What Is A Customer Community? 15 Reasons Why You Need One & Examples
17 August, 2024
Consider you release a new course or program, and you hear crickets instead of a flood of sales. Unfortunately, this is a reality many online coaches face. Like any business, online coaching businesses need time to warm up before hitting their stride.
One of the most effective ways to improve your online coaching business's sales and longevity is with a customer community. This article will help you understand the concept of customer community and how to build one for your online coaching business.
Delphi's digital clone is a valuable tool for achieving your objectives. This scoring system will help you build a successful customer community that will boost your online coaching business.
What Is A Customer Community?
A customer community is a dynamic space where enthusiastic customers come together to engage with each other and with brand representatives. These communities often serve as hubs for discussions about products, sources of customer support, and forums for users to share experiences and tips. The benefits of such communities extend to both the members and the brand itself.
Data shows that more than three-quarters of internet users belong to some form of online community, with participation exceptionally high among Millennials and Gen Z. Your business can capitalize on this trend by developing a customer community, such as an online customer success community, which enables you to provide better service while also boosting brand loyalty and retention.
Enriched Customer Experience
A community provides an enriched experience that goes beyond the typical buyer-seller relationship. It offers customers a platform to connect with like-minded individuals, gain insights from other users, and even contribute to the development and improvement of products through feedback. For the brand, customer communities foster greater customer loyalty, create a sense of belonging among users, and offer invaluable insights into customer behaviors and preferences.
The foundation of any customer community is the platform on which it is built. While some communities can form offline, most today exist online. These online communities are typically integrated into a brand's app or hosted on third-party social media platforms. These digital spaces enable brands to connect with customers globally, fostering deeper relationships and a stronger sense of community, no matter where participants are located.
Types Of Customer Communities
Customer communities come in different forms, each serving a unique purpose and catering to specific needs. Three of the most common types are Customer Success Communities, B2B Customer Communities, and B2C Customer Communities.
Customer Success Community
A Customer Success Community is about helping customers achieve their goals using your product or service. In these communities, members share best practices, troubleshoot problems, and provide insights into how they use the product to succeed in their contexts.
This type of community is precious for SaaS companies and subscription-based businesses, where customer satisfaction and retention are crucial. The focus is on empowering customers to make the most of the product, with users often learning from each other’s experiences, which adds an extra layer of value beyond what the business alone can provide.
B2B Customer Community
A B2B (Business-to-Business) Customer Community is tailored for businesses that sell to other businesses. These communities focus on industry-specific challenges, networking opportunities, and exchanging ideas among professionals.
In a B2B community, members can discuss shared challenges, seek solutions, and collaborate on strategies that drive business success. The value here lies in the opportunity for companies to connect with peers, gain industry insights, and find solutions to common problems, ultimately benefiting all participating businesses.
B2C Customer Community
In contrast, a B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Customer Community is designed for companies that serve individual consumers. These communities often revolve around shared interests, lifestyles, or hobbies related to the brand’s products or services.
B2C communities provide a space where consumers can connect, share experiences, and receive support from the brand and fellow users. This community helps foster a sense of belonging and loyalty among customers as they engage with the brand and other like-minded individuals.
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15 Benefits Of Creating A Customer Community
1. Customer Empowerment
A customer community empowers users by providing a platform to access first-hand information, discuss experiences, and share feedback. This empowerment fosters a sense of ownership and loyalty, as customers feel their opinions and suggestions are valued and can directly influence the brand's products or services.
2. Boosting Brand Perception
A brand can distinguish itself from competitors by offering an innovative and smoooth customer experience through a well-designed community platform. This 360-degree boost in brand perception can be pivotal in gaining a competitive edge, as customers appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking and dedication to creating a space for interaction and support.
3. Leveraging Customer Expertise
A vibrant customer community allows businesses to tap into the expertise of their customers. These communities often become self-sustaining, with members helping each other by sharing knowledge and solving problems. This enriches the community and turns customers into brand ambassadors who actively promote the business.
4. Enhanced Customer Experience
Personalizing interactions within the community based on customer insights can significantly enhance the overall experience. Providing relevant and accurate information in response to customer queries builds trust and satisfaction, which are critical for long-term customer retention. According to CMX research, 86 percent of community builders believe having a branded online community will positively impact core operations. In comparison, 85 percent believe it will improve the customer journey and increase trust.
5. Increased Customer Loyalty
A well-established community fosters a sense of belonging, which naturally leads to increased customer loyalty. When customers feel connected to the brand and other users, they are likelier to continue using its products or services and less likely to switch to competitors.
6. Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Satisfied community members often become enthusiastic brand advocates, spreading positive word-of-mouth about the business. This organic form of marketing can be incredibly effective in attracting new customers and boosting brand awareness without significant marketing expenditure.
7. Valuable Feedback and Insights
Customer communities are a goldmine for feedback and suggestions. Businesses can leverage this feedback to make informed decisions about product improvements, new features, and overall customer experience enhancements, ensuring their offerings align with customer needs.
8. Improved Customer Support
Peer-to-peer support within the community can alleviate the burden on customer support teams. Members often assist each other with troubleshooting and problem-solving, leading to quicker resolutions and higher satisfaction rates while freeing resources for more complex issues.
9. Innovation and Co-Creation
Engaged community members can be a source of innovative ideas. By involving customers in the co-creation process, businesses can develop products and features that better meet customer needs, driving innovation and staying ahead of the competition.
10. Market Insights and Competitive Advantage
Customer communities provide real-time insights into market trends and customer sentiment. Understanding these dynamics can help businesses stay ahead of industry developments and make strategic decisions that offer a competitive advantage.
11. Customer Retention and Reduced Churn
Active participation in a customer community enhances the likelihood of customer retention. A robust and supportive community can reduce churn by ensuring customers feel valued and connected to the brand.
12. Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities
Communities provide an ideal platform for upselling and cross-selling. Customers who have positive experiences within the community are more open to exploring additional products or services the brand offers.
13. Enhanced Brand Reputation
A thriving community helps build and maintain a positive brand reputation. Success stories and positive experiences shared within the community contribute to a stronger brand image, attracting new customers and reinforcing existing relationships.
14. Cost Savings
Customer communities can lead to significant cost savings, particularly in marketing and customer support. The organic nature of community-driven marketing and the reduction in support needs through peer assistance decrease the necessity for extensive advertising and dedicated support teams.
15. Customer Support
Customers prefer to help themselves and rely on companies’ online resources more in our digital-first world. This is so much so that 69 percent of customers want to resolve as many issues as possible using self-customer service options, according to Zendesk’s Customer Experience Trends Report. A community forum can intercept would-be tickets by enabling a brand to leverage customer expertise and user-generated content to provide evergreen self-service support.
How To Build A Successful Customer Community
Determine the Kind of Community Your Customers Need
Start by understanding what kind of community will resonate with your customers. If you’re unsure, the best approach is to ask them directly. Conduct interviews with diverse customers to identify their needs and pain points. This insight helps you build a community that they’ll actively participate in from the get-go. Engaging your customers early not only ensures that the community meets their expectations but also helps identify potential leaders who can drive engagement.
Align Community Needs with Business Goals
Your community strategy should align with both your customers’ needs and your business objectives. This alignment will guide various aspects of your community, including its design and functionality. Decide on the look and feel of your community space, whether digital or physical and plan out who will manage it. Establish transparent processes for content creation, user support, and integrating feedback into your business operations. This ensures that the community serves both your users and your business effectively.
Host a Kickoff Event
A kickoff event is a great way to generate excitement and set the stage for a successful launch. Invite the customer groups you consulted during the planning phase to give them a preview of the community. Provide them with messaging they can use to spread the word. Ensure they understand the community’s mission and value proposition, as this clarity will help them advocate for the community effectively. Once the event concludes, launch the community to your broader customer base, highlighting its benefits and encouraging participation.
Continuously Expand and Iterate on Content
Building a community isn’t a one-time effort; it requires ongoing management and content development. Ensure you have the resources to create and share valuable content regularly, connect members, and address their questions. Maintain a strategy for promoting the community and introducing new members to its benefits. Regularly updating content and engaging in conversations keeps the community dynamic and relevant, encouraging continued participation.
Give Members a Voice
A thriving community thrives on member involvement. Encourage participation by recognizing and rewarding active members who make meaningful contributions. Create processes that allow members to provide feedback and influence community activities. Engaging with members and valuing their input ensures that the community evolves to meet their needs and remains valuable.
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Methods To Build And Engage A Customer Community
Blogging: Create Content to Connect with Customers
Corporate blogs serve as an essential platform for customers to post their opinions and for other customers to post their opinions on the products or services discussed related to a business or a brand.
Surveys: Get Direct Feedback from Customers
Surveys have always been the most powerful tool for collecting feedback from customers. Create and conduct surveys, polls, and questionnaires to collect opinions and use them as a platform for creating a dedicated dashboard to view the overall analytics of customer responses.
Email: Reach Out to Customers Directly
Send emails to a selected group of customers and ask them for their opinions. High-end, loyal customers are usually the ones who render the most honest responses. Use these responses to make the necessary changes to your products or services.
Discussion Groups: Facilitate Conversations
Discussion or focus groups are one of the most candid ways of understanding customers’ feelings. Customers can ask questions and discuss issues directly with the company employees or representatives and other customers in the forum organized by categories and topics.
Social Media Platforms: Harness the Power of Social Networks
In the last decade, social media platforms have become highly effective for customer voice and opinion. This platform has democratized the entire outlook of customers voicing their concerns. Community members can do the same things in online customer community building, such as posting an update, uploading and sharing files, links, pictures, commenting, etc.
Examples Of Customer Communities
The Duolingo Customer Community: A Dedicated Volunteer Network
Duolingo is a free app that helps users learn a new language. Behind the scenes, a dedicated community of volunteers supports the app’s operation. These passionate polyglots answer user questions, help improve the app, and incorporate new languages and modules onto the platform. The Duolingo community is even gamified so that volunteers can earn points and increase their rankings.
Apple Has Built a Customer Community for Support and Improvement
Apple has built a thriving customer community that doubles as a customer support platform. They’ve even gamified the experience so that contributors get points and are allowed more moderation features as they increase levels. Users who get to the top levels also get access to an exclusive community. And yes, if you’re thinking it, gamifying your customer service so that customers want to spend time supporting each other is a pretty brilliant use of a customer community.
Shopify: A Customer Community Dedicated to Business Success
For a great customer community in action, look no further than Shopify. Since Shopify helps its customers build stores to sell their stuff, the Shopify community is dedicated to training and knowledge-building, answering FAQs, and hosting live events.
Oiselle: From Selling Merchandise to Building a Community
Oiselle is a women’s running apparel brand that wanted to go beyond selling merchandise and help its customers learn and connect with others. They’ve built a Mighty Network, Oiselle Volée, around the joy of exercise. At first, it was a place to find a running partner. But over the past few years, they've expanded what the Oiselle community does. Now, its 4000 members can find a place to belong through real conversations and thriving virtual events.
Lego: Where Fans Build the Community
Lego is a multibillion-dollar brand known to kids for its fantastic building potential. It is loved worldwide by kids and adults alike, and it is a collection of devoted builders who share ideas on the Lego customer community. Members can even vote on which fan builds should get the stamp of approval to become authentic Lego kits!
Peloton: Gamifying the Customer Community Experience
Peloton rose to prominence during the pandemic when we all tried to exercise in our living rooms. They created a robust customer community around exercise. Users can swap scores, video chat during sessions, and encourage each other on the Peloton Facebook group.
Adobe: A Customer Community to Help You Master Difficult Software
Adobe products are dedicated to creating photos, videos, music, and more. They’re industry standards. But ask anyone who’s ever used an Adobe product, and they’ll tell you they’re not easy to learn.
The Adobe customer community provides a space for people to share questions, answers, and tips for getting the most out of the software. Their slogan, "Come for help, be inspired," pretty much sums up their approach, which starts with helping customers figure out their programs and takes them on a journey toward mastering their craft.
Grow Your Customer Community With Your Clone
Your digital clone, crafted with Delphi, can be a powerful tool for keeping your customer community vibrant and interactive. Imagine having a digital twin that mirrors your expertise and personality, available around the clock to engage with your members. This ensures every interaction feels personalized and consistent with your brand’s voice.
Keep Your Customer Community Informed and Educated
One key benefit of your digital clone is its ability to provide immediate, tailored responses to your community’s inquiries. Whether members need help with troubleshooting, want insights about your products, or are looking for industry advice, your clone can deliver answers that align with your expertise. This constant availability keeps your community engaged and builds trust and loyalty.
Foster Engaging Discussions Within Your Customer Community
Your digital clone can also play a significant role in education. It can share helpful content such as tutorials, webinars, and product updates, all customized to the specific interests and needs of your community. By doing so, it helps members get the most out of your offerings and stay informed about the latest developments.
Encourage Community Interaction With Your Digital Twin
Engaging your community through interactive discussions is another strength of your digital clone. It can initiate and participate in conversations, encouraging members to share their experiences and feedback. This interaction fosters a dynamic and lively community atmosphere where members feel valued and involved.
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Create Your Own Digital Clone with Delphi Today
Delphi’s digital cloning platform that allows users to capture their unique style, voice, and expertise, enabling them to scale personalized 1-1. Delphi enables content creators, coaches, influencers, CEOs, executives, and more to scale/clone their expertise, time, and availability. Preserve your knowledge and wisdom, and mass personalize communications with Delphi.
Delphi's mentorship as a service allows knowledge-based professionals to clone themselves (texting, calling, video calling) with audience management features such as mass messages, hop-in conversations, alerts, analytics, and content strategy data. Get started and create your digital clone for free today.