(By Loyd Ford) You and I are in the business of experiences. Yet I feel some broadcast companies are no longer focused on the customer experience at all. Just because you are using technology to make things easier for your team and more profitable for your company doesn’t mean it has improved any experience with your listeners and clients. I’m suggesting reassessment now so you don’t fall prey to being a commodity in your market. After all, that is the path to death for your business.
Hear me: Many radio brands are falling into the category of commodities in their markets today (expectations have been lowered so much their listeners don’t expect much from them)
Everyday Is Judgement Day
Your radio brand, your sales teams, your live events are all defined and judged by how the experiences you are producing makes your listeners and your clients feel.
How do you encourage an organization that focuses on the importance of these experiences and leverages these experiences for more revenue? Let’s start with this Top 10:
- Make certain you have the right people on the bus (if you have the wrong people, you guarantee the wrong experiences)
- Any time you hire, hire slow and make sure any hire understands how important experiences are and how much real work is required to separate you from other competitors in radio (and in other customer attention grabbing lanes)
- Place a premium on creating immersive experiences; people love to be a part of the party so make sure you are one
- Build the best (set your goals high)
- Built client-of-the-party experiences for your clients (make certain your clients feel like VIPs that are immersed in great experiences so it is more than only buying ads for them)
- Challenge the way you’ve always done it and the way it’s been done in the past in general (think innovation, but only innovate with an improvement in experience for listeners and clients)
- Encourage cross supportive teaming (programming understands the vision of sales and sales understand the vision of programming; both pull for the other’s success)
- Give your team permission to make mistakes – in other words: Reward risk taking as long as the team is onboard (no solo risk taking) and ensure that everyone on the team learns from mistakes
- Look for opportunities to regularly recognize team members and reward them for performance that elevates your brands and your revenue
- Celebrate victories, wins and successes in public – for your individual team, your overall team and your clients
There’s a reason Disney is such an amazing brand and everything from their theme parks to Disney+ to ESPN are killer brands.
There’s a reason Chick-fil-A is head and shoulders above other places consumers grab a quick meal.
Yeah, it’s the same reason: Customer expectations are high as soon as they hear the word Disney or the words Chick-fil-A because those companies have a culture of focusing on high quality experiences for their customers.
So, local radio, it’s your turn. Let’s stop saying it’s okay to be like the money saving companies and that’s the path to a brighter future – it isn’t.
Immersive quality experiences and a culture of creating high expectations from both listeners and clients is our path to dominate the local market. And you can do this, but please remember: A culture that encourages better experiences for listeners and clients comes from the top and every level of management below.
Every person on your team wants to win, too. So, go set a new path to prove once again: If you have a radio station, you can get anything else you want. This is radio. Radio is a great set of experiences.
Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio with RPC. If you’re on the Clubhouse app, you can join Loyd’s radio pro encouragement group “The Encouragers.” Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
