We’ve been talking a lot about Human Experience ('HX') but how do we actually implement this philosophy on your HX Community?

Here are 5 practical ideas you can use with the Online Community technology - Sparq - offered by Potentiate.

1. Name Pipes

A Name Pipe enables you to automatically display a Community member’s name in a content box. Most Communities are using the Name Pipe at the start of emails e.g. “Dear Emma”, but we should consider the power of addressing someone personally in our surveys too.

It is possible to use Name Pipes in the survey itself to personalise the experience. Here are some examples:

• “Thanks for your input Emma, we’ve only got 3 more questions to go!”
• “Emma, we really value the time you’ve taken to answer our survey today.”
• “We’ve entered you into our monthly prize draw – good luck Emma!”

2. Reference what you know

You can get creative with other types of pipes too – just as long as they’re legal! It is possible to automatically display any answer to any question previously asked. When using Sparq, we recommend using Profile Variables that everyone on the community has answered. Here are some examples – bold parts indicate the pipes:

• “Emma, we know you live in NSW, what’s your favourite thing about where you live?”
• “Emma, we know you recently told us you feel dissatisfied with your recent online purchase, can you expand on why you feel that way?”
• “Emma, we know you love music and you signed up to Spotify in Jan 2020, what has your experience been like so far?”

3. Member Groups

Member Groups are located under the “Community” tab and enable you to group certain members together based on their responses to Survey Questions, Profile Variables or other imported information. One of the biggest reasons why members leave Communities is because they find the content “not relevant” to them. Consider segmenting your members into Member Groups and adjusting the content they receive. This ensures you always target members with relevant content based on what you know.

For example, if you know that certain groups love Sport, you could mention something that is happening in the sporting world and follow up with:

• “Hi Emma, You and 550 others told us you love Sport and today we’re celebrating that Australia won the cricket! Speaking of wins, we also wanted to check if our service is winning. Tell us what you really think in this week’s survey”.

There’s a fine line between pigeon-holing and personalising so avoid very specific categories, keeping it broader takes less time and avoids incorrect assumptions. Note that Member Groups can only be utilised in the Distribution tab of a survey – not in the Analyse tab.

4. Member Hub Commenting

The Member Hub is a member-facing portal where you can share back the results of studies and create your Community environment. One feature to leverage is the option to allow members to comment on your hub posts. If you want to go a step further, you can also allow members to start their own threads.

Allowing open communication between your members has its benefits because generally members love to share, it encourages transparency, and. most importantly. it cements a feeling of community. Providing your members with a space where they can interact with others who are like them could also entice prospective members.

Promote your Member Hub when recruiting for the Community and always direct members to this channel at the end of surveys or in newsletters.

5. Member Support Emails

As part of your service with Potentiate we will be handling all Member emails. Occasionally we’ll get an email from a member that is non-community related. It’s easy to respond with a canned response when a member writes in asking about that new product you launched, but humans are not tinned tomatoes.  Taking that extra bit of time to respond thoughtfully shows members there are real humans behind this initiative. If canned responses do need to be used (for repeatable queries) find a way to edit the tone and make them more personable. Some examples:

• “Forgot your password? Oops! It happens to the best of us. Here’s how you can easily reset your password so we can get you back in asap!”
• “It’s the weekend and although we’re excited to get back to you on your query, our team are probably putting a few shrimps on the barbie right now. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can when we get back in the office at 9am on Monday. Thanks for your patience!”
• “We’re sad to hear you are looking to leave us. We’ll miss you! Is there anything you want to tell us before the break-up? We’d love your feedback on your experience with us before you unsubscribe here: xxx”

In summary

Whilst these are some helpful hacks for implementing HX using the Sparq platform, the key to being human-centric is really about considering every aspect of your member’s experience and conducting research that pays respect to both the business objectives as well as the humans involved.

What about your tips? I’ve shared five ideas, but I’d love to hear from you on what approaches you’ve tried! Email me at emma.clark@potentiate.com

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