You have mastered the communication on your community by leading by example: Be open. Be transparent. Be accountable. Be bold. That makes it the ideal time to open your community to product reviews. Your community can become a trusted source for purchasing advice, where customers can recommend products to one another rather than relying only on company advertising.
Compared with marketing, peer-to-peer recommendations carry more weight. Research on peer-to-peer marketing explains why recommendations from people we know can influence decisions. People also trust real consumer opinions online.
If people criticize your products, you have a chance to turn their pain points into love points. The earlier article explains how to identify and act on customer experience pain points.
Support each step of the customer journey
A community can bring value at every step of the customer journey. It can create a strong first impression and connect advocates with prospective customers. It can help people trust that they are not only buying a product, but will also receive support and have ways to make the product better.
With help from the community, customers can learn how to get the most from a product and may become advocates themselves.
Invite honest product reviews
Give people a place to review your products in their own words – and leave room for experiences you would not put in a campaign. Let them ask questions, compare notes and be critical. Be clear about test products or other incentives, and respond when something needs attention. You don’t have to control every recommendation to make your community a useful place to decide.