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The Gist
- Powerful welcome. A warm welcome sets the right tone for new community members.
- Community strength. A supportive community enhances both CX and EX journeys.
- Belonging pays off. A sense of belonging in a community can lead to significant benefits.
Picture this … my husband and I are two weeks into living in our new home, on a quiet little street, in a very small town in North Carolina. One sunny, but cold afternoon, we received a knock on our door. Was it a new neighbor? A solicitor? An appointment we failed to remember?
No … it was a very special person who has welcomed each and every newcomer to this little town, since 1987 — a tradition she was inspired to take on, that began in Memphis, Tennessee, just 60 years prior. This warm welcome got us thinking about the importance of CX and EX journeys.
A Welcome Wagon History
A man named Thomas Briggs, from Memphis, Tennessee, was inspired by the stories of early Conestoga “welcome wagons” that would meet and greet westward travelers, providing fresh food and water for their journey. In 1928, he decided to build on this concept by working with local businesses to put a welcome basket together, which he would take to a newcomer’s home. He would then take 30 minutes to walk the newcomers through what the town had to offer, including a newcomer’s club they could join.
Fast forward to today, and there are hundreds of these all over America, all started by individuals inspired by this story.
Related Article: CX and EX: Why Focusing Only on CX Is a Bad Idea
A Letter From the Mayor
When the founder of our town’s club returned to provide our orientation to the town, she brought a basket full of items from various local businesses, walking us through each one. However, what impacted us the most was a letter from the town mayor, not only personally welcoming us, but also providing all of his contact information and encouraging us to use it. This single piece of paper is what prompted me to write this article.
CX and EX Journeys and Community Building
As a “customer” of this town, receiving such a warm welcome sets the right tone for our lives here, reaffirming our choice to move to this town. As an “employee” (custodian) of the town, she showed us a sense of pride that made us all too eager to want to belong to what is now a 900-member newcomer and alumni club. It reminded me of how powerful a community can be in supporting new CX and EX journeys.
After saying goodbye to our new friend, it dawned on me that with AI being on the forefront of customer journeys, we tend to forget how powerful a supportive community can be when the two are combined.
Related Article: How AI Is Revolutionizing the Customer Journey in 2024
Hitching Yourself to a Community Is ‘so 2010s’ … But Is It?
Back in 2011, and for the next seven years, I worked with an early-stage community software organization that believed in the power of community ideation (now known as “crowdsourcing” or “idea management”). The idea was to harness the collective knowledge of employees from different departments to solve challenges within the organization.
I have witnessed departments on two different sides of the world come up with new products we use every day. I’ve seen lower-level employees become leaders. And I’ve observed unwavering commitment and pride in the organizations they’ve worked for.
I’ve also seen customer communities thrive in ways that have helped organizations reduce the number of support tickets entered, a stronger customer advisory board (CAB) emerge, and new ideas come to life.
Simply put, there’s a lot of power in bringing people together, providing each other support, and watching your community become your organization’s cheerleaders. Yet today, communities are often overlooked in favor of journey automation, as it’s cheaper and faster to reach the CX and EX base with little effort. So, why do it, and more importantly, how do you go about it?
Creating a Sense of Belonging
Just like our small-town story above, if you’re a new employee or a new customer, there’s a lot of information and people to navigate. Having a community, whether online or not, to guide you through the first few weeks or even months, will go a long way toward that employee or customer feeling positive about “belonging” in your organization. That feeling can pay off in spades.
Related Article: CX and EX: Great CX Improves Employee Experience, Too
Getting Your Welcome Wagons Going
While I could write a dozen separate articles on how to do this well, below are the top three things to do that can get you on your way:
No. 1: Create Your ‘Welcome Wagon’ Mission Statement — Know What Kind of Community You Want to Build
These days, when we think community, we think online groups. While it’s not wrong, it’s not the only way. While we aren’t providing food and water to newcomers (unless it’s part of a welcome package), we are providing support, networking opportunities and an overall sense of belonging and identification with our brands.
Regardless of if it’s a CX or EX community you’re looking to build, the mission statement should be the same, as it should reflect the overall culture and values of your organization. What do you want your CX and EX groups to get out of the community? What do you strive to provide to your community? What does success look like for you?
Tip: Leave quantity out of this — the mission is never to serve 900 people; it’s to help as many people as you can.
No. 2: The 90-Day ‘Welcome Wagon’ Should Start Within
Building a community starts with employees first, and it’s something we often forget. Whether you hold an orientation class, assign a mentor/buddy, or have some other form of organization introduction, a community should be an extension of it. Why extension? Because communities help to extend the orientation beyond the week or so the new employee usually gets. It aids in them feeling more comfortable with all of the new processes, people and information they need to absorb. It also helps them form an identity/sense of pride with who they work for (which radiates outward to the customer base). At a minimum, they should be a part of this community for 90 days, which is long enough for them to form bonds and know their way around an organization.
Tip: Want to extend beyond 90 days? Have a separate community that allows employees to continue building on those bonds/forging new ones.
No. 3: Weaving a 90-Day ‘Welcome Wagon’ Into Your New Customer Journey
One of the best things the founder of our small-town newcomer group said to us was, “I built this group to make sure people could comfortably meet each other and form friendships, as well as help our local businesses. I never imagined it would grow to 900 people.”
Her mission is one that is easily applicable to any customer community being woven into a customer journey — bringing people together to help others. Customers need a lot of handholding in the first 90 days and a community is the perfect way to provide that. Having a place for mindshare and relationship building not only helps in reducing support tickets, but also forms and nurtures better relationships with your employees, as well as other customers and also allows for faster development of advocates. Not ready for an online undertaking? Community also means more personal interactions that should be part of your journey, such as a personal email or letter from your CEO; the assigned team member(s) for your new customer have a 90-day hand-holding program to follow; and perhaps, a newcomer care package is sent to the customer, prior to training.
Tip: Add community access and/or any of these other suggestions to “day 1 — month 3” in your journey. However, remember that these are not automated tasks — they require a human!
Related Article: Why Organizations Benefit by Embracing CX and EX Synergy
Since the Conestoga Days, Communities Haven’t Gone Anywhere
For each of us, community means something different when it comes to how it is formed and managed. There’s no magic way to make them a success, other than a passion that comes from within. While how we grow and maintain communities has become vastly different than the days of the Conestoga welcome wagon, the heart of it is still the same — people eager and excited to belong to something they believe in and/or have invested in.
For myself and my husband, we are thrilled (and proud) to belong to a community that cares so much about others. It inspires and motivates us to want to belong, just because of those 30 minutes the founder spent with us. Imagine what a full-on community program could do.
I leave you with this question, what will your CX and EX journeys and welcome wagons look like for your organization?
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