Customer Community

What is a customer community?

A customer community is a space for customers to interact with each other, discuss goods or services, ask questions, and connect with company representatives. Customer communities come in different shapes and sizes, and may not use the same platforms or have the same uses. Companies leverage customer communities to build brand loyalty, nurture existing customers by offering closer support, and learn more about their target market. 

Companies use online community management software to build and manage their customer communities. These tools allow businesses to create an internal or external digital community, gauge customer satisfaction within the platform, and moderate interactions to ensure a safe community environment. These software solutions also integrate website features like FAQs and help desk programs all in one community hub.

Types of customer communities

There are four major types of customer communities. Some companies create environments where different types can live together within the same community. 

1. Social community: a social media platform like Facebook or Instagram. This is a public forum that invites customer interactions such as liking and sharing company posts. Users can also comment and have conversations on a company’s social media account. Social communities are an excellent place for companies to keep an eye on trending topics within their target market.
2. Advocate community: a space for loyal customers to advocate for a good or service. Companies often invite dedicated customers to join this user community to discuss what they love about their products. Companies may use positive incentives like coupons or free shipping to entice customers to share feedback. 
3. Support community: a community of customers willing to offer support to other customers. This may take place on the company website or within a forum. This customer service community benefits the company by providing aid when company support representatives are unavailable. For example, G2 invites customers to start discussions within a software category’s resource page. Users can ask each other questions and even communicate directly with vendor representatives.
4. Insight community: a group of customers chosen for research. An insight community acts as a focus group for companies to create customer segments and gain feedback and information about what users think of their goods or services. Communication with this community is usually in the form of carefully selected questions and prompts.

Benefits of a customer community

There are a lot of benefits to creating a thriving customer community. These benefits help companies understand their customers and enhance the user experience. 

• Improve customer engagement. Above all, customer communities get companies closer to their customers in a comfortable and accessible environment. They help bridge the gap between customers and the company by humanizing the user experience. Visitors can hear from real consumers and communicate quickly with business representatives. It unlocks a new level of customer communication that cannot be replicated outside of a community. 
• Build brand loyalty. People who feel heard and valued are more likely to become repeat customers. Customer communities allow companies to listen to and appreciate their customers by answering questions and facilitating conversations. The more important a customer feels, the higher the chance they will become loyal to the brand and interact within the community to improve their overall experience.
• Offer personal customer support. Customer communities give companies a way to connect with their customers on a new level. Because customers can ask questions or seek advice in the community, companies can use those conversations to have their customer support team reach out directly to a user in need. Companies can also identify frequently asked questions or concerns to change elements of their offerings and improve the user experience.
• Encourage customers to interact with each other. Company customer support can’t be everywhere. Customer communities act as a resource for customers to interact with and help each other successfully use a good or service. Customers can even share unique tips and tricks that only a satisfied user would encounter. 
• Develop customer advocates. A company’s best salespeople are those who enjoy the good or service so much they share it with others. A customer community is an excellent way for users to discuss a company’s goods or services in an appropriate environment. 
• Gain customer insights. A customer community proactively offers valuable information about a company’s target market. Getting feedback from customers and engaging in conversation helps companies identify their customers' wants so they can change marketing efforts and product portfolios accordingly.

How to create a customer community 

A customer community may look completely different from company to company, but most businesses follow the same six steps to create, develop, and identify the advantages of their community. 

1. Goals: Before building and implementing a customer community plan, companies should outline precisely what they want to achieve. This includes whether they hope to drive more customers, nurture existing ones, or collect data for research and development. After identifying those goals, there will be more precise decision-making along the way.
2. Type: After identifying the goals, a company can determine which type of customer community makes the most sense for them. Combining different types of communities can help companies tackle several goals at the same time.
3. Platform: Once a community type is chosen, companies must determine where their community will live. A customer community can be on social media, a blog, a public forum, a company website, or through emails and surveys. 
4. Engagement: The worst thing a company can do is create a community and walk away. The best part of a customer community is that the company actively engages with users. Companies should take the time to keep the conversation going on their community platform. 
5. Success: Companies must decide how to determine success. They should build a list of key metrics that show whether the customer community is succeeding the way they had hoped. This may include a certain number of new customers, problems solved over customer support, a better ratio of positive reviews, or anything else they deem important to prove that their customer community has a return on investment.
6. Utilize: Customer communities are full of valuable information that companies can use to improve the way they sell their goods or services. Customer data is priceless, and a customer community streamlines data collection. 

Customer community best practices

There are a few things companies should remember as they create, build, and maintain a customer community. 

• Keep the customer in mind. Companies should take a customer-first approach throughout the entire creation of a customer community. Before focusing on how sales will be made, companies must consider the user experience and create a community worth joining and engaging with.
• Pick the right environment. Choosing a platform can make or break a community before it even begins. Extensive research may be necessary to ensure that the community is built in the right place. 
• Start the conversation. There has to be a reason for users to visit a community. Companies should start discussions by asking questions, requesting product tips and tricks, or sharing exciting information. A community description can also help users understand the intent of the community. If there is an interesting dialogue, customers will find their way to the community and join the conversation.
• Protect the community. Moderation is very important in a customer community. Companies should ensure there is a team allocated to keeping an eye on the customer community and preserving brand integrity.