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Empowering Customer Success: The Vital Role of Support and User Communities

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Empowering Customer Success: The Vital Role of Support and User Communities

Our customers are at the forefront of everything we do. From product roadmaps to website redesigns, all the way to new customer success offerings, we’re listening to our customers and constantly adapting to meet their needs.

One successful way we’ve done so is by establishing a robust user community. In this blog post, we’ll look at our Jama Software® user community, provide a sneak peek at our upcoming community migration, and showcase our new and highly-rated support site. Let’s get started!

What is a customer community and why is it significant?

A customer community is an online platform where customers can interact with each other and a company. Having a customer community is crucial for improving customer satisfaction, fostering engagement and loyalty, promoting innovation, and collecting valuable feedback. It is a vital aspect of contemporary customer experience strategies that helps companies build stronger relationships with their customers, leading to various business advantages.

How does Jama Software user community engagement strengthen the customer experience?

The primary goals of our user community are: to increase engagement with our customers and partners; strengthen the customer experience by enabling support, collaboration, learning, and feedback mechanisms; help users get the most value from the Jama Connect® platform; and foster community and partnership with the company as a whole.

Member of our online community have access to:

  • Peer Support: Jama Software’s online community provides users a platform to connect with peers who may have faced similar challenges or have expertise in specific areas. This peer-to-peer support mechanism allows users to seek advice, share best practices, and troubleshoot issues more effectively, ultimately leading to a smoother experience with the software.
  • Direct Access to Subject Matter Experts: By engaging with the online community, users can directly interact with Jama Software experts, including community managers, support staff, product managers, and consultants. This direct line of communication enables users to receive timely assistance, clarifications on features or functionalities, and insights into the product, enhancing and optimizing their understanding and usage of the software.
  • Feedback and Feature Requests: The online community is a valuable channel for users to provide feedback on their experiences with Jama Software and suggest enhancements or new features they want. By actively listening to customer feedback, Jama Software demonstrates its commitment to continuously improving its products to better meet user needs.
  • Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Jama Software’s online community allows users to access tutorials, training and onboarding documentation, and user-generated content to deepen their understanding of the software and its capabilities. By encouraging learning and knowledge sharing among users, the community fosters a culture of continuous improvement and empowers users to maximize the value they derive from Jama Software.
  • Community Events and Resources: Jama Software may organize community events such as webinars, workshops, or user forums, allowing users to engage with experts, network with peers, and gain insights into industry best practices. These events and resources enrich the user experience and foster community and belonging among Jama Software users.

RELATED: Buyer’s Guide: Selecting a Requirements Management and Traceability Solution

What content and resources are available to community members?

Our community has a mix of public and private areas. The public areas include informational pages, introductory content, and discussion forums where non-members can browse and learn about the community’s topics, values, and conversations.

However, to access all the features in our community, users must register as members and create an account to access the full range of resources and interactive components. This login requirement promotes exclusivity, community ownership, and engagement. This process ensures a balanced approach to community involvement and privacy for our customers.

Once approved, members have access to:

  • Member-Only Content: Once logged in, members typically gain access to member-only content, discussion forums, advanced features, and interactive tools that are not visible to non-members. This exclusive content may include premium resources, private discussion groups, member directories, and personalized features tailored to individual preferences.
  • Enhanced Privacy and Security: Members can feel more confident in sharing sensitive information, discussing proprietary topics, or seeking support for specific issues, knowing that their interactions are protected within a secure environment.
  • Community Building and Engagement: By combining public-facing elements with restricted access, we can introduce new people to Jama Software® and showcase the community’s value to its members. At the same time, our member-only features help to foster deeper relationships, collaboration, and engagement.

How does the company gather feedback and insights from the customer community?

We gather information through our community in a variety of ways, including:

  • Feedback Forms, Polls, and Surveys: Jama Software may periodically distribute feedback forms, polls, and surveys to its customer community to collect structured feedback on specific topics, features, or aspects of the software, services, and overall experience. These surveys may cover user experience, product satisfaction, feature requests, and overall satisfaction with support services.
  • User Groups and Advocate Programs: Jama Software may establish user groups or advisory boards comprising select customers representing different industries, use cases, and user personas. These groups provide a structured forum for in-depth discussions, collaborative problem-solving, and strategic feedback sessions, allowing Jama Software to gain deeper insights into user needs and preferences.
  • Engagement at Events and Conferences: Jama Software engages with its customer community at industry events, conferences, and user meetups, where company representatives can interact directly with users, gather feedback in person, and gain firsthand insights into customer experiences, challenges, and priorities.

How does the customer community contribute to product development and innovation?

The online customer community provides a platform for collaboration between Jama Software and its user community. This platform allows for the exchange of ideas, feedback, experimentation, and validation.

By utilizing its users’ collective intelligence and creativity, Jama Software can accelerate product innovation and deliver solutions that better meet the needs of its customers. This significantly enhances our ability to continuously innovate and stay ahead of competitors so we can provide the best possible product for our customers.

  • Feedback and Feature Requests: Community members provide valuable feedback on their experiences with the software. Their feedback includes suggestions for new features, enhancements, and improvements. We gain insights into user needs, pain points, and priorities by actively listening to the feedback shared within the community. These insights directly inform product development decisions.
  • Co-Creation and Collaboration: The community provides a collaborative environment where both users and representatives from Jama Software can work together to create solutions for everyday challenges and explore innovative ideas.
  • Beta Testing and Early Access Programs: We provide beta testing programs and early access opportunities to community members to allow them to preview and provide feedback on upcoming features, prototypes, or experimental functionalities. By involving users in testing and validation, we gain valuable insights into usability, performance, and user acceptance. These insights help us to refine and iterate on new product offerings before an official release, ensuring a better user experience for everyone.
  • Use Case Exploration and Best Practices Sharing: Our community is a platform where users share their experiences of using the software, including their use cases, workflows, and innovative approaches. Through this platform, we get a much deeper understanding of how customers use the software to address diverse challenges and achieve their goals. This insight helps develop new features and capabilities tailored to specific use cases, improving the product’s overall functionality.
  • Market Research and Trends Analysis: The community is a valuable source of market intelligence for us, providing insights into emerging trends, competition, and customer requirements. By monitoring discussions, analyzing user-generated content, and engaging with community members, we’re able to stay informed about industry developments and market demands, which helps prioritize product development initiatives and identify opportunities for innovation.
  • Customer Advocacy and Validation: Engaged Community members often advocate for Jama Software. They spread the word about the company’s products and services within their networks and endorse new features or improvements based on their positive experiences. Their advocacy and validation play a significant role in driving adoption and retention and provide valuable validation of product direction and innovation efforts.

A new community space is coming soon!

We are excited to announce that our community is undergoing a transformation. Stay tuned for exciting news as we prepare to migrate to a new and improved platform.

RELATED: Revolutionary Surgical Robotics Company, Monogram Orthopedics, Selects Jama Connect® for Its Unique Cloud Based Services and Ease of Use

In what other ways does Jama Software offer support for users of Jama Connect?

We have launched a new Support space. This new space serves as a convenient starting point for visitors to access our extensive user guide, release notes, installation information, knowledge base, and other important resources for existing users. Visitors can also easily navigate to our community space, submit a support ticket, find installation information, and more.

We are so proud to say that since its launch in November 2023, our new Support space has led to an overall 94% satisfaction rating from customers who have opened support tickets.

Recognition of Jama Software’s thorough support has also been acknowledged through the popular software and services review platform, G2®. We’re grateful to our customers for sharing their valuable feedback through G2 on their experiences using Jama Connect. The “Users Love Us” category is a testament to the value our industry-leading requirements management software brings to our customers, and especially for customers who have moved from a document-based approach to complex product, systems, or software development.

“Superb Customer Service with helpful documents, guidelines and support sessions for all Problems around the Software and furthermore the Requirement Management itself” -From review collected and hosted on G2.com, Stephan T. — Mid-Market

“Jama Connect provides a simple platform that enables little training for a user to get started and to be productive using the tool to capture requirements, design, and other program level information. Customer support is also stellar. It is nice having a human to talk to, and the responses are timely and regularly resolve open questions, and comments.” From review collected and hosted on G2.com, Verified User in Renewables & Environment — Mid-Market

RELATED: G2® Once Again Names Jama Connect® the Overall Leader for Requirements Management Software

Customer support plays a vital role in the success of any business. It is built upon empathy and efficiency, which are essential for creating outstanding experiences. To further improve our support services, we are implementing new Support space features such as a chatbot and a federated search on our updated Support website. This will allow our users to easily access information from various sources, including the Product User Guide, our online community, in addition to the Support Knowledge Base.

We are constantly striving to improve and perfect our methods, strive to provide excellence in every interaction, and continuously enhance the overall customer experience. If you are an existing customer and want to learn more, please reach out to your customer success manager or consultant. If you are not yet a client, please visit our website at jamasoftware.com. To learn more about the platform and how we can help optimize your development process.

Amanda Jennewein
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