The power of the customer to drive growth for any B2B organization increases exponentially when they connect to a community of others. In fact, many companies are building community engagement into the foundation of their customer success strategies because of the positive impact on revenue and retention. Community offers customers a self-service hub and allows organizations to tap into the wisdom of the crowd, as peers collaboratively solve problems and discover new use cases and features.
To understand why community is critical for growth, and how to implement the right strategies for your organization, we’ve got a new report, The State of Community 2024. Created to offer benchmarks for companies across industries, the guide also provides tactical advice for reaching new goals in 2025 and beyond.
Want a preview of the insights you can find inside? You’ve come to the right place.
Takeaway 1: Community Is a Top Priority for B2B SaaS Companies
The first major learning from the report showed that 70% of organizations already have a community presence. More encouraging, of the 30% who don’t currently have a community presence, about two-thirds plan to implement one in the future.
Widespread adoption shows that not only are companies excited about what community adds for their customers, but they also see the business case for continuing to invest in it. What’s more, companies of all sizes are investing in community. It’s not just enterprise companies with extra resources. Smaller companies are betting on community strategies to ensure sustained growth.
Takeaway 2: Community Is for Everyone
Another encouraging finding in the report highlighted how many departments are involved in community programs. Customer success stays involved across organizations of all sizes, but some carve out community teams, or lean on marketing teams to execute community strategies.
In terms of scaling community engagement, companies also bring in sales and product teams, professional services, and support, among others. It makes sense that scaling community programs includes cross-functional efforts. The value of an engaged community is everyone helping each other reach their goals. Those companies that mirror the same spirit in their community programs seem to see better results across all major metrics.
Takeaway 3: Customer Retention Is Heavily Impacted by Community
Customer retention is one of the biggest drivers of any company’s bottom line. Everything from revenue expansion to new customer onboarding is more effective when companies engage their existing customers. It’s also easier to keep your customer base with an engaged community. So, it was no surprise for the report to show that customer retention was listed as the top lagging indicator of community success.
What this tells us is maturing and expanding community programs helps customer success teams ensure customer retention. Perhaps more importantly, it does so without requiring extra hours from CSMs. Automated workflows and conversations between customers can keep customers engaged at all times without putting a further strain on your company’s workforce. It’s a powerful self-service strategy that provides a way for customers to get help without consuming internal resource. In other words, investing in community is a win for everyone.
Takeaway 4: Education Is the Core of Successful Communities
Finally, the report showed that learning is at the core of community efforts. 73% of companies indicated that peer-to-peer support and communication was the top priority, just behind knowledge sharing and education, which was the top objective for 74% of companies surveyed.
Interestingly, product feedback and ideation was the top priority for 54% of companies survived, indicating that we are all moving into a more advanced kind of community. Rather than simply serving to help customers get answers they need, communities are also serving the companies with direct lines of feedback. The value of direct customer conversations about product features, training programs, and use cases cannot be overstated. Optimizing all of these will have a tremendous impact on revenue and growth.
Get Your Copy of The State of Community 2024
The value and impact of community programs continues to develop every year. If we learned anything from this year’s State of Community, it’s that we are all on the cusp of learning what else is possible when we invest in our customers and community.
If you’d like to learn more, download your copy of The State of Community 2024 now!
