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Customer Facing Communities

Customer-facing communities are used to create extended value networks that help build strong relationships with customers and partners.  Using social networking concepts, they provide a direct channel between your organization, your customers, and your partners for communicating and collaborating in an open, transparent environment.  Some examples of customer-facing communities include: 

  • Customer Service Communities:  These communities help customers solve problems in a self-service environment or by enabling customers to communicate directly with experts in your organization, with your partners, and with other customers in the community that have solved similar problems.
  • Customer Voice Communities:  These communities engage customers and partners in a dialogue to better understand trends and changes in customer needs.  Customers and partners become "co-creators" in the product development process.  The need for customer focus groups is diminished or can be eliminated altogether.
  • Communities of Practice:  These communities provide a place where customers and partners can meet, exchange ideas, and learn from one another on how to implement best practices around your product and service offerings.
In addition to building stronger relationships, some other benefits realized from customer-facing communities include:
  • Increased sales and revenue.  A 2007 survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit showed that almost 80% of the executives polled viewed the collaboration and sharing aspects of communities built upon Web 2.0 technologies as an opportunity to increase their company's revenues.
  • Reduced costs.  Cost areas associated with service and support, PR, advertising, marketing, and product innovation are all potential candidates for cost reduction resulting from communities engaging your customers and partners.Increased customer loyalty and retention. 
  • Communities help to build customer intimacy that lead to stronger, long term relationships.
  • Increased brand recognition.  Communities increase the visibility of your product and service offerings in the market.
  • Increased competitive advantage.  Communities provide the extra value and differentiation that resonate with customers and partners.
Customer-facing communities have created a new paradigm in the way organizations interact with their customers and partners.  Organizations are moving rapidly to take advantage of this shift in the marketplace.  If you haven't already started to look at how communities can benefit your organization, the time to do this is now.