GET IT TOGETHER:

WHY YOU NEED

AN ONLINE
COMMUNITY
A MARKET REPORT ON WIDE-RANGING
COMMUNITY TRENDS
SEPTEMBER 2014

www.getsatisfaction.com

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

Introduction

WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT

Cold-call sales and
please-take-a-number
support dont 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,
theyve 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 thats talking
at customers, not
conversing with them.

Your audience has

a lot to say, and its
invaluable information.
They want to tell you
exactly what they expect
from your support,
marketing, and product
innovation teams.
Theyre even willing
to work with you.

Its 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.

SURVEY RESPONDENT BREAKDOWN

INTEGRATING COMMUNITY
INTO YOUR MIX:
Improves customer experience
Reduces support workload

INDUSTRY
1

27.55% B2B Technology (SaaS/Software)

Utilizes resources more strategically

21.76% Other

Adds a dynamic marketing element

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

7
1

Helps innovate products and features

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.

4
2
3

REVENUE

NUMBER OF
CUSTOMERS

5
4
5

26.98%
10K+

5.85%
$501M$1B

7.92%
5K10K

5.85%
$201M$500M

11.73%
1K5K

16.31%
$50M$200M

11.44%
5001K

41.94%
100500

Introduction

8.62%
$1B+

67.08%
<$50M

3
2

3
2

For years, Get Satisfaction has been

at the forefront of branded community
management and technology
development. We know communities
better than anyone, and were 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, YOULL LEARN:

How comprehensive a community
can be
Why its 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

WE
HOPE
YOU
ENJOY
THE
READ.
4

CHAPTER 1:

WHAT
COMMUNITY
GIVES YOU
You either know your audience front and back, or you
still dont have a customer community.
Community is a key element in any ideal customer
experience. It doesnt 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 customers lifecycle.

MORE THAN 60% OF COMPANIES SURVEYED CURRENTLY HAVE

ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES, AND 25% MORE PLAN TO
DEPLOY ONE WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR.
Community drives all aspects of
todays 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 brands reputations
for customer support and product
ideation. Community, therefore,
partners word-of-mouth marketing
with SEO to drive traffic to your
brands 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
futureunlike Facebook or
Twitter postings, which are
more fleeting.

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 its 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

Jaime Morocco, Community Manager

at Bluenose Analytics
Chapter 1: What Community Gives You

WORKING FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS

Most surveyed respondents cite support as the most valuable result
of community strategy, by far.

77% say their

communities are a key
component to their
customer support.

In fact, nearly 3/4 of Get Satisfaction

customers say their communities have
significantly increased their knowledge
about their customers.

57% say their

communities enable
a peer-to-peer
support model.

The Kenandy Community

extends the idea of
collaboration to online
support, allowing Kenandy
customers, partners, and
employees to answer each
others questionsand share
ideas and best practices
directly from the product.
Sandra Kurtzig, CEO, Kenandy

YOUR CUSTOMERS WORKING FOR YOU

Beyond customer support, however, top-tier companies also use community to brainstorm,
evaluate, and innovate products with their audience.

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

Chapter 1: What Community Gives You

67% collect ideas

for new products
or features
directly from
customers input.

63% discover
ongoing voice-ofcustomer insight.

THE CASE FOR COMMUNITY

DONT JUST AIM FOR
SUCCESS; CREATE IT.
Openness and transparency are so
important to the customer relationship.
There will be issues in any company.
Its how you deal with those problems
that define you.
Jessica McDouall, Director of Non-Integrated Services
at SPS Commerce

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.

To accomplish its goals, the company

identified and leveraged these
best practices:
Define what success looks like
Build an internal training plan

Enhance the product innovation

and feedback cycle.
Improve the overall customer
experience.

Seed the community with

relevant content
Market internally
Communicate externally

WITHIN 6 MONTHS, SPS COMMERCE SAW:

450+

registered users

78,000+ 26,000+
page views

unique visitors

BY THE END OF THE FIRST YEAR, ITS COMMUNITY

ROI INCLUDED:
SUPPORT TICKET
DEFLECTION

FASTER PRODUCT
INNOVATION

INCREASED CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT

28,000 customer
contacts

50 customer ideas

captured

1,200+ community
members

300% more than

anticipated

Chapter 1: What Community Gives You

71 new members

per month

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

IN A VENDOR

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN

A COMMUNITY PLATFORM

A good vendor believes in custom experiences and best

practices; a great vendor guides your development and
strengthens your conversations with your customers.

Its 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. Dont settle for anything less.

YOUR CUSTOMERS EXPECT YOU

TO SHOW UP AND:

YOUR PLATFORM SHOULD

ENABLE YOU TO:
Save on support costs

Answer their questions

Connect at the right moments

Amplify endorsements
LOOK FOR:

Solve their problems

Consumer-centric design
Rapid deployment and time to value
Affordability

Address their concerns

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

Hear their ideas

Chapter 1: What Community Gives You

CHAPTER 2:

MODERNIZING
SUPPORT
ACROSS ALL
CHANNELS
Your 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.

72

OF SURVEY
RESPONDENTS
SAY COMMUNITIES
PROVIDE BETTER
CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Chapter 2: Modernizing Support Across All Channels

WITH COMMUNITY, AN ORGANIZATIONS 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.
BUSINESS STRATEGY IMPORTANCE, OUT OF 100
EXPERIENCE

43

PRODUCTS

PRICE

37

20

TODAY

50

34

16

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

WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT

FROM COMMUNITIES
63% 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 others 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.

Today, support is all about relationship-building and

engagement. Its not a transactional business and its not
a cost center. When done right, its 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

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A COMMUNITY LEADER

CustomerExperience Driver
Multi-channel
availability

84

User-friendliness

Personalization

Relevance

OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY

THEIR COMMUNITIES PROVIDE A
SOCIAL SUPPORT EXPERIENCE.
Chapter 2: Modernizing Support Across All Channels

Engagement

Community as a Support Tool

Content optimized for discovery in mobile, social,

brand website, and search engines

Easy to navigate, simple interface, search-optimized

Incorporates customer profile and

behavioral context

Displays content that is relevant to customer

needs or stage of lifecycle

Enables customers to receive responses from the

brand or other customers

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

10

TRANSFORMING CUSTOMERS
INTO ADVOCATES
Your customers turn to you when they have problems,
but the most helpful answers often originate from other
customers whove 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.

57

OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY

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

MORE HELP, LESS COST

49% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY THEIR
COMMUNITIES HAVE REDUCED CUSTOMER
SUPPORT COSTS.
32% REPORT 1025% 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 brands culture.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ADD

A HUMAN TOUCH?

BEST PRACTICES:

Diffuse. Stay positive without

overselling the believability of
your tone, and prepare situational
diffusing statements beforehand
so that youre ready when negative
comments appear.

Build numerous entry points

Display transparency
whenever possible
Devise a plan for escalated situations
Call positive attention to
helpful customers
Add a human touch

Chapter 2: Modernizing Support Across All Channels

Listen. Show your customers that you

acknowledge issues and recognize
their importance.
Empathize. Respond authentically
to prove youre not automating
responses at your audience.
Appreciate. Express gratitude
at your customers comments
and engagement, as it makes
a community experience feel
more real.

Personalize. Use engaging,

friendly languagethe way people
actually talk with one another.
No corporate speak.

11

CHAPTER 3:

THE MARKETING
ADVANTAGE
YOU NEED (BUT
DONT 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.
Communitys peer-to-peer support advantages are
obvious. Less obvious is the way a community can
dramatically increase your SEO and brand reputation.

Chapter 3: The Marketing Advantage You Need (But Dont Have)

Your community can capture real-time customer conversations about your

products and company, offering user-generated content thats very credible and
ranks highly in search engines. Imagine that: fresh, trustworthy content that helps
drive your SEO rankings even higher.

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

74% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS STRATEGICALLY

USE THEIR COMMUNITIES TO CREATE CONTENT
TO DRIVE ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC.
Even survey respondents who have not yet built online community are considering
developing them in efforts to cultivate and strengthen their marketing strategies.
77% believe communities would help
them better market to current and
prospective customers.

69% believe communities would

significantly improve their brands.

12

BUILD YOUR BRAND

CULTURE BEYOND SEO
In 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
medias 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.

68%
OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS
SAY COMMUNITY FOSTERS
A MORE SOCIAL AND
ENGAGING WEBSITE.

63%
SAY THE SOCIAL CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE DIFFERENTIATES
THEIR BRANDS.
Chapter 3: The Marketing Advantage You Need (But Dont Have)

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 dont 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.

13

CHAPTER 4:

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. Theyre ready to dissect your brand
culture. They can tell you what works and what doesnt.
Even better: Your customers can innovate and pitch
new ideas they want to see your brand pursueand it
doesnt 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: Innovate with the Greatest Consultants (Your Customers)

GUIDING DECISIONS IN INNOVATION

Customers are always game to try new items during pre-launches, but they have
a further vested interest in your brand beyond that. Theyve got strong opinions
and are ready to share them in-depth. After using a brands products for a while, an
audience likely has ideas for improvement and for entirely new products to add
to the market.
THEYLL 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 its 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

14

PRIVATE COMMUNITIES
FOR PRE-LAUNCHES
AND BETA TESTS

HOW MUCH STRATEGIC INFLUENCE

DO YOUR CUSTOMERS WIELD?
ACCORDING TO CEOS, CUSTOMERS ARE SECOND ONLY
TO A COMPANYS C-SUITES.

Customers are ready to try new items, bringing their

user history and brand expectations to the table for
discussion. With your community managers guidance and
involvement from your product team, that feedback can
become exceptionally comprehensive. Depending on the
community recruitment strategy, its possible for companies
to eliminate an official campaign launchs guesswork about
audience reaction and satisfaction.

47% OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS SAY

COMMUNITY HELPS PROVIDE FEEDBACK
ON NEW PROTOTYPES OR BETA PRODUCTS
BEFORE THEYRE RELEASED.

C-Suite
Customers
Board of Directors
Corporate Strategy Function
Non-Executive Senior Leadership
Key External Business Partners
Parent Company
78%

23%

INFLUENTIAL IDEAS AND

INSIGHTS ON NEXT STEPS

44%

55%

They might not be professional experts or consultants, but

your customers guidance holds particular weight. Their
input is invaluable to your brands future, and organizations
higher-ups are finally taking notice, according to The
Customer-Activated Enterprise, a report by the IBM
Institute for Business Value.

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

25%
26%

53%

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

15

Community is a great reflection of whats

going on with customers, and its 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

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.

THE NEW CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

73%

Larger partner network

Smaller partner base

11%

Saved up to $500,000 in product testing costs

Received more than 3,000 product idea submissions

Face-to-face interaction

The community is helping our product

management teams uncover and
validate whats 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

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

20%
61%

Partnering to increase value

Partnering to increase efficiency

25%
54%

Focus on customers as individuals

Focus on customers as segments

33%
52%

Organizational openness
Operational control

UPON PROVIDING A COMMUNITY-WIDE

SHARE AN IDEA BUTTON, SPS COMMERCE
GENERATED MORE THAN 50 NEW
CUSTOMER IDEAS IN A 12-MONTH PERIOD.

68%

Social/digital interaction

28%

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

Thats right. Your brands future depends on your ability to engage customers and
harness their ideas, making communities an integral part of your companys
customer-driven process of product improvement and innovation.

16

CHAPTER 5:

LEARN WHAT B2B

TECH COMPANIES
ALREADY KNOW
Known 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.

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 dont just utilize community well; they depend on
it. Cultivating a branded community has long been established as an essential
component of the B2B tech industrys customer engagement strategy, and it has long
been established as such.

OF B2B TECH COMPANIES FOSTER ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES.

With a 61% average, thats higher than other major industries.

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

74

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.

Chapter 5: Learn What B2B Tech Companies Already Know

17

THE ROI OF B2B TECH COMMUNITIES

B2B 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 SATISFACTIONS
MARKET SURVEY REVEALS OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE RESULTS FROM COMPANIES THAT
HAVE IMPLEMENTED ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITIES.
SUPPORT

MARKETING

IDEATION

74% of B2B tech survey respondents say

communities are a key component in their
customer support efforts.

66% of B2B tech survey respondents say

communities create content that drives organic
search traffic.

75% of B2B tech survey respondents say

they use their communities to cull customer
feedback and ideas.

 4% say communities offer their customers a

7
better customer experience.

66% say communities strengthen their

customers opinions of their brands.

74% believe their communities have helped

to significantly improve their knowledge of
their customers.

73% say communities help provide a social

support experience.

57% believe communities help prevent churn

and increase up-sell opportunities.

62% anticipate that communities will use

mobile and tablet devices to provide support
in the future.

53% say communities provide more engaging

website elements.

MORE THAN HALF OF SURVEY

RESPONDENTS SAY USERGENERATED CONTENT MORE
CREDIBLY SUPPORTS THEIR
BRANDS THAN EMPLOYEEGENERATED CONTENT.

50% plan to use communities to engage

prospects earlier in the sales process.

Chapter 5: Learn What B2B Tech Companies Already Know

18

CONCLUSION

THINK ABOUT IT
This surveys findings show how online communities can
help to significantly enhance your customers experience.
You can deliver superior customer support by leveraging
credible, user-generated contentimproving 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.

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

19