Gartner is cranking up the focus on its Peer Insights program, adding new categories so that more vendors are eligible to “let the world know you are the Customers’ Choice”.

Webinars this week provided more information for AR professionals on Customers’ Choice, which Gartner says is a great initiative to expand marketing collateral and “helps your prospects understand your own customers’ experience”.

Six new markets have been added to Peer Insights Customers’ Choice, with awards slated for announcement in mid-May 2018:

  • Client Management Tools
  • Cloud Access Security Brokers
  • CRM Lead Management Software
  • Data Management Solutions for Analytics
  • Operational Database Management Systems
  • Security Awareness Computer-Based Training

Vendors with aspirations to enter should be aware that the table stakes are high: “You must have an average rating of at least 4.2 stars and more than 50 reviews in the last 12 months.” Up to seven vendors with stellar scores will be recognized – so 4.2 should be the bare minimum score that vendors are aiming to achieve from customers. The full methodology is online.

Any vendor that needs a little bit of extra help in persuading customers to provide glowing ratings can always call on Gartner for some help. This is one of the few things that Gartner (currently) provides for free. Vendors are invited to provide their customer database, so that the Peer Insights team can take the lead in contacting these customers and persuading them to share their experiences on the crowd-sourced reviews site.

Initiatives like these are helping Peer Insights to grow fast. Gartner is determined to establish the program as the leading source of qualified customer reviews in the enterprise world and is targeting a total of 165,000 published reviews by the end of this calendar year. So far, it is closing in on the 100k mark.

  • Struggling to get to grips with Peer Insights? We can help.

Note: The name Peer Insights and the Peer Insights logo are Gartner trademarks.