What Is a Customer Community? (+Examples) |

One-directional customer relationships are so they were in. The greatest brands of our times don't simply talk to their customers. They engage with them and build meaningful connections. That's how a community of customers comes in.

In this post we'll discuss the concept of customer community, drawing on studies in the field of academia to highlight what makes a customer community unique. We'll discuss the advantages of a customer support community as well as provide community relationship examples.

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What exactly is a community?

A Customer community is an exclusive area that facilitates a connection between a brand or company and its clients. It can allow for questions and answers, knowledge exchange, customer education or promotional opportunities, or assistance with product or service issues and feedback. This relationship could be built by a variety of methods, for example, through the use of email, a website, social media, or a dedicated online forum.

The key word in this context is RELATED. Customer communities that are successful aren't spaces for companies to launch marketing pitches. The old saying is that people want to do business with those they "know, like, and trust" which is what customer communities do best. It provides the opportunity for this trust to grow.

Customer communities can be theoretically understood in terms of digging deeper into what's referred to as " Social Identity Theory :" when people become members of any social group-including great customer communities, they feel an identity, sense of self-worth, purpose and sense of identity.

Below are a few incredible examples of what communities-whether free, enterprise customer communities or paid brand communities-can accomplish...

• The non-profit has onboarded 9,900 national members.        
  
• The faith-based community has expanded to 470 leaders in 67 countries.        
  
• An entrepreneurship org. has been launched to 5,000 people and recouped their capital investment in a community app for customers in 2 two and a half weeks.      
  
• Health-focused launches to 100 high-ticket members added $40,000 in ARR.        
  
• A community has launched the course for 13 weeks and brought in an additional $100k of revenue in 2 months.        
  
• One personal finance community generated $130K in five days using their latest course.        
  
• A social-impact SAAS company mixed a customer-community application with regular meetings and experienced a 70% increase in contributions & engagement.        
  

What a customer community does NOT

Knowing the theory behind customer-centric communities can help us realize why great customer communities are not your email list or even your Facebook group. For you to reap the advantages of a community there must be at least created members who believe they belong.

In this regard, here are some of the things a customer community isn't:

• An email list        
  
• The amount of followers on social media you have        
  
• Members of your Facebook group        
  
• The number of people who liked your post for your latest blog post        
  
• The callers to the customer service line        
  
• The chatbot users you have        
  

In the same way that we have discovered that the core of customer communities is belonging, it's easy to see that these interactions aren't part of a customer community. All of them are interactions with your brand, but they're not able to convey an identity.

The closest thing here is an Facebook group  However, even here we find very loose brand attachment and belonging-it's difficult to make use of Facebook to build the kind of vibrant relationship and member-led engagement that grows a real brand community.

The reason you should create a community of customers

    The advantages of a user community

Access member-led growth

A new generation of highly-effective businesses based on community membership. In fact, community is such a powerful business that McKinsey identified it as the ideal business model for the 2020s: a community flywheel.

We've witnessed the growth of businesses that are led by members- including customers communities. When they are paid for, they could provide incredible opportunities for recurring revenue. But the community also puts development into autopilot.

The term "community" has been used to describe it as "a business that grows itself," due to the mix of community-generated content by members, enthusiasm generated by members as well as AI tools to streamline managing community makes it's easier than ever to establish those human connections that propel your business.

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

Forget about funnels. Nothing beats a user community to grow a brand automatically.

Enhance the brand's loyalty

The study of 2022 concluded that thriving brand communities have such a profound impact on loyalty to brands, as the community becomes an important part of a member's identity. Actually, the strong connection between social identity and loyalty to a brand can be created intentionally and plays into perceived value and the satisfaction of customers with brands.

Transforming customers, subscribers, or fans to members should not take lightly. Unlike all of those transactions, the members are part of.

Being a part of the community instead of purchasing is an essential part of establishing a flywheel for community.

Improve CLV

We know that customer lifetime value (CLV) is driven by retention. However, very few brands succeed in achieving it. In a study, SurveySparrow observed that the best companies had around a 94% retention ratio, despite the fact that retention rates were as low as 4% for some sectors.

While brand loyalty is a valuable thing as a whole but it also leads directly into increasing your customer lifetime value. This is a no-brainer as retention and connections-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 of the things that the study of flywheels in community showed is that selling is radically simpler when you have a group of people.

The traditional sales funnel concentrates on directing all your potential leads through sales sequence as you lose more until you reach the tiny percent that is likely to buy.

With a customer community it's not necessary to do this. The majority of your "leads" are always warm, and unless they leave the community, they'll stay in your ecosystem whether they're willing to purchase at this point or otherwise.

This creates an incredibly abundant sales atmosphere, where you don't need to rely on fake deadlines or pressure simply keep cultivating by providing value, and then watch your results be awe-inspiring whenever you attempt to sell something. Many of our communities tell them that they have members asking for things to buy.

Then we come back to...

Find the best feedback

The feedback of customers is crucial. Yet HubSpot's research team found that 42% of businesses do not survey their customers, or collect feedback!

What if there was a better way to collect feedback, rather than sending out surveys expecting a response?

Enter: the customer community. We spoke to Oiselle Volee, a women's clothing company about their customer community we heard something amazing. The Oiselle customer base offered members a space to belong to. It also provided an important feedback loop for developing products. You could receive instant feedback on product ideas, new products, and some customers even requested 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 uses their customer community for customer service and even gamifies the entire thing so that hardcore Apple users can join the community at no cost and provide answers at no cost!

This is a clever approach to bring trust in the brand that allows users to channel the feeling of belonging which customers are feeling for the brand to an effective way of bringing customer service to life.

Instead of calling a 1-800 number, or waiting to be contacted by a chatbot, people are able to get answers through the forum. That's powerful.

Transforms can occur

The majority of people purchase a product or service because they need some thing. Usually, that something involves a change that is of some kind, whether it's a clean kitchen (i.e. oven cleaner), to lose 10lbs (ie. running equipment) and to create an ideal garden (i.e. the gardening magazines) and to enjoy weekends in the backyard with their loved ones (i.e. a BBQ ).

However, just because someone purchases an outdoor tent doesn't suggest they're able to set up camp. That's where a strong customer-based community can be found. If you can go beyond the transaction, and help your customers actually succeed with the product or service you offer and you'll have enthusiastic fans who'll tell them about your business to their acquaintances. The goal of a community of customers isn't just to sell more. It's to help your customers achieve.

There's more! A vibrant customer-based community can also give you invaluable feedback about your products and services. This is feedback would otherwise be required pay for.

In light of this and many other factors having a user community is a great idea. What are you wasting time for?

    Learn to utilize it to establish a flourishing community of customers here!

Harness real engagement

If your notion of customer engagement is that your posts on social media have 15 people liking them, you're in the wrong ballgame. Customer communities can lead to real engagement with customers, and create relationships with customers-remember it was said earlier that the goal is for a customer to be a member.

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

8 awesome examples of community-based customer services

1. Topstitch Makers

There are some brilliant examples of customer communities right here on . Check out Leigh Metcalf, who built the Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") in the form of part of her sewing and fabric company: Topstitch Studio and Lounge. Leigh Metcalf's Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers, offers courses and regular sewalongs, which help participants in their quest to create success.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is the app which has made language learning enjoyable as well as easy and very affordable (freemium)! And behind the scenes, Duolingo has a dedicated volunteer community that devotes itself to answering user language questions as well as improving the experience.

Sold on the idea that EVERYONE ought to have access language learning, these passionate polyglots also volunteer their time to incorporate new languages and modules onto the site!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a women's running apparel brand that wanted to go above and beyond selling items and to help customers learn and connect with the rest of the world. The brand has built a Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee that is based on the pleasure of exercise. At first, it was just a place to find a running partner, but the pandemic expanded what it was that the Oiselle community does; now the 4000 members have an area to connect through real conversations and thriving online events.

4. Lego

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

Just kidding!

In fact, Lego is loved around the world by kids and adults alike, and the builders who are passionate about it discuss their ideas in the Lego community of customers. The members can also decide which of their fan-built models should get the stamp of approbation to make genuine Lego kits!

5. Peloton

Peloton rose to prominence in the midst of the epidemic when people were trying to exercise within our home. They built a strong group of customers who are interested in fitness. Members can exchange scores, video chat throughout their workouts, and support each other in the Peloton Facebook group.

6. Adobe

Adobe products are devoted to making videos, photos, music, and more. They're industry standards. However, ask any person who has ever utilized an 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 for help, be encouraged," pretty much sums their philosophy, which begins with helping customers figure out their programs, and takes customers on a quest to mastering their art.

7. Apple

Apple has developed a flourishing customer base that also doubles as a customer support platform. The company has even made it a game to ensure that users earn more points, and also have access to greater options for community moderating in the higher levels they climb. The users who reach the top levels also get access to an exclusive community.

Yes, you're considering it, gaming your customer experience so that customers want to spend time providing one another with assistance is an excellent way to make use of customer communities.

8. Shopify

If you want to experience a fantastic customer-centric community in action, look no further than Shopify. Because Shopify assists their clients in building stores to sell their stuff and products, the Shopify community is dedicated to training and education as well as answering questions and even hosting live gatherings.

Do you want to establish your own customer community?

Whether your customer community will be a free community, an enterprise one or even an e-mail subscription to bring in some extra revenue, come build by using Mighty!

Mighty connects courses, content, community, and commerce. Our spaces are flexible and allow you to develop a user-generated community unlike any other. We mix with chat, discussions, messaging, livestreaming, online events and classes (if you want). You can choose the features you want (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 significantly easier to establish a thriving customer community with only a few hours of working a week.

In addition, with Mighty Pro it comes with G2's top-ranked community software on the basis of your own brand-named app. This is your application on the App Store and Google Play Store. Plus, when you build using Mighty Pro, you'll work together with our team of Account Executives and Community Strategists who have grown the size of 7-figure creator brands as well as 8+-figure subscription companies.

Book a call today and we'll show you what we could build together.