Influitive vs. Higher Logic Vanilla

We have seen success with information sharing. Giving customers another way to access our resources has been a huge help for them. While we see good engagement numbers there are still some limitations to getting our advocates to complete the 'harder' challenges, like a testimonial or reference

Incentivized

For companies that want to customize almost anything and make the forum look like your site, Vanilla Forums is the one for you. Customization and automation of the data via the API with other systems is more than possible and they serve to be great as a hosting provider, dealing with all the upgrades, deployments and maintenance and threat management well. I would say they might be less turn key for a small application but the fact they have an open source community, the ability to find help and information can lower the barrier of entry for most.

Incentivized

• Allows you to create compelling and engaging challenges that help your content stand out.
• The gamification system enables a seamless rewards program that doesn't require a big manual lift.
• The data and insights are easy to access, analyze, and guide you toward your north star.

Incentivized

• Gamification: The ability to incentivise community members to get involved with ranks and badges is one of the main reasons that we purchased the tool.
• Support: The Vanilla support team are incredible, often responding to issues very late at night and proactively fixing issues as soon as they occur.
• Customisation: Vanilla can be completely styled with css allowing us to match it to the branding of the rest of our website.

Incentivized

• The Admin view is not as intuitive as the user view and the functionality just isn't as great. I wish it had almost the same layout/interface as how the customer sees it so I didn't have to constantly enter Preview mode.
• I wish there were more included integrations in the regular Influitive package.

Incentivized

• There are some features I wish Vanilla would implement that could improve ease of use in our specific community, but some of the ideas we have are not necessarily something that would benefit all of the forums that Vanilla works with.
• In the past, we've had issues with releases breaking some of our specific site features they built for us, but this has improved drastically recently.

Incentivized

Depending on the cost and new features to be added, our company might be motivated to renew the use of Influitive. However, a lot depends on the year to come and the enhancements that can better our experience and add more gamification to the platform. Adding elements that can woo our target audience.

Incentivized

Overall, Influitive is very easy to use for customers. There's a bit of a learning curve for new admins, but that's only because Influitive isn't always intuitive. The UI is confusing in certain places. I expect something to be in one place, and I find it somewhere else entirely. This is the only reason my usability rank isn't higher

Incentivized

It is very intuitive and simple to operate. Our customers immediately came up with the curve and began contributing content.

Incentivized

Yes, always available and extremely quick. The availability is 10 on 10 for sure. We also have situations where their team might not be working or on a holiday, but if we have an event, they are available and ensure smooth running. That is the beauty of having Influitive take care of you.

Incentivized

Influitive AdvocateHub interacts with Blackbaud Champions and is an on-time response system. What I mean by that is once data is entered in Influitive AdvocateHub, it is updated in real time and I can access a computer and the data is there immediately. Sometimes the rewards do not show up right away and I am under the assumption that the delay is caused by an influx of traffic.

Incentivized

If a problem can be easily addressed, Influitive Support is all over it! They're fast and always easy to work with. Some of the larger, or more unique problems, can get a little lost. I'd love to see a bit more follow-up on these more important issues, instead of me needing to reach out to find the status of a previously submitted issue. Overall, everyone at Influitive is kind and wants to help!

Incentivized

They did an amazing job transferring our content from GetSatisfaction. We had almost 100% success in the transfer of 8 years worth of content.

Incentivized

I was taught and made to show all features that could help me learn more about the platform and this was great hands-on training for me. I picked up things faster than others and did have time to create challenges and make changes while someone was around to supervise and help.

Incentivized

The training was extensive and gave me the knowledge/ skills that I needed in order to implement my advocacy program using Influitive's Advocate Hub. I also meet on a regular basis with my Customer Success Manager. My Success Manager helps give me ideas for my program and helps me ensure that it's successful. Influitive is really invested in my success. They act more like a partner than a vendor

I think some of the key insights I can put forward are all aligned to simply being organized. Make sure you have a well thoughts out plan where you have taken all factors into account. Prioritize the list of deliverables, and make sure you have all the right people alighed to assist internally & externally. If you have a well organized plan you will be set up for success.

Vanilla is great for forums, but they don't have the gamification/challenges piece that is so important toward building advocacy. I've found a similar circumstance with Salesforce communities--good if you're looking primarily for crowdsourced tech support and QA, but nothing "sticky" for really building a thriving community, or the advocacy piece

Incentivized

From a footprint standpoint, Vanilla has less technical bloat than vbulletin or InVision, and it outdoes Lithium as far as features and service go. The bloat of other services and ability to use new ways of engaging communities such as through Reactions are part of the reason Vanilla was selected. However, the features are better on a couple more seasoned platforms and more equipped to deal with issues and technical problems.

Incentivized

When I stayed using we only had a hundred or so Advocates and now we have 2100+. Pretty amazing product!

• Influitive has helped us generate hundreds of reviews on sites like G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra, which has resulted in various awards and positive placement on grid reports.
• Influitive has helped us generate dozens of case studies and hundreds of quotes that can be used in sales and marketing campaigns.
• Influitive has generated thousands of survey responses to help our product team better understand what our customers want, which has had a direct impact on our product roadmap.

Incentivized

• Increased uptime and overall speed in the forum (compared to our previous phpbb solution)
• Increased usage by users which resulted in a higher pages/session in a short amount of time

Incentivized