This Accounting Automation Solution Increased NPS by 14 Points with Community
Created by accountants for accountants, this solution is a leading provider of accounting workflow automation. The product helps to streamline and automate common accounting workflows to make them more efficient.
The
Challenges
As a rapidly growing business the solution was struggling to scale their customer communications. In early 2021, they realized the need for a community to help them not only enable their customers to interact with each other, but to continue their professional growth.
The
Search
They wanted a community software that could help them to drive engagement, streamline product rollouts, and the ability to create a customizable, personalized experience for their customers.
The
Launch
The team wanted to ensure that their customer base was comfortable using this new platform. The potential membership was not familiar with community, so they were determined to launch a user friendly, fun community of value.
The
Results
They ultimately made a great decision in building a community; the Vanilla–powered community can be directly thanked in contributing to increasing NPS by 14 points and advocacy activity by 26%. It has also led to ample peer driven content with 100% of questions in the community answered.
“Our NPS was already quite high, but since we’ve implemented the community, it’s increased by 14 points.”
Community Manager
The Challenges:
Finding a User Friendly Space
In early 2021, this accounting automation solution had just raised their Series B funding and knew that it would bring about massive growth for the organization. It was paramount for them to ensure that their customers felt consistently seen and served and that they remained happy while the company grew.
They realized that they had no dedicated space for these customers and found that only having email communications just wasn’t sufficient to create a personalized experience.
Ultimately, the Community Manager wanted to offer the customers a community where they could receive company communications and news in a way that could allow for engagement and interaction.
Aside from scaling communications efforts, they also wanted to enable their customers to interact with each other, learn from one another, and continue their professional development.
They understood that in the accounting space, many people weren’t familiar with the idea of community so there was an emphasis on her end of making sure that they created a space that felt “like an extension of our brand.”
“There’s not a lot of programs like this and I really wanted them to see the value,” the community manager explained. It needed to be user friendly, and prove its worth to the membership base.
The community manager was ready to get the ball rolling on ensuring the software’s offering was perfect for their customer base.
Pain Points
Limited Customer to Customer Interaction
Customers had nowhere to meet and connect with one another. The vision was to create a space where customers could network, offer mentorship, and just interact.
No Dedication Space for Educational Content
The solution wanted to make sure the conversations, exchange of best practices and sharing of resources was centralized for their customers.
Inability to Scale Communications with Growth
Limited to email communications, the solution wanted to better personalize their communications with their customers. This was especially important as the company grew.
The Search:
Hunting for the Dream Solution
On the hunt for a community platform that could allow the solution to create a community that could not only centralize their customers and scale their communications strategy, but one that was customizable and easy to use for a membership who had little to no experience with community.
Having experience in the community space under her belt, the community manager had a good idea about which providers could help her achieve the dream community.
When they compared Vanilla with the other options they were reviewing, they found that their wish list, and then some, was available at a much more affordable rate. Vanilla offered features out-of-the-box that others either didn’t offer, or offered at an extended rate.
The price was right, the checklist was covered, and to top it off, the team was thrilled at the integration capabilities Vanilla offered.
“Having a dedicated CSM, access to thought leaders in the space, the customizable platform, and integrations for the platform” really sealed the deal for the accounting automation solution and Vanilla’s relationship.
Once the decision was made, they were ready to get the community underway and delight their members.
The Checklist
Customizability
“In the accounting space, most people aren’t familiar with community so we needed to ensure that it fit our brand and felt like an extension of our website or product. It had to be user friendly.”
Gamification
“We really wanted the space to incorporate fun and gamification features like the leaderboard, the badges, and profile fields which are awesome at creating a personalized experience.”
Improve Customer Advocacy
“We really wanted to drive more customer advocacy and also identify those customers who are maybe more quiet – they may not be the loudest but they’re definitely advocates of our brand.”
Scalable
“As the company grew, we wanted a space that could ensure our current customers were happy and looked after and a platform that could grow as we did.”
The Results:
Beyond Successful
With the help of their dedicated CSM, our client successfully launched their community. Immediately, the community saw huge interest and sign ups; though it has only been launched less than a year, they have 780 members from over 550 companies, a third of which are senior level roles and executives.
Through the community, the solution has started their Upcoming Events section where they’ve launched networking campaigns, a conference, and educational programs.
One of their networking events, had a goal of 50 sign ups but, they ended up having to cap their attendance at 100 people! They literally doubled their goal.
The accounting automation solution has successfully used community to help all departments in their organization. Product feedback was traditionally difficult to garner until they implemented the community. In just 3 days, the product team received more than 35 comments in the community that directly contributed to improving the offering.
With traditional email communications, they found engagement and feedback was low but since utilizing their community announcement feature to reveal upcoming product releases, they’ve had so many volunteers, they actually had to cap Beta testers.
26%
More Advocacy Activity
14 Point
Increase NPS
100%
Of Questions Answered
Community has massively impacted the solution’s top of funnel initiatives: 25% of online reviews came from community members.
Overall, customer feedback is super positive; the solution has improved their NPS by 14 points, up from an already above average score. “Though it’s not only because of the community, it’s absolutely contributed,” the community manager explained.
They’ve seen a huge amount of peer driven content and “We’re really proud to say we have 100% of our questions answered,” the community manager said! They have also found the community has contributed massively to their collection of customer stories and advocacy initiatives.
Since Q4 they’ve seen a 26% increase in advocacy activities – some of these are pushed by their CSMs but the community has been a huge driving force in this.
Reflecting on the Journey
The organization wanted to build a community with the goal of delighting their customers and creating a space for them to grow and advance. In the end, they did this and so much more. Their entire company has been impacted positively by the community and in terms of what more they can achieve, the future is so bright! If you’re considering starting your community, or making the move from your current provider, ensure you talk to our experts and book your demo now.
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