What is a Customer Community? (+Examples) |

One-directional customer relationships are so 2005. The top brands of the times don't simply talk to their clients, but they interact with them and build real relationships. And this is where a customer community comes in.

In this piece, we'll define customer community, drawing on academic research to show the characteristics that make a community of customers distinctive. The article will discuss the benefits of a support community for customers, and give you some instances of community relationships.

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What exactly is a community?

A Customer community is an exclusive space that hosts a relationship between a company or brand and their customers. It can allow for questions and answers, knowledge exchange, customer education or promotions, as well as assistance with product or service issues and feedback. This relationship could be built by a variety of methods, for example, through email, a website as well as social media platforms, or a dedicated online forum.

The important word here is RELATIONSHIP. Customer communities that are successful aren't locations for brands to lob marketing pitches. It's been said that people want to do business with those they "know are like and trust," which is what a customer community does best. It creates the space for that trust to expand.

Community-based customer interactions can be theoretically understood by examining what's known as " Social Identity Theory :" when people become an integral part of any social group-that includes good customer communities-they feel a sense of belonging, purpose, self-worth, and identity.

Here are some stunning examples of the kind of customer communities, be they free, enterprise communities or brand-sponsored communities can do...

• The non-profit has onboarded 9,900 National members.        
  
• A faith-based community expanded to 470 leaders in more than 67 countries.        
  
• An entrepreneurship org. launched to 5,000 members and has recouped its capital investment in a community app for customers within 2 1/2 weeks.      
  
• A health-focused launch to 100 premium members, which also added $40,000 to the ARR.        
  
• One community launched an add-on 13-week course that added $100k to revenues in only two months.        
  
• One financial community for personal use made $130K in just five days with their latest 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 is a community of customers does NOT

Knowing the theory behind customer communities helps us see why great customer communities are not your email list or your Facebook page. For you to reap the many benefits of community it is necessary to have at least created members who believe they are part of the community.

To put this into perspective Here are some of the characteristics of a community for customers: does not include:

• An email list        
  
• The number of social media users you have        
  
• The members of your Facebook group        
  
• The amount of comments on your last post        
  
• The callers to the customer service line        
  
• The chatbot users you have        
  

In the same way that we have established that the foundation of customer communities is belonging, it's easy to see the reasons why these aren't customers' community. They are all interactions with your brand, but they're not able to convey an identity.

The closest we can get here is an Facebook groups  however, there is a lacking brand loyalty and belonging. It's difficult to make use of Facebook for the kind of dynamic relationship and member-led participation that builds a genuine fan base.

Why you should build a customer community

    The benefits of having a community for customers

Gain access to member-led expansion

A new generation of high-impact businesses built around the concept of membership communities. Indeed, communities are so powerful a business McKinsey has identified it as the ideal strategy for business in the year 2020 that is a flywheel of community.

There has been a surge of businesses that are led by members- including customers communities. If they're paid, they're able to provide incredible opportunities for recurring revenue. However, the community can also put development on autopilot.

The term "community" has been used to describe it as "a company that is growing by itself" because the combination of member-generated content, energy generated by members as well as AI tools to streamline community management implies that it's easier than ever to establish those human connections that propel your company.

This is the reason why the big brands such as Logo, Apple, and Nike have all leveraged which is resulting in massive profits. (See the following examples. )

Don't think about funnels. There's nothing like a customer group to help grow your brand on autopilot.

Improve brand loyalty

A 2022 study argued that thriving brand communities influence so much on the loyalty of customers to brands because the community becomes an important part of a member's identity. The close link between social identity and loyalty to brands can be created intentionally and influences perceived value as well as brand satisfaction.

Making customers, clients, or fans into members must not do lightly. Contrary to the transactional relationships, members belong.

And belonging instead of buying is the most important aspect of establishing a flywheel for community.

Improve CLV

We are aware that customer lifetime value (CLV) is influenced by retention, but only a handful of brands get it right. A study conducted by SurveySparrow observed that the best brands had a nearly 94% retention ratio-even though the retention rate was just 4 percent in certain industries.

Although brand loyalty is valuable in its own right however, it can also lead to a higher lifetime value. This is a no-brainer, because retention and connection-again by converting buyers into members can boost your CLV in a way that is unlike anything other thing.

It makes it easy to sell your.

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

The conventional sales funnel concentrates on pushing all of your possible leads through sales but then losing them until you get the minimal percentage that will buy.

In a community of customers there's no need to make this. Virtually all members of the "leads" remain welcoming, and unless they leave the community, they'll remain in your community regardless of whether they're ready in the near future or not.

The result is an unbelievably abundant sales atmosphere in which you do not have to depend on fake deadlines or pressure, just keep nurturing and giving value and watch your results be awe-inspiring whenever you attempt to sell an item. A lot of our communities have told us that they even have members who are looking for items to purchase.

Then we come back to...

Receive the most comprehensive feedback

Feedback from customers is essential. However, HubSpot's research team discovered the following: 42% of firms never survey their customers or collect feedback!

Was there were an easier way to gather feedback rather than making questionnaires and waiting for responses?

Enter: the customer community. When we talked to the women's clothing label Oiselle Volee about their customer base we heard an amazing story. The Oiselle customer community provided members with a space to belong to. However, it also offered a valuable feedback loop for developing products. They could get instant feedback about their product concepts as well as new products. And they even had customers requesting items they had not even ever thought of.

Set customer service to autopilot

We've highlighted Apple as a cool customer community model below. Apple makes use of their user community for customer service and also gamifies the whole thing so that hardcore Apple users can join the community for free and give answers at no cost!

It's a brilliant way to put trust in the brand that allows users to channel the sense of belonging to the brand that customers feel for the brand into something productive-making customer service come to life.

Instead of dialing a 1-800 number or waiting on chatbots, customers have the option of getting their questions answered through the forum. That's powerful.

Make transformations happen

People buy a product (or service) because they are looking for some thing. Usually, that something involves a change that is of some kind, whether it's a clean kitchen (i.e. oven cleaner) or to shed 10lbs (ie. running gear) and to create the perfect garden (i.e. the gardening magazines), or to spend weekend days in the garden with the family (i.e. barbecue ).

But just because someone buys a tent, it doesn't mean they know how to camp. This is where the importance of a customer-based community can be found. If you can go beyond the sale, and assist your clients succeed in using your service or product, you will have raving customers who will tell them about your business to their acquaintances. A community of customers isn't just to sell more. It's to help your clients succeed.

There's more! A vibrant customer-based community can offer useful feedback on your product and services. Feedback that could otherwise require you pay for.

Because of these and other reasons the idea of creating a community for customers can be a huge benefit. So what are you waiting for?

    Find out how you can make use of it to build a vibrant customer community here!

Harness real engagement

If your notion of engagement with customers is to hope your posts on social media have 15 people liking them, you're playing the wrong game. The customer community is a way to create genuine customer engagement and real connections with your customers. Remember we mentioned that our goal was for a customer to be part of the community.

It's incredible when you are able to stop the content-driven treadmill of social media and create genuine engagement, which people love.

8 awesome examples of community-based customer services

1. Topstitch Makers

There are some brilliant examples of community-based customer services that you can find right here . Check out Leigh Metcalf, who built the Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") to serve as part of her fabric and sewing company: Topstitch Studio and Lounge. The company's Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers provides classes and weekly sewalongs to empower members to stitch their way to success.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is an app that made language learning fun simple, quick, and quite affordable (freemium)! And behind the scenes, Duolingo has a dedicated volunteers who dedicate themselves to assisting users with their language needs as well as improving the experience.

Sold on the idea that EVERYONE ought to have access language learning, these passionate polyglots offer their time and energy to integrate additional languages and programs onto the site!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a female-focused running clothing company that wanted to do more than just sell items and to help customers learn and connect with other people. The brand has built an Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee, around the joy of running. At first, it was just an opportunity to connect with an exercise partner, however 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 place to belong by engaging in real-time conversations as well as thriving virtual gatherings.

4. Lego

Lego is a multibillion-dollar brand, known to kids for the amazing building potential and referred to by parents as little landmines that hurt when you step on them.

Just kidding!

In reality, Lego is loved around all over the world by children as well as adults, and a collection of devoted builders offer their thoughts on the Lego customer community. Members can even decide which of their fan-built models will receive the stamp of acceptance to be authentic Lego kits!

5. Peloton

Peloton gained prominence as the outbreak spread and everyone was trying to exercise within our home. They built a strong customer community around exercising. Users can swap scores, video chat during their sessions, and support each other in the Peloton Facebook group.

6. Adobe

Adobe products are devoted to producing: videos, images as well as music. They're the industry standard. However, ask any person who has ever used one of the Adobe product and they'll tell you that they're difficult to understand.

The Adobe customer community provides a space for people to ask questions and get answers and also share suggestions for getting the most of their software. Their motto "Come to get help, and be encouraged," pretty much sums the way they work. It starts by helping users discover their applications, and takes them on a journey towards mastering their art.

7. Apple

Apple has created a vibrant user community, which can also serve as a customer service platform. Apple has also gamified their experience to ensure that users earn more points as well as access to more modes of community management when they progress to higher levels. Users who get to the top levels also get access to a private community.

If you're contemplating it, using games to improve your customer experience so that customers want to spend time providing each other with support is quite a brilliant way to make use of a customer community.

8. Shopify

For a great customer community that is active take a look at Shopify. As Shopify assists their clients in building shops to market their products and products, the Shopify community is dedicated to training and education by answering frequently asked questions, as well as even organizing live events.

Are you ready to create your own customer community?

If your customer-centric community is a no-cost enterprise or community-based one, or a paid membership to bring in some extra revenue Come build with Mighty!

Mighty integrates classes, content, community, and commerce. Our spaces are flexible and allow you to develop a user-generated community unlike any other. We mix conversations, chat and messages, livestreaming, classes, live events and more (if you'd like). You can choose which features you would like (and turn the rest off ).

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 an active customer base with just a couple of hours work a week.

With Mighty Pro it comes with G2's most popular community software in your own branded app-that's your application on the App Store as well as the Google Play Store. Additionally, when you create with Mighty Pro, you'll work with our group comprised of Account Executives and Community Strategists that have built 7-figure creator brands and 8+-figure subscription-based businesses.

Contact us to today, and we'll explain how we can build.