It is in the difficult times when we see the best in people and the best in community.
For over ten years, Alida has been working on building insight communities allowing our customers to learn more about their customers and how to improve the relationship they create with them. Now that we face difficult times, there is also an opportunity to use your insight community to build community, help strengthen the social tissue, and offer a supportive space to navigate the crisis.
During the following weeks and until there is a change in this juncture, consider the following when interacting with your community members.
Member Communications
In challenging times, communications with your members may become a critical point to strengthen the relationship with them. Make sure to use all your contacts in a constructive way that allows customers to see the value that you offer.
- Use a positive language in all communications, encouraging a positive reaction to the difficult times—e.g., “Hang in there, we will get through this!” or “We are here to support you in the difficult times.”
- Provide actionable tips to help them face the crisis from your business perspective.
- Share encouraging quotes from your executive team about how your company is facing the crisis and looking to support your customers.
Support Activities
Your insight community offers a unique space to create community with and for your customers, making sure that they feel supported by their product and service providers when facing challenges. Develop activities that encourage members to stay active and engaged with other people.
- Create an open forum to communicate amongst each other perceptions about the crisis and what they expect from you in the difficult times.
- Use your hub to develop challenges that keep your members active—e.g., fitness challenge, reading challenge, and picture sharing.
- Ask members to share those images or pictures if situations that impacted them since the COVID-19 started developing on a survey or forum. Build a hub post to share these images and gather members' opinions.
Social Responsibility
Reaffirm your involvement with initiatives that have a positive impact on the community, creating opportunities to stay involved in social responsibility projects.
- Identify local projects in areas where you have a concentration of your members and get as engaged as possible, sharing the impact of the advance of these projects on your insight community.
- Use your insight community as an outreach tool to reduce the impact of the health crisis by exploring relevant health prevention content that makes sense to share on your hub.
- Stimulate members to get engaged with local initiatives to react as a community to the crisis for the benefit of those more vulnerable.
Keep in mind that community engagement and member participation may drop over the following weeks, but your clients will never forget any effort you put into making their difficult times easier.
