Cireson

It was price and an advanced search function that topped their list once Joe began his search.

“We did a ton of research, and when we reached out to some of the other vendors that we were considering, the prices were huge—I’m talking hundreds of thousands of dollars a year,” says Joe. He continues, “And so the princing offered by Higher Logic Vanilla was incredibly attractive.”

But for the price that Higher Logic Vanilla offered, Joe found that he was getting the best of everything. They had all of the must-have features that Cireson was looking for. As Joe explains, “Out of all the vendors we reached out to, Higher Logic Vanilla was the frontrunner from the get-go.”

One of the things that Joe found so compelling about Higher Logic Vanilla was its ability to customize communities to a tee. “With some of the other competitors out there, you’d be stuck with a theme where all you get is the ability to chuck your logo on [the community] and that’s it,” says Joe. He continues, “So being able to fully theme it to fit our vision helped us place [Higher Logic Vanilla] at the top of our list.”

The Launch: A Phased Approach

Once Cireson was happy with the theme and customizations of their new community, it was ready to be officially launched. Cireson chose to approach the community launch in phases, so while the community itself was up and running, it was not fully adopted by all members until later on.

“We first started by letting a thousand members in, then another thousand the next week, and so on,” says Joe. He continues, “All of our customers were really excited to see what the community had to offer, and the hype grew as more were introduced to the community.”

The phased approach turned out to be a huge success. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and Cireson was quickly able to identify and address any issues as they arose.

Ultimately, the launch was without issue.

The Launch: Community Growth Beyond Expectation

Not only that, but the community has grown into something that Joe and his team didn’t expect. The community that began as a support-based community has morphed into a hybrid community, where it’s now known as “the-go-to-place” for Cireson customers to share their knowledge and show others what they’ve done with the product.

As Joe explains, “The community grew into more than just a support community—it turned into a place where customers can show off what they’ve done with the Cireson product, how they’ve customized it and how far you can take it.” Additionally, the community has empowered customers by providing them with a platform to engage by sharing and voting on product ideas. This has allowed Cireson to focus their time and energy on developing the features that matter most to their customers.

As it turns out, the Cireson community was not only successful at addressing the immediate need to deflect support tickets, but it has also proven itself to be a long term, sustainable solution. As Joe explains, “We launched this community in 2017, and now in 2020, our community is able to maintain itself. We’ve got a few community advocates out there that help us out, and all-in-all, our community is now self-sufficient.”