Four Tips for Building a Community for your Brand
The most powerful asset an industry leader has is a loyal customer base. Building a community of loyal customers can be challenging, but is extremely rewarding in the long run. Connecting with those who directly use your product or service, helps understand how you can serve them better. Staying close to the customer is one of the tenets of the VC playbook, and companies that build their brand with a customer-first mindset tend to have much higher success rates.
We have identified four ways in which companies can build a thriving community:
1. Build accessible communication channels
We pride ourselves in being connected to our customers and being extremely responsive to their inbound — whether it be through emails, social media or phone calls. Our entire team calls a handful of customers weekly to understand what’s working and the pain points. Additionally, we hold in-person meetings with Airlift users to get to know them a little better over a cup of coffee.
2. Listen to your users
Since the product we make is for our customers, we believe their feedback and behavior patterns are the most important datapoints to make decisions. It is easy to get distracted with one’s own personal thoughts and biases when designing a strategy or building a product, so it’s important to remind oneself that the insights from users are the most important. One way to incorporate this is by involving customers in testing of new features.
3. Encourage conversations amongst users
Companies focus on communicating with their customers, however, it is equally important for users to share their experiences and have a sense of community with one another. When customers build relationships with each other, this strengthens their ties with the brand, and they often become brand advocates. At Airlift, we do this by introducing hashtag competitions and bringing users together in community groups.
4. Be appreciative
Thoughtful and kind messages to customers go a long way to show appreciation. This helps your customers build a personal connection and feel close to the brand. This can be done by personalized messages, empathizing with their problems, prompt follow up to feedback, and going to great lengths to make their user journey a positive one. This shows your brand’s commitment to putting the customer first.
When a person uses a service or purchases a product, they form a connection with it. It is up to you, as a community builder, to keep the customer experience positive, starting from the moment they stumble upon your offering. Building a community is a way to value your users beyond their purchase and stay connected to them.
Drop me any questions in the comments, I am happy to help however I can!
Maha is the Community Management Specialist at Airlift. She has a severe sweet tooth & keeps talking to us in social media lingo we don’t understand. She is also a ferocious writer and giving up is not in her stride. You can reach out to her at maha@rideairlift.com.
