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.
