A well-run customer community can be an invaluable resource to a company and it's customers.

Your customers share at least one thing in common: their relationship with you. However, they may also have other similarities, such as job responsibilities, challenges, hobbies, and life experiences. By connecting with each other through a customer community, they can find valuable support and learn from each other.

From gaining tips on how to use your product more effectively to forming genuine friendships, customer communities can enhance the lives of your customers. But if they are dispersed across different countries and social circles, they may not be able to connect on their own. This is where you can provide value by creating a customer community that brings them together and fosters a sense of belonging.

What is customer community? 

A customer community is a group of people who share a common interest in a brand, product, or service and come together to engage and connect with each other. These communities are often facilitated by the brand or company, but they are primarily driven by the members themselves.

A customer community can take various forms, including online forums, social media groups, or in-person meetups. Members of these communities can share their experiences, offer support, and provide feedback to the brand. In turn, the brand can use these interactions to deepen customer relationships, gather insights, and improve its products or services.

The goal of a customer community is to foster a sense of belonging among members and provide them with added value beyond the brand's product or service itself. By doing so, the brand can create a more loyal customer base and increase customer retention.

Key benefits of building a customer community for brand

Building a customer community has numerous benefits for businesses of all sizes. Here are some of the key benefits of building a customer community:

1. Increased Customer Engagement: A customer community provides a platform for customers to engage with your brand, ask questions, share feedback, and connect with each other. This increased level of engagement leads to higher levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction.
2. Improved Customer Support: A customer community can also be used as a platform for providing customer support. Customers can easily find answers to their questions, connect with experts, and get help with any issues they are facing. This helps to reduce support costs and improve the customer experience.
3. Increased Sales: A customer community provides a platform for customers to learn about new products and services and make purchases. By engaging with customers through your community, you can increase sales and drive revenue for your business. 
4. Better Understanding of Customer Needs: By engaging with customers in a community, you can gain a better understanding of their needs, preferences, and pain points. This information can be used to improve your products and services and make more informed business decisions.
5.  Increased Brand Awareness: A customer community helps to increase brand awareness by reaching a wider audience and building relationships with customers. Customers who feel connected to your brand are more likely to share their experiences with others and recommend your products and services to others.
6. Improved Customer Retention: A strong customer community leads to higher levels of customer loyalty, which in turn results in improved customer retention. When customers feel valued and connected to your brand, they are more likely to remain loyal and continue doing business with you.
7. Better Insights and Analytics: A customer community provides valuable insights and analytics on customer behavior, preferences, and feedback. This information can be used to improve your products and services and make more informed business decisions.
8. Increased User-Generated Content: A customer community provides a platform for customers to share their experiences, opinions, and feedback with each other. This user-generated content can be used to improve your products and services and to build a more engaging community.

How do you build a customer community?

Building a customer community requires a strategic approach to creating a space that is engaging, and valuable, and fosters a sense of belonging among members. Here are some steps to build a customer community:

1.Determine the kind of community your customers need

To ensure that you build a community that your customers will use from the start, it's important to determine what kind of community would interest them. One effective way to do this is by asking your customers directly.

This approach can help you gain a deeper understanding of your customer's needs, interests, and pain points, which can inform the kind of community you build and the features you include. By listening to your customers and designing a community that meets their needs, you can increase engagement and build a strong, loyal customer base.

2.Look for places where a customer's needs intersect with business goals

When developing a community strategy, it's important to consider both your customers' needs and your business goals. These factors will guide your planning process and help you make decisions about the following:

• The design and branding of your digital (or physical) community space
• The individuals who will lead and staff your community
• The workflows and processes that you will use to create and distribute content, respond to user inquiries, and incorporate feedback from the community into your business operations

By aligning your community strategy with both customer needs and business objectives, you can create a community that fosters engagement, provides value to users, and helps you achieve your goals.

3.Do a kickoff event

Organizing a kickoff event can be a great way to generate excitement about your community among your customers, encouraging them to participate from the outset and share information about the community with others. During the event, it's important to ensure that your customers understand the mission statement and messaging of your community just as clearly as your internal teams.

Once you have engaged with a group of customers and ensured that they understand the purpose and benefits of the community, you can launch it to your entire customer base. By clearly communicating the reasons why customers may be interested in participating in the community and highlighting the benefits they can expect to receive from engagement, you can encourage greater adoption and more active participation over the long term.

4.Continuously expand and iterate on content

Managing a community is a continuous process that requires ongoing effort and dedication. Community teams must be committed to delivering value to community members over an extended period.

To achieve this, it's crucial to ensure that you have the necessary resources in place to consistently share content that community members will find valuable. In addition, community managers must facilitate connections between users, answer questions, and engage in conversations with members regularly on a daily basis. By investing in ongoing community management efforts, you can build stronger relationships with your customers, foster greater engagement within your community, and create a more meaningful experience for everyone involved.

5.Give members a voice

One of the advantages of having a community is that its members take the lead. To encourage engagement within your community, it's essential to create a process for interacting with members and find opportunities to recognize and reward customers and employees who actively participate or make significant contributions.

As your community grows and evolves, it's important to seek feedback from community members and give them a voice in shaping the direction of the community. By actively engaging with your community, you can foster a sense of ownership and empower members to become brand ambassadors who will help to spread the word about your brand and its mission.

Ready to start building your customer community?

In conclusion, building a customer community provides numerous benefits for businesses, including increased customer engagement, improved customer support, increased sales, better understanding of customer needs, increased brand awareness, improved customer retention, better insights and analytics, and increased user-generated content. By investing in a customer community, businesses can improve the customer experience, drive sales, and build a strong, engaged community.

The democratization of access to community systems like NbliK has made starting an online community simpler than ever.