Everyone loves numbers. Research certainly comes in handy when making a business case or pitching an idea. Nothing makes a presentation shine more than a set of well-articulated facts and data to support an idea as the numbers help people believe that they are not alone. To that end, I have found research findings that support impact of online community for business and customer care on The Social Media Group blog and thought they might come in handy.

* Community users remain customers 50% longer than non-community users. (AT&T, 2002) •* 43% of support forum visits are in lieu of opening up a support case. (Cisco, 2004). •* Community users spend 54% more than non-community users. (EBay, 2006) •* In customer support, live interaction costs 87% more per transaction on average than forums and other web self-service options. (ASP, 2002) •* Cost per interaction in customers support averages $12 via the contact center versus $0.25 via self-service options. (Forrester, 2006) • * Community users visit nine times more often than non-community users. (McKInsey, 2000) •. * Community users have four times as many page views as non-community users. (McKInsey, 2000). •* 56% percent of online community members log in once a day or more. (Annenberg, 2007) •* Customers report good experiences in forums more than twice as often as they do via calls or mail. (Jupiter, 2006)

Now get busy making those slides 🙂
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