Turn Customer Engagements Into Love Affairs

TURN CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTS INTO

LOVE AFFAIRS
Six Reasons Your Company Needs a Get Satisfaction Community

a publication of

INTRODUCTION
Today every company is trying to figure out how to leverage social media and become a
social enterprise. But becoming a social enterprise is a lot more than having a Facebook
brand page, a blog and a Twitter Handle. Social media is about engaging with customers
on their terms, anywhere they are, about the topics that matter to them.

And no social media strategy is complete, without having a customer community. In
fact, customer communities are at the core of every social media strategy. This “new
era” of social media is about increasing brand awareness, acquiring new customers, and
driving innovation for business using social conversations and customer insight. It’s a
fundamental shift – instead of driving customers to multiple social channels, customers Contents
engage in social conversations with each other and your brand anywhere they are: your
website, any social channel, via search and on mobile. INTRODUCTION ............................................1

Get Satisfaction is the global leader in customer engagement, powering 65,000 customer 1 THE ENGAGEMENT FACTOR .................. 2

communities around the world. Today, more than five million people use Get Satisfaction’s 2 LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION ........ 4
network to ask questions, share ideas, report problems, give praise, and truly engage with
LET RELEVANT CONTENT SEE THE
the brands and companies they care about. 3
LIGHT OF DAY............................................... 7

You’ve probably heard that many of the world’s best brands use online communities GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS THE
4
to improve customer service experiences, increase customer acquisition and drive OUTCOME THEY’RE LOOKING FOR 10
innovation in products and services. What you may not know is that many of those 5 SEARCH ORIENTATION, FTW! ........... 13
brands, including Proctor & Gamble, Intuit, Autodesk, New Balance, and Webtrends, use
6 ANALYZE ALL OF THE THINGS ......... 15
Get Satisfaction’s Customer Engagement Platform to power their online communities.
Why? In this ebook, we will outline 6 reasons why companies of all types and sizes choose CONCLUSION .......................................... 16

Get Satisfaction’s community platform.

TURN CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTS INTO LOVE AFFAIRS: Six Reasons Your Company Needs a Get Satisfaction Community 1

1 THE ENGAGEMENT FACTOR
The word engagement is thrown around a lot these days. Most simply, engagement can
be defined as an action that inspires individuals to become involved, and to some
extent, a state of involvement. 1 There are different levels of engagement. Some people
vote, some comment, a smaller portion actually start new conversations, and even
fewer still will come back again and again to participate in conversations. Those are your
power users. The vast majority are “lurkers” - they read but do not actively participate
in any way. Increasing engagement means converting more of these lurkers into active
participants.

You might ask: why is engagement important? If your company is selling wheat crackers,
do you really care how many people are engaged with your product? Don’t you really just
care about selling as many crackers as possible? The truth is, conversion is a long-term
process. And with social media “You’re reaching a customer early in the sales process,
meaning that you’ve likely reached them before your competitors. The earlier you
reach them, the more history they’ll have with you when it’s time to make a purchasing
decision.”2 Participating in social media is essential for reaching customers at an early
stage, and engagement is a key part of social media because it’s an indication of how
many people are actually listening.

Maria Ogneva, Community Manager at Yammer, put it this way: “listening is only the
beginning stage of what you should be doing as part of your social media approach;
engagement will make or break your efforts - after all, if no one talks to you online, the
whole thing is a failed attempt. 3” In summary: if you don’t have engagement, you’re talking
to yourself.

1 http://www.rjionline.org/news/engagement-lessons-outside-journalism
2 http://searchengineland.com/the-social-funnel-what-you-lose-when-you-ignore-it-121120
3 http://socialmediatoday.com/index.php?q=SMC/195730


Get Satisfaction communities encourage engagement by providing a modern, friendly
user interface that looks and feels like the popular social networks of today. They have
buttons that allow you to “Like” a post or share it with friends on other social networks.
They let you log in with your credentials from other networks such as Google, Facebook
or Twitter. In addition, Get Satisfaction’s Champions feature allows companies to anoint
active customers with a special badge and, if they choose, moderation privileges. The
“Champion” status is designed to acknowledge users who make a large contribution by
responding to questions, for example, and filling an informal leadership role. “Features
like Champions are an integral part of why we chose Get Satisfaction,” explains Joseph
Alminawi. Community Manager at OMGPOP. “Making a brand advocate a Champion
makes them even more active and helpful.”

Above all, Get Satisfaction has a clean, intuitive interface that was designed with the end
user in mind. With over 900 million active users, Facebook has a good portion of the
world population in its user base already. By utilizing the features that Facebook users
are already familiar with, Get Satisfaction communities make it easy for your customers
to like, comment, or start new topics. That ease of use increases engagement, which
increases your bottom line.


2 LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
In January 2012, the average Facebook users spent 405 minutes per month on the site 4 .
That’s the average, which means that many users are spending more than 7 hours per
month on Facebook. Internet users are spending more and more times on social sites,
and you need to meet them there. Here’s how Wayne Denman, Webtrends’ Technical
Support Manager, explains the importance of social media: “Companies that don’t
embrace social channels are limiting themselves. If you want to be competitive, you have
to be able to meet your customers where they are. 5” It used to be enough to have your
community on the Internet. Now, however, your community needs to be everywhere your
customers are.

Get Satisfaction can extend into your website, your Facebook brand page, your Twitter
account, or anywhere else your customers are. StumbleUpon, for example, switched from
old fashioned forums to a modern Get Satisfaction community and found that including
this content on both their website and on Facebook increased customer participation.

4 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/how-long-do-we-spend-on-social-media-sites-infographic/15415
5 http://info.getsatisfaction.com/rs/getsatisfaction/images/GetSatisfaction_webtrends.pdf


“Our old forums were populated entirely by power users,” says Monica Semergiu,
StumbleUpon Community Manager. “Get Satisfaction’s UI and widgets are more
accessible and make it easier for our entire user-base to participate.6”

Other companies, such as Koodo Mobile, advertise the fact that they provide support
via Facebook. 7 in their Timeline banner, and they also show relevant conversations about
each product from their community, in their product page next to each product.

Offerpop, a social media campaign platform, felt it was important to bring their
community into Facebook because that is where their customers already are. “I guarantee

6 http://info.getsatisfaction.com/rs/getsatisfaction/images/GetSatisfaction_StumbleUpon.pdf
7 http://pinterest.com/pin/275352964687388528/


every one of our clients is on Facebook already,” says Prakash Mishra, Offerpop co-
founder and co-CEO “Facebook and the Facebook interface are familiar to them, so being
able to bring the support experience in there makes it as easy as possible for them to get
help. 8”

Offerpop, Koodo, and StumbleUpon aren’t just providing a place where their customers
can connect with each other; they’re providing a way for customers to connect wherever
they are. That is the power of Get Satisfaction Anywhere.

8 http://info.getsatisfaction.com/rs/getsatisfaction/images/GetSatisfaction_Offerpop.pdf


3 LET RELEVANT CONTENT SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY
In some communities, old conversations are like bad memories: buried. In some cases,
this makes sense: a thread from four years ago might be about a product or feature that
no longer exists. Other times, however, you want to expose particular threads that provide
relevant information for your customers. With Get Satisfaction, you can do this with the
click of a few buttons.

Let’s begin with an example: say you’re a new mother, searching online for a new car
seat. Through a Google search, you find your way to Kiddicare.com, the UK’s largest baby
supplier (you’re a proper London mom, got it?). You notice they carry the Britax car seat,
which is a brand a friend recommended to you. But there are two Britax Duo car seats.
One is £20 more than the other. You want your baby to have the best, safest car seat
possible. But you also wouldn’t mind saving £20. How do you decide which to buy?


Lucky for you, Kiddicare uses a customizable Get Satisfaction widget on the side of each
product that exposes relevant community topics. You see that the top question asked
is “Britax Duo Plus Car Seat Differences?” It turns out you aren’t the first person with
this question! You click on the question and see that a car seat specialist from Kiddicare
answered the question two months ago:

“The main differences between the seats are the fabrics. The £169.99
car seat is called your jet. This is a breathable material so will adapt to the
weather so will keep your child nice and cool in the summer and warm in the
winter.
The £149.99 is called your Max. This material would be easier to clean and
would make your every day life a lot better by being able to sponge the seat
clean.”
In a matter of minutes, you’ve gotten the answer to your question without even having to
search for it. This also benefits the company, since you didn’t need to email or call them
to ask the question. What’s more, it’s an opportunity for the company to give you more
information about the product that might lead to an upsell.

The story we just outlined is a real one from Kiddicare’s customer community9. In his
reply, the car seat specialist, Matt, informs the customer, Arlene, that the car seat may
require a top tether. By providing this helpful information, Matt is able to help Arlene get
everything she needs at once while also selling her one more product. He also increases
her trust of the company by providing her with timely, relevant information.

9 http://community.kiddicare.com/kiddicare/topics/britax_duo_plus_car_seat_differences


What has the Kiddicare story taught us? First of all, that Get Satisfaction allows
companies to expose relevant content in context. Second, that providing relevant
information helps the customer find exactly what they need, when they need it. And
finally, that exposing relevant content helps companies by decreasing support costs and
providing upsell opportunities. It’s a win-win and a major differentiator from other siloed,
chronologically ordered communities.


4 GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS THE OUTCOME THEY’RE LOOKING FOR
Conversations without outcomes are just chatter. All community platforms have one
major thing in common: they’re a place for people to talk. If I love playing Draw Something
and you love playing Draw Something, we can meet in the Draw Something community to
talk about how much easier it is to play on an iPad and which three coin words are hardest
to sketch out. But what if I have a question? Say, I want to change my username from
HappyKitty22 to HappyPuppy44 but can’t figure out how?

It turns out that the majority of customers enter a community because they have a
question, problem, or idea they want addressed by the company or other knowledgeable
customers. While asking a question, reporting a problem, and suggesting an idea are all
things you can do in other communities, the Get Satisfaction platform uses topic types
and topic statuses to ensure that both company and customer understand the actions
required to resolve a topic.

Let’s continue with the Draw Something example. I am playing Draw Something on a
Saturday night when suddenly I am inspired to change my username. I am in the app and
see a support link. I click that support link and it takes me to the Draw Something Get
Satisfaction community10.

10 https://getsatisfaction.com/drawsomething


Once I am in the community, I type in my question. (Get Satisfaction knows that
Internet users today search first, read later, so it automatically searches the existing
database of topics for my question. But we’ll get to that later). I see that a few people
have asked similar questions, but I continue to post my question anyway. At that point,
I can categorize my new community topic as a question, problem, idea, or praise. This
helps the company understand what type of outcome I am looking for: if it’s a question,
I want an answer. If it’s a problem, I want a solution. If it’s an idea, I want to hear that it’s
being considered or will be implemented. If it’s praise, I just want the creators of Draw
Something to know that I worship the ground that they walk on.

In any case: I’ve chosen my topic type as a question. I then am asked to include either a
smiley face, a neutral face, or an sad face to express how I am feeling. I choose a happy
face because, even though I want to change my username, I still love Draw Something. I


go ahead and post it. A few minutes later, I get an email notifying me that there has been
a reply to my question. I see that another Draw Something enthusiast, UnicornsUnite52,
recently changed his username, and replied with instructions on how I can do it as well.
In addition, this Draw Something enthusiast is a Champion in the community (a feature
we discussed earlier in this ebook) and as a result has the ability to mark the question as
“Answered.” He can also mark his answer has the “Official Response” so that future Draw
Something players know that his answer is sanctioned by the company.

Why is this so important? Because topic types, topic statuses, sentiment reporting, and
promoted answers are all part of why we say that Get Satisfaction is outcome oriented.
Other community platforms also allow customers to get their questions answered,
problems fixed, and ideas considered, but topic categorization and statuses help the
company and customer more clearly communicate the intention and acknowledgment
of each topic. Sentiment reporting also helps companies keep tabs on the pulse of the
customer community, but we’ll get to that later.


5 SEARCH ORIENTATION, FTW!
Back in the day, the first thing you would do upon setting up a new email account was set
up your file structure. A file for work documents, a file for financial documents, a file for
personal letters. This was the only way you’d have to find any emails in the future, so you
set it up and went to work filing things away.

Today, files are no longer the norm; search is. Think about Gmail: you can add labels to
emails based on the sender and/or subject, but there are no folders. Instead, there is a
search bar at the top of your web inbox that lets you quickly, easily find any email from
any date range with the click of a button. Searchlight on Macs is similar: while you can
navigate through folders and subfolders, you can always click on the little magnifying
glass in the upper right hand corner of your computer for the file or application you’re
looking for.

Online consumers are being conditioned to search first, click later. And Get Satisfaction
takes that into account by searching all community content automatically before allowing
customers to post a new topic. Whereas less sophisticated communities have the folder
structure of older email services like Outlook, the Get Satisfaction communities are
search-oriented.

Let’s return to the Draw Something example. When HappyKitty22 types “How do I change
my username” into the Draw Something community, 11 The database of existing topics
is searched. Get Satisfaction also has search bar at the top for those only interested in
searching old topics, but the box for entering a question is prominently displayed on the
homepage of the community and also serves as a search bar. Sneaky sneaky.

The benefits of a search-oriented community go both ways: customers are happy
because they get instant gratification by finding answers to their questions. Companies
11 https://getsatisfaction.com/drawsomething


are happy because they can spend less time answering repetitive questions and more
time serving the needs of their customers with complicated support situations. Yola,
for example, reported a 60-70% decrease in support tickets after implementing a Get
Satisfaction community. 12 They also found that 5 out of 6 customers prefer community as
a primary support channel. For these reasons, Yola now offers support communities in 6
languages.

In addition, communities that revolve around search simply feel more like the modern
web. If your company is focused on creating web applications that make today’s
consumers happy, why send them to an archaic FAQ the second they have a question?
Send them to a forward-thinking, search-oriented community instead and they will be
sure to thank you for it.

12 info.getsatisfaction.com/rs/getsatisfaction/images/yola.pdf


6 ANALYZE ALL OF THE THINGS
Oh data. How we adore thee. After all, how would we know if our community is healthy
without you? Or even more basic: how can we calculate the ROI of maintaining a customer
community without you? Only Get Satisfaction’s sophisticated tools allow us to do that.
Which is the sixth and final reason why your company needs more than a community; it
needs a Get Satisfaction community.

You may be thinking: all communities have data for topic thread views and number
of comments. What more could you need? The answer is: so much more. With Get
Satisfaction’s Engagement Platform, you have augmented basic analytics at your
fingertips 13 and can also purchase deeper analytics packages. 14 Whether you’re using
a community for support, marketing, or product feedback, data analysis is essential to
gauging how well you are serving your customers.

Let’s start with basic analytics. With Get Satisfaction, you can easily view the number
of new topics and comments, traffic sources to your community (there are many, since
you’re using a modern, distributable community!), most active users in the community,
and most active topics. These dashboards are available for anyone in your organization
to view and give a nice snapshot of community activity. You can also customize the
timeframe to get the information on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. It’s as
simple as a click of a few buttons.

With deeper analytics, you can learn even more. Like who the most active employees
are in your community. Or what your average response time is. Or what percent of your
community is engaged. It’s data like this that lets you step back and see how you’re doing

13 http://product.getsatisfaction.com/2012/05/new-community-stats/
14 http://getsatisfaction.com/corp/partners/profile/gooddata


and then measure progress as time goes on. After all, without knowing where we are, it is
impossible to move forward.

CONCLUSION
If you started this ebook thinking you wanted any old community, we hope we’ve
convinced you that Get Satisfaction provides benefits that will help you better serve your
customers and improve the bottom line. We outlined the six major reasons why you need
Get Satisfaction: Have questions?
1 Engagement: communities encourage customer engagement by using an intuitive, social user interface.
Feel free to email
2 Location: Get Satisfaction communities can be anywhere your customers are.
sales@getsatisfaction.com
3 Relevance: bring relevant topics to any part of your website with community widgets.
4 Outcomes: topic types and topic status ensure that companies and customers know what to expect from
or, you can call
each other and get satisfactory outcomes, faster.
877-339-3997
5 Search: we’ve all been conditioned to find information through search. Get Satisfaction communities are
search-based rather than siloed into sub-categories. and talk to a
6 Analytics: you want to have a rockin’ customer community? You’ll need numbers to prove it. real human.
We hope you’ve found these points to be useful as you think about which platform is
right for you and your company. While you decide, why not take one for a test run? Get
Satisfaction offers a 30 free, no-risk trial. Sign up today and get your community up and
running in 10 minutes or less.


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