Carly Buxton, PhD

One of the CX challenges we’ve emphasized and explored at my own startup is how to compensate for the loss of the tactile, physical expressions of belonging amid a 100% digital customer journey.

In the age of virtual support, digital deliveries, apps, and online communities, we often don’t even stop to consider what we might do physically to enhance our users’ sense of belonging, of being part of a whole. Belonging supports brand loyalty and customer satisfaction, and belonging is harder to cultivate when the experience is totally digital.

Here are some effective ways we’ve used to boost belonging and community for in online work:

•   Offer branded swag: a water bottle, a sweatband, something high-quality and keep-worthy with your logo or company name: branded objects subliminally increase feelings of belonging and community for clients.

•   In-person meetings or pop-ups: consider beknighting some representatives and disciples in key regions. Could they hold in-person popups? If you are planning a visit somewhere yourself, could you offer something simple? Opportunities to offer spaces for your clients to feel the presence of other people, and to connect with others who are going through what they are going through. Consider an annual conference, destination retreat, or monthly on-brand meet-up open to all virtual clients.

•   Send physical packages or letters as tangible reminders that you are thinking of your clients. For a time, when new experts joined Nessle, we sent each one a postcard in the mail, printed with our co-founder headshots and QR codes that would help them book a direct meeting with us, and signed by hand. As our user base grew, we stopped sending these out, mostly because we didn’t have a process in place for inking so many (and paying for each stamp), but I’d like to get back to it.

•   Craft mentorship opportunities. One of the greatest losses, I think, about online community is that it’s harder to build mentor-mentee relationships. The sort of advisor-advisee relationships that grow organically via “hallway talk” in an office building, in a classroom setting, or when attending regular meetings in person. This means that you’ll have to be a bit more heavy-handed about creating them with your virtual communities. We’ve experimented with opt-in mentor/mentee groups and “accountability buddy” partnerships, both of which had a very positive reception by our user base.

•   Design ritual(s). For my doctoral dissertation, I studied mind control (and “brainwashing”) in wartime Japan. I was fascinated by the government’s use of ritual—and in particular simultaneous ritual practices—to underscore the theme of belonging and membership in the Japanese empire. When residents across Japanese territories all read the Imperial Rescript on the 8^th of each month, they were participating in a reinforcement of the myth of collective membership. I’m definitely not admiring Japanese imperialism here, but there is a takeaway that can be powerful for dispersed communities: establish something you all do at the same predictable time of the day, week, month, or year. Engaging in a shared, timed practice—like pausing for gratitude at 11:11 each day or something like that—underscores bonds of membership.