We think community management is a crucial part of making a user-centric organization. We’ve written about the discipline a lot. We’ve created coding classes for community managers. We think community management has a big, big future.

Today is the annual Community Manager Appreciation Day, and we want to express our appreciation…and help you do the same.

Join us in having a laugh while appreciating these fine folks by sharing these cards with the important community managers in your lives! And maybe even buy them a beer. They deserve it!

Happy Community Manager Appreciation Day!

-Evan Hamilton
Head of Community, UserVoice

Last month we held our first UserConf – the conference about keeping your customers (happy). The intention? To create the conference we couldn’t find, about modern customer care.

The key word is “modern”. As you’ll see in the keynote below, the business world is changing. It’s a massive shift where actually taking care of your customers (constantly) is going to be a key differentiator for your business.

If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’re part of this new movement. Richard’s presentation is full of data backing up this new world and why we have to dive into it fully. I highly recommend watching it (and then sending it to your boss and the executive team at your company).

Bummed that you missed UserConf? Sign up to be informed about the next one!

Have thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Have more data? Let us know in the comments!

It’s done! UserConf, our first-ever conference about keeping your customers (happy) has just concluded. By the end of the conference attendees left energized and empowered to change customer service for the better. Mission accomplished. While we may not be able to relay all the positive vibes, laughs, idea-sharing and connections that took place inside the Fort Mason center last Friday, we can provide you with a sense of the heart of the event!

Our amazing speakers covered everything from marriage advice (props to Jessica Semaan for an amazing analogy) to scaling customer service to the absolute do-not’s and the best strategies. We’ll be releasing videos of each talk in the coming months, but today we’ll share three ideas that encompass the overall theme of UserConf. Here they are from the attendees themselves:

1) Customer service isn’t just an add-on, but an integral part of the product and its development

What should be clear to peeps at #userconf: Customer Care & Service are not add-ons. Customers have to be at the center of the organization.

— Brian Juanhijo (@Juanhijo) October 12, 2012

How do we make better products? Weaving in great, scalable customer service with insights gained from understanding users. #UserConf

— LaunchRock (@launchrock) October 12, 2012

“Be a good person. Be a decent human.” Crazy how we need these reminders but yes, that's the idea. #userconf

— Syd Fleischer (@SydFleischer) October 12, 2012

2) Customers are humans, not disposable income

Can't jam customers through the funnel & not care what happens to them on the other end in a subscription based model. R. White #userconf

— BritneyMSummerville (@BMSummerville) October 12, 2012

#userconf tag line: There's a human on the other end.

— Liz Morgan (@letwittimate) October 12, 2012

Love that the idea of treating humans like humans keeps getting repeated by the speakers. #userconf

— Chase Clemons (@chaseclemons) October 12, 2012

And finally, 3) Providing amazing customer service to every customer matters a whole bunch

The future is you[r users]! #userconf

— Liz Morgan (@letwittimate) October 12, 2012

Every customer engagement is an opportunity #userconf

— Erica Dean (@ericaannedean) October 12, 2012

No 1 reason for customer attrition is poor customer service, no 2 is product quality#userconf

— Amy Lindahl (@awebmistress) October 12, 2012

While there were a lot of practical lessons shared (which you’ll see in the videos), it was these three concepts that built some of the core UserConf themes and provided a foundation for lots of gnarly discussion. If people walked away with an understanding of those three concepts, we think we’ve done our job. Huge thanks to everyone who came, our speakers, and our sponsors. We also just uploaded all the photos to Facebook and think that you’ll get a kick out of them.

If you missed out this year, it’s totally cool – we’ve already decided that we’ll be doing it again next year! It’s up to you to tell us where you want it! Let us know here. And if you’re still wondering what UserConf is all about, it’s kind of like this:

At #userconf! It's like your tech conference, but with more feelings.

— Joans (@joanofdark) October 12, 2012

Everyone loves a random act of kindness. A stranger holding the door open for you. A young man helping an old woman cross the street. Extra marshmallows in our hot chocolate. But how often do we consider performing these random acts of kindness for our customers?

This morning I went to The Chai Cart. I go twice a week (I’d go more, but I'm watching my caffeine intake). The cart sells serious chai. Not this Starbucks super-sweet, slightly-spicy stuff. This chai has kick. It burns a little bit. It’s like the chai I grew up drinking at the Buddhist temple.

The folks at this cart are always nice, despite the fact that they’re out in the elements for hours at a time. Today, the woman behind the cart said: “One large chai? Alright, that’ll be 50c off today.”

Surprised, I waited a moment for the pitch. “…if you buy two.” “…if you refer a friend.” “…share the news on Facebook!”

It never came, so I asked: “Why’s that?” She responded: “Oh, it’s just customer appreciation day here at the Chai Cart.” Thinking they were latching on to a specific holiday, I asked if it was customer appreciation day everywhere. “Oh, no,” she answered. “We just like to do it from time to time.”

No strings. No “deals” where you end up spending more money than you intended. No “you only get this discount if you like us on Facebook and specifically ask for it”. Simply an act of kindness. I love The Chai Cart, but now I love them even more.

We talked a few weeks back about how adding a 25c lollipop to a sandwich order delivered happiness, and here’s example number two.

When was the last time you did something randomly generous for your customers? We suggest giving it a try (and letting us know how it goes)!

You hear about awesome entrepreneurs are the time. After all, they created something. Same for designers. Developers, sometimes. And Marketing folks love to toot their own horn about campaigns that have captured the minds of consumers.

So why don’t we hear about amazing customer service folks?

I suspect it’s because they’re doing great, hard, smart work that results in less noise, not more.

A developer writes the code that causes an action. A marketing manager gets someone to buy an app. But a successful customer service rep does the opposite of creating: they erase. They erase the possibility of angry tweets, of customer churn, of bad word of mouth. At the end of their day they’ve gotten rid of issues, rather than making a pile of creations. But it doesn’t mean they don’t create anything…they create happiness and loyalty, which marketers and entrepreneurs need for their projects to succeed.

And frequently, these people don’t take the time to hog the glory. They don’t shout about what they’re doing. They don’t have time to be on SXSW panels, and they don’t feel comfortable emailing the team about their work. They like to make people happy, and that’s all the thanks they think they need.

But they exist, and we think they deserve to be heard. If you’re coming to UserConf this Friday you’ll get to see a lot of them give amazing (I know, I’ve already seen them) presentations. But if you do customer service, take a second to pat yourself on the back. Maybe email your team about how many tickets your team answered last week (or pipe your customer kudos into HipChat or Campfire). Stand up tall and let people know: “I created happiness this week. What did you do?”

Photo via Bigstock.

The other day I stopped by Ike’s Lair for lunch. Someone recommend it and figured I’d give it a go. I’m pretty picky since Oakland has some great food, so I entered the shop with skepticism.

It’s a cute place…they have bright colors, retro lunchboxes on the wall, and the sandwiches have clever names like “Spiffy Tiffy”.

I ordered my sandwich (actually, they were out of the first one I requested) and then waited. A while. It was 2, but somehow it was packed.

Finally, they called my name and I went to pick up my sandwich. The cashier smiled, bagged my sandwich, and put in a lollipop. “Have a great day!”

These were the lollipops I grew up with – the sour apple-flavored ones covered in caramel. The ones I coveted as a kid. (They also had a box of more old-fashioned pops…maybe they give these to baby boomers?)

I don’t really eat lollipops these days, and if I wanted to I could go to the corner store and buy one for 35 cents.

But that little act, that 35c cost, brought me happiness. Why? Because I got a prize. I got a bonus. I got a nice gesture, where normally I get a bunch of plastic utensils I don’t need.

You know what? I don’t entirely remember how good the sandwich tasted. It was pretty good. And the lollipop wasn’t really all that tasty. What I do remember is how I was treated. I’ll be back to try more of their sandwiches.

Sometimes, delighting your customers can be cheap and easy. How can you spend 35c to create a return customer?

I don't know if you've heard, but webcomic superhero The Oatmeal just got his fans to raise over $1,000,000 to build a museum dedicated to the scientist Nikola Tesla.

It's an incredibly impressive accomplishment. But my eyes latched onto something The Oatmeal said in his FAQ about the fundraiser.

It's in the fine print, but this line means everything to me:

You want to talk about customer service ROI? Because they gave him a wonderful customer service experience with his first project, Indigogo has now made an additional $45,540.44 (4% of the total raised) from The Oatmeal.

I suspect that was well worth the cost of spending a few hours making sure he got great customer service.

This weekend I went to the Cazadero family camp in the Russian River Valley. It’s a pretty fantastic place. Families spend a week at this camp. There are many music, arts, dance, and theatre classes. Kids can take one class while their parents take another, so everybody gets what they want. At the end of the week various classes perform for a packed amphitheater. People are fanatical about it. My girlfriend’s family has been coming for 30 years.

Between a couple of group performances on Saturday, the woman running the camp polled the audience: “How many of you attended because you saw our posters? Our website? Our ads on Google or Facebook?”

About 5 people raised their hands. (There probably a hundred people in the amphitheater.)

“That’s very telling,” she said. “Thank you.”

Where did these other 95 people come from? Recommendations. Friends telling them to go. Family telling them to go. Teachers telling them to go. The fancy ads and website that “consultants” told them to build? Not performing.

It’s not surprising. Camps are expensive and inconvenient (a whole week off) and really unpleasant if they turn out to be bad. Why would anyone decide to go to a camp based on a Facebook ad and a website?

On the other hand, referrals are incredibly powerful. If someone you trust says “it’s great, I’ve been going for 30 years”, you’re going to seriously consider going. An ad can claim “it’s worth the money” all day and nobody will believe it. If a friend who makes a similar living to you says it’s worth the money, you’re inclined to think it'll be worth it for you too.

Cazadero also happens to do a fantastic job inciting these recommendations. They don’t just provide great classes: they make these true fans feel special. They have campfires and huge performances. Everyone sleeps in the same tent cabins (including the staff). The woman in charge says hello and goodbye to every single person, and remembers them all (even me, and I was only a 2-day guest). They take a group photo at the end of the week and post it to Facebook. They go the extra mile to find the owners of items lost at camp. They put their heart and soul into it, and they have a packed camp every year.

Are your ads and website really the strongest tool at your disposal? Your loyal fans may be far more effective.

Want more? Check out the article we tweeted yesterday. And sign up for UserConf – our conference about keeping your customers happy.