Why Joining a User Group Might Just Save Your (Business) Life
When times are good, few people see the value of actively joining their user community. Often those that sacrifice their own and company time to lead the committee can feel they are pushing effort into a bottomless pit of apathy and derision. Even free to join user groups struggle to engage their members on a regular basis, surveying users again and again to try and understand where they are going wrong. Yet nearly every tender notice or new business bid at least enquires about the existence of a user group or wider referenceable community. Surely there must be some benefit.
If you are doubting what you might gain from giving up a few hours of your time – think again.
At the most simplistic level a user group is a form of insurance – think of it as a union that bridges the gap between yourself and the supplier, willing to moderate when things go wrong or hopefully, in the better cases, representing your views so they don’t.
Often a senior executive from the supplier side will be drafted in to sit on such committees, along with representation from other departments such as support and product development giving you a direct input into the way your software is developed and supported and, in some cases, even tested. In this case, you might be asked to give up a few days a year in order to suggest , vote or test but this is worth it especially when the group can come together to find common functionality that may be of benefit, saving the need for bespoke. Where the suggestion still results in a bespoke development, small groups of users can combine their purchasing power to take this forward.
The same can be said of training – users can band together to run specific training courses based on their geography for example – making certain non open courses within the reach of even the most modest pockets. Or given the inclination they can attend user groups events and workshops where they can swap hints and tips with both their supplier experts and with each other. Ever wondered just how to customise that particular screen or how to speed up that report ? Your local user community may have the answer and currently it may also be on-line.
Many companies, sensitive to the need of their clients needs to keep down travel time and costs have put the benefits of the community on-line providing forums, where you can subscribe and keep in touch with the questions and answers from other users. It is also possible to contact people with regard to their experiences of things such as upgrades and new software roll outs. Most importantly, as well as telling you how to do something, the best user groups question why. By comparing your processes to those of others you may see your options in a completely different light.
Whilst this may seem very worthwhile to the average user – how do you convince your manager that time spent on User Group activities are worthwhile? Many people are suffering from “look busy syndrome” – worried their organisation is looking to reduce headcount – starting with those that are not stapled to their desks. Other worry that by admitting they don’t know the answer they are putting themselves, literally, in the firing line. In my work with our various user groups over the last 10 years it has not been uncommon for me to hear things such as “Just coming here today helped me understand something that I have been trying to do for months “. Or “I am so glad someone else needs that explained – I though it was just me”. My all time favourite comments though, are those that really quantify the benefits such as “By knowing that I have saved myself an hour a week”.
Many of the user-led sessions also qualify for CPD credits and when you consider the average person spends upwards of £600 per year maintaing these, then there is also a tangible financial gain.
So, attending a user group equates to insurance, an executive ear, a voice in the day-to-day way the supplier interacts with you and free training (including professional development credits). If all that fails to convince you of the importance of attending a user group, consider this – it will give you and your business an extended contacts network which is invaluable in selling your services and yourself.
Tags: business, community, usergroups