find your advocates- sanjay dholakia lithium
TRANSCRIPT
Find Your Advocates, Drive Tangible Returns with Customer CommunitiesSanjay Dholakia, Chief Marketing Officer, Lithium Technologies
Online Marketing Summit, San Francisco, June 25, 2009
Lithium Technologies 140 customers 200 communities
20MM registered users 100MM posts last year
3B user sessions last year 1B page views/month
To Reach the Edge, Build a Stronger Core
Three Reasons Companies Create Communities
41% increase in purchases by customers who visit community
Increase Sales
$10MM savings from 1.4MM calls deflected annually
Reduce CostsYour
Customers
Innovate
Promote
Support300% increase in beta program participation.
Accelerate Innovation
FICO
http://www.lithium.com/media/customer/casestudy/Lithium-Fair-Isaac-Case-Study___.pdf
The FICO score is the world’s most-used credit score.
FICO scores are used in 3 out of 4 mortgage originations in the U.S.
FICO has sold more than 100 billion scores to date.
FICO Forums
The FICO Forums launched in March 2007.
850,000 members have used the forums since then.
35% growth in usage month-on-month since launch.
Accomplishes FICO’s educational mission.
41% increase in purchases by forum users.
Some Rules of Thumb for Forums
90-9-1
30-10-10
5-10
At any given time, 90% of users browse, 9% contribute casually, and 1% contribute frequently.
Within a 30-day period, 10% of the people who see an invitation to community will come, and 10% of those will post.
An average of 5-10 posts per day per forum or more is the point at which communities begin to grow consistently.
FutureShop
Canada’s largest retailer of consumer electronics with over 131 stores from coast to coast.
Owned by BestBuy.
10,000 employees and $2 billion sales annually.
Known for innovation and for satisfying the most demanding “techno-geeks.”
FutureShop Community
FutureShop launched two communities (French and English) in June 2007.
Includes blogs, forums, live events, and other features.
80,000 members, more than 150,000 contributions.
Won $1MM BestBuy Chairman’s Innovation Award, 2008.
Three Ways to Go Wrong
Promotion
Structure
Superusers
Failing to properly promote the community is the #1 reason communities fail.
Getting the topical structure wrong is the second most common failing.
Finally, all that won’t matter if you can’t attract and keep those highly active users – some of whom are your customer advocates!
Comcast
The largest provider of cable television and Internet services in the U.S., with 24 million subscribers.
Long suffering from a reputation for poor customer services.
Subject of detractor sites like Comcastsucks.com
Comcast Help & Support Forums
Comcast introduced support forums in 2006.
A recent redesign makes solution-providing customers the “stars” of the community.
Millions of customers have used the community, and usage has more than doubled in the past year.
Comcastcares
Comcast introduced the Comcastcares support channel on Twitter in March 2008.
More than 20,000 interactions over the past year.
Frank’s work has garnered coverage from Businessweek, New York Times, and the Boston Globe.
Why Idea Engines Are Important
Actionable Analytics Are Key
Real-Time Data Matters Too
Combining Web Analytics with Community Analytics
Real, Quantifiable Returns
Increase organic search traffic coming to the web site
For many companies, the community quickly becomes the largest generator of organic search traffic.
Improve customer satisfaction and retention Community users remain customers up to 50% longer.
Reduce costs In support, community resolutions are 90% less expensive
than direct support resolutions.
Increase word-of-mouth marketing & sales Millions of from new product innovations. Share of voice increases of 30% or more. Community users spend 40% more.
