Lower Costs through Online

Support Communities

Telligent White Paper

Authored by Rob Howard
© 2010 Telligent. All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 1

The Value of User Generated Content 2

Online Community Types: An Introduction 3

Improve Your Customer Support Experience 4

through Online Communities

Focus on Your Influential Users 5

Measure Inside and Outside your community 5

Online Communities Provide an Appealing 6

and Measurable ROI

About Telligent 7
Lower Costs through Online Support
Communities

Organizations constantly seek innovative ways to improve customer support,

while at the same time lowering customer support costs. More and more,
departments are asked to drive growth, despite reduced headcounts and
budgets. So how can you do more with less, and faster than the competition?

Executive Summary
The information provided by your customers within your community is
immensely valuable and reusable.

Quick access to support information is vital in today’s accelerated marketplace.

And while much of that data lies in systems within the organization, it’s easy 83 percent of the Internet
to forget that some of the most valuable information lies not on the network, population (ages 13 to 54)
but in the minds of employees, partners and customers. Online user support participates in social media
communities contain a wealth of “how-to” information, alleviating the need – 47 percent on a weekly
for traditional, more time-consuming customer support services like phone basis. Between 10 and 24
and e-mail. In fact, many users go online specifically in search of answers to percent of U.S. social media
their questions. users turned to social net-
works when making various
Perceptions within social media quickly define a brand and shape the customer purchase decisions.
expectations. Social technologies enable your message to spread faster than
ever, but it also means that managing your message is more difficult than ever.
This is due in part to the fact that you no longer have complete autonomy over “How People Use Social Media,”
Knowledge Networks, May 2009
your brand message.

The ability to capture and analyze user information is a significant advantage

of hosting a branded customer community. Online communities can then be
optimized for customer satisfaction, while at the same time providing valuable
metrics, like time-to-solution and online answer rate. In addition to allowing
customers to more quickly access the information they need, it is much easier
to build a return-on-investment (ROI) model around a support community.

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 1

 Example: Microsoft Blogs

Background:
Progressive organizations use collaboration platforms to enable structured Fifteen years ago, the primary
community-driven support systems. In addition to the customer support means software engineers
objectives, these systems have the added benefits of: educated themselves about
software development technol-
ogy was from books.
• Leveraging user generated content to spur innovation
• Streamlining time management among employees Today, millions use the vast
• Communicating with prospects and customers to gain market number of community resources
intelligence provided by Microsoft, including
asp.net and blogs.msdn.com, as
The motivation to invest in an online user support community is clear. well as a number of independent
communities.
This paper will explore the value that user generated content provides
Facts:
support organizations, the advantages of online support communities • More often than not, the per-
and how to best monitor performance and ROI. son that created the technol-
ogy is one of the more than
8,500 bloggers on Microsoft’s
The Value of User Generated Content blogs.msdn.com managed
community.
User generated content is knowledge shared by customers, partners, and • Nearly all of the content
employees, created of their own volition. It is content that the organization did created on Microsoft’s techni-
not necessarily commission the creation of. This information is invaluable to cal blogging community’s user
an organization, especially one that is running a managed online community. generated content is not
written by a technical writer,
This content can be collected and developed into a searchable knowledge but by the software engineer
base – an opportunity that is certainly a great advantage and also improves that worked on the specific
feature.
search engine optimization (SEO). Leveraging the power of the masses is a
valuable tool for organizations. In essence, user generated content helps
customers help each other. In addition, peer-to-peer assistance increases the
level of customer satisfaction.

Users who contribute product reviews or post messages visit sites

nine times as often as non-contributors do – and contributors make
purchases nearly twice as often. (McKinsey & Co./Jupiter Media Metrix
study, January 2002)

In online user communities, one of the greatest values is identifying members

of the community, typically from the customer base, that will participate in
the community and provide answers to questions without any expectation
of compensation. Because most customers know the product better than the
employees supporting it, this feedback and insight is immensely valuable.

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 2

Online Community Types: An Introduction
An online user community is a collection of people with a common set of
interests that come together and interact through a set of collaboration tools.
These tools typically include user profiles, blogs, forums, wikis, comments,
and ratings. An example of a well-known user community is the Amazon.com
community of readers that methodically reviews, rates, and comments on
books. Another example is Wikipedia.org, where users collaborate to create
online encyclopedia entries.

Online user communities can generally be organized into three categories:

Managed Communities Participant Communities Observer Communities

Web properties that Take advantage of existing Communities that
an organization has public community-building organizations may
created for the purpose tools. Organizations can participate in, but have
of providing a community create their own sub- been created by customers
for its users, fans, or communities, which they or users.
customers; typically include can manage, but do not
forums, blogs, wikis, and necessarily own. Include any communities
other community tools. that are created and
Typically include public actively managed
Provided through a vendor, social media communities by customers. The
such as Telligent, to enable such as Facebook.com, organization has virtually
an organization to provide Twitter.com, and no control over the A 2009 Nielsen report
its own community for YouTube.com. content. states that nearly one out
users. of every 11 minutes spent
online is spent in a member
community.
Some organizations choose to believe that not investing in an online
community insulates them from potential negative customer feedback or
discussions. The unfortunate truth is that those conversations still take place “Global Faces and Networked Places,”
Nielsen, March 2009
in third-party communities, and then the organization does not have the
benefit of participation.

Today conversations about your brand are everywhere – and everyone, from
your customers to your partners, has a voice. The largest benefit of a managed
community is the ability to analyze the content, discussions, and users to
better discern customer struggles and successes.

There is a high level of commitment required to effectively leverage a managed

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 3

 Example: Texas Instruments
E2E Community
community. Cross-collaboration is essential, and this includes cooperation
Background:
from senior-level executives. However, if there is dedication to the community, Texas Instruments created its
your organization will be able to quantitatively prove value in a way that is E2E (Engineer to Engineer)
difficult with any other format. Community, where engineers
connect with one another,
providing support and product
Improve Your Customer Support Experience knowledge. E2E creates value
by connecting customers to
through Online Communities TI engineers as well as other
customers. Because TI’s products
are used in a wide variety of
An online support community is a managed community focused on helping ways, other engineers can often
customers with specific product or service issues. A group of people shares be more knowledgeable than TI
best practices and knowledge about the product or service, supported by engineers, and the most active
blogs and forums. E2E users are non-TI engineers.

Peer support has greater credibility to customers seeking support, so the Facts:
perception of satisfaction is higher when customer receives support from • Customers that would tradi-
tionally have been limited to
another customer than from a support representative. A recent study showed
more time-consuming meth-
that 77 percent of people trust friends, family, and other consumers above ods like phone and e-mail now
retailers and manufacturers. (“Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth by have instant access to the
Recruiting an Army of Brand Evangelists,” Aberdeen, November 2008) information they need.

In addition, other customers who have used a product or service may be able • As E2E grows, TI has found
to better answer questions than support personnel. Because online support that more and more answers
communities are largely self-supported, staff can be reallocated. Leverage the are coming from customers,
and the community is
power of peer-to-peer support and user generated content.
becoming increasingly self-
supported.
Community users are satisfied customers, and are more likely to recommend
products to others. In addition, they buy 40 percent more than non-
community users. (“The ROI Of Online Customer Service Communities,”
Forrester, June 2009)

An increase in innovation can be spurred through support communities. In-

depth conversation about a product or service leads to new ideas. This is a
process that is not typical for customer support personnel, but common in
support communities, as customers discuss issues and solutions.

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 4

 Tips for success in building an online support community

1. Begin with a clear objective.

2. Focus on your customer’s experience, not the tools.
3. Plan carefully, but be adaptable.
4. Be proactive in reaching out to your customers.
5. Listen. Stay on top of what your customers are saying about your brand.
6. Choose your community platform wisely.
7. Recognize your community’s contributors.
8. Measure the results.

Focus on Your Influential Users

Posting a static FAQ section simply isn’t sufficient today. Consumers are
becoming savvier, and support communities must keep up. Online social
network users were three times more likely to trust their peers’
opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions. (“Social
Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Example: SolarWinds
Landscape,” JupiterResearch, March 2007)
Background:
The best way to leverage essential peer-to-peer support in a community is With nearly 38,000 members,
the SolarWinds community is
to attract a group of “super-users.” These community members will answer
built around the company’s core
complicated questions that the organization itself cannot. Community belief in direct dialogue with
members will turn to these users repeatedly, fostering relationships with customers. SolarWinds actively
them. As a general rule, a community should attempt to build a minimum of seeks out and identifies the most
10 influential users. influential users in the commu-
nity, recognizing them for their
Seeking out these influential users requires focused monitoring of your online contributions.
community. Social analytics will tell you who is in your community and what
Facts:
they are talking about. Drilling deep and mining data about your users will
• The company believes in in-
help you improve your customer support efficiency and prove the value of creasing engagement through
your online community. creating personal connections
with community members.

Measure Inside and Outside Your • In addition to rewards and

public recognition, influential
Community users are regularly thanked for
their participation.
Monitoring online support communities is vital. A critical part of a successful
online support community is being able to easily identify under-performing
areas. You need to identify bottlenecks and evaluate performance to improve

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 5

the support process and reduce costs. Key performance indicators like time-
to-solution, answer rates, most viewed documentation pages, and most
popular downloads provide you with actionable insights to deliver on your
business objectives. Internal analysis can provide you with more targeted Example: Microsoft Office
messaging and an enhanced sales process. Live’s Integrated Customer
Support Experience
Tracking sentiment and buzz outside of your community can help you avoid
negative mentions turning into crisis and elevate perception of service. Background:
Monitoring external sources like Twitter and Facebook and leading customers By integrating community- and
consumer-generated content,
back to your online community for answers will help you capitalize on user
effective forum moderation,
generated content. structured product content,
documentation and traditional
This is the most important step, and one that is too often simply ignored. If customer support, Microsoft
the strategy is clearly defined, then there should also be measurable Office Live’s Integrated Customer
objectives. Support Experience creates a
single destination where cus-
tomers can get answers to

Online Communities Provide an Appealing their questions.

and Measurable ROI Facts:

• Microsoft has attained sig-
nificant success metrics since
For good reason, companies want to know what advantages online launching the initiative.
communities provide to customer service over traditional interaction
channels. Customer support departments need to understand the business • In addition to increased user
justification for social media — how it will affect the customer service retention and an 80 percent
experience, as well as the bottom line. community answer rate,
overall cost of support has
decreased by more than 60
Online answer rate, which translates into call deflection, is a critical metric for percent since implementation
measuring success. Can peer-to-peer conversation answer support questions? of the community.
There is clear economic value in this information.

A community focused specifically on reducing support costs will care about

tracking the following:

• Question-answer rates – implies the ability to identify questions as well as

a workflow for managing question-answer pairs. Coupled with traditional
Web analytics such as page views, or even newer social tools that measure
how helpful content is, you can quickly build a model for rating content value.

• Deflected support call rate – is the most obvious metric when it comes
to determining the ROI from a customer-driven support community.
Deflected support calls can be easily quantified and measured based on call

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 6

 volume and per-incident cost. Any support metric should also be inclusive
of other forms of support ticketing systems, including customer inquiries
or traditional support tickets created through e-mail. Assigning a cost per
ticket can be as straightforward as calculating the total support cost to the
organization (personnel, overhead, etc.), divided by the number of tickets.

• Recurring agent salaries – are the most expensive cost of call centers.
Online support communities reduce call volume by allowing people to go
online to find their own answers. Not only is self-service stimulated among
community members, but also among agents, increasing productivity.
Agents are able to leverage user generated content to answer questions
with more speed and accuracy, forgoing time-consuming e-mail chains.

Online support communities enhance customer experience and reduce costs.

Not only do online communities provide metrics like time-to-solution and online
answer rate, but leveraging peer-to-peer conversation renders immensely
valuable user generated content that can be captured and used countless times.
In addition, because people generally trust their peers, they come away with an
overall satisfying experience.

Rob Howard is the founder and CTO of Telligent. He is the vision behind
the company’s product development and innovation and is known
throughout the industry as an authority in community and collaboration
software. An expert at developing enterprise collaboration software, he Corporate Headquarters
has authored several books on the topic of software development and 17950 Preston Rd., Suite 310
Dallas, Texas 75252
speaks at conferences worldwide on the topics of social computing and +1 (877) 492-9484
software development.

About Telligent International Headquarters

271 Regent Street,
London, W1B 2ES
Telligent is an enterprise collaboration and community software company.
+44 203 178 3010
The company’s fully-integrated platform and portfolio of applications
transform how organizations listen to, engage and measure interaction
with customers, partners and employees. Telligent powers collaboration www.telligent.com
for many of the world’s largest brands, including Dell, Microsoft, sales@telligent.com
Electronic Arts and Reader’s Digest.

For more information, visit www.telligent.com.

Lower Costs through Online Support Communities 7