2014 market-report-online-community-trends get-satisfaction

GET IT TOGETHER: WHY YOU NEED AN ONLINE COMMUNITYA MARKET REPORT ON WIDE-RANGING

COMMUNITY TRENDS

SEPTEMBER 2014

www.getsatisfaction.com

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Cold-call sales and please-take-a-number support don’t fit in a good customer engagement strategy anymore. Those days are in the past, period.

Instead, your policy should treat each customer like employee of the month. After all, they’ve earned it.

There is a way to make the customer experience more thorough, comprehensive, and fully engaging: provide a community.

Most organizations think developing community means addressing support calls and briefly responding to social media questions. —but that’s talking at customers, not conversing with them.

Your audience has a lot to say, and it’s invaluable information. They want to tell you exactly what they expect from your support, marketing, and product innovation teams. They’re even willing to work with you.

It’s up to you to initiate, continue, and expand that conversation.

Branded online communities provide an open discussion forum that encourages and facilitates the collaboration of customers and enterprises. Organizations that incorporate community into their customer strategies have seen tremendous results across the board, as they integrate it into multiple departments and connect it to all aspects of audience engagement.

Introduction

YOUR AUDIENCE IS READY AND WILLING TO BE MORE THAN JUST CUSTOMERS.Despite consultants and analysts repeatedly explaining for years (in every variation and in no uncertain terms) how the customer landscape changed, brands still aren’t listening.

Many companies slightly tweaked their strategies a few years ago, signing up for Facebook and Twitter and calling it a day. But now they’ve fallen behind, as the gap between best-in-class enterprises and laggard businesses grows every month, week, and day.

INTRODUCTION

WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT

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INTEGRATING COMMUNITY INTO YOUR MIX:

• Improves customer experience

• Reduces support workload

• Utilizes resources more strategically

• Adds a dynamic marketing element

• Helps innovate products and features

SURVEY RESPONDENT BREAKDOWN

Introduction

For the inside scoop on customer wants, needs, and expectations, Get Satisfaction conducted a market survey of 800+ professionals in more than a dozen industries, ranging from technology to education to consumer hardware.

INDUSTRY

27.55% B2B Technology (SaaS/Software)

21.76% Other

13.77% Consumer Internet/ Online Technology

8.82% Consumer Goods

7.99% Education

6.61% Nonprofit/Government

5.79% B2B Technology (Hardware)

4.13% Consumer Hardware/Electronics

3.58% Finance

REVENUE NUMBER OF CUSTOMERS

1

1

1 1

5

5 5

3

3 3

7

9

2

2 2

6

8

4

4 4

2

3

4

5

6

7

89

8.62% $1B+

5.85% $501M–$1B

5.85% $201M–$500M

16.31% $50M–$200M

67.08% <$50M

26.98% 10K+

7.92% 5K–10K

11.73% 1K–5K

11.44% 500–1K

41.94% 100–500

1

5

3

2

4

1

5

3

2

4

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WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE READ.

For years, Get Satisfaction has been at the forefront of branded community management and technology development. We know communities better than anyone, and we’re thrilled to explore deeply into what organizations are learning, absorbing, and getting out of their communities, as we pass this knowledge onto our current and future customers.

IN THIS REPORT, YOU’LL LEARN:

• How comprehensive a community can be

• Why it’s important to update your support strategy

• How to make your brand experience a conversation, not a one-way broadcast

• How to get your best customers to work for you

• Advice from B2B tech companies

Introduction 4

5Chapter 1: What Community Gives You

Community drives all aspects of today’s customer retention and acquisition agendas. Your community will increase SEO to get your brand in front of new audiences. It brings in first-time customers and keeps them, eventually transforming them into promoters for even more new customers. With social media constantly at peoples’ fingertips, marketing efforts are made or destroyed by a brand’s reputations for customer support and product ideation. Community, therefore, partners word-of-mouth marketing with SEO to drive traffic to your brand’s products, opening the sales cycle earlier.

“Search engines prioritize community content so [that] the conversations taking place today will drive traffic to the community well into the future—unlike Facebook or Twitter postings, which are more fleeting.”

—Jaime Morocco, Community Manager

at Bluenose Analytics

Your ability to captivate and invite prospective clients is born out of a thriving community of transparent support and cultivated innovation. Your current customer experience fuels the appeal for future customers. The peer-to-peer conversation begins there, and it’s even more powerful than anything you can do yourself.

“Our online community is a strategic tool to help our customers take full advantage of our software and identify the best ways to use it to meet their unique business goals.”

—Eric Ornas, Vice President, Customer

and Product Support at SugarCRM

WHAT COMMUNITY GIVES YOUYou either know your audience front and back, or you still don’t have a customer community.

Community is a key element in any ideal customer experience. It doesn’t just give your customers a voice; it provides your audience with the tools and opportunities necessary to go from prospect to customer to advocate. But community does more than even that. It has the power to shape the customer’s lifecycle.

CHAPTER 1:

MORE THAN 60% OF COMPANIES SURVEYED CURRENTLY HAVE ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES, AND 25% MORE PLAN TO DEPLOY ONE WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR.


WORKING FOR YOUR CUSTOMERSMost surveyed respondents cite support as the most valuable result of community strategy, by far.

YOUR CUSTOMERS WORKING FOR YOUBeyond customer support, however, top-tier companies also use community to brainstorm, evaluate, and innovate products with their audience.

“The Kenandy Community extends the idea of collaboration to online support, allowing Kenandy customers, partners, and employees to answer each other’s questions—and share ideas and best practices—directly from the product.”

—Sandra Kurtzig, CEO, Kenandy

72% garner feedback and insights on how existing products are used.

In fact, nearly 3/4 of Get Satisfaction customers say their communities have significantly increased their knowledge about their customers.

63% discover ongoing voice-of-customer insight.

77% say their communities are a key component to their customer support.

67% collect ideas for new products or features directly from customers’ input.

57% say their communities enable a peer-to-peer support model.


THE CASE FOR COMMUNITYDON’T JUST AIM FOR SUCCESS; CREATE IT.

“Openness and transparency are so important to the customer relationship. There will be issues in any company. It’s how you deal with those problems that define you.”

—Jessica McDouall, Director of Non-Integrated Services

at SPS Commerce

WITHIN 6 MONTHS, SPS COMMERCE SAW:

BY THE END OF THE FIRST YEAR, ITS COMMUNITY ROI INCLUDED:

450+ 78,000+ 26,000+registered users page views unique visitors

SUPPORT TICKET DEFLECTION

• 28,000 customer contacts

• 300% more than anticipated

FASTER PRODUCT INNOVATION

• 50 customer ideas captured

INCREASED CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

• 1,200+ community members

• 71 new members per month

When SPS Commerce decided to complement its traditional channels with an online community, the software supplier set clear goals ahead of time.

• Expand offered support.

• Enhance the product innovation and feedback cycle.

• Improve the overall customer experience.

To accomplish its goals, the company identified and leveraged these best practices:

• Define what success looks like

• Build an internal training plan

• Seed the community with relevant content

• Market internally

• Communicate externally


WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A VENDORA good vendor believes in custom experiences and best practices; a great vendor guides your development and strengthens your conversations with your customers.

YOUR PLATFORM SHOULD ENABLE YOU TO:

• Save on support costs

• Connect at the right moments

• Amplify endorsements

LOOK FOR:

• Consumer-centric design

• Rapid deployment and time to value

• Affordability

• Guidance across support, sales, marketing, and innovation

• Integration of key applications and systems

• Mobile reach with multi-device experiences

• Modern engagement from the get-go

WHAT TO LOOK FOR INA COMMUNITY PLATFORMIt’s not enough to simply have a vendor you trust. Your vendor needs the capabilities to provide you with the technology for a fruitful and effective branded community platform. Don’t settle for anything less.

YOUR CUSTOMERS EXPECT YOU TO SHOW UP AND:

Answer their questions

Address their concerns

Solve their problems

Hear their ideas

?

!

9Chapter 2: Modernizing Support Across All Channels

OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY COMMUNITIES PROVIDE BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE.

72 %

MODERNIZING SUPPORT ACROSS ALL CHANNELSYour community should be a strong combination of both civilization and wilderness, providing structure and permitting freedom. Community managers should orchestrate helpful forums and conversations. But the right implementation and proper brand culture cultivation can inspire your customers to discover their own effective solutions and seek ways to help one another.

CHAPTER 2:WITH COMMUNITY, AN ORGANIZATION’S SUPPORT TEAM SHOULD AIM TO:

• Expand support capabilities at a reduced cost

• Capture insight into customers’ desired support efforts

• Develop a more thorough support system

• Craft a seamless multi-device support experience

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS POISED TO BECOME EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.

EXPERIENCE PRODUCTS PRICE

TODAY

43 37 20

2020

50 34 16

Source: Walker, “Customer 2020: The Future of B-to-B Customer Experience”

BUSINESS STRATEGY IMPORTANCE, OUT OF 100


WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT FROM COMMUNITIES63% of survey respondents say communities differentiate their brands using a social customer experience. The community provides the platform for peer-to-peer conversation and engagement, facilitating customer responses to each other’s questions. That social experience is in high demand for companies, as it saves time and resources and, most importantly, provides more trustwothy user-generated content than what a company will publish themselves.

Customer-Experience Driver

Community as a Support Tool

Multi-channelavailability

Content optimized for discovery in mobile, social, brand website, and search engines

User-friendliness Easy to navigate, simple interface, search-optimized

Personalization Incorporates customer profile and behavioral context

Relevance Displays content that is relevant to customer needs or stage of lifecycle

Engagement Enables customers to receive responses from the brand or other customers

“Today, support is all about relationship-building and engagement. It’s not a transactional business and it’s not a cost center. When done right, it’s a value-added service that leads to greater customer loyalty and advocacy as well as better products.”

—Amy Muller, Director of Community and Customer Success at Automatic

OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY THEIR COMMUNITIES PROVIDE A SOCIAL SUPPORT EXPERIENCE.

84%

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A COMMUNITY LEADER

Source: Get Satisfaction, “The Community Effect (Part I)”


TRANSFORMING CUSTOMERS INTO ADVOCATESYour customers turn to you when they have problems, but the most helpful answers often originate from other customers who’ve had the same experiences, either with your brand or another. It offers a relatable peer perspective, rather than a seemingly distant organization, and customers trust other customers more than they trust brands.

MORE HELP, LESS COST

49% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY THEIR COMMUNITIES HAVE REDUCED CUSTOMER SUPPORT COSTS.

32% REPORT 10–25% IN ANNUAL SAVINGS

Before the financial rewards start pouring in, however, your community must display integrity and incite interest. Identifying and converting customers into advocates is only part of the process. If you expect your customers to want to tell others about your brand, you must incentivize them by offering a community experience that stands on its own. Prove that your brand is invested in your customers’ best interest and eager to provide them with the answers and assets they need to embrace your brand’s culture.

BEST PRACTICES:

• Build numerous entry points

• Display transparency whenever possible

• Devise a plan for escalated situations

• Call positive attention to helpful customers

• Add a human touch

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ADD A HUMAN TOUCH?

• Listen. Show your customers that you acknowledge issues and recognize their importance.

• Empathize. Respond authentically to prove you’re not automating responses at your audience.

• Appreciate. Express gratitude at your customers’ comments and engagement, as it makes a community experience feel more real.

• Diffuse. Stay positive without overselling the believability of your tone, and prepare situational diffusing statements beforehand so that you’re ready when negative comments appear.

• Personalize. Use engaging, friendly language—the way people actually talk with one another. No “corporate speak.”

OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY COMMUNITIES ENABLE A PEER-TO-PEER SUPPORT MODEL THAT IS EFFICIENT, COST-EFFECTIVE, AND TRUSTWORTHY.

57%

12Chapter 3: The Marketing Advantage You Need (But Don’t Have)

THE MARKETING ADVANTAGE YOU NEED (BUT DON’T HAVE)You have invested marketing budget and endless effort in making your website content rich and easy to find. You monitor SEO rankings. Your team is cranking out new content. You are feeding the content “beast” to keep your website fresh and your traffic energetic. Imagine this: What if you had a whole new source of credible, rich content to help increase your inbound traffic, with no additional work for your marketing team? Enter community. Community’s peer-to-peer support advantages are obvious. Less obvious is the way a community can dramatically increase your SEO and brand reputation.

CHAPTER 3:

A BUILT-IN EXTENSION TO YOUR MARKETING TEAMCommunity allows you to acknowledge, develop, and nurture relationships with your brand’s advocates. After all, people listen more to other customers than to brands.

77% believe communities would help them better market to current and prospective customers.

69% believe communities would significantly improve their brands.

Even survey respondents who have not yet built online community are considering developing them in efforts to cultivate and strengthen their marketing strategies.

Your community can capture real-time customer conversations about your products and company, offering user-generated content that’s very credible and ranks highly in search engines. Imagine that: fresh, trustworthy content that helps drive your SEO rankings even higher.

74% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS STRATEGICALLY USE THEIR COMMUNITIES TO CREATE CONTENT TO DRIVE ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC.

13Chapter 3: The Marketing Advantage You Need (But Don’t Have)

BUILD YOUR BRAND CULTURE BEYOND SEOIn addition to making your company easier to find and increasing your brand reputation, community also helps you transform people into advocates who will reach out to prospective new customers on your behalf.

• Customer Service: Hosting conversations within the community makes the content searchable for as long as you want to keep it.

• Product Development: Creating a community that is open to product discussion benefits your development process.

When utilized with a branded community, social media’s word-of-mouth marketing capabilities have dramatically changed how companies can turn prospects into customers and customers into advocates. Although marketing plans have always relied on advocates to play an integral role in recommending brands to their families and friends, social media interaction now adds a feverish new avenue for conversation along the way, culminating in a fully social business marketing experience.

WHAT IF YOU COULD ALSO GENERATE REVENUE?Communities enable customers to research brands and talk to others on their own terms, without feeling any outside pressure or influence. They don’t feel “sold” to. According to survey respondents, this method better invites and engages prospective customers earlier in the sales process. Marketers can turn this to their advantage in the following ways:

• 54% of survey respondents plan to use their communities to prevent churn or increase up-sell opportunities.

• 50% plan to use their communities to engage prospects earlier in the sales process.

In the end, the enhanced customer interaction enables companies to expand their communities and help generate revenue.

OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY COMMUNITY FOSTERS A MORE SOCIAL AND ENGAGING WEBSITE.

SAY THE SOCIAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DIFFERENTIATES THEIR BRANDS.

68%

63%

14Chapter 4: Innovate with the Greatest Consultants (Your Customers)

INNOVATE WITH THE GREATEST CONSULTANTS (YOUR CUSTOMERS)Your customers want to work with you. Through a community, they can express interest in brainstorming, collaborating, developing, and fine-tuning your products and services. They’re ready to dissect your brand culture. They can tell you what works and what doesn’t. Even better: Your customers can innovate and pitch new ideas they want to see your brand pursue—and it doesn’t have to be expensive, difficult, or rare.

63% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY COMMUNITY GIVES THEM THE MEANS TO COLLECT ONGOING VOICE-OF-CUSTOMER INSIGHT.

CHAPTER 4:

GUIDING DECISIONS IN INNOVATIONCustomers are always game to try new items during pre-launches, but they have a further vested interest in your brand beyond that. They’ve got strong opinions and are ready to share them in-depth. After using a brand’s products for a while, an audience likely has ideas for improvement and for entirely new products to add to the market.

THEY’LL GIVE FEEDBACK ON PRODUCTS OLD AND NEW.

• 72% of survey respondents utilize communities for feedback and insight on how existing products are used.

• 68% of survey respondents use communities to collect ideas directly from customers for new products or features.

“Once you have the community working together, you can harness it’s power and let it inform.”

—Madhukar Govindaraju, Vice President of Product and Software Development

at Trinet

IN FACT, WITHIN ITS COMMUNITY, TRINET SAW:

• Deeper understanding of customers’ product needs

• Continuous customer-generated product and feature ideas

• Real-time customer feedback on product plans

• Accelerated innovation cycles

Chapter 4: Innovate with the Greatest Consultants (Your Customers)

PRIVATE COMMUNITIES FOR PRE-LAUNCHES AND BETA TESTS Customers are ready to try new items, bringing their user history and brand expectations to the table for discussion. With your community manager’s guidance and involvement from your product team, that feedback can become exceptionally comprehensive. Depending on the community recruitment strategy, it’s possible for companies to eliminate an official campaign launch’s guesswork about audience reaction and satisfaction.

47% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY COMMUNITY HELPS PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON NEW PROTOTYPES OR BETA PRODUCTS BEFORE THEY’RE RELEASED.

INFLUENTIAL IDEAS AND INSIGHTS ON NEXT STEPSThey might not be professional experts or consultants, but your customers’ guidance holds particular weight. Their input is invaluable to your brand’s future, and organizations’ higher-ups are finally taking notice, according to “The Customer-Activated Enterprise,” a report by the IBM Institute for Business Value.

HOW MUCH STRATEGIC INFLUENCE DO YOUR CUSTOMERS WIELD?

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ACCORDING TO CEOS, CUSTOMERS ARE SECOND ONLY TO A COMPANY’S C-SUITES.

53%

55%

78%

C-Suite

Customers

Board of Directors

Corporate Strategy Function

Non-Executive Senior Leadership

Key External Business Partners

Parent Company

23%

26%

44%

25%

Source: IBM Institute for Business, “The Customer-Activated Enterprise”

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Your customers are now integral to your business and product evolution. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value report, 90% of CXOs plan to collaborate much more extensively with customers in the next 3 to 5 years. In fact, CXOs expect to see a very shifted business landscape in the near future.

Chapter 4: Innovate with the Greatest Consultants (Your Customers)

“The community is helping our product management teams uncover and validate what’s most important to customers, flesh out new product requirements and better prioritize what goes into future releases.”

—Jessica McDouall, Director of Non-Integrated Services at SPS Commerce

UPON PROVIDING A COMMUNITY-WIDE “SHARE AN IDEA” BUTTON, SPS COMMERCE GENERATED MORE THAN 50 NEW CUSTOMER IDEAS IN A 12-MONTH PERIOD.

That’s right. Your brand’s future depends on your ability to engage customers and harness their ideas, making communities an integral part of your company’s customer-driven process of product improvement and innovation.

Source: IBM Institute for Business, “The Customer-Activated Enterprise”

Smaller partner base

Larger partner network 73%

11%

Face-to-face interaction

Social/digital interaction 68%

20%

Partnering to increase efficiency

Partnering to increase value 61%25%

Focus on customers as segments

Focus on customers as individuals 54%33%

Operational control

Organizational openness 52%28%

THE NEW CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

“Community is a great reflection of what’s going on with customers, and it’s one of the best ways to get at the subtleties of how people use our products.”

—Daniel Foster, Social Media Strategist at TechSmith

BY USING ITS COMMUNITY TO DRIVE MORE THAN 16,000 CONVERSATIONS, TECHSMITH:

• Doubled the number of subject matter experts answering questions

• Saved up to $500,000 in product testing costs

• Received more than 3,000 product idea submissions

17Chapter 5: Learn What B2B Tech Companies Already Know

LEARN WHAT B2B TECH COMPANIES ALREADY KNOWKnown for effectively hearing and harnessing the voice of the customer, B2B tech companies have been ahead of the game for years. The industry regularly catches onto user trends early and has continued to deploy, innovate, and perfect its audience approaches long before many other industries first experiment.

B2B tech companies have long recognized the great change that the B2B setup presents as a whole.

CHAPTER 5:

THE EVOLUTION OF WHAT MATTERS

One area in which the tech industry has particularly excelled is community-driven support, marketing, and ideation. B2B cloud software companies don’t just utilize community well; they depend on it. Cultivating a branded community has long been established as an essential component of the B2B tech industry’s customer engagement strategy, and it has long been established as such.

• With a 61% average, that’s higher than other major industries.

• And nearly 70% of the B2B tech organizations that provide user communities have had them for at least a year.

OF B2B TECH COMPANIES AGREE THAT COMMUNITY HAS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.

Within the B2B tech industry, customers are vocal about their concerns and their ideas for solutions to device or software issues. They value being heard.

74%

¾ OF B2B TECH COMPANIES FOSTER ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES.

18Chapter 5: Learn What B2B Tech Companies Already Know

THE ROI OF B2B TECH COMMUNITIESB2B tech companies recognize the many benefits that investing in community brings their organizations, as the industry shows high percentages of proper and thorough ROI.

THE RESPONSE FROM 100+ B2B TECH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS TO GET SATISFACTION’S MARKET SURVEY REVEALS OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE RESULTS FROM COMPANIES THAT HAVE IMPLEMENTED ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES.

MORE THAN HALF OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY USER-GENERATED CONTENT MORE CREDIBLY SUPPORTS THEIR BRANDS THAN EMPLOYEE-GENERATED CONTENT.

MARKETING

66% of B2B tech survey respondents say communities create content that drives organic search traffic.

66% say communities strengthen their customers’ opinions of their brands.

57% believe communities help prevent churn and increase up-sell opportunities.

53% say communities provide more engaging website elements.

50% plan to use communities to engage prospects earlier in the sales process.

SUPPORT

74% of B2B tech survey respondents say communities are a key component in their customer support efforts.

74% say communities offer their customers a better customer experience.

73% say communities help provide a social support experience.

62% anticipate that communities will use mobile and tablet devices to provide support in the future.

IDEATION

75% of B2B tech survey respondents say they use their communities to cull customer feedback and ideas.

74% believe their communities have helped to significantly improve their knowledge of their customers.

Conclusion

THINK ABOUT ITThis survey’s findings show how online communities can help to significantly enhance your customers’ experience. You can deliver superior customer support by leveraging credible, user-generated content—improving your brand visibility while generating product ideas you never thought of on your own.

Customer communities are uniquely capable of providing this exceptional experience. Bring your customers closer to each other, with your company at the center.

When you unleash the benefits of community, your company will naturally rise above the competition in the eyes of the people who matter most: your customers.

COMMUNITY’S ROI IN BUSINESS IS UNDENIABLE. WHEN YOU EXAMINE THE BOTTOM LINE, IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER ONE THING: A GOOD COMMUNITY VENDOR IS PRICELESS.

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LEARN MORE

Interested in taking the next step to explore what an online community can do for you? Want to deliver exceptional, differentiated customer experiences with a community platform? Get Satisfaction enables you to create engaging customer experiences by fostering online conversations about your products and services. From Hootsuite to Intuit, Prezi, SPS Commerce, Sonos, and more, companies of all sizes rely on Get Satisfaction’s community platform to provide social customer support, increase brand visibility, and build better products.

Contact us for a custom demonstration and a personalized ROI calculation: (877) 339-3997.

CONCLUSION

2014 market-report-online-community-trends get-satisfaction

Marketing

Transcript of 2014 market-report-online-community-trends get-satisfaction