet (PDF)

At the Event

• arrow_downwardSetting up Your Kiosks and Booth
• arrow_downwardTechnical Support
• arrow_downwardDriving Traffic to Booth
• arrow_downwardOn-site Support from Gartner

Setting Up Your Kiosks and Booth

Best practices for engaging with customers, managing the flow of activity around review submissions and having a successful experience

Download Guidance on These Steps (PDF)

Technical Support

We recommend that you have a tech support person readily available or on call during the event

• What if a reviewer is unable to register?

  Reviewers are required to use their employment email address to register with Peer Insights. Free accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo can’t be used.

Driving Traffic to Booth

General setup

• Consistent high-traffic areas are ideal
• Send pre-event, during and postevent attendee communications with a clear call to action, including event campaign link, for easy tracking capabilities and reporting
• Send notifications during event via email and social media
• Promote booth location repeatedly during event through print and digital material

On-site Support from Gartner

If you are still experiencing technical issues, please contact peerinsights@gartner.com. Please start your subject line with “URGENT TECH ISSUE.”
Your program manager will be on call during your event to address any questions throughout the process. Please be sure to get their contact information prior to the event.

Postevent

Debrief with Gartner

Set up a meeting with your program manager to review your reflections and take-aways.

Postevent Follow-up Email

Download Template (DOCX)

Case Study: Ivanti

A Conversation with Customer Advocacy Manager Cache Walker, Ivanti.

Customer advocacy has always been a dependable, self-sustaining way to promote and grow your brand. Event engagement is an effective way to not only generate reviews on Peer Insights, but also convert clients from customers to brand advocates.

We spoke to Cache Walker, Customer Advocacy Manager at Ivanti, about the Ivanti Interchange Event 2018 in Dallas, Texas. In our conversation, Cache detailed the 3 reasons the event was such a success for his Ivanti Insider Customer Advocacy Program.

1. Regular and Consistent Communications

Our communications to attendees about our Advocacy Program and our expectations for them were consistent across multiple channels. We were very straightforward about how we define a true customer advocate, and open about how giving back and contributing reviews are a piece of that.

We made sure our messaging was cohesive and deliberate throughout each phase of the event. In fact, before the event even started, several reviews had already been sourced. The attendees just needed to claim their gift on-site, which was another opportunity for engagement.

It was important attendees understood becoming an “Ivanti Insider” was our primary call to action – actually writing a review was secondary and would naturally follow. First we established what an Ivanti Insider was, what our advocates do – then we encouraged them get started by leaving a review and becoming a part of the community.

2. Location and Presentation

It’s important to make your presence known at any event. We went big with our space and didn’t settle for only a desk. We made sure to have at least 6 laptops, big signage, and a lot of branding. We wanted our space to be a destination for attendees, and to offer them a full program.

We made Ivanti Customer Advocacy an experience, and one that was easily and clearly identifiable.

3. Event App

Our Event App was crucial in engaging attendees on-site. Our app prompted them to complete advocacy-related challenges and accrue points.

This gamification introduced additional motivation to the Advocacy Program and directly encouraged attendees to interact with us and participate in review submission at the event.

For more information and general questions about Peer Insights, see Peer Insights FAQs

forum If you need help call Gartner Technical Support or send us an e-mail.