People can connect and discuss common interests on community forums. Community forums serve as a place of connection for many individuals, especially in this age where a lot of people spend their days online. GlobalWebIndex found that participation in online discussion forums is increasing, going from 72% in 2017 to 76% in 2019. 1

To deliver a top-notch customer experience and help individuals discover rapid solutions to their concerns, many brands are creating community forums. And generally without a support representative’s assistance! Instead, peers and other community members respond to queries.

Let’s take a step back to comprehend the word “online community forum” in its broadest sense.

Peers and other community members respond to questions.

Describe the community forum.

A community forum is an online gathering place where users may converse, exchange knowledge, and discuss a wide range of topics that they may find interesting. Customers and followers of a company can congregate, ask questions, get peer support, discuss issues surrounding the brand, and form social connections in an active community forum.

Online discussion boards can be incorporated into a company’s customer experience plan. People would go to the community forum to get answers to their queries instead of contacting customer service. Self service portals may also include a community forum among their functionalities.

What are the advantages of online forums for brand fans?

Instead of addressing the broader public on social media, users can communicate with one another in a more specialised, smaller group in online communities, which boosts engagement and brand loyalty.

Additionally, community forums give your clients a dedicated location to find the details they require regarding practically everything pertaining to your company. Consider a scenario where a user of your programme encounters an uncommon issue and posts about it on your forum in hopes of receiving feedback from another user. It will be far simpler for someone else who runs into the same issue to find that message than it would have been if it had been placed initially on social media, where things get lost much more quickly.

Frequently, by the time one of your clients searches for a certain problem, someone else has already resolved it. Then, using the guidance offered by another user, they can swiftly solve it. That qualifies as prompt and effective customer service without the assistance of a customer support representative.

The value of starting an online community forum is huge. Discover the primary areas where brands might profit from creating one by reading on.

What advantages might a community forum have?

#1 Remove siloed visibility into customer problems

Even if you have a dedicated customer service team, your consumers might not always be satisfied. This is due to the fact that there may occasionally be a gap between customer-facing teams and the rest of the organisation. Through the creation of a centralised platform for all discussions, community forums close this gap by bringing together all cross-functional teams and customers. Product teams can look into typical customer complaints and even get involved to make clear what users want.

By paying attention to what your customers are saying, you can find product opportunities by establishing an online community, which is another benefit. Consider it a devoted, continuing market research organisation!

#2 Give customers a sense of belonging with your brand

Numerous platforms exist for your clients to talk about you and any problems they may be having. Consider Facebook, Instagram, and review websites like TrustPilot or Google… However, not every platform is made equally. Online communities perform significantly better when it comes to making people feel heard and valued.

Consider the graph below, for instance. Users claimed that, compared to social media, online community forums are places where they may engage in more meaningful talks and feel valued. Despite the fact that there is a lot happening on social media, consumers feel less visible to marketers.

In the end, a forum should be a secure place where members of your audience, whether they be clients, staff members, or fans, may interact and ask and receive answers to questions. People are more inclined to participate in your forum and eventually engage with your brand if they feel at ease there.

#3 Streamline customer experience and journey

Your customers may access assistance, guidance, best practices, discussion, feedback, and much more in one location by using an online community forum, which acts as their preferred method of communication. Customers’ digital journeys and experiences stay consistent since they may get all the help they need from other community members.

The consumer journey has changed to be “digital-first,” making this even more crucial. Cold calling and conference rooms, which comprised the conventional sales funnel, are no longer relevant. Whether you like it or not, people will be able to locate you online.

Regardless of where consumers are in their journey, people interact with companies through a variety of platforms. Astute Chief Experience Officer Shellie Vornhagen emphasises that a customer community gathers all of your present and past customers, ambassadors, partners, and partners in one location. In order to maximise the partnership, all of your stakeholders essentially share the same interests. A potent tool for engaging and maintaining brand awareness is the customer community. Additionally, it’s the best setting for getting input, finding, and testing new ideas.

#4 Deflect 1-1 support interactions

Community forums can also serve as self-service portals by displaying FAQs and solution threads from your business together with responses from other users who are familiar with your products. These answer threads can be easily searched for and remain accessible even after the question has been answered.

You may provide customer service without expanding your crew by urging folks to visit the community forums. One-to-one assistance via chat or email is substantially less effective than one-to-many support (with one solution supporting many customers).

At the same time, by making those materials accessible to the public, you’ll give potential clients the assistance they require. When your consumers assist one another by answering each other’s questions in the community forum, you know you’re on the right track.

#5 Increase brand visibility and customer acquisition

If you successfully aggregate user-generated content (UGC) from the start, community forums can develop into a self-sustaining ecosystem. Customers who participate in the forum increase the community’s visibility among their friends and relatives. They soon catch the eye of potential clients as their visibility grows. Customers that feel respected in your community are more inclined to tell their friends about your company.

The inclusion of user guides, product evaluations, or even just tales and images showing how customers use your product on a regular basis can be encouraged in community forums. A space where user-generated content is collected and shared can also increase client acquisition. UGC is actually trusted by customers 50% more than conventional content.

Making a community forum online

When developing your brand’s online community forum, be sure to follow these important procedures.

#1 Define the community forum’s purpose

Determine the purpose of your community forum first. For instance, are you creating a platform for information sharing by your customers about your brand? Or are you trying to disprove bad reviews? or characterise your fervent users? Consideration should be given to using a thriving community forum as a model. Using Freshdesk is one option if your company provides software as a service.

#2 Design the forum to accommodate your goal

Most of the time, starting from scratch can be excessively difficult. So, to make creating a community more accessible, marketers employ community software. These tools will make it simple for you to start a community that fulfils your needs and reflects your branding. Additionally, community software can be integrated with your help desk to make it easy for consumers who require individualised assistance to get in touch. When developing the community forum, don’t forget to listen to all the teams and consider the advice of all the departments to grasp your specific aims.

#3 Create community rules and assign a dedicated management team

There must be certain regulations in place for the forum to function. Making things available and public is crucial so that people are aware of what to expect. Community forums can be simple to create but difficult to maintain, so make sure your team has enough time and resources to keep your platform’s community active and healthy.

#4 Implement what your customers expect from a community forum

We’ve already emphasised how beneficial community forums can be for gathering product ideas from actual customers. Likewise, if you see comparable product issues or inquiries in your online community, don’t ignore them. Instead, note them and add them to the list of things that need to be improved.

#5 Measure the success of your community with KPIs

KPIs give you the information you need to determine if you’re on track to accomplish your community forum goals or not. By deciding in advance which metrics you should pay attention to, you can test the content you’re publishing on your forum. For instance, you might wish to monitor the sign-up rate if your online community is still in its early stages. As your community develops, you might want to monitor the effectiveness of specific posts while putting a stronger emphasis on involvement.

Three good instances of community forums

KPIs give you the information you need to determine if you’re on track to accomplish your community forum goals or not. By deciding in advance which metrics you should pay attention to, you can test the content you’re publishing on your forum. For instance, you might wish to monitor the sign-up rate if your online community is still in its early stages. As your community develops, you might want to monitor the effectiveness of specific posts while putting a stronger emphasis on involvement.

To improve client engagement, start your own community forum.

Convinced? A fantastic tool for streamlining customer service, generating useful product feedback, and improving customer support is a community forum. Setting up your own branded portal is simple with Freshworks’ community forum platform.

Why not provide your clients with a comfortable setting to do so if they are going to talk about you anyway?