Online customer service communities are based gathering places where an exchange of valuable information and brainstorming of ideas takes place on a large scale. These communities consist of customers, experts, partners and others. Individuals gather and discuss specific problems and discover solutions. Thereafter, they come up with out of the box ideas to improve a company’s products and services.
Just like a live chat service, online customer service communities facilitate user engagement. They further provide a better understanding of customer requirements. The only difference is, live chat sessions take place only between a visitor and a chat agent and communities enable groups of people to be a part of a discussion at the same time.
Online communities offer a number of benefits to the businesses that create them. Here are the top advantages provided by these active communities:
Facilitate content syndication:
Online forums and communities help widen the reach of your content. Since these communities consist of active users, who are more than interested to share your ideas with others, there are more chances of your content being discovered. This further implies a boost in the number of backlinks and an immense traffic on the business website.
Help provide faster outcomes:
The fact that online customer service communities consist of users, employees, partners and the product developers, implies that there’s a better exchange of ideas. Also, the platform provides the customers with a direct access to the knowledge base and ideas of other members present on the platform which leads to much faster outcomes regarding customer service.
Build trust and loyalty:
As a matter of fact, online customer service communities play a major role in building trust and loyalty among the customers. This is due to the open and transparent discussions held online. Apart from building a loyal customer base, they also help reduce customer churn.
Catalyzes the marketing efforts:
Engaging the customers in meaningful discussions, in a way, makes them feel special. They actively take part in product and service promotions. So, they basically provide WOM marketing and catalyze your marketing efforts.
When are you planning to create your online customer service community?