You Might Have a Killer Customer Community If…

A few years ago, I noticed something interesting with several of my clients; they had customers that wanted to come together and interact about my client's products and services.

This isn't anything new.  Saturn, Mini-Coopers, Apple and many, many other companies had created communities around their products and even around their particular type of customers.

Before internet technology got so prevalent, these groups were more physical — meaning that people came together via the retail hubs of the company and they were then brought together again via physical mailings.  They interacted during a specific date range and then were disconnected much of the time in-between events.

Not anymore.  All kinds of companies are realizing the many benefits of creating and developing customer communities.  In fact, you might want to assume you already HAVE a community and see if in what ways you can start bringing people together around their shared interest and passion (which might have something to do with your product or service)  How nice is that?

Is Your Offering Community Worthy? or You Might Have a Customer Community If….
(pick your reference preference Seinfeld or Jeff Foxworthy)

So how can you know if you have a customer community out there that wants to come together around your offering?  Here are some characteristics and patterns I've noticed that seem ideal for customer communities:

• High Involvement:  If you have a customer base that is highly involved with your product or service for any of the following reasons: it's expensive, it's critical to their health and well-being, it involves their money, investment or future lifestyle, it impacts their ability to make more money, it's something they find challenging but spend a lot of time thinking about and working with, then you might have yourself a community.
• Feeling of Uniqueness or Being "in-the-know" about your industry, product or service.  Another indicator that you might have a customer community on your hands is if your customers feel like they are part of a unique tribe that has found something, or figured something out that the rest of the world doesn't know about or care about.  One of my clients is a custodian for self-directed IRA's, specifically for people who invest in real estate.  These people spend a lot of their energy and conversation around this topic, and they feel that most other people don't care or understand the details involved in using your IRA as a real estate investment tool.  Hence, they want to connect with other people who are like themselves and want to share strategies.  Ideal for customer community.
• Need for New Ideas, Techniques and Strategies.  People who constantly need new ideas to build and grow their business or to move forward on a project(s), love to interact with other people who want to do the same.  Marketers, entrepreneurs and small business owners are like that.  They want to be with other people who are like them so that they can share strategies and techniques that work.  A good idea that works in retail – might also work on the internet, for example.
• Going through a Life-Phase.  If your company works with customers who are going through a specific transition or phase in life – you are missing out if you don't have a community going.  Think new mothers, widows, out-of-work professionals, college-bound students, the possibilities are virtually endless.  If your product or service helps people through a time of change or transition — you'd better get on board the membership and community train.

If any of these descriptors sound like your customer base – then I recommend you get the book "Groundswell" by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research.  It's an EXCELLENT primer on the new power that customer hold over the ultimate success of your business.

What are your thoughts on customer communities?