Customer Service vs. Community Management

There’s definitely crossover in the online business world when it comes to customer service and community management but if your business is growing fast you’ll want to be clear on the boundaries between the two – or your clients could suffer.

Most people, entrepreneurs included, are familiar with traditional customer service which may include potential clients, current and past customers as well as other stakeholders in the business. Answering a question from an affiliate partner is just as important as responding to a lead inquiring about a program.

Community management, in contrast, is the process of guiding and growing a community of followers around common interests, sometimes by bringing in additional members but also serving within the community. While this may begin very small with just a few private clients, by excelling in these two areas a larger community can flourish. 

What’s tricky for most entrepreneurs is that teams are usually small and members take on a “jack of all trades” quality, easily crossing over between functions, especially around clients.

The primary danger in this practice is that there are distinct goals to be met and if your approach is “oh, we’ll just answer questions as they come” without taking into account the goals you have then those goals may not be met.

For example, if you need to explain the benefits of a group program you might point out a resource portal, refer to a member welcome email, and point out an upcoming Q&A call. All of which you wouldn’t do if the question is coming from a lead. To the lead you’d want to describe member benefits without giving away content, describe the outcome and results of the program and begin a conversion conversation to bring them into the community.

Just knowing who you’re talking to and what access they have is tricky.

Members should have exclusive access

For established businesses with many clients or multiple programs, giving your clients access to the team either through a membership site, private group or exclusive email is a great way to begin to segment your incoming requests from “lead” and “client” or stakeholders.

It may seem unnecessarily complicated but with customer service you should always be thinking with a full practice in mind. By asking how can I scale my program when I have 10 or 100 times as many clients as I do now is a great way to build the foundation of a customer service or community management system.

It’s a sad truth that most entrepreneurs are focused on the sale – they’re great when it comes to responding to new leads and potential clients but once the sale is made they’re shuffled into the “done” pile and ignored. Even if you don’t currently have more than one offer that is no way to build and encourage a tribe of adoring fans. Build up goodwill and listen carefully to feedback from early users in order to grow your business faster and maintain a good reputation.

One of the best lessons from Michael Gerbers’ The E-Myth : Revisited is that consumers love consistency. We rely on knowing what to expect and will pick the consistent experience, because (even if it’s not the best ever) we know what we’re going to get.

Build your customer service systems to give a wonderful and consistent experience and follow it up with a strong community management system to serve on-going needs.