What is a real customer community? (+Examples) |

Customer relationships that are one-way are a thing of the past in the case in 2005. The top brands of our time aren't content to talk about their customers, they communicate with them and form long-lasting relationships. This is the point that customer communities become a part of.

In this article, we'll explore the concept of customer community that is based on research conducted by academics to show the characteristics that make a community of customers distinct. We'll discuss the advantages of a support community for customers as well as provide community relationship examples.

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What is a customer community?

A Customer community is a private space that acts as a hub for establishing an association between a business or brand and its clients. The community can facilitate customer questions and answers, exchange, learning opportunities for customers, promotion opportunities, as well as product help and feedback. This relationship may be built in a number of ways, such as such as by email, web sites and social media sites, or even a specific online forum.

The important word in this context is RELATED. Community-based customer services that work aren't spaces for companies to advertise. As per the old adage, consumers want to do business with people who they "know and trust, like and can trust" and that's what these customer communities are best at. They create the conditions for trust to increase.

Community-based customer interactions are theoretically explained by looking at what's known as " Social Identity Theory :" when people are a part of any social group, including great community of customers, they experience the sense of belonging motivation as well as self-worth and sense of identity.

Here are some amazing examples of the kind of customer community that customers-whether free, enterprise-based customer communities or paid brand communities-can achieve...

• An organization that is non-profit has signed up 9000 National members.
  
• A community of faith has grown to include 470 leaders in 67 countries.
  
• An entrepreneurship org. has been launched, with 5,000 members. The company has recovered its capital investment in an app that allows customers to connect with each other in just 2 two and a half months.
  
• The health-focused launch of 100 high-ticket members also added $40,000 to the ARR.
  
• A local community offered an added-on 13-week program that earned another $100k in revenue within just two months.
  
• A group of personal financial planners earned $130K over five days using their latest course.
  
• One socially-minded SAAS company incorporated a community-based customer app with their regular gatherings and witnessed a 70% increase in contributions & engagement.
  

What does a community of customers do NOT do

The theory behind building communities helps us understand the reasons for why they're not your email lists or the Facebook profile you have. In order to tap into the benefits of community, it must have at the very least created members who are comfortable and feel they belong.

To put this into perspective Below are a few features of communities for customers. Isn't it:

• An email list
  
• How many your social media followers
  
• Your Facebook group's members
  
• A number of readers liked your post on your blog's last post
  
• Callers from your customer service phone number
  
• Your chatbot users
  

Since we identified that the primary component of community-building for customers is belonging and belonging it's clear why these things do not constitute a true customer community. All of them are interactions that are involving your brand but they're not in a position to communicate an image.

The closest thing we have in this case is an existing Facebook group  However, here we can see the lack of brand connection and belonging. It's hard to use Facebook to create the type of relationships that are dynamic and driven by user interaction that creates a genuine fan base for a brand.

What are the reasons to create a customer-centric community

The benefits of a user-based community

Member-led growth

A new wave of companies that have a high-impact are based upon membership-based communities. Indeed, communities are such a powerful business that McKinsey acknowledged that it was the most successful method for business planning in 2020. A community flywheel.

There's been an increase of companies that are run by customers and members of the communities. If paid, they can create incredible opportunities to earn recurring revenues. The community, however, puts the growth of its members into the autopilot.

The expression "community" has been used to describe it as "a business that is expanding itself," due to the mix of content created by community members as well as the energy produced by members and AI-powered software that ease the management of your group makes it simpler than it's ever been to create the human connections that drive your business.

It's a secret that businesses like Logo, Apple, and Nike are all leveraging and generating huge profits. (See the following examples. )

Forget about funnels. Nothing beats a user group to help grow your company's reputation on autopilot.

Enhance brand loyalty

A study in 2022 suggested that vibrant communities for brands can have such an impact on the brand loyalty, since the social network becomes an essential element of one's personal identity. The close connection between social identity and brand loyalty can be created intentionally and can influence how customers perceive value and their satisfaction.

Transformation of the customers, fans, or subscribers to members must not do lightly. In contrast to transaction, members belong to.

Belonging instead of spending is a fundamental part in establishing a community flywheel.

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Increase CLV

It is well-known that the life-time value of a customer (CLV) is driven through retention, however only a handful of brands can achieve this. According to a research study, SurveySparrow observed that the best-performing brands have a 94% retention rate, even though their rate of retention was only 4 percent for certain sectors.

While brand loyalty may be beneficial in and of itself, however, it may be a catalyst for increasing your customer lifetime value. This should be a given since the retention of customers, as well as connecting with them again, transforming buyers to customers will boost your CLV more than any other thing.

It makes selling simple.

One thing the study on flywheels within community revealed was that selling can be made significantly easier when you are in a group of people.

The conventional sales funnel is focused on moving potential leads through sales but then losing those leads until you locate those that purchase.

Within a customer-centric community, there's no need to make these kinds of decisions. Most those who make up your "leads" will always be friendly, and until they're gone from the community they'll remain in your circle regardless of whether they'll be ready in the near future or not.

It's a wealthy sales environment in which you do not have to be reliant on the pressure of deadlines that are not real. Instead, focus on offering value and care and see the amazing outcomes you will see whenever you try to market something. A few of our communities tell us that they have people asking members for items to purchase.

This brings us to...

Receive the most comprehensive feedback

Customer feedback is essential. But HubSpot's team of researchers found the average to be 42% companies do not survey their clients or collect comments!

If there were a more effective method to collect feedback, rather instead of sending out surveys in hopes for responses?

Join the customer community. In our conversations with the women's apparel brand-Oiselle Volee-about their customer community we heard that they had something truly amazing. The Oiselle customer base provided customers with an area to connect with. However, it also served as valuable feedback to developing products. You could receive instant feedback on their concepts for products or new offerings, and there were customers who requested things they'd never thought of.

Customer service needs to be set up on autopilot

We've identified Apple as a fantastic customer-centric example in the following. Apple utilizes their community of customers to provide customer support and also gamifies the entire procedure so that only the most dedicated Apple users are able to join the community free of charge and provide answers at no cost!

This is a clever way to get the brand's loyality into action, which allows users to leverage the feeling of belonging to the brand that consumers feel in the company to be effectively bring customers service to life.

Instead of calling a 1-800 number, or waiting for chatbots to answer, customers can take advantage of the option of getting queries answered by an online community. That's powerful.

Let transformations take place

Customers purchase products or service due to certain things. The majority of times, it involves a change that is of some kind, whether the goal is to have more clean kitchen (i.e. cleaning the oven) or shed 10lbs (ie. running equipment) and to create an ideal backyard (i.e. the gardening magazine), or to spend weekends in the backyard with loved ones (i.e. grilling out). ).

If someone is buying an outdoor tent, that doesn't mean they know how to make it work. This is where the importance of a customer base is crucial. If you're able to go above the sale, and assist your customers to be successful by offering a product or service that they can trust, Soon, you'll have raving customers who will recommend your business to their acquaintances. The point is that a network of clients isn't only about boost revenue. It's about helping customers succeed.

There's more! An active customer base will give you valuable feedback on your product and services, feedback that would otherwise require a fee for.

With this in mind and many other factors the idea of having a community for users is a great idea. What are you waiting around for?

     Learn to use the HTML0 platform to build a vibrant community of users here!

Harness real engagement

If your concept of customer engagement is hoping the posts you post on social media will receive 15 likes, then you're playing the wrong game. Customer communities can lead to authentic customer engagement, and real connections with your customers. Remember, we said that it is important that the customer is part of the community.

It's amazing when you're in a position to end the running of content on social media and build an environment of real-time interaction that users enjoy.

8 fantastic examples of communities for customers

1. Topstitch Makers

There are many amazing examples of community-based customer services to find here . Look up Leigh Metcalf, who built an Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") that was the result of an expansion of her sewing and fabric company, Topstitch Studio and Lounge. The Leigh Metcalf's Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers is a place to learn and provide weekly sewalongs that aid members in sewing and achieve success.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is the program that makes language learning fun simple, quick, and very affordable (freemium)! In the background, Duolingo has a dedicated volunteer team who are dedicated to assisting users with their language requirements and also improving their quality of the.

The site is based on the idea that EVERYONE can access the language of learning these enthusiastic polyglots even offer their time and effort to incorporate more languages and programming on the site!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a woman's running clothing company that wanted to go beyond just selling merchandise and help its customers connect and learn from other people. They've built the Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee founded on the passion for running. At first, it was simply a way to make connections with an exercise partner, the network was then expanded with the pandemic to encompass everything that the Oiselle community offers; today the 4000 members can connect through real-time chats as well as an array of virtual events that are thriving.

4. Lego

Lego is a multibillion-dollar brand that is loved by kids for its amazing capacity to construct and has been referred in their homes by the parents of children as tiny mines that can hurt you when you step across them.

Just kidding!

Actually, Lego is loved around all over the world by adults and kids alike, and an army of dedicated builders discuss their plans in the Lego users' community. Users can decide which of their fan-built models will receive the stamp of approval and be made into authentic Lego models!

5. Peloton

Peloton became famous in the midst of the epidemic, when people were trying to be fit at homes. Peloton created a thriving user community for exercise. Members can post scores, video chat throughout their workouts, and also encourage one another on the Peloton Facebook page.

6. Adobe

Adobe products are devoted to the creation of videos, images and music. They're standards in the field. However, ask any person who has ever utilized an Adobe product and they'll be aware that they're not easy to learn.

The Adobe Customer Community provides a space for people to share concerns and questions, and discuss strategies for getting the most out from the program. Their motto "Come to assist, and be encouraged," pretty much sums their approach, which starts by helping people find their software as well as taking customers in a journey to learn their skills.

7. Apple

Apple has created a thriving community of customers, which doubles as a customer support platform. Apple has also gamified their experience to allow members to gain points, as well as access to more methods of community management at the more advanced levels they reach. Members who reach the top levels are also granted access to an exclusive community.

If you're contemplating it, using games to improve your customer experience such that your customers would like to support by offering support to one another can be a fantastic way of creating an online community of customers.

8. Shopify

If you want to join a community of customers that is great, check out Shopify. Since Shopify helps their customers build stores to sell their stuff and the Shopify community is committed to sharing knowledge and educating by responding to frequently -asked questions in addition to organizing live events.

Are you ready to create your own customers' community?

Your customer-centric community could be a free community, an enterprise type or a paid membership to bring an additional income, you can build your community using Mighty!

Mighty is a platform that brings together classes along with content, community and commerce. Our spaces are flexible and let you build a a customer community like no other. We mix in discussions as well as chat and messages. livestreaming and online events, as well as classes (if you wish to). It's possible to choose the features you want (and switch off the rest). ).

Mighty gives you a suite of member-management tools to make it easy to run the community, and our AI community-engine-Mighty Co-Host(tm)-automates things like member profiles, landing pages, course outlines, and even discussion questions. It's much simpler to create an active, welcoming community of customers in only a few hours of work a week.

With Mighty Pro With Mighty Pro, you'll receive G2's most popular community software as an app which you control and own. The application you create is accessible on both the App Store as well as it's available on the Google Play Store. Furthermore, when you develop Mighty Pro, you'll be collaborating with Mighty Pro, you'll work alongside our team comprised of Account Managers and Community Strategists that have built the scale of seven-figure creator brands as well as business that have a subscription of 8+ figures.

Call us now and we'll discuss what we can do with you.

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