What Is a Customer Community? (+Examples) |

Relationships with customers that only one way are the norm in 2005. The greatest brands of our times don't simply talk to their customers. They engage with them and form real connections. And this is how a community of customers comes in.

In this post, we'll define customer community, based on academic research to show what makes a customer community distinct. We'll share the benefits of having a community for customer support, and give you some instances of community relationships.

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What exactly is a community?

A Customer community is an exclusive area that facilitates a connection between a brand or company and their customers. It can allow for questions and answers, as well as knowledge exchange, customer education or promotion opportunities, or even customer support and feedback. This relationship could be built by a variety of methods, like email, a website and social media or an online community.

The key word in this context is RELATED. Community-based customer services aren't just locations for brands to lob marketing pitches. It's been said that customers want to conduct business with those they "know are like and trust" and that's what a customer community does well. It creates the space for the trust of customers to increase.

Community-based customer interactions can be theoretically understood as digging into what's called " Social Identity Theory :" when people become an integral part of any social group-that includes excellent customer groups-they experience the sense of belonging purpose, self-worth, and self-worth.

Here are some amazing examples of what customer communities, be they free, enterprise communities or paid brand communities-can accomplish...

• The non-profit has onboarded 9,900 nationwide members.        
  
• A faith-based community expanded to 470 leaders in 67 countries.        
  
• An entrepreneurship org. has been launched to 5,000 people and has recouped its investments in a mobile app that connects customers in just 2 1/2 weeks.      
  
• Health-focused launches to 100 high-ticket members increased the ARR by $40,000.        
  
• One community started the course for 13 weeks and generated an additional $100k in revenue in 2 months.        
  
• One financial community for personal use generated $130K in five days, using their most recent course.        
  
• One social impact SAAS company incorporated a community-based customer application with regular meetings and experienced a 70% rise in engagement and contributions.        
  

What a customer community is NOT

The theoretical basis for customer-centric communities can help us realize the reasons why they aren't your email lists or your Facebook page. For you to reap the many benefits of community it is necessary to have at the very least members that are comfortable and feel they belong.

With this in mind Here are some of the things that a community of customers is not:

• An email list        
  
• The number of followers on social media you have        
  
• Your Facebook group's members. Facebook group        
  
• The amount of likes for your latest post        
  
• The callers to the customer service line        
  
• Your chatbot users        
  

As we've identified that the primary ingredient of customer-based communities is belonging and belonging, it's clear why these things aren't a customer-centric community. All of them are interactions with your brand, but they're not able to convey the feeling of belonging.

The closest thing here could be the concept of a Facebook Group  however, in this group, we see loose brand attachment and belonging-it's hard to use Facebook to create the type of dynamic relationships and user-driven engagement that grows a real brand community.

Why you should build an online community for customers

    The benefits of a customer community

Access member-led growth

There'a new generation of businesses with high impact built on membership communities. Indeed, communities are so powerful a business McKinsey has identified it as the most effective business model for the 2020s and a flywheel for communities.

We've witnessed the growth of growth companies led by members, including customer communities. If they're paid, they're able to generate incredible revenue streams through recurring transactions. The community, however, puts development in the hands of an autopilot.

It's been referred to as community as "a enterprise that expands itself," due to the fact that the combination of content created by members, the enthusiasm generated by members as well as AI tools to streamline the management of your community means that it's much easier than ever before to establish the connections between people that fuel your company.

The secret is that big the big brands such as Logo, Apple, and Nike use all of these strategies, leading to massive gains. (See the below examples. )

Don't think about funnels. Nothing is more powerful than a client community to build a company's image on autopilot.

Enhance the brand's loyalty

A 2022 study argued that strong communities of brands are able to have a significant impact on loyalty to brands, as the community becomes an important element of the identity of an individual. In fact, the close connection between social identity and brand loyalty can be developed intentionally-and it influences perceived value as well as customer satisfaction.

Transforming customers, subscribers, or fans to members must not do lightly. Contrary to the relationship types, members belong.

And belonging instead of buying is a fundamental part of establishing a flywheel for community.

Increase CLV

It is well-known that the customer's life-time value (CLV) is fed through retention, however only a few brands consistently succeed in achieving it. According to a study, SurveySparrow observed that the best brands had a nearly 94% retention ratio-even though retention was as low as 4% in some sectors.

Though brand loyalty can be valuable in its own right but it also leads directly to increasing your lifetime customer value. This is a no-brainer since retention, and connecting again, transforming buyers to members-will boost your CLV in a way that is unlike anything else.

makes selling easy.

One of the things that the research of flywheels in community revealed was that selling is radically simpler in a social setting.

The conventional sales funnel concentrates on pushing all of your prospects through the sales process as you lose more until you find the small percentage that will buy.

In a community of customers, you don't do this. The majority members of the "leads" are always friendly, and until they quit the community they'll stay in your ecosystem whether they're ready to buy yet or otherwise.

This creates an incredibly rich environment for sales in which you do not have to depend on deadlines or pressure Keep nurturing the relationship and delivering value. You'll be amazed at the amazing results whenever you attempt to sell some thing. Many of our communities tell we that they've got members who are looking for items to buy.

Then we come back to...

Receive the most comprehensive feedback

The feedback of customers is crucial. But HubSpot's team of researchers found that 42% of firms don't survey their clients or take feedback!

What if there were a more effective method to collect feedback than sending out questionnaires and hoping for a response?

Enter: the customer community. When we talked to the women's clothing label Oiselle Volee about their community of customers we heard that they had something truly amazing. The Oiselle customer community provided members with an environment to be part of. It also provided a valuable feedback loop for the development of products. You could receive instant feedback on product ideas as well as new products. And some customers even requested products that they hadn't ever thought of.

Customer service should be on autopilot

We've pointed out Apple as a great customer community model below. Apple makes use of their user community to help customers and also gamifies the whole procedure so that only the most committed Apple customers join to answer questions for free!

It's an ingenious way to put trust in the brand which allows them to harness the sense of belonging which customers are feeling for the brand to something that brings customer service to life.

Instead of dialing a 1-800 number or waiting on chatbots, users have the option of getting their questions answered by the online community. That's powerful.

Let transformations take place

People buy a product or service because they want to purchase something. Most often, the thing they want will result in a change in some way, be it you want to clean your kitchen (i.e. oven cleaner), to lose 10lbs (ie. running gear), to have an ideal garden (i.e. the gardening magazines) as well as to enjoy Saturdays in the backyard with their family (i.e. a BBQ ).

If someone is buying an outdoor tent doesn't mean they know how to camp. This is where a great customer base comes into. If you're able to go further than the transaction, and help the customers to succeed using your product or service and you'll have enthusiastic customers who will tell their friends about you. In short, a customer community isn't simply to sell more. It's about helping your clients succeed.

There's more! A thriving customer community will also give you valuable feedback on your products and services. Feedback that would otherwise be required to pay to get.

For these reasons and more, building a customer community is a great idea. What are you wasting time for?

    Learn how to use to create a thriving customer-based community right here!

Harness real engagement

If your idea of engagement with customers is to hope your social media posts have 15 people liking them, you're playing the wrong game. Customer communities can lead to genuine customer engagement and real relations with clients- and remember we mentioned that the goal is that a client becomes an active member.

It's remarkable when you take off the treadmill of content of social media and build real-time engagement that people enjoy.

8 awesome examples of communities for customers

1. Topstitch Makers

Some amazing examples of community-based customer services from here on . Check out Leigh Metcalf, who built an Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") as part of her sewing and fabric business, Topstitch Studio and Lounge. The company's Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers, offers courses and weekly sewalongs that help members to stitch their way to the success they desire.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is the application that made language learning fun, easy, and pretty quite affordable (freemium)! And behind the scenes, Duolingo has a dedicated group of volunteers that dedicates themselves to answering user language questions and making the app better.

Based on the notion that EVERYONE should have access to languages, these zealous polyglots volunteer their time to incorporate additional languages and programs onto the website!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a female-focused clothing brand for runners that wants to go above and beyond selling products and assist its customers to connect with other people. They've created their own Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee built around the love of exercising. It was initially the place where you could find a running partner, but the spread of the disease has expanded the scope of what is offered by the Oiselle community can do; it's 4000 members who can access a community by engaging in real-time conversations as well as thriving virtual gatherings.

4. Lego

Lego is a multibillion-dollar brand. It is a favorite among children for its incredible building capabilities and is referred to by parents as little landmines that hurt the moment you step onto them.

Just kidding!

In reality, Lego is loved around the world by kids and adults alike, and a collection of devoted builders discuss their ideas in the Lego user community. The members can also decide which of their fan-built models should get the stamp of approbation to make authentic Lego kits!

5. Peloton

Peloton rose to prominence in the midst of the epidemic when everyone was striving to get fit within our home. Peloton created a thriving user community for fitness. Members can exchange scores, video chat during their sessions, and also encourage one another on the Peloton Facebook group.

6. Adobe

Adobe products focus on producing: videos, images music, photos, and much more. They're standards in the field. But ask anyone who's ever utilized an Adobe product and they'll tell you that they're difficult to understand.

The Adobe customer community offers a forum for users to share questions and answers along with suggestions for getting the most of their software. Their motto "Come for help, be encouraged," pretty much sums their philosophy, which begins with helping clients to understand their software as well as taking them on a journey towards becoming experts in their field.

7. Apple

Apple has built a thriving user community, which serves as a support platform. They've even gamified the experience so that contributors get more points and are allowed more options for community moderating as they move up levels. The users who reach the top levels also get access to an exclusive community.

If you're thinking it, gamifying your customer experience such that your customers would want to spend time providing one another with assistance is a pretty brilliant use of a customer community.

8. Shopify

If you want to experience a fantastic customer-centric community in action Look no further than Shopify. Since Shopify assists their clients in building stores that sell their goods, the Shopify community has a strong commitment to training and education, answering FAQs, and even hosting live events.

Ready to build your own customer community?

If your customer-centric community will be a non-profit enterprise or community-based one, or an e-mail subscription to bring in some extra revenue Join us to build your community with Mighty!

Mighty integrates classes as well as content, community and commerce. Flexible Spaces allow you to develop a user-generated community unlike any other. We mix in discussions, chat & messages, livestreaming, live events, and courses (if you'd like). It is possible to select the features you want (and leave the rest inactive). ).

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 radically easier to create a thriving customer community with less than a few hours time per week.

And with Mighty Pro You get G2's best-rated community software, the basis of your own brand-named app. This is your own app on both the App Store as well as the Google Play Store. Additionally, when you create with Mighty Pro, you'll work alongside our group consisting of Account Managers and Community Strategists who have grown the size of 7-figure creator brands as well as 8+-figure subscription companies.

Book a call now and we'll demonstrate the possibilities of a partnership.