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

One-directional customer relationships are so 2005. The most successful brands of our time don't just talk at their clients, but they interact with them and build lasting connections. This is the point where customer communities come into.

In this post we'll discuss the concept of customer community, based on academic research 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 an exclusive place that serves as a hub for establishing a relation between a company or brand and its clients. It can allow for questions and answers, knowledge exchange, educational opportunities for customers, promotion opportunities, or even product support and feedback. The relationship can be developed through a variety of ways, such as such as through emails, websites, social media, or a dedicated online forum.

The important word here is RELATIONSHIP. Customer communities that are successful aren't spaces for companies to launch advertisements. According to the old saying, consumers want to do business with people they "know trust, love, and trust," which is what customer communities do best. It creates the space for this trust to grow.

Community-based customer interactions are theoretically described by examining what's known as " Social Identity Theory :" when people become an integral part of any social group-that includes great customer communities, they feel the sense of belonging motivation, self-worth and identity.

Here are a few amazing examples of what customer communities-whether free, enterprise customer communities or paid brand communities-can achieve...

• A non-profit organization has joined 9,000 National members.        
  
• A community of faith has grown to 470 leaders in 67 countries.        
  
• An entrepreneurship org. was launched with 5,000 members. They has recouped its capital investment in a community app for customers in just 2 two and a half weeks.      
  
• The health-focused launch of 100 members with high-tickets also added $40,000 to the ARR.        
  
• One community launched an add-on 13-week course that brought in an additional $100k of revenues in only two months.        
  
• A personal finance group produced $130K over five days using their latest course.        
  
• One socially-minded SAAS company incorporated a community-based customer app with their regular conferences and experienced a 70% increase in contributions & engagement.        
  

What a customer community does NOT

Knowing the theory behind community-building helps us understand the reasons why they are not your email list or your Facebook page. In order to tap into the advantages of a community there must be at least created members who are comfortable and feel they belong.

To put this into perspective Here are some of the characteristics of a community for customers: isn't:

• An email list        
  
• The amount of social media users you've got        
  
• Members of your Facebook group        
  
• The number of people who liked your post on your last blog post        
  
• The callers to your customer service number        
  
• Your chatbot users        
  

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

The closest we can get here could be a Facebook group , but even here we find very lack of brand connection 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.

What are the reasons to build a community of customers

    The benefits of a user community

Member-led growth

The new wave of businesses with high impact built on membership communities. Indeed, communities are such a powerful business that McKinsey recognized it as the most effective strategy for business in the year 2020: a community flywheel.

There has been a surge of businesses that are led by members- including customers communities. If paid, they can provide incredible opportunities for recurring revenue. The community, however, puts the growth of its members into autopilot.

The term "community" has been used to describe it as "a company that is growing itself," because the combination of community-generated content by members, energy generated by members and AI-powered tools that simplify the management of your community means that it's much easier than ever before to establish the human connections that drive your business.

It's the secret that companies like Logo, Apple, and Nike are all leveraging which is resulting in massive profits. (See the below examples. )

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

Increase the brand's loyalty

A study in 2022 suggested that vibrant communities for brands can have such a profound impact on loyalty to brands, as the community becomes an important aspect of a person's identity. The close connection between social identity and brand loyalty can be created intentionally and can influence perceived value and customer satisfaction.

The process of transforming customers, subscribers or fans into members is something you should not take lightly. Contrary to the transactions, the members are part of.

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

Increase CLV

It is well-known that the customer's life-time value (CLV) is driven through retention, however very few brands achieve it. In a study, SurveySparrow discovered that the most successful brands had a nearly 94% retention rate, even though the retention rate was just 4 percent in certain industries.

Though brand loyalty can be valuable in its own right however, it can also lead into increasing your customer lifetime value. This is a no-brainer since retention, and connecting again, transforming buyers to members-will increase your CLV more than anything else.

makes selling easy.

One of the things in the study of flywheels in community demonstrated was that selling becomes radically easier when you have a group of people.

The traditional sales funnel is focused on moving all possible leads through sales but then losing them until you find the small portion that buys.

In a community of customers there's no need to make this. Virtually all people who are your "leads" are always friendly, and until they leave the community, they'll be part of your network regardless of whether they're ready in the near future or not.

It's a wealthy sales environment in which you do not have to be reliant on pressure or fake deadlines Keep nurturing and giving value and watch the incredible results you get whenever you attempt to sell an item. Some of our communities inform us that they even have members asking for things to purchase.

This brings us to...

Receive the most comprehensive feedback

The feedback of customers is crucial. Yet HubSpot's research team found an average of 42% firms never survey their customers or take feedback!

What if there were a more effective method to collect feedback, rather than sending out surveys hoping for a response?

Meet the community of customers. We spoke to women's clothing brand-Oiselle Volee-about their customer community we heard that they had something truly amazing. The Oiselle customer community provided members with an area to connect with. But it was also providing an invaluable feedback loop to developing products. They could get instant feedback about their product concepts, new products, and there were customers who requested things they'd never thought of.

Customer service should be on autopilot

We've highlighted Apple as a great customer-centric example in the following. Apple uses their customer community to provide customer support and even gamifies the entire process so that the most dedicated Apple users can join the community for free and give answers at no cost!

It's an ingenious approach to bring the brand's loyalty into action, which allows them to harness the feeling of belonging which customers are feeling for the brand to an effective way of bringing customer service live.

Instead of calling a 1-800 number or waiting for chatbots, customers 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 some thing. Usually, that something involves a change that is of some kind, whether the goal is to have a cleaner kitchen (i.e. oven cleaner) or to shed 10lbs (ie. running equipment) and to create an ideal garden (i.e. a gardening publication), or to spend weekends in the backyard with their loved ones (i.e. grilling out). ).

If someone is buying a tent, it doesn't mean they know how to camp. This is where the importance of a customer base comes into. If you are able to go above the sale, and assist your customers actually succeed with your product or service You will soon have rave fans who'll tell them about your business to their acquaintances. In short, a community of customers isn't just to increase sales. It's about helping customers succeed.

There's more! An active customer base will offer useful feedback on your product and services, feedback that would otherwise be required to pay to get.

In light of this and many other factors having a user community makes a ton of sense. Why are you sitting around for?

    Learn to use to create a thriving community of customers Here!

Harness real engagement

If your idea of customer engagement is hoping the posts you post on social media will receive 15 likes, then you're in the wrong ballgame. Customer communities can lead to real customer engagement, real connections with your customers. Remember, we said that the goal is that a client becomes part of the community.

It's incredible when you are able to stop the content-driven treadmill of social media and build real-time engagement that people enjoy.

8 awesome examples of communities for customers

1. Topstitch Makers

There are some brilliant examples of communities for customers that you can find right here . Check out Leigh Metcalf, who built an Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") in the form of an expansion of her sewing and fabric business, Topstitch Studio and Lounge. Leigh Metcalf's Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers is a place to learn and offer weekly sewalongs that help members to sew their way to success.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is the application which has made language learning enjoyable, easy, and pretty much free (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.

Built on the belief that EVERYONE has access to the language of learning, these enthusiastic polyglots even offer their time and energy to integrate additional languages and programs onto the website!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a women's running clothing company that wanted to go beyond just selling merchandise and help its customers learn and connect with other people. They've built a Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee built around the love of running. At first, it was just an opportunity to connect with an exercise partner, however it was expanded by the pandemic to encompass everything the Oiselle community offers; today the 4000 members have an area to connect by engaging in real-time conversations as well as thriving virtual events.

4. Lego

Lego is a multibillion dollar brand that is loved by children for its incredible building capabilities and referred to by their parents as tiny mines that can hurt you whenever you walk on them.

Just kidding!

In reality, Lego is loved around all over the world by children and adults alike, and an army of dedicated builders discuss their ideas in the Lego user community. Members are able to decide which of their fan-built models will receive the stamp of approbation to make authentic Lego kits!

5. Peloton

Peloton rose to prominence in the midst of the epidemic when we were all striving to get fit within our home. They created a powerful customer community around exercise. Participants can share scores, video chat during their sessions, and encourage each other on the Peloton Facebook group.

6. Adobe

Adobe products are devoted to creating: photos, videos as well as music. They're standards in the field. But ask anyone who's ever used an Adobe product and they'll be able to tell you they're not easy to learn.

The Adobe Customer Community provides a space for people to share questions and answers and also share strategies to get more of the software. Their motto "Come to help, get encouraged," pretty much sums their approach, which starts by helping users discover their applications, and then takes customers on a quest to mastering their art.

7. Apple

Apple has developed a flourishing customer community that doubles as a customer support platform. They've even gamified the experience in order that members earn points as well as access to more modes of community management in the higher levels they climb. Participants who make it to highest levels also have access to an exclusive community.

If you're contemplating it, using games to improve your customer experience such that your customers would desire to help each other with support is an excellent application of a community for customers.

8. Shopify

For a great customer community take a look at Shopify. As Shopify helps their customers build stores to sell their stuff, the Shopify community is committed to educating and building knowledge by answering frequently asked questions, as well as even hosting live gatherings.

Are you ready to create your own community of customers?

Whether your customer community will be a free community, an enterprise one or even a paid membership to bring additional revenue Come build with Mighty!

Mighty brings together courses, content, community, and commerce. Our spaces are flexible and allow you to build a customer community like no other, mixing in discussions, chat & messages, livestreaming, online events and classes (if you want). It is possible to select which features you would like (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 easier to build a vibrant customer-centric community in only a few hours of work a week.

With Mighty Pro, you get G2's most popular community software in an app that you own and brand. It's your application on the App Store as well as the Google Play Store. Plus, when you build with Mighty Pro, you'll work together with our team consisting of Account Managers and Community Strategists that have built the size of 7-figure creator brands as well as 8+-figure subscription-based businesses.

Call us now and we'll demonstrate what we could build together.