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This is Episode 40 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

If you are considering hosting your own live events, and even if you are not but instead want to learn new insights for planning and delivering an exceptional customer experience, then you will want to listen to this episode.

I promise this will change how you view your business and its relationship with your customers, including how to keep the customer experience fresh, how to empower your team to wow your customers, and subtle but powerful ways for letting customers know how much you appreciate them.

Our Featured Guest: Phil Mershon

Phil Mershon is the director of events for Social Media Examiner, where he oversees two signature events: Social Media Marketing World and Social Media Success Summit. Previously, Phil was a training consultant with Koch Industries, a systems analyst for Boeing, and spent over 18 years working for churches and non-profits in leadership roles. Phil is also a jazz saxophonist and songwriter.

Take Care of Your Event Customers

Phil Mershon says the success of live events comes down to caring for your paying customers, of which there are usually two classifications: attendees and sponsors.

Phil is quick to point out their needs are different. For Virginia Beach SEO, it ranges from fresh content on the right topics to accommodations and networking. Sponsors are also interested in networking. To please both groups it’s necessary to plan opportunities for having conversations with the right people in an environment conducive to meaningful conversations.

Phil acknowledges that every meeting planner wants to have everyone walk away from their event thinking, and preferably saying, it was one of the best conferences ever. To make that possibility reality, he suggests focusing on the following.

#1 – Customer Service

Take care of everyone by defining in advance that experience from beginning to end. For Social Media Marketing World, this is attention to the mental, emotional, and physcial well-being of everyone before, during, and after the event.

This starts with preparation by identifying major touchpoints, standard solutions and what is means to go above and beyond expectations.

According to Phil, a simple means for accomplshing this is to empower staff to do for a few what you wish you could do for many. You cannot possibly please everyone all of the time, so just take care of those that you can when you can.

#2 – Networking Opportunities

To make networking a priority Social Media Marketing World provides a central networking space where attendees can mingle among themselves and with sponsors. This year they hired experienced networking embassadors to ensure desired connections were made possible.

#3 – Educational Content

Learning is also a top priority for event attendees that expect fresh, cutting edge content on the right topics by content and industry experts. This necessarily requires actively seeking out speakers, and setting high standards for mutual success.

This year Social Media Marketing World hosted over 140 speakers. Being one of them I had the opportunity to experience first-hand what is possible when you care. Attention to detail gives everyone confidence, and that a cool feeling for speakers that want to simply be prepared to deliver useful content.

Successful live events require taking care of everything, and that may indeed be possible with the right team that is prepared.  Listen in as Phil Mershon shares how his team has accomplished this in such a short period of time. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on live events? Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

Phil’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Know your customers.

His Favorite Productivity Tip – Practice positive procrastination. Eliminate the things you don’t need to be doing, knowing and seeing.

A Quote that has Inspired Phil’s Success – “No whining, no complaining, no excuses.” John Wooden

Key Take-Aways

• The primary marketing vehicle for Social Media Marketing World is the massive Social Media Examiner email subscriber list. Learn how to grow your email subscribers with social media.
• You can learn more about Social Media Marketing World and its virtual counterpart, Social Media Success Summit at SocialMediaExaminer.com. Also, consider subscribing to learn more about the soon to be launched Social Media Society membership community.
• Check out Rory Vaden’s Procrastinate on Purpose and Necessary Endings to eliminate some of the clutter in your life.
• You can reach Phil on Facebook and on Twitter @Phil_Mershon

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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 mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+