CUSTOMER.COMMUNITY

The Internet is the world's largest marketplace and provides businesses with the ability to interact with their market in a much more direct and tailored way than ever before. Customer.Community takes a new look at online communities as a source of value for both customers and businesses; it shows how to build an online "customer community" that gives customers a reason to stay loyal. Drew Banks and Kim Daus explain exactly what the customer community is and then reveal the tenets that will make it strong: sustainability, size and scalability, social connectivity, and soul. The authors show how to "communitize" commerce, build a solid base of repeat customers, and create value for the customer, and they explain how to manage a site in a cost-effective way. Customer.Community will help cultivate a mind-set to leverage the collective, untapped power of your customer base.

Drew Banks is an independent management consultant and former vice president of Community at ThirdAge Media. He has also served as director of Worldwide Performance Support and Employee Communications for SGI. Kim Daus is director of organization learning and communication at Intuit and former vice president of content and community at ThirdAge Media. Banks and Daus are co-authors (with Markos Kounalakis) of Beyond Spin: The Power of Strategic Corporate Journalism (Jossey-Bass, 2000).

Foreword: The Right Thing to Do (Scott Cook).

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: The Customer-Community.

Is Commerce Antithetical to Online Community?

Part One: Why Customer-Community?

1. The Business Case.

How Customer-Communities Advance.

Your Business Goals.

2. The Customer Case.

E-Commerce Experiences That Span.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Individual, Social, and Spiritual.

Part Two: Customer-Community Basics.

3. Twelve Principles for Building Community.

The Foundation for Strong Communities.

4. Customer-Community Profiles.

Ten Types and Thirty-Five Examples of Customer-Communities and Their Defining Characteristics.

5. Growing Your Community.

Overcoming the Inherent Challenges of Large-Scale Communities.

6. Understanding Community Bonds.

Discovering the Intrinsic Bonds Within Your Customer Base.

Part Three: Customer-Community and the Bottom Line.

7. Creating Value from Customer-Communities.

Sixteen Bottom-Line Possibilities.

8. Organizational Issues and Roles.

Aligning Strategy, Structure, Communication, and Leadership.

9. Before You Start.

Ten Questions to Help You Think Through the Issues.

Afterword: Turning Customer-Communities into Gold, Harry Potter Style (Michael Lowenstein).

Notes.

Index.

The Authors.