Experience.
I connect excellent digital customer service, lasting improvements in customer experience and the development of healthy customer communities.
For almost 20 years, I have helped brands and businesses establish communities on social networks and their own platforms, consistently focused on customer needs. I take on roles and responsibilities across the entire programme: developing goals and strategies, clarifying ownership, coaching teams, bringing departments and partners together, taking responsibility for implementation, and leading growth and scaling.
Pulse Europe 2024
My talk: How customer communities grow beyond support through self-service, feedback and, above all, relationships. → Read the article series
Gainsight GameChanger Award 2023
At Pulse Europe 2023, I received the GameChanger Award in the “The Architect” category. The award recognised the successful development of the o2 Community from a support forum into a comprehensive customer community centred on service, products and the brand.
2015–present
From a support community to a community for service, product and brand
Telefónica Deutschland / o2 · 2015–2021 freelance consulting and co-product ownership; Community Owner since 2021.
The o2 Community is where customers help one another and share feedback on what does not work or could work better. My work connects strategic development with everyday practice: How do we enable helpful digital customer service? How do we get valuable customer feedback to the right departments? How do we give people useful knowledge and transparent information? And how does a platform become a real network that creates lasting value for customers and the business beyond service?
More about the work
The starting point: Service came first
The o2 Community launched as a support forum in 2010. When I joined in 2015, peer-to-peer help was already an important part of it. But customers were also sharing product feedback, describing everyday experiences and looking for conversations beyond individual questions. The knowledge was there. The task was to make it more systematically useful without losing sight of service.
My role: Connecting strategy with everyday practice
From 2015 to 2021, I worked as a freelance strategic consultant, co-product owner and community program manager on building and developing the platform and community programmes. Since 2021, I have had sole responsibility for the entire o2 Community.
My work includes strategic direction, developing the service and engagement model, and working across departmental boundaries. Product development, customer service, analytics, communications and technology partners bring different requirements. My role is to connect them with what customers actually experience.
What we changed
We broadened the focus beyond individual support questions to feedback and insights, product testing, sharing experiences and editorial content. Programmes and formats create opportunities for customers and departments to talk directly. Feedback only becomes truly useful when someone follows it up and can report back.
Another part of the work involves the team and engaged members. Expert programmes, coaching and community operations belong together. Customers need reasons to enjoy sharing what they know. The team needs direction and ways of working that support useful answers and personal relationships. We cannot solve every issue immediately. We can still take it seriously and explain openly what is possible.
There is also responsibility for the platform: from tendering and vendor management to strategic development with the platform provider. This includes prioritising requirements, working with the technology partner on the product roadmap and keeping an eye on operations.
Selected highlights: At Pulse Europe 2023, I received the Gainsight GameChanger Award “The Architect” for this work. In 2024, the o2 Community also received Telefónica Deutschland’s internal “Can Do Moments” innovation award.
What I take from this work
A community eases the load on customer service. But its value goes far beyond that. It reveals how customers experience products, what knowledge helps them and where a business can improve. Turning that into genuine customer centricity takes committed people who listen, take responsibility and connect the conversation with the right departments.
2020–2021
Joyn: Building a community and enabling the team behind it
ProSiebenSat.1 / Joyn · 2020–2021 · Freelance consulting, community development and coaching.
For Joyn, I advised on building a scalable digital customer service and engagement channel and supported implementation and the establishment of the platform.
More about the work
Community strategy and concept development were as much a part of the work as figuring out how it would function day to day. Which topics belong in the community? How does the team interact with people there? And what does it take to turn individual answers into a useful exchange?
My contribution
I helped build and shape the community, connecting strategic advice with practical operational solutions. I also coached the team in social media and community management.
What this work demonstrates
Building the platform, enabling the team and activating members are inseparable. Anyone developing a new community channel needs to involve all the people who will bring it to life.
2010–2015
E-Plus / BASE: Customers helping customers
E-Plus Group / BASE · 2010–2015 · Freelance Community Manager and Co-Program Manager.
Customers often know exactly how products and services behave in everyday life. They know the questions, workarounds and solutions that never made it into the manual. Making that knowledge useful to other people was central to my work for E-Plus and BASE.
More about the work
I contributed to planning, building, launching, running and developing a scalable peer-to-peer service and engagement channel. My responsibilities included leading community management, advising on and co-managing the Mobilfunkexperten programme. The work connected platform and programme development with everyday customer dialogue.
My contribution
Building the community was about enabling customers to ask questions, but also helping them find good answers, supporting the conversation as a team and giving engaged members room to share their knowledge. I built an expert programme and nurtured relationships, providing guidance and a good reason to keep taking part.
These tasks did not happen in isolation. For BASE, the work also included social media strategy consulting and the concept development and implementation of channels, campaigns and activities.
What stayed with me
The experience that people enjoy sharing their knowledge and taking responsibility continues to shape how I approach expert programmes, self-help and the way businesses work with their customers’ knowledge.
Selected other clients
2018
Ticketmaster: Strengthening the team’s customer dialogue
Ticketmaster / Live Nation · 2018 · Freelance coaching and consulting.
For Ticketmaster, I coached the team in social media and community management and provided strategic advice. The aim was to help the team engage with customers more naturally on each platform and on equal terms, both in customer service and in traditional community management.
2017–2019
Audi / aio: Connecting editorial content, social media and community
Audi / aio magazine · 2017–2019 · Freelance Social Media and Performance Management.
For Audi’s content marketing project aio, I planned, built and established the social media strategy and advertising, led community management, and coached the team in community and performance management.
2007–2014
Web development and project management
Between 2007 and 2014, I worked as a freelancer for flink Solutions on various web projects and led subprojects. For KIDDINX, I worked on the websites for Benjamin Blümchen, Bibi Blocksberg and Bibi & Tina: on concepts, project management and – depending on the project – web development, design advice and ongoing support. For Bibi & Tina, I also developed the concept for the browser game “Martinshof-Minis”. For Rainald Grebe, I supported the website relaunch and the setup of an online shop with technical and design advice.