What Is a Customer Community? (+Examples) |

Relationships with customers that only one way are the norm in they were in. The top brands of the times don't simply talk to their customers, they engage with them, and create real relationships. This is where a customer community comes into.

In this article, we'll define customer community, using studies in the field of academia to highlight the characteristics that make a community of customers distinct. We'll discuss the advantages of a support community for customers, and give you some community relationship examples.

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What is a community?

A Customer community is an exclusive area that facilitates a connection between a brand or company and their customers. It can allow for questions and answers, as well as knowledge exchange, educational opportunities for customers, promotional opportunities, or assistance with product or service issues and feedback. This relationship could be built by a variety of methods, such as through emails, websites as well as social media platforms, or even a specific online forum.

The important word in this context is RELATED. Community-based customer services aren't just places for brands to throw advertisements. According to the old saying, consumers want to do business with people who they "know, like, and trust," and that's what customer communities do best. It provides the opportunity for this trust to grow.

Customer communities can be theoretically understood as digging into what's called " Social Identity Theory :" when people become part of any group, including good customer communities-they feel the sense of belonging sense of self-worth, purpose and identity.

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

• A non-profit organization has joined 9,000 national members.        
  
• The faith-based community has expanded to 470 leaders across the 67 nations.        
  
• An entrepreneurship org. has been launched to 5,000 people and recouped their investment in a customer-community app within 2 two and a half weeks.      
  
• Health-focused launches to 100 high-ticket members increased the ARR by $40,000.        
  
• One community launched a 13-week add-on course and added $100k to income in just two months.        
  
• One financial community for personal use generated $130K in five days, using their most recent course.        
  
• A social-impact SAAS company mixed a customer-community app and their usual conferences and saw a 70% growth in participation and engagement.        
  

What is a community of customers isn't

Understanding the theoretical foundation for customer communities helps us see how great communities of customers aren't your email lists or Facebook groups. To reap the many benefits of community, you need to have at the very least members that believe they belong.

With this in mind Here are some of the things a customer community is not:

• An email list        
  
• The number of social media followers you have        
  
• Your Facebook group's members. Facebook group        
  
• The amount of likes for your latest post        
  
• The people calling your customer service line        
  
• Chatbots users        
  

In the same way that we have identified that the primary ingredient of customer-based communities is belonging and belonging, it's clear why these things aren't a customer community. These are all interactions that involve your company, however they're not able to convey the feeling of belonging.

The closest thing here could be the concept of a Facebook groups  However, even here we find very lack of brand connection and belonging. It's hard to use Facebook for the kind of dynamic relationship and member-led engagement that grows a real brand community.

The reason you should create a customer community

    The benefits of a customer community

Member-led growth

A new generation of highly-effective businesses based on the concept of membership communities. Indeed, communities are an extremely profitable business model that McKinsey recognized it as the ideal business model of the future that is a flywheel of community.

There has been a surge of growth companies led by members, including customer communities. When they are paid for, they could generate incredible revenue streams through recurring transactions. However, the community can also put development on autopilot.

It's been referred to as community as "a company that is growing by itself" due to the mix of community-generated content by members, enthusiasm generated by members and AI-powered tools that simplify the management of your community means that it's now easier than ever before to establish the human connections that drive your business.

The secret is that big brands 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 group to help grow your brand automatically.

Improve the brand's loyalty

A study in 2022 suggested that vibrant communities for brands can influence so much on brand loyalty-because the brand community becomes an important element of the identity of an individual. Actually, the strong link between social identity and brand loyalty can be created intentionally and plays into perceived value and the satisfaction of customers with brands.

Transforming customers, subscribers, or even followers into members is something you should not take lightly. Unlike all of those transactional relationships, members belong.

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

Enhance CLV

We know that customer lifetime value (CLV) is influenced through retention, however very few brands get it right. According to a study, SurveySparrow observed that the best companies had around a 94% retention rate, even though the retention rate was just 4 percent in certain industries.

Although brand loyalty is valuable by itself however, it can also lead to a higher lifetime value. This should be a given since retention, and connecting again by converting buyers into members can grow your CLV like nothing else.

It makes it easy to sell your.

One thing which the study of community flywheels showed is that selling becomes radically easier when you have a group of people.

The standard sales funnel is focused on moving all potential leads through sales sequence but then losing them until you get the minimal percentage that will buy.

If you have a customer-centric community, you don't do this. Virtually all people who are your "leads" will always be welcoming, and unless they quit the community they'll stay in your ecosystem regardless of whether they're ready at this point or not.

This creates an incredibly wealthy sales environment in which you do not have to depend on pressure or fake deadlines simply keep cultivating the relationship and delivering value. You'll be amazed at the amazing results in the event that you decide to market something. Many of our communities tell us that they even have people who want to know what they can purchase.

That brings us up...

Find the best feedback

Feedback from customers is essential. However, HubSpot's research team discovered an average of 42% businesses never survey their customers or gather feedback!

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

Meet the community of customers. We spoke to Oiselle Volee, a women's clothing company about their customer base and they shared an amazing story. The Oiselle customer community offered members an environment to be part of. However, it also offered a valuable feedback loop for developing products. You could receive instant feedback regarding product ideas as well as new products. And some customers even requested products that they hadn't ever thought of.

Set customer service to autopilot

We've pointed out Apple as an awesome customer community example below. Apple makes use of their user community to help customers, and gamifies the whole procedure so that only the most committed Apple users can join the community at no cost and provide answers absolutely free!

This is a clever approach to bring the brand's loyalty into action, which allows them to harness the sense of belonging to the brand that customers have for their brand into something that brings customer service to life.

Instead of dialing a 1-800 number, or waiting to be contacted by a chatbot, people can get their questions answered by the online community. That's powerful.

Transforms can occur

People buy a product and/or services because they want something. The most common thing is a transformation that is of some kind, whether you want to clean your kitchen (i.e. oven cleaner) for example, or losing 10lbs (ie. running equipment) or to build the perfect backyard (i.e. a gardening publication), or to spend weekend days in the garden with the family (i.e. grilling out). ).

However, just because someone purchases a tent, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are able to make it work. That's where a strong customer base comes into. If you can go beyond the transaction, and help your customers actually succeed with your service or product, you will have raving fans who'll tell them about your business to their acquaintances. The goal of a community of customers isn't just to increase sales. It's about helping clients succeed.

There's more! An active customer base will offer valuable feedback on your products and services, feedback that you might otherwise have to pay to get.

Because of these and other reasons the idea of creating a community for customers is a great idea. What are you wasting time to do?

    Find out how you can make use of it to build a vibrant community of customers on this page!

Harness real engagement

If your concept of customer engagement is that the posts you post on social media will receive 15 likes, then you're playing the wrong game. Customer communities can lead to real customer engagement, real relations with clients- and remember it was said earlier that the goal is for the customer to become part of the community.

It's incredible when you are able to take off the treadmill of content of social media, and develop real engagement that people love.

8 awesome examples of communities for customers

1. Topstitch Makers

There are many amazing examples of customer communities that you can find right here . Look no further than Leigh Metcalf, who built the Mighty Network (AKA a "sewcial network") as part of her sewing and fabric business: Topstitch Studio and Lounge. Her Mighty Network, Topstitch Makers, offers courses and weekly sewalongs to empower members to sew their way to the success they desire.

2. Duolingo

Duolingo is the app which made learning a language fun, easy, and pretty much free (freemium)! In the background, Duolingo has a dedicated group of volunteers that dedicates themselves to assisting users with their language needs and improving the quality of the application.

Based on the notion that EVERYONE should have access to the language of learning, these enthusiastic polyglots even volunteer their time to incorporate new languages and modules onto the platform!

3. Oiselle

Oiselle is a running apparel brand that wanted to go above and beyond selling merchandise and help its customers connect and learn from other people. They've created their own Mighty Network, Oiselle Volee that is based on the pleasure of running. Initially, it was a place to find runners, but it was expanded by the pandemic to encompass everything the Oiselle community offers; today its 4000 members can find a community via real conversations, and vibrant online events.

4. Lego

Lego is a multibillion-dollar brand, known to kids because of its amazing construction capabilities and referred to by their parents as tiny landmines that cause pain when you step on them.

Just kidding!

In fact, Lego is loved around all over the world by children and adults alike, and a collection of devoted builders offer their thoughts on the Lego community of customers. The members can also vote on which fan builds are worthy of stamping approbation to make genuine Lego kits!

5. Peloton

Peloton rose to prominence as the outbreak spread and people were doing our exercise within our home. Peloton created a thriving user community for exercise. Participants can share scores, have video chats during their sessions, and encourage each other on the Peloton Facebook group.

6. Adobe

Adobe products are devoted to making videos, photos as well as music. They're standards in the field. If you ask anyone who's had the pleasure of using an Adobe product, and they'll tell you that it's not an easy task to master.

The Adobe customer community allows users to share questions and answers, as well as strategies to get more of the software. Their slogan "Come to help, get encouraged," pretty much sums the way they work. It starts with helping customers figure out their programs, as well as taking the user on a path to learning how to master their craft.

7. Apple

Apple has built a thriving user community, which can also serve as a customer service platform. Apple has also gamified their experience in order that members earn points and are allowed more options for community moderating when they progress to higher levels. The users who reach the top levels also get access to the exclusive community.

If you're thinking it, gamifying your customer service such that your customers would want to spend time providing one another with assistance is a pretty brilliant use of a customer community.

8. Shopify

To experience an amazing customer support community that is active take a look at Shopify. Since Shopify helps their customers build stores that sell their goods and products, the Shopify community has a strong commitment to providing training and knowledge-building by answering frequently asked questions, as well as even organizing live gatherings.

Do you want to establish your own community of customers?

No matter if your community for customers will be a free, enterprise community or paying for a membership that brings an extra income Join us to build your community by using Mighty!

Mighty connects courses as well as content, community and commerce. Flexible Spaces allow you to build a customer community unlike anything else, mixing conversations, chat and chat, livestreaming and online events and classes (if you wish to). It is possible to select the features you want (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 radically easier to create an active customer base with less than a few hours time per week.

And with Mighty Pro, you get G2's top-ranked community software on the basis of your own brand-named app. This is your own app on both the App Store and Google Play Store. Furthermore, when building with Mighty Pro, you'll work with our team of Account Managers and Community Strategists who have scaled the size of 7-figure creator brands as well as 8+-figure subscription companies.

Book a call to today, and we'll explain the possibilities of a partnership.