What is a Customer Community? (+Examples) |

Relationships between customers that are only one way have become a thing of the past, but they are still in. The top brands nowadays don't only talk to their clients, but they interact with them, and develop lasting relationships. This is where customers' communities enter the equation.

In this this piece, we'll discuss about the concept of a an 'customer-focused' community', based on studies in the area of academics to identify the characteristics that make a community designed with customers special. This article will explore the benefits of a customer helper community, and will provide relationship examples.

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What is a community?

A community for customers is an exclusive place that creates a relationship between a company or brand and their customers. It may allow customers to ask questions, as well as knowledge exchange, education for customers or promotional opportunities, or assistance with questions about service or product issues, as well as comments. It is constructed through many different methods including websites, email and social media or an on-line community.

The important word here is RELATED. Customer communities that are successful aren't only locations for brands to lob advertisements. As per the old adage that consumers prefer doing business with those they "know, like, and have confidence in" which is what customer communities do the best. It allows this trust to expand.

Customer community can be thought of as digging into what's called " Social Identity Theory :" when people are part of a group, including the best customer communities, they feel a sense of belonging to themselves, their motivation, and self-worth.

Here are some stunning examples of what customer communities, be they community-based, free or enterprise-type communities paid community brands- can accomplish...

• The non-profit has onboarded nine hundred and 900 of its members nationwide.
  
• The faith community has grown to include 470 leaders across the 67 nations.
  
• An entrepreneurship org. was launched with 5,000 members. They made back the initial capital investment with community apps for their customers within two and a half weeks.
  
• The health-focused launch to 100 participants with tickets to high-tickets boosted the ARR by $40,000.
  
• A community began the add-on course for 13 weeks and added $100k to income in just two months.
  
• One personal finance community generated $130k in just five days thanks to their most recent training.
  
• An impact-oriented SAAS firm incorporated a community-based customer application and regular gatherings. It experienced a 70% growth in both engagement and participation.
  

What does a community consist of clients?

Understanding the theoretical foundation for building communities helps us comprehend the reasons why they aren't your email lists or Facebook group. For you to reap the benefits of having a community, you must have at the very least people who are at ease and feel like they're an integral part of the group.

Here are some of the things which a customer community doesn't include:

• An email list
  
• The number of your social media followers
  
• The members of your Facebook group
  
• The number of people who liked the last blog post you posted
  
• This number is utilized by people calling your customer support number.
  
• Chatbots and their users
  

As we have realized that the heart of customer relationships is to be an integral part in it, it's easy to recognize that the interactions don't belong to a community. All of them are interactions with your business, however, they're not linked to the feeling of belonging.

The closest thing here could be an Facebook groups  However, here we see very little connection to brands and the feeling of belonging. It's also difficult to use Facebook for the sort of dynamic relationship and participation of members which creates a real brand community.

Why you need to create an online community of clients

 The benefits of having a community of users

Growth driven by members

A new generation of companies that are high-impact rely around the idea of communities that are based on membership. In fact, they are an extremely lucrative business model that McKinsey recognized it as a viable strategy to run businesses in 2020: a community flywheel.

We've seen the rise of growth companies led by members, including customer communities. When they're compensated by the community, they can generate amazing revenue streams via repeated transactions. However, the community could also place growth into the hands by an autopilot.

The term "community" is used to refer to it as "a business that grows itself," because the combination of content created by members as well as the energy generated by the members and AI-powered tools for the management of communities allows it to be easier than ever before to create the human connections that drive your business.

It's the secret that brands like Logo, Apple, and Nike employ all these strategies which is resulting in massive profits. (See the following examples. )

Never think of funnels. There is nothing more effective than a group of customers to increase the image of your company by autopilot.

Enhance the brand's loyalty

A study in 2022 concluded that vibrant communities for brands have the potential to impact so significantly on the loyalty of customers to the brand because it can become an integral aspect of one's self-identity. Actually, the strong relationship with identity within social contexts and loyalty to brands may be created intentionally and influences perceived value as well as brand satisfaction.

The process of converting customers, clients or followers to members must not be taken lightly. In contrast to all the other relationship kinds, members are part of.

Belonging instead of spending is the most important aspect in creating a flywheel for the community.

Enhance CLV

We know that the customers' life-time value (CLV) is determined by retention. However, just a small percentage of companies have the ability to achieve it. A study conducted by SurveySparrow discovered that the most successful brands had a 94% retention ratio, despite the reality that the retention rate was as low as 4 percent in some industries.

Although brand loyalty is valuable by itself however it could also lead to an increase in your lifetime worth to your clients. This is an obvious fact as retention and reconnecting again turning buyers into members will grow your CLV like nothing other factor.

It makes it easy to sell your.

One of the aspects that the investigation of flywheels in the community showed was that selling becomes radically more simple in an environment of community.

The standard sales funnel focuses on moving each prospect through the sales funnel. losing more and more until you get to the small percent of people who will purchase.

In a community of customers it's not necessary to do these kinds of decisions. The majority the time, your "leads" will always be friendly, and until they quit the community they'll be part of your network regardless of whether they're looking to purchase yet or otherwise.

The result is an unbelievably productive sales environment which you are not required to rely on pressure or fake deadlines, just keep nurturing relationships and providing value. Your results be awe-inspiring whenever you attempt to sell some thing. Some of our communities inform their members that they have customers looking to find out what they can buy.

We'll come back to...

Get the most complete feedback

Customer feedback is vital. Yet, HubSpot's team of researchers found the fact that 40% of businesses never survey their customers or ask for comments!

Was there were an easier way to gather feedback, rather than sending out surveys and waiting for responses?

The customer-centric community. As we spoke with the women's clothing brand-Oiselle Volee-about their community of customers and their customer base, they shared an inspiring tale. The Oiselle customer base offered members with an environment to belong. However, it also offered valuable feedback loops to the creation of new products. Customers could receive instant feedback regarding their concepts as well as new offerings. Sometimes, some customers even wanted to purchase products they had not considered.

Set customer service to autopilot

We've outlined Apple as a great customer community model below. Apple utilizes their community of customers to provide assistance to customers, as well as gamifying the whole process so that the most dedicated Apple customers can be part of the community and answer any questions for free!

It's a brilliant method of placing trust in the brand. It allows them to make use of the feeling belonging the members feel for the brand to something which provides live customer support.

Instead of dialing a 1 800 number or waiting for a call by chatbots able to get answers through the forum. That's powerful.

Changes can be made

Most people buy a product and/or services because they wish an item to purchase. Most often, it is an improvement of some kind such as wanting to clean your kitchen (i.e. oven cleaner), to lose 10lbs (ie. running equipment) and to create the perfect garden (i.e. gardening publications) in addition to enjoy Saturdays outside with the family (i.e. grilling out). ).

If someone buys an outdoor tent, it doesn't mean they're able to set up camping. That's where a strong customer community comes in. If you're able to extend beyond the transaction, and be sure that your customers actually succeed with your service or product, you will have raving fans who'll spread the word with them about your business to their acquaintances. The goal of a customer base isn't simply to increase the sales. It's about helping your customers achieve their goals.

There's more! A vibrant customer-based community will provide valuable feedback about your offerings and services and could be required to pay to get.

Because of these and other reasons the idea of creating a community for customers makes a ton of sense. What are you wasting time for?

     Learn how to use it to establish a flourishing customer-based communities right here!

Harness real engagement

If your idea of engagement with customers is the content you share on social media will have fifteen people who will like your posts, then you're playing the wrong place. Customer communities can lead to genuine customer engagement and relationships with your clients. Remember we mentioned that your goal is to get customers to become part of the community.

It's thrilling to get off the algorithm of sharing content through social media and create genuine engagement, which people are awestruck by.

8 amazing examples of community that are geared towards customers

1. Topstitch Makers

Some remarkable examples of communities for customers available in this article . Look no further than Leigh Metcalf, who built an Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") in the form of an extension of her fabric and sewing business: Topstitch Studio and Lounge. The business's Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers provides a space to get a head start on learning and offer weekly sewalongs to empower members to make the success they desire.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo, an application can make learning languages fun, simple as well as inexpensive (freemium)! Behind the scenes, Duolingo is staffed by a team of volunteers who dedicate themselves to assisting users with their language requirements and enhancing the overall quality of the app.

Based on the idea that EVERYONE should have access to languages, these zealous polyglots volunteer their time and energy to introduce new languages, as well as new features on the site!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a women-oriented business that makes running clothes and was looking to do more than offering products, and help its clients to make connections with other people. They've created a Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee founded on the joy of exercising. In the beginning, it was simply a way to network with other runners. However, the spread of the illness has grown the range of what was Oiselle Volee can do. Oiselle community does; now they have 4000 members that can join a group via live chats, and lively virtual activities.

4. Lego

Lego is an international brand worth billions of dollars. It's a popular choice among children for the amazing capabilities to build and was referred to by their parents as landmines, which can cause pain the moment you step onto them.

Just kidding!

Actually, Lego is loved around all over the world by children as well as adults. A large number of passionate builders share their plans on the Lego users' community. The members can also vote to decide which of their fan-built builds should receive the stamp of approval to become genuine Lego kits!

5. Peloton

Peloton gained fame during the epidemic when everybody was doing their exercise in our living rooms. Peloton established a large customer base that is keen on exercising. Participants can share scores, chat via video throughout their workouts, and also support one another in the Peloton Facebook group.

6. Adobe

Adobe products are devoted to the creation of videos, images as well as music. They're considered industry standards. But, ask anyone who's experienced the joy of using any Adobe software, and they'll inform you that it's not an easy product to master.

It is a place where Adobe Customer Community allows users to submit questions and obtain responses, and also methods to maximize the benefits out of their software. Their slogan "Come to assist, be inspired," pretty much sums the way they work. It starts by helping customers discover their applications, and takes clients on a trip to learning how to master their art.

7. Apple

Apple has built a thriving client base, which doubles as a customer support platform. Apple has also made it a gamified user experience to ensure that users earn more points and are allowed more community moderation features at the top levels they ascend. Users who get to the top levels also get access to private communities.

If you're contemplating it, using games to enhance your customer service so that customers want to spend time providing each other with help is an the ideal method to utilize customer communities.

8. Shopify

If you're interested in experiencing a wonderful community of people who care about customers and is actively engaged, take a take a look at Shopify. Because Shopify permits their users to develop shops that market their goods, the Shopify community has a strong commitment to educating and enhancing knowledge through answering commonly -asked questions, and even organizing live events.

Are you willing to start your own customer base?

If your customer-centric community will be a free enterprise or community-based, or paying for a membership that earns you an additional revenue, create your community using Mighty!

Mighty connects classes, content as well as community and commerce. Flexible Spaces allow you to create a community of customers unlike anything else, combining chat, discussions and messaging, live streaming, online classes, and events (if you're interested in). You are able to choose which 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 much easier to build an active customer base with just a couple of hours each week.

The Mighty Pro Mighty Pro You get G2's most popular community software in an application you own and brand. It's your application on the App Store as well as on the Google Play Store. Additionally, when you create with Mighty Pro, you'll work alongside our team made up of Account Executives and Community Strategists that have built the scale of seven-figure creator brands as well as 8+-figure subscription companies.

Book a call to today, and we'll explain the possibilities of a partnership.

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