Today, more than ever, companies need to connect with their customers and partners. The popularity of crowd sourcing, the level of engagement on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and the increase in connected devices have all combined to create a new generation of customers and partners who have expectations regarding how they engage with a company.

This week, we had the opportunity to speak with Maria Ogneva, Product Marketing Director of Salesforce Communities to learn more about this exciting addition to the Salesforce experience and discuss her thoughts on the importance of community building.

How can businesses benefit from connecting with customers more than ever before?  

Social technology has changed how we relate to each other and consume information -- we can now build relationships with people we may never meet, and access information from a variety of sources. This interconnectedness helps us do more, make better decisions, and be the best people and businesses we can be. Communities are remarkably good at elements critical to: building relationships around a shared purpose, learn and share information and co-create new knowledge.

Relationships:

Pace of innovation continues to accelerate  at a formidable clip, which means that there are more products and services than ever before -- all vying for the same customers, whose preferences and needs continue to change. Products are commoditized, but relationships aren’t -- your competitive differentiator becomes the relationship between you and your customers, and the trust they have in your ability to solve their needs vs. “the other guys.” Customer communities are a great way to create and grow these relationships at scale.  

Customers don’t want to just have a relationship with you, however -- they also want access to each other and to other parts of the ecosystem (partners, experts and influencers). Communities are great at facilitating this interchange, disintermediating the company, and helping it scale. By working closer with your customers and partners, you create winning outcomes for all parties, increasing visibility and cohesiveness across the ecosystem, accelerating innovation and ultimately benefitting the customer.

Information:

People are volunteering more information about themselves than ever before, the sheer volume and velocity of this information is astounding. Customer communities give you the competitive advantage of access to the right information at the right time  -- this information is much more accurate, up-to-date, and less expensive to obtain than ever before.

This information flows multiple ways: from you (the company) to consumer, back to you, from consumer to consumer, and across third parties. Your customers can access information and unvarnished opinions about your company and products easier than ever -- without ever talking to a company representative or seeing one of your ads. Customer communities are an effective way for your customers and prospects to learn about products, share best practices, create and deepen relationships with you and with each other - with the benefit of these conversations occurring in a space that you own.

Could you offer your top three best practices for creating a great community?

1. Invest in a Community Manager. As companies embrace the concept of business communities, they need to realize that communities don’t run themselves. A community strategist is the cross-functional leader who will map out use cases, get buy-in and participation across the board and among executives and department heads, and lead the organization toward becoming a Customer Company. Don’t start looking for a Community Manager after your community really takes off; this critical hire needs to be in place before it begins.  As your nascent community starts to gain steam, the community team becomes the connective tissue, connecting all constituents -- inside and outside the company -- and ensuring that the community continues to serve their goals.

2. Think through member experience. Help members get the most out of their time in the community by providing unique value that can’t be found anywhere else -- it will keep members coming back and engaging. Avoid adding all of your customers and employees to the community en masse -- take the time to  build up trust and a mutual environment of ownership among a smaller group. It will serve as the foundation of your community’s culture and will ensure that people are contributing and benefitting in a way that moves everyone forward. Before you invite anyone, think about whom you want to see present, why they will want to participate, and what they have to gain. A good community serves the needs of members and company at the same time.

Think of it as creating a great party that everyone wants to be at. As a host, you need to invite people, set up music, snacks and entertainment, and show guests around when they arrive. Similarly, your community members should never arrive in an empty community or wonder why they are there – create a conversation or content hook, take the time to onboard them, and introduce them to people and groups they can benefit from.

3. Engage and help members build relationships. As a party host, you are a facilitator, but not the center of attention. Party guests don’t simply stand around speaking with the host, they break off into their own discussions – you should embrace that.  It’s your party, so step in when you feel it’s appropriate, and make sure that every member’s needs are met, but don’t feel the need to lead every conversation. You’ll connect with customers better once you acknowledge the fact that your brand is not simply what you say it is, it’s a composite of what your employees, partners, and customers say it is. Your job in this scenario is to create experiences worth sharing, and give them the tools to create better stories.

Commit to being a true learning organization, because once a community has taken off, you’ll be learning every day.  You’ll begin with a plan and map out use cases to start, but once the community is active, members will show you what they want and what they expect.

How will Salesforce Communities enable the true Customer Company?

Customer and partner communities not only humanize your brand, and help you create stronger relationships across your ecosystem, but they also help you become a better company by becoming more agile and responsive. Before a Customer Company can act, it needs to listen and learn -- which becomes a lot easier when conversations come together with business processes in one place. Community interactions round out what you know about your customers: expertise through what they ask and share, problems through the questions they ask, and even a glimpse into their conversational style. By working from the same proverbial page, the company and its partners have a stronger line of vision into each other and their customers, so that they can become more customer-centric -- all in one customizable, extensible, mobile platform.

Customer Communities offer a space where customers can collaborate, find and share solutions, ask questions, and resolve customer service issues. They will allow customers to connect more authentically not only to you as a business, but to each other, and that’s where the magic happens. Connection between company and customer is one thing, but building relationships between customer and customer, encouraging many-to-many conversations, that's at the very core of creating community.

Partner Communities follow the same overarching benefits, allowing connection between a company and its employees and relevant partner stakeholders. Creating a community for your partners allows for increased collaboration, better visibility into pipeline management and business process, as well as faster case resolution. It’s all seamless; partners can quickly switch between their partner and customer communities with one simple click.