Why A ‘Customer Community Plan’ Is The Key To Your Company’s Survival
If you are like every other leader on the planet, you probably needed to implement some form of business continuity plan during these uncertain times. Regardless of the nature of your organization, you undoubtedly had to rapidly transition how you manage employees, maintain operations and service customers, all while navigating complex financial and emotional waters.
But what about a customer community plan? Did you engage your customers in a way that helps insure your business’ survival?
These days it’s obvious that every organization needs a plan to maintain the fundamental operations of their business during an interruption. But the COVID-19 crisis is helping clear-eyed leaders realize a critical customer-related gap in their business planning. Beyond all the marketing strategies, influencer metrics and net-promoter scores that helped them attract and engage their customers BC (before-coronavirus), in a time of crisis there is one fundamental truth:
Being able to activate a customer community is the ultimate business interruption insurance.
But wait, you might be thinking: doesn’t my business already have a group of fans and ambassadors that we are keeping informed? Aren’t they my customer community? Possibly. But more than likely (and no matter what clever names these customer groups are called), most of your customers are transaction-oriented — so long as they get the value they expect to receive, they continue to give (or pay) what they need to. That’s not a community, that’s a purchasing base. And all those “influencers” you paid? Yeah, they’re not your community either (spoiler alert: they never were). Yet, in recent years many businesses have been satisfied with these kinds of transaction-focused, influencer-dependent strategies, especially because the concept of a customer community feels fuzzy: hard to measure and even harder to maintain. And the benefits seem uncertain.
At least in “normal” times.
But what about in times like these?
Well, when everything is interrupted (like right now) and regular behaviors become irregular, customers who aren’t part of a customer community become a lot less reliable. Conversely, customer communities rise up and deepen their commitment. Here’s why.
Without a sense of being part of a community, customers use uncertain times to start to check out other businesses that offer the same goods and services but are closer or less expensive. For example, they might try new restaurants that have better pick-up or delivery options or fitness resources that have more effective online capabilities. The longer the interruption continues, the less connected they will be to your business’ survival.
Unless you invested in creating a community, and not just a customer base.
Individuals who are part of a customer community have a much deeper connection with a business and its mission, not just its products and services. Beyond seeing themselves as loyal customers, they see themselves as being part of something bigger than themselves, a group that collectively rallies to help the business survive, sometimes in extraordinary ways. That might mean buying services even when they can’t be immediately delivered (such as purchasing gift cards or restaurant bonds), or providing support when the value can’t be realized (maintaining memberships and participation fees even when locations can’t be open).
But here’s the catch. Customer communities don’t just HAPPEN – they are seeded and nurtured. And while some of the strongest customer communities have been around for a long time, longevity isn’t the most essential ingredient. What is most critical is a business’ intention and plan to create that community and to foster its sense of common purpose. Every organization, regardless of its size, has the ability to create an inspired community that will thrive in both good times and bad.
Because while customers might come and go, customer communities deepen and grow.
Do you have a customer community plan in place? If you don’t, you aren’t alone. And it’s not too late. In fact now might be the exact time to start fostering a community, so as you navigate these uncertain times you can be certain your customer community will help you pull through.
To start, ask yourselves the following questions:
Do we use language and communications strategies that help inspire our customers to consider themselves part of a customer community?
What benefits or incentives could we create to help motivate individuals to feel part of our customer community?
In times of uncertainty and business interruption, what would we hope our customer community would do to support our business? What can we do today to inspire that behavior?
What ways can we acknowledge and celebrate members of our customer community, now and in the future, so they truly feel part of our community?
As you answer those questions, the outline of your customer community plan will begin to take shape. A plan that you probably will want to keep nearby. Because it’s important to remember this: as we find ourselves in this new age of disruption and uncertainty, it's probably not only the business interruption plans that will help save and sustain your organization, it’s the customer community continuity plans that will insure your business’ survival.
And isn’t that worth planning for?