Client-side insight teams are under more pressure than ever: do more with less, move faster and prove ROI. That’s where communities earn their keep, helping teams stay close to customers and respond at pace. And yet, as our annual survey of community buyers shows, two common frictions often show up.
Pressure to DIY
Around half of organizations running an insight community say they increasingly need to deliver projects in-house. But few client-side teams have capacity for spikes in workload, intensive qual phases or in-store fieldwork, especially when teams are small, nimble and often quant-leaning. Many community contracts lock buyers into a fixed choice – either fully serviced or entirely DIY – which removes the pressure valve to tap into extra (or expert) help.
At Researchbods we offer a fully flexible model: clients can tap into extra support on a project-by-project basis, without switching contracts or platforms.
Right here, right now
Recruiting a representative mix of customers and keeping them engaged remain top-three challenges in our survey. In an ongoing research relationship, taking part must feel rewarding and relevant. Trusted brand cues and personalized content are what make customers join up and stick around.
The challenge? Communities rarely house a single, neat audience; a media owner community might house sports fans alongside fashion fanatics. Yet many platforms force one-size-fits-all branding, leaving teams with a poor choice: dilute brand assets to create a generic look and feel or finance multiple separate communities. 
Our ex-plor platform allows for bespoke branded environments to be presented based on the member’s profile – that means the fashionista will see branding that’s true to the look and feel of the magazine they love and will only see tasks and content relevant to them.
The TL;DR? To reduce friction, opt for a community partner that offers a flexible support model and provides platform personalization.
From insight communities to agile ad hoc research, Researchbods combines human insight with smart automation to devise strategies that drive clear, sustainable growth. ex-plor is its powerful, proprietary insight community platform.