community support case study: microsoft developers
DESCRIPTION
A case study from my time at Microsoft when we launched community support for our developer audience. Overview of our approach and learnings.TRANSCRIPT
A Case Study: Microsoft Community Support
Dustin JohnsonPrincipal at Ant’s Eye View
Our Story Begins in the Summer of 2006 with a Realization…
90% of the investment helped 1% of the customers
Also, Developers Don’t Want to Use the Phone…
…But They Love the Forums
So, What Did We Do?
#1: We Dove In and Learned on the Fly
#2: We Created a Brand New Team
Photo Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shanghai_Pudong.jpg
#3: We Kept The MVPs Happy
Photo Credit: www.flickr.com/people/vividbreeze/
#4: We Sold, and Resold, and Resold
Photo Credit: www.flickr.com/people/obo-bobolina/
What Was The Impact?
+ 10M Page views+ 1M New Users+ 10k Answers+ 44% Answer Rate+ 100% Answers from Community
International English
Simplified Chinese
Expansion!
What does this all mean to you?
Customers Are Here
Companies Have Invested In Contact Centers
Knowledge Base
+
Integrating the Cloud is 10% Technology, 90% People and Processes
Knowledge Base
1. Agility2. Resources3. Vision4. Operations
Knowledge Base
Exec Measure
Ideal Exec Goal
Theme
Community Behavior
Awareness
Unique Visitors
20% of Potential Audience Visit The Community
Phase One: 12-18 Months
Consumption
• Content Seeding• SME Participation
Participation
Community Posts
1% of Unique Visitors Post
Phase Two: 12-18 Months
Contribution
• Reputation System• Product Integration
Maturity
Success Rate
50% Success Rate
Phase Three: 12-18 Months
Champion
• Influencer Outreach and Engagement• Broad Integration
Levers
Opportunity!
Maturity Model
• Knowledge of social web norms is helpful and hard to teach
• Ego is an incredibly powerful motivator• Traditional support tone is not as
effective as conversational tone• Business success is tied to customer
participation, so play nice
If Only I Had Known…
