How to Improve Your Community’s Success and Better Engage With Your Customers
In this article I wanted to share my thoughts on the most important factors that every community manager should consider when creating a successful community.
- Starting Points
- Key Audience
- Strategy and Tools
The very first thing is to think about future community users. Depending on their potential needs, there are different priorities:
| Audience | Goals |
| Customers | – Ability to self-serve (core for customer community)– Fast solutions – Multi-device capabilities |
| Partners | – Quick access to info (marketing, product, news)– Immediate access to experts – Access to opportunities |
| Employees | – Get help when needed (HR and IT mostly)– Collaborate with their teams – Find experts and knowledge |
How to Build A Community
WHERE DO YOU START?
Imagine a typical customer self-service journey and build your community with the functionality that will satisfy those steps.
Sample customer self-service journey step by step:
- Customers need help
- They discover the community
- They look for answers, then ask a question
- They can log a case
- The case is resolved
- They thank members of the community
What does that mean for you as a community owner?
- Case deflection
- Faster resolution
- Lower case volume
Building a Community requires a plan and a strategy:
- Create a vision that ties back into business objectives
- Identify an executive sponsor who will champion your vision
- Determine goals and objectives for prospective members
And finally, launch and deploy your community with confidence:
- Roll out in phases
- Identify and motivate early adopters
- Define change management processes
- Build meaningful engagement by including business processes
