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Successful Support Communities
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Successful Support Communities
Publication date: 7/11
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Executive summary
More than ever, technology companies have embraced the idea that
it’s good to encourage communities of customers and other
stakeholders. Of course, many of the benefits that communities are
supposed to bring—self-service call resolution, enhanced
loyalty, early warning about public relations blow-ups—can
be tricky to quantify. And plenty of managers still feel that
“letting customers talk to each other is just asking for trouble.”
But for better or worse, communities exist whenever a company has
customers. The only real question is whether these informal
communities can be transformed into serious corporate assets.
That’s often a frustrating question even for managers who are
strong voice-of-the-customer advocates. Plenty of communities,
both online and live, never get beyond a zombie-like state, not
quite dead, not quite alive. Investments in promotion, new
technology, and community organizing often don’t seem to make a
difference—the hoped-for members just don’t show up. Oops.
What does it take to create a successful community? There doesn’t
seem to be a set of simple guidelines. The social media experts
mostly focus on consumer companies with huge customer bases; the
recommendations they emphasize include openness and quick response
to complaints about service snafus—good practices, but not
much of a formula for much smaller, technically-oriented
communities.
In fact, support communities tend to be about expertise more than
anything else. The chief attraction of these communities is likely
to be the presence (real or virtual) of exceptionally
knowledgeable users and advisors, people with hands-on experience
with products and solutions. These experts show up because it’s
good for their reputations—or maybe just their egos—to
be seen as extra-smart, plugged-in, and influential. And the rest
of the community shows up to learn from the experts and perhaps to
share an occasional bit of wisdom themselves. That’s a very
different dynamic than you might see on a site for disgruntled
airline passengers or Lady Gaga fans.
It’s also worth noting that successful communities aren’t
necessarily Web-based. Our industry (and the world in general)
has a long history of communities that came together regularly
for live events—conferences, user group meetings, trade
shows, roundtables, and the like. Yes, online communities are
cheaper to organize and more spontaneous. But human beings are
social animals: We love to get together in crowds and hold
near-chaotic conversations that would make little sense online.
(Heck, even social media enthusiasts hold big conferences all the
time...)
The variety of community formats creates its own questions. How
do we measure the relative value of an online forum vs. an annual
user group meeting? Should we invest in a special home for highly
influential community members, such as power users, press and
analysts, and third-party resource people (e.g., consultants,
resellers, and trainers)? Is there a risk that community members
will air their grievances in public, compete with our company’s
own services, or expose us to legal liabilities?
To help answer questions about best practices for building support
communities, the ASP surveyed a variety of software and
technology-based companies about the role such communities play in
each company’s business. We collected useful data from 120
respondents, and we also asked an open-ended question about the
“most important lesson learned” about generating high levels of
participation.
Topics include:
- Types of communities
- Growth patterns
- What's the payoff?
- Tangible benefits
- Getting to critical mass
- Attracting experts and champions
- Defining your own role
- Six simple metrics
- Support and the online conversation
Copies of the survey are free to ASP members in the
members-only area.
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