By Pete Mercer
How reps can spark the same passion seen in pop culture fandoms to build lasting loyalty and advocacy.
Everyone is a fan of something. While fandoms have existed for years, they’ve become far more visible in mainstream culture as once-niche communities – like comic books – have exploded through franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Today, people passionately debate their favorite superheroes with friends and within online communities.
Major conventions now draw hundreds of thousands of attendees, all centered around shared enthusiasm for specific interests. The question for brands is simple: how do you inspire that same level of passion for your own products and services?
Repertoire Magazine recently spoke with author and keynote speaker Brittany Hodak about customer experience, brand loyalty, and the power of superfans. Hodak is the author of Creating Superfans: How to Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates, which outlines how to turn customers into passionate, long-term brand advocates.
Defining a superfan
Hodak became interested in the concept of fandom while working in the music industry. She said, “I studied why some artists’ fanbases grew while others remained stagnant or shrunk. I often wondered if the same principles held true in other industries, which is what I’ve been researching, speaking and writing about for the last 15 years.”
She defines a superfan as a customer or stakeholder who is so delighted by their experience that they become enthusiastic advocates. These are the people who are going to bat for you in situations where you might not come up in conversation organically, but they choose to tell their friends, families, colleagues and neighbors what makes your brand worth noticing.
“In today’s market, attention is scarce and the options are endless,” she said. “People don’t just want to hear from brands – they want to hear from other people. In fact, we know that customers are far more likely to trust recommendations from friends, family members and even fellow customers than anything a brand says about itself. The businesses that win are the ones turning customers into people who create more customers.”
Artists like Taylor Swift generate huge fanbases because they hold people’s attention, which automatically assigns value to them. As one of the most valuable commodities available, having the attention of your audience is a powerful resource that shouldn’t be taken lightly. By developing a base of superfans, you will have a group of customers with a built-in sense of brand loyalty. This is an invaluable resource, especially in an industry as tricky as medical sales can be.
Training teams to deliver exceptional experiences
Success in the med/surg industry often hinges on treating the customer experience as a shared responsibility. These products go through several different rounds of people – the sales rep who wins the business, the client success team who manages the account and the customer service team who steps in when something goes wrong.
“When those handoffs aren’t seamless – when information gets lost or the customer has to repeat themselves – it creates friction fast,” Hodak said. “In healthcare, where providers are already stretched thin and accuracy is critical, that friction matters even more. The companies that stand out are the ones that are easy to do business with.”
For this to work, all the teams need to be aligned towards a common goal to create a seamless customer experience that feels connected from end-to-end. Hodak argues that this might require “giving sales reps visibility into what happens after the handoff, and every team has access to the same information.” Making the internal workings of your system visible is the best way to make the experience feel effortless.
The role of leadership
If the customer experience is truly going to be a priority, the effort has to start at the top. Leadership sets the tone for what the organization values – and what it doesn’t.
Hodak argues that when executives treat the customer experience as little more than a talking point, the rest of the organization follows suit. Only when leaders consistently model and reinforce its importance does it become embedded in how the company operates.
“It’s critical that every single employee – not just sales – sees their role in the customer experience,” she said. “Anyone who touches the business impacts how the customer feels. I like to say that everyone is the Acting Chief of Experience. Leadership’s job is to connect those dots and build a culture where people feel responsible for the experience and empowered to improve it.”
Strong leadership also keeps teams anchored in the customer’s perspective, helping them understand what it feels like on the other side of the relationship. “Employees will never consistently deliver an experience they haven’t experienced themselves,” Hodak added. “If you want customers to feel valued, supported and understood, your employees have to feel that way first. Apathetic teams lead to apathetic customers.”
Leveraging relationships
At the end of the day, this industry is built on relationships – and that’s where superfan development begins. With providers stretched in every direction, they rely on partners who meet them where they are and understand what they need in the moment.
“The best reps anticipate needs, flag potential issues early, and look for ways to reduce friction – whether that’s simplifying a process, offering a better solution, or just being incredibly responsive,” Hodak said.
In healthcare sales, where marketing is tightly regulated and flexibility is limited, relationships often are the marketing strategy. When products are similar and competition is high, differentiation comes down to how you show up and how you make customers feel.
Hodak said, “That starts with understanding your customers on a deeper level – not just the pressures they’re under or what a ‘win’ looks like in their role, but who they are outside the hospital. Healthcare providers are often defined by their profession in a way most people aren’t. If you know a doctor, chances are they’re ‘the doctor’ in almost every room they enter. The more you understand the person behind the provider, the more meaningful your interactions become.”
Strong relationships are built on making people feel seen, understood, and valued – not just as accounts, but as people. When they feel that way, they’re more likely to remember you, trust you and eventually advocate for you. In the end, it’s simple: people respond to people who make them feel valued.
Here’s an excellent, real-world example of how that can work. Hodak’s experience in the music industry allowed her to cross paths with Taylor Swift early in her career. She details meeting her in Creating Superfans, after Swift won her very first televised award for the song “Tim McGraw.” Swift’s stardom is credited not only to her talents as a singer-songwriter, but also to the level of connection she was able to build with her fans over the years through platforms like MySpace.
Hodak wrote in her book, “She said something during our conversation that is burned into my memory: ‘I knew that if I wanted to get a gold record, I had to make half a million people care enough about me and my music to buy my album.’ I’ve worked closely with hundreds of recording artists in my career, and I’ve never heard anyone else distill so perfectly what it takes to build a legion of loyal followers. She cared about them – every single one of them – and soon, they cared about her too.”
There might be some disparate levels of fame at play here, but the main idea is the same. Loyalty is earned. So is attention. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an international pop icon or a medical-surgical sales team. Earning the attention and loyalty of your customers is the only way to create superfans.
Key Takeaways
- Superfans are created when customers become enthusiastic advocates who actively promote your brand through trust and shared experience. In today’s crowded market, peer recommendations outweigh brand messaging, making customer advocacy a key growth driver.
- Delivering that experience requires organization-wide alignment, with seamless handoffs and shared information across teams to eliminate friction and make doing business easy for customers.
- Ultimately, leadership and relationships drive success. When companies consistently prioritize customer experience and understand the person behind the customer, they build trust, loyalty, and lasting advocacy.