If you’re reading this, you probably work in research or marketing. But I’m sure you’ll also have experiences as a customer of other brands that may have left you frustrated. That’s the experience I want to focus on today – especially if you have felt a lack of ways to voice your opinions and feedback. Or when your needs have been ignored. You’re not alone. It happens to us all. But it doesn’t have to be something that your customers feel.
That's where Customer Salience comes in. Customer Salience refers to the extent to which customers are actively brought to mind by managers when decisions are being made. In other words, it’s not just about collecting feedback - it’s about ensuring customer voices meaningfully influence what happens next.
Online communities offer a powerful way to embed customer salience into everyday decision-making. When designed well, they create space for customers to be heard, understood and taken seriously over time. In the rest of this article, we’ll explore how customer salience principles can be applied to online communities to build trust, foster belonging, and generate insight that truly informs the business.
See the Person Behind the Customer
Let’s start by thinking about how you can design your insight community around members rather than around the brand. Of course, it’s important to have a brand presence across the community, but don’t forget to create a space that individuals (beyond their identities of customers) will enjoy. In short, it should be a space that you would also engage with and enjoy.
Similarly, it’s imperative not to view customers as a homogenous group or personas. Every member is an individual with different life situations, beliefs, ideas and opinions. Generate a sense of security and belonging by allowing customers to have their own identity.
That all sounds nice in theory. But you’re probably wondering right now how this can be achieved. Let’s take a look at some practical advice:
- There should be a variety of opportunities for customers to freely voice their opinions and interact with other customers in open discussion. Think welcoming, friendly, and open – if individuals feel reassured, they will be more likely to connect with the community and share their honest opinions.
- Ensure there are a wide range of activities available that suit different people. Quick surveys and polls offer quick (often fun) activities, whilst online discussion boards and longer research projects give individuals something more substantial to take part in.
- Encourage a fun community feel. For example, incorporate a points system, whereby members can earn varying amounts of points for different activities, allowing them to climb the community ladder to earn status bands. Plus, a member’s area with a leaderboard will bring a real competitive spirit!
- Whilst fun elements are important to encourage participation, customers should be taken seriously. That means their input should shape outcomes in the business (and they should know about this, think about the feedback loop!)
- Bring in online video tools, and specialised programmes such as a Close Connections programme
- Encourage a sense of identity. That means incorporating member profiles, bringing segments to life, and ensure that they are visible to decision-makers. For example, surfacing member details and summaries when their usernames are hovered over in online discussions is a small UI consideration that can really bring individuals to life.
- Remember, moderators should also be seen as humans rather than robots. If you’re moderating a community: introduce yourself, have a bio, be active in forums… and listen. It’s this kind of human interaction that makes customers feel valued and listened to.
Patience is a (Community) Virtue
Often, long-term research projects are overlooked in favour of quick, agile projects. But whilst this may resolve brand questions, it doesn’t contribute to customer understanding. Tracking opinions over time provides the added benefit of being able to spot changes in consumer sentiment and perspectives – on diverse topics such as the financial climate, the current state of national affairs, the environment, and preferences that drive decision making.
It’s also worth remembering that customer understanding requires trust. And trust does not come instantly. There may be an element of it from the outset, for instance when there is brand loyalty, but the real trust in the community will develop over time. When this happens, customers are more likely to open up and express their real opinions and concerns. If customers feel they have built up a good online profile and presence in the community, they will find it easier to express their opinions and feel validated.
As well as time, it’s not always about the volume of customers in an online community, either. It’s about the depth of insight that is generated, via the tools that are used. For example, video clips may be collected from a much smaller sample of members, but it will provide real-time, emotional cues via body language, often with stakeholders present in the background.
Getting the Word Out
Make it your mission to ensure that everyone in the business should know about the community. Make a point to post on a shared company message board, promoting the purpose, the benefits, and the ‘how to get involved’. The word will quickly get out that the community is a place to gather real time, valuable insights.
Encourage people across the business and decision-makers to get involved. There are many ways they can do this - such as providing a fresh perspective from a different area of the business, sending in ideas for quick polls, surveys, and much more. Ensure to spread the word if you are running an online video session… as you may be surprised how many people want to get involved and watch the session live, or watch it back. The live element has the added benefit of being able to discuss with other colleagues and stakeholders in the moment, and feedback to the session host.
Whilst customer feedback is important, why not host a session with colleagues and stakeholders? Walk them through the community, capture their interest early on. Why not run a regular, drop in ‘What’s been happening in the community?’ session, to update colleagues and stakeholders on recent topics, findings, with an open section for suggestions and ideas for ‘coming soon’ topics?
Be Creative, Be Bold, Be Vibrant
Where there is creativity, there is storytelling. This connection is well established in education, where storytelling supports learning by developing language, critical thinking and imaginative exploration. The same principle applies to market research. The strongest emotional insights often emerge through stories rooted in vivid, memorable experiences. When customers are given space to tell their own stories, they communicate meaning and emotion that structured questions alone can’t capture.
Video is one of the most effective ways to unlock this depth. It adds a human layer to insight by revealing emotional cues such as tone of voice, facial expressions and body language. At FlexMR, our Video Close Connection programmes bring senior stakeholders face to face with customers through short, one-to-one conversations. These sessions allow decision-makers to hear authentic stories directly from consumers, creating empathy and understanding that data alone cannot deliver.
And finally… don’t be boring. Make insight engaging and worthwhile. Want to know more? In this webinar we share four creative ways we’re elevating customer insight with video, including a new approach to CX feedback surveys and customer-closeness speed-dating sessions.
Final Thoughts
People give their time to take part in insight communities. The strongest communities respect that commitment by offering engaging, rewarding experiences, and by ensuring member contributions genuinely inform business decisions. Success isn’t just about response rates. it’s about keeping members at the centre of decision-making.
In the age of AI, insight communities remain a deeply human research method and should be celebrated as such. A strong community stands out through intuitive, engaging design and principles that encourage open discussion, whether through video tools or ongoing forums. Participation can be incentivised with points and status bands, creating a sense of community without sacrificing professionalism.
Finally, take a wider view of what your community can be. Blending broader discussion topics with focused research helps build trust over time and supports deeper insight. Rather than treating your community as a product feedback forum, consider what your members genuinely want to contribute to, and design around that.
