EqSim

In “Study finds customer engagement hard to measure,” B-to-B Magazine’s Kate Maddox posts some high-level findings from a recent study from Forbes Insights about measuring customer engagement.

“Customer engagement is a top priority for CMOs, but many companies are struggling to implement strategies and measure customer engagement, according to a new study from Forbes Insights and George P. Johnson.”

A majority (67%) of marketers polled view customer engagement as very important, but a good percentage feel their companies do a fair or poor job engaging their audiences. They view retention, sales, and revenue per customer as key metrics for customer engagement.

I hypothesize that “product engagement”  — using tools and methods to present products in a more interactive and engaging way, such as via product simulation marketing — would be a big contributing factor to overall customer engagement.  Furthermore, it may be easier to measure product engagement because of the direct relationship between what is presented and how the viewer/customer interacts with it.

My current focus regarding equipment simulations is in the Fire Service.  My company has created a few simulations for the leading magazine/publisher in the industry, Fire Engineering.  I really enjoy working on equipment in this industry because you can see immediately how useful the hands-on aspect can help the firefighters learn to apply equipment properly.  We’ve also developed a following for our team-based training platform, CommandSim.  That program can integrate equipment usage, but to date it has been focused on training for strategy, tactics, and communication.

Fire Engineering has just started a social network for training in the Fire Service (click here), and this will give me some public exposure to present and discuss issues around simulation that really relate to a variety of industries.