Avoiding The Biggest Community Problem Because It’s ‘Hard’

Speaking to a community manager last week, she mentioned her biggest problem was proving the value.

Her boss wanted to know what impact engagement had upon customer retention but she didn’t have the numbers.

A snippet from the conversation:

“What have you tried so far?”
“Nothing, it’s not possible”

Nothing…it’s your biggest problem and you’ve done nothing to solve it?

You haven’t spoken to anyone in the field about how they linked engagement to retention?

You haven’t tried the formulas in any of the existing ROI resources?

You haven’t spoken to any data analysts about getting statistically significant data?

You haven’t asked other departments how they prove their value and links to retention?

And how do you even know it’s not possible if you haven’t tried anything?

If it’s your biggest problem, make it a priority and solve it.

No-one taught you how to do it, no platform provides the easy connection, so…do the most wonderful thing we get to do each day…and tackle a new challenge with relish. You might learn a new skill and build a new resource…

Ask around, study data, hire a data analyst if you like (we’re currently working with 3).

Mankind has somehow managed to work out the impact of Facebook on reducing government corruption, rain on retail sales, and boardroom diversity on financial performance..believe me, we can (and do) connect engagement data to customer retention