Customer Experience Gaps Feel Like Entrapment

Customer Experience Gaps Feel Like Entrapment

I experienced my first MRI this week.

It’s a medical procedure for capturing an accurate picture of what the doctor is looking for inside of your body using magnetic resonance imaging.

It’s hell for people like me that are afraid of enclosed spaces.

You have to lie motionless while you are inserted via a mechanical bed into a giant iron tube containing super powerful magnets.

The magnets bang, buzz and whirr while the machine gets that picture.

Oh, yeah. And it takes 50 minutes.

Who knows where our fears come from – probably childhood, like everything else that seems to have no rational basis.

Whatever the source, our mind makes it real.

Your customers have similar fears. It’s the feeling of not being in control.

“What happens if this malfunctions?”

“Are you sure it will hold up to periods of peak demand?”

“Can I expect to recoup our investment when we sell it?”

Educating buyers throughout their journey with your business is a job that should not be taken lightly.

It requires a strategy that gets to the heart of what customers desire … and fear.

Had I known more about the MRI experience in advance I would have been OK, but I didn’t.

So I freaked.

It’s the not knowing that creates that feeling of entrapment.

This may sound completely irrational, but then you aren’t me.

You are also not your customer, but somehow you have to be. You have to plan the customer experience and execute it with empathy.

They have to trust you now and for years to come.

Embrace their irrational fears of entrapment because they are real to them.

Then set them free with content marketing education, meaningful website copy, newsletters and social media that solve problems that may only exist in their minds.

Help your customers do more of what they want by taking action.

And empathy is an action.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social and host of  This Old New Business podcast. He works with owners, marketers and sales teams to craft and communicate branded customer experiences that sell.

Audience Engagement: The Content Secret of The Audience of One

Audience Engagement: The Content Secret of The Audience of One

This is Episode 73 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan and Jerod Morris.

In this episode, we have a conversation with Jerod Morris, VP of Marketing for Rainmaker Digital. Jerod manages the ongoing education at Digital Commerce Institute, which is hosted on the Rainmaker platform.

He also hosts The Showrunner, The Digital Entrepreneur, and Assembly Call podcast shows.

As you would expect, Jerod knows a few things about using the digital channels to build community and audience engagement. It turns out the foundation of his approach is based on the principles of direct selling.

Trust the Fundamentals of Engagement

Early in his career, Jerod Morris found himself selling a product door-to-door. Those one-to-one selling experiences are great teachers. According to Jerod, “You learn to listen, ask a question, and patiently watch and observe to then intelligently respond.”

These fundamentals of engagement work equally well online if you adopt an ‘audience of one’ mindset. Jerod says, “The only sure way to build audience engagement is to create something that elicits the response, this is for me.”

Of the many digital communities Jerod is involved with, one that is especially interesting is the Assembly Call, a podcast and post-game show and community for Indiana University basketball fans. Its success has even surprised Jerod.

Listen to the audio to get the full story about Assembly Call, The Showrunner and more. These targeted shows prove the secret to audience engagement is creating content that is so narrowly focused, it attracts its ideal audience like magic.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the audience engagement. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

  • Jerod’s top audience engagement tip is simply helping people to feel like they belong. To do that you have to understand your audience as individuals.
  • You can learn more about Jerod and his work at Rainmaker.FM, Primility, Assembly Call, or contact him personally as [email protected].
  • For the Indiana University basketball fans out there, check out Assembly Call, which is build on the Rainmaker platform.

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About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInFacebook, and Google+

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