Challenge

Kronos is a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions. Tens of thousands of organizations — including half of the Fortune 1000® — and more than 40 million people in over 100 countries use Kronos every day.

In addition to having the best products on the market, Kronos prides itself on delivering the best possible customer experience. Although the company had a successful customer support portal in place, it wanted to leverage the power of the social web to deliver more sophisticated, more interactive support. To that end, the company began to investigate an online community solution that could facilitate Kronos-led support but also empower customers and partners to engage with each other.

To craft a strategy for this solution, Kronos turned to Leader Networks. As Joyce Maroney, Senior Director of Customer Marketing for Kronos, explains, “I realized we were going to need help to articulate the needs of our stakeholders and requirements for a new support platform. After speaking with Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks, I knew that she and her colleagues could provide the prudent and practical experience we were looking for.”

Solution

We worked with Kronos to deliver an ironclad community strategy. Here’s how we did it:

• Stakeholder research: We began the process by interviewing 20 senior leaders at Kronos to understand their vision for community.
• User research: Then, we conducted interviews and an online survey with customers and partners to capture their wants and needs from a Kronos support community. The survey yielded nearly 1000 responses.
• Strategy workshop: We assembled a cross-functional team – which comprised marketing, sales, support, and line of business leaders – to review the research, prioritize Kronos’ objectives, and refine the strategy. We also mapped the customer experience, assessed organizational impact, and discussed best practices.
• Business plan: We developed success metrics that aligned with business unit and corporate objectives and developed a business plan to ensure ROI.
• Conceptual wireframes: Based on our research and the findings from the workshop, we developed conceptual wireframes and use cases. As Joyce explains, “Leader Networks helped us separate the wheat from the chaff regarding what community features were most likely to matter to our stakeholders.”
• Vendor selection and ongoing support: As a final step, we helped Kronos develop an RFP for community platform vendors. Then, while building was underway, we guided the team on how to staff, govern, and market the community.

Results

With a solid strategy to guide its efforts, Kronos launched a leading-edge support community for its customers. Highlights include:

• Fast implementation: Once Kronos selected a platform vendor, it built and launched the community in less than six months. This was possible because the company had done its due diligence and had crafted a detailed plan for what it was building. According to the platform vendor, similar efforts can take upwards of a year without a strong strategy and roadmap in place.
• Rapid adoption: User adoption happened quickly and the community hit 20,000 members within six months of launch.
• Engaged users: Because the community delivers what users want, there is an active set of power users who lend their expertise and answer questions posted by other customers. Kronos has also created a customer advisory board around these users.
• Ongoing ideation: The community’s ideation capability generated 2,000 product ideas within six months. Users can share ideas, see others’ ideas, and vote on the ones they like best. Kronos’ product team can cherry pick from these interactions to enhance existing products and services and create new ones.

The Kronos community now serves as the front door to the online support experience.
“Our customers are embracing the community – and our executives are very happy with how fast we were able to launch and the rapid adoption we’ve achieved,” Joyce says. “The Leader Networks team helped us throughout this process and well beyond the end of our engagement by shaping our strategy, sharing their wisdom, and providing ongoing advice.”

Client Quote

Leader Networks operates as a true partner and has been very invested in our success. The team’s advice is rooted in reality, not theory. They were encouraging throughout our engagement, but also confident enough to rein us in when needed. Community platforms can have lots of bells and whistles that seem appealing. Leader Networks helped us focus on what our members would value the most – and that has been key to our success. – Joyce Maroney, Senior Director of Customer Marketing