Creating agile customer experiences with speed and power – Customer Experience Management & online communities as the ideal successful duo

Customer experience management is and is increasingly becoming a decisive competitive differentiator for companies. Exceptional customer experiences with the brand or products along all touchpoints of the customer journey are the decisive factors not only to satisfy customers, but also to improve customer loyalty and, above all, enthusiasm in the long term.
Through consistent Customer Experience Management, customers become aware of the brand and products, so that customers become advocates or ambassadors for the company.

Why don't many customer experience measurements produce great results?

However, many companies still find it very difficult to fully understand the wishes and needs of customers and to adapt to them agilely in a dynamic competitive environment. This is usually because in addition to rational factors in the development of inspiring customer experiences. Above all, personality, motivations and attitudes play a crucial role. 

Many companies today already measure customer satisfaction with the services they offer at various touchpoints. E.g. using CSAT or NPS. Open-ended questions are also usually asked following these KPI questions. In other words, questions that customers have to use to explain their evaluation. Using modern semantic text analysis, companies are able to efficiently understand customers' scale-oriented evaluations of a product or service in greater depth. However, these measurements and analysis are often done in a specific situation, where emotional aspects usually relate precisely to that situation. However, these measurements and analyses do not yet cover how customers can be impressed overall and across individual touchpoints.

The depth of analysis is also not comparable to the potential for understanding customers' lives that online communities provide. Ultimately, it can be said that holistic Customer Experience Management requires more data and insights than trivial queries that have nothing to do with real experience management. Only if a company really manages to empathize with customers and fully understand their expectations and needs can truly inspiring experiences be created that win the hearts and minds of customers! Really successful Customer Experience Management also requires that it can only become a decisive USP if it is consistently lived and implemented throughout the entire company.

Online communities as a success factor of holistic Customer Experience Management

Modern online communities offer precisely this decisive strategic advantage as part of the holistic management approach of Customer Experience Management. Through access and continuous dialogue with real customers in the controlled environment of the online community, it is possible to get to know and understand the participants' real lives and behavior using qualitative psychological methods.

Exploit the entire quantitative research spectrum with online communities

In addition, online community solutions such as those from QuestionPro offer the opportunity to exploit the entire quantitative research spectrum. Statistically valid quantifications of the qualitative findings can be carried out simultaneously or sequentially. Or classic quantitative questions, such as: B. the semi-monadic testing of qualitatively determined product innovations can be answered promptly and agilely with the participants in the online community.

When it comes to both qualitative and quantitative potential, it is crucial that employees directly involve customers in all phases or sprints and receive direct feedback. The customer is sitting, so to speak at the development and decision-making table. This makes it possible to design customer experiences along the customer journey in such a way that customers are really impressed.

As a positive side effect of the “planned” inclusion of online community participants, they often also talk about their specific experiences. Or from your own ideas with the brand and the products – i.e. from your very personal needs and wishes. It is therefore essential in online communities to provide participants with open, unmoderated forums or, in moderated areas, to demonstrate the sensitivity to allow certain discussions to continue.

Improve customer journey mapping with online communities

Another benefit is that customers also continually help the community determine touchpoint prioritization. Or to improve customer journey mapping. If you include the participants in the online community directly and continuously in these points, you can avoid a non-behavior-appropriate customer journey map or wrong decisions when prioritizing touchpoints.

Ultimately, through the use of online communities as part of Customer Experience Management, customers can be understood holistically. At the same time, the participants are shown appreciation, which is already a first step towards becoming “ambassadors”. The customer is so important that he is directly involved in the company's future decisions.

To-Dos for successful online communities

When recruiting participants in an online community as a whole and in particular for customer experience, it is important to ensure the quality of results and the success of the community findings that the community members are ideally recruited not only on the basis of socio-demographic, but also psycho-demographic characteristics and real behavior be recruited.

Customers as strategic sparring partners

For the success of Customer Experience Management online communities, it is also crucial to think very specifically about the type and duration of the online community before initiating an online community as a success factor in Customer Experience Management. QuestionPro usually recommends opting for a permanent online community. This is the only way to include customers as strategic sparring partners in Customer Experience Management. And ensure continuous dialogue. Because your own employees also have to first learn to actively involve customers consistently and in a customer-centered manner. Experience has shown that this works better with a continuous community, as there is a greater basis of trust on all sides.

Keep community mortality low

Specific questions or short-term answers, for which pop-up communities are theoretically possible, can be answered efficiently and easily in the permanent community using software-supported subgroups. We even recommend placing non-community topics in a permanent community. To keep the community busy and active.
To ensure low mortality in the community, it is also important to be courageous as a company. A successful online community doesn't just want to be entertained with positive and general news and feedback.

Especially results that would have been negative for a company during a publication or new product development if the community participants had not prevented this through their feedback increase the participants' interest and, above all, their sense of belonging to the community and the company. The intrinsic motivation of community participants does not only relate to reports of success. But it is strengthened above all by its relevance for concrete decisions. If the community should therefore e.g. For example, when assessing a new commercial, she comes to the conclusion that she doesn't like it and that the community doesn't like it. Then the company should have the size to thank the participants by publishing the findings in the community. Publication would most likely have resulted in negative experiences for many customers overall. Companies are spared this by using the online community in Customer Experience Management.

Conclusion – Online communities as a success driver of Customer Experience Management

Finally, the three most important arguments for the continuous use of online communities in Customer Experience Management:

• Online communities with qualitative and quantitative elements are the ideal sparing partner for successful Customer Experience Management. They enable continuous and in-depth understanding of customers and thus successful customer enthusiasm.
• In addition to the willingness of the employees to consistently include the participants of the online community in all decisions in accordance with customer centricity primacy, success depends above all on the composition or recruitment of the participants and the unlimited duration of the online community.
• The participants in the online community must feel that they are important to the company and that they have a real influence on relevant product, process and marketing decisions.

Are you curious about how this integrated Customer Experience Management approach works successfully with online communities? Or do you need concrete support to successfully set up or integrate a new online community as part of a Customer Experience Management program? Then please contact us and we will support you in creating customer-friendly solutions with greater profitability.

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Customer experience and online communities: We will show you how to use both as a successful duo

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KEYWORDS OF THIS BLOG POST

Customer Experience | Online Community | importance