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.