NickVenturella.com 8-23-18 - Exceed Expectations

Exceed Expectations

August 23, 2018

Recently, I was online researching things for the music career center project I'm involved in called Eleven, and I came across a video (warning: it’s a long video) from a music conference where Tom Jackson was speaking.  Jackson is a live music show Producer. Essentially, he helps musicians put on a memorable live show that engages the audience to help the performer cultivate and/or strengthen their fan relationships. Doing so provides mutual value to both the fans and the musicians. Jackson was basically teaching musicians how to use various tools in their proverbial tool belt to improve fan engagement in their live shows, even if that performer is a solo artist who doesn’t have the benefit of other musicians to play off of while on stage. The end result is an artist evoking more engagement from their audience by carefully ensuring the show is more entertaining than the shows their audiences may typically experience. This often leads the artist to increased merchandise sales, while cultivating life-long fans.  The fans in this case, get to momentarily escape the pressures of daily life, and experience great emotional connection to, and through, the music. Audience members are creating moments that they can remember in connection with the music and the experience. That has value. Given my professional marketing and customer engagement experience it quickly dawned on me that Jackson is helping artists create a better customer experience for their fans. At the core of it Jackson was really just providing some simple ideas to create more dynamics in a performance that would capture, entertain and sustain an audience member’s attention for the duration of the performance. Any artist, entrepreneur or even employee needs to do the same thing with the audiences they serve. We just talked about an artist, but for an entrepreneur they need to hustle and get those first few customers and provide a great customer experience with value that exceeds the customer’s expectations.To do that, the entrepreneur needs to consistently engage the customer and build a relationship over time, whether personally or through various communications vehicles, to help cultivate advocates for their brand and retain that customer, hopefully, for the long haul. An employee may likely just have internal audiences for whom they serve. The same principles typically apply – figure out what is expected, deliver stellar work beyond those expectations – this provides value to the organization, and value to yourself in terms of useful experience to build your career for the foreseeable future (at that company, or any other you may eventually move on to). So how do you do this customer experience thing in your daily life with family, friends and coworkers? First you have to know your audience, and it’s important to note that the audience in this case are fellow humans…humans with whom you have, or may want to have, close relationships. That said, you have to put yourself in their shoes to understand the interactions and experiences you’re involved in with them from their point of view. In many cases you can just ask your audience (aka – family/friends) what they like, what they don't like and how they want to be interactive with, etc. Ask for criticism. Get feedback. You can’t grow and create better “customer experiences” without it. Once you know your audience, and can see the world from their perspective you have a better understanding of their expectations. Quick note: sometimes people have unrealistic expectations – you can potentially call those out politely and help come to a mutual agreement that some expectations can’t or won’t be met, but the expectations I’m referring to are more typical, basic things…you know like trying to be a positive and reasonable human who has some level of interest in their own, and others’ well-being. I digress…Understanding their expectations can allow you to figure out ways to exceed them. Often with family and friends this can be as simple as doing what you say you’re going to do, or putting your phone down when the family is present and being present with them in that moment. Your actions start to communicate that you understand and are trying to exceed the other person’s expectations. This can help create a better “customer experience,” at home, at the office, on stage, wherever. 

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Upcoming events: I’ll be performing music in my current hometown of Verona, WI on Sat. Sept. 8, 2018 at Toot + Kate’s Winebar. As this will be my first time performing there, if you’re around and can come, please do so and show your support. It will be a lot of fun. Plus, I’m turning this show into a bit of benefit concert. Any and all money I make from the show will go to my dear friends Emily and Eric who lost their home in the recent Wisconsin flood that happened earlier this week. If you can't make the show, but want to help out Emily & Eric, here's their GoFundMe page.

 Finally, the Eleven team and I are putting on an event at the Robinia Courtyard in Madison, WI on Thurs. Sept. 27, 2018 to introduce the Eleven music career center concept, get feedback from our Madison music community on how to best serve it and build new relationships while strengthening existing ones.

Have a great weekend and week ahead!

Sincerely,Nick VenturellaNickVenturella.com