According to IDC Social Predictions 2014, the use of community platforms will move beyond peer-to-peer support as more businesses start to leverage communities across a variety of enterprise functions.

What is a Customer Community?

A customer community allows users, partners, and company employees to share information, answer questions, post problems, and discuss ideas about product enhancements and best practices in real time. A community can be public, private, or a hybrid of both models. To be most effective, a customer community should be available directly from the product, via single sign-on, and be as accessible as possible.

Cloud ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions are especially well-suited to supporting communities because they offer built-in collaboration. These feature allows companies and their partners, such as suppliers, to exchange information in real time. Customer communities extend collaboration by allowing users, partners, and company employees to share information about products, answer questions, and exchange ideas and best practices.

The most effective communities are also support portals. The community is at the heart of the portal, but if users can’t find what they need, they also have easy access to other company resources such as documentation and training videos. As a last resort, a user should have the ability to submit an online support request.

1. Customer Communities Extend Collaboration

With cloud ERP systems such as Kenandy which is built on the Salesforce1 Platform, business partners across the enterprise can collaborate in real time, allowing them to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. For example, a manufacturer in San Francisco might submit a purchase order to a suppler in China. A week before the order is due to ship, the manufacturer has a surge in demand, and needs to receive more items immediately. Using a built-in tool like Salesforce Chatter, the request can be submitted to the supplier right away, and the dialogue stays within the context of the purchase order.

In a similar vein, customer communities facilitate collaboration by allowing clients, partners, and employees to share information about the product, respond to questions, offer ideas, and share best practices. Moreover, the conversations happen in real time within the community, and within the context of the product. Customers respond to each other’s questions and get to know the members of their virtual community. Their solutions and ideas will become part of a searchable knowledgebase.

2. Customer Communities are Productivity Tools

Customer communities represent the state of the art in online information because all the content is available and searchable in real time, on the cloud. What’s more, they’re social. Users can add content, comment on it, and build on it. Many users might get concerned about the accuracy of the information, but the best communities support the idea of experts and “champions” who can provide the final word. Most communities also have managers who moderate the community to make sure that questions are answered in a timely fashion. Experts step in as required to ensure all users abide by the community guidelines and check that information stays current.

One of the primary benefits of communities is that they make users and the company more productive. According to Michael Fauscette at IDC, companies realize productivity gains of up to 30% by using community tools and sharing knowledge. Users become more productive in several ways:

• They can build on and share product knowledge with their colleagues and the company. In the Kenandy Community, clients share tips and tricks on the best ways to use the product.
• They can build on and share ideas with their colleagues about ways to improve the product, as well as best business practices.
• If a customer posts a bug and the company offers a resolution, other customers can benefit from the discussion.
• Users benefit from having one central portal that contains all the information and resources they need in a searchable format.

Companies benefit from many of the same capabilities:

• The shared product knowledge becomes part of the company’s domain. It can be included in the online help and training, as well as in marketing materials. The knowledge can also be used to build user stories that support the development process.
• Having one way of receiving bugs makes it much simpler for companies to prioritize and resolve them.

3. Customer Communities Allow Companies to Build Better Products

For years, the voice of the customer has been identified as one of the best ways to build better products and services. When a company listens to conversations in the community, they have the perfect opportunity to improve products.

One of the many benefits of a cloud ERP system is that it’s easy to use and maintain. Customer communities support the ease of use by giving users access to live, contributed information when and where they need it. In turn, vendors like Kenandy are beginning to realize the benefits of collaboration within their user communities. It’s a process where all the participants are winners, because everyone is empowered to be more effective.

About the Author

Stewart Florsheim is the VP of Marketing Communications at Kenandy, Inc., and is responsible for all marketing and technical communications. Kenandy produces cloud ERP software for enterprises, built on the Salesforce1 Platform.

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