Share this page on

WORK WIDE WEB

words by > Margot Carmichael Lester

Online communities are becoming more and more popular, and it’s not just the customers who benefit. By giving users an electronic gathering place, companies have an opportunity to reduce in-bound support calls, gather customer data, design better products and build brand loyalty.

“Communities enable direct interaction with the company, allowing members immediate information, rather than sift ing through a website or wading through an interactive voice-response queue,” explains Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica, a system integrator based in San Carlos, CA. “For the company, it off ers insights into how people actually use the product, what motivates them to buy [or not buy] and what features they wish the product would have.”

Driving Sales

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, owner of the Scott brand of household products, hosts the Scott Common Sense Community, which the company describes as “a resource to inspire the sharing and discovery of practical solutions to life’s everyday challenges.” Th e community’s design is friendly and simple, providing several points of entry to promotions, contests, tips and time-savers, articles, quizzes and polls.

“³The SCOTT Common Sense Community has more than a quarter of a million members that we can now tap into,² explains Jim Schuh, relationship marketing manager for the Neenah, Wisc., company. ³That helps us understand our consumers on a deeper and long-term level.² It also helped establish awareness of new products, such as bath tissues, towels and moist wipes.

“Most consumer packaged goods marketing is one-way communication,” Schuh continues. “Th e Scott Common Sense Community allows the brand to interact with and respond to its consumers, giving them a sense of ownership in the brand. Th e value [for us] is improving the brand’s equity, developing a deeper relationship with consumers and ultimately improving brand loyalty.”

Customer relationships can have a lasting impact on a brand’s bottom line, according to Darren Paul, managing director of the Night Agency, a marketing and public relations firm in New York. “What is more valuable: an unqualified media impression or an entertaining experience and dialogue with your consumer?” he asks. “Communities create a connection between brands and consumers, and, at the end of the day, that is the most important thing a brand should look for in a marketing program. Th at is how to drive sales.”

Making It Work

Creating a true community such as Scott’s requires time and attention.

“Don’t just throw up messageboards, chat rooms and content without putting some thought behind it,” cautions Joe Procopio, president of Intrepid Media Consulting in Chapel Hill, NC. “Th ere are critical factors to consider right at the beginning to make sure the community stays constructive.”

To start, set goals—link them directly to the bottom line—and define metrics. “Th is way you not only justify the existence of the online community, but you set the direction by providing some quantifiable means to make decisions relating to how and when to build new features and roll out membership drives,” he says.

For instance, if increasing sales is the goal, Procopio suggests making a reasonable estimate of the dollar volume you’re looking for and trying to figure out what percentage of sales are coming from community-based eff orts. “Look for a reduction in customer-service phone calls or emails coming into your company,” he says. “Set a goal, figure out how much money that will save you and track the traffi c on the community related to support.”

And don’t forget to think about costs beyond the technology. “People don’t think about the cost an online community generates,” says Rajeev Arora, vice president of marketing and strategy for Elluminate, a provider of live web conferencing and e-learning solutions, which hosts a community called Elluminati.

“You can’t just leave it be and hope positive things will happen,” he says. “For instance, tech-support folks need to be part of that, so they can answer questions that come in. You’ve got to have some budget built in to allow people to be a part of it as their day-to-day jobs.”

Troubleshooting

Read it. “Analyze the postings for wish-list items,” Golden counsels. “They will tell you what committed users would love to see in the product. This is incredibly valuable direct insight. On the fl ip side, pay attention to negative postings. They are telling you about something you need to improve. Do not make the mistake of dismissing criticism.”

Promote it. “You need to tell people it exists and guide them in how to sign up,” Arora notes. Send an email announcing the community with an invitation to join, put notices on your homepage, and get your customer-service people to inform callers of the community. “We make sure that we provide interesting fodder for discussions and invite people who can add something.”

Foster it. “Nothing is worse than a community forum with questions that go unanswered for weeks,” Golden suggests. “Get company people involved, but be sure they take the right tone. In a community, self-serving marketing-speak is the kiss of death. Likewise, expect—and accept—less-than-fl attering community feedback. Censoring postings to prune negative comments is self-defeating—worse, it cuts the company off from extremely valuable input.”

• Game Theory

  Business leaders look to video games as the future of management training.
  read more ›
  
  

• What's in Storage

  Don't toss out old emails and files like yesterday's garbage. With easy-to-use archiving sysems, saving has never been simpler or more valuable for your business.
  read more ›
  
  

• Biz Bits

  Surf the web from practically anywhere with wireless routers specifically designed for mobility.
  read more ›
  
  

• On the Town - Indianapolis

  
  read more ›
  
  

• Mission Control

  Creating a direct, powerful company mission statement can help your bottom line.
  read more ›