The Myth About Customer Support Communities

April 24, 2017 2 Comments

Don’t confuse a customer support community with any other type.

In support communities, people want quick resolutions.

If your washing machine breaks, you might visit the community to get an answer.

…but you’re not going to spend your spare time talking about washing machines.

And you’re definitely not going to feel a common identity, a strong sense of community, or the need to share your expertise and make friends with owners of the same washing machine.

Yet, Psychology Is Critical To Support Communities Too

In support communities, how you respond to a question has a huge impact on how people feel about you and your business.

Really small things can have a really big impact. Short, terse, responses that make people feel dumb are going to drive people away (even if the answer is correct).

Recently we benchmarked some of the larger support communities were doing against various criteria. The results blew my mind.

You can see a selection below:





(this is very much subjective, I’m sure your ratings would differ).

Yet, we can see there is HUGE scope for most support communities to improve here.

Most people managing most communities can directly improve customer satisfaction metrics simply by improving the quality of their answers.

The exact words you use, how you personalize your response, how you show empathy all matter a huge deal.

Likewise how you clarify the question, how you provide the answer, and the time it takes to receive an answer matter.

Do you even follow up afterward, for example?

As part of the Psychology of Community course, we’re going to take you through the process of doing this extremely well. You’re going to see dozens of real-life case studies and a breakdown of what constitutes terrific responses.

If you feel you or your team would benefit from being terrific at this, I hope you will join us:

p.s. Remember you can also sign up for both our Strategic Community Management program and Psychology of Community for $1,100 USD before the end of this week.

Comments

  1. Ingrid Peters says:

    @richard_millington, very interesting article. Our current support department runs on phone and e-mail and customer satisfaction is rated high. Our ultimate goal is to have the same ratings in our new community.

  2. Piper_Wilson says:

    So completely true and important. Thank you for the reminder.

Make your own comment on this post at FeverBee Experts

Avatar for richard_millington Avatar for Piper_Wilson Avatar for ingridp

©2023 FeverBee Limited, Apartment 2410, 251 Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 6FN England FEVERBEE
GO TO THE CUTTING EDGE OF COMMUNITY BUILDING

We’d like you to join us.

We’re a group of community professionals who push each other to the cutting edge of our work. Every day we share our experiences, highlight new expertise, and push one another to become the best community builders we can be.

The day you join, you’ll get access to 1000+ practical tips, dozens of resources, and unlimited access to the top experts in our space. You’ll also get to see how we go about building a community amongst our own audience.

It takes just 30 seconds and doesn’t cost a thing.

CLICK HERE AND JOIN FEVERBEE
Please Select Membership Level to access more posts.

Level Price  
ALL COURSES $750.00 per Month.
Select
Community Development Program $1,100.00 per Month.
Select
Director of Community $8,770.00 per Month.
Select
Free Trial - Accelerator Program Free.
Select
Community Accelerator (founding members) [annually] $250.00 per Year.
Select
Community Accelerator and FeverBee Intelligence [monthly] $45.00 per Month.
Select
Community Accelerator and FeverBee Intelligence [annually] $450.00 per Year.
Select
Full Community Upgrade (Large Enterprise Only) [monthly] $750.00 per Month.
Select
Full Community Upgrade (Large Enterprise Only) [annually] $7,600.00 per Year.
Select