How to get your oct8ne “aha” moment

Every company wants to have that moment when their target audience lights up and totally understands why their solution is so great….an “Aha” moment if you will. Not every company has one, but if you are offering something unique and valuable, you should.

The first time I met Domingo Obradors, the founder of Oct8ne, he walked me through a demo of his solution. I was immediately impressed. The offering seemed so logical; it benefited both eCommerce customers and merchants. Having an experienced salesperson helping customers find exactly what they are looking for in real-time made it the most personalized online service I had ever seen. I wasn’t looking for a new venture at that moment, but as a huge fan of personalized service, I got really excited to bring this solution from its private beta to market, and quickly joined the project.

Then we got down to describing our service. That proved difficult. When defining a new space, like coviewing, a lot of hurdles have to be overcome. People don’t have a point of reference, so the challenge starts from the very beginning. “What is it?” they’d ask, looking for an existing solution they could compare it to. We’d sometimes describe it as “live chat on steroids,” but while they would immediately relate to the live chat analogy, it minimized the understanding of our service…we were so much more than live chat. Comparing it to co-browsing only resulted in yet another rabbit trail. It took a whole lot of time and content revisions to figure out how to describe the core of the experience in a way people immediately understood.

Since our product is visual, we quickly learned that live demos are our key to getting to that “aha” moment. This is why I love observing or participating in live demos. We’ve tried many was to present oct8ne; online videos, interactive tutorials, and intricate flow charts. But when a potential customer sees the product in action through a 10-minute live demo, they immediately get it. And the next thing they say is “this is so cool, why hasn’t anyone else done this?” Well, that’s our little secret (and a bit of Intellectual Property).

The live demo is the moment where people understand that this is a revolutionary sales solution, not just a customer support and live chat tool. It’s when they get to use it, see the simultaneous interaction and the seamless experience it provides for both agent and shopper. Actually seeing both parties pointing and clicking at the same time, then seeing an agent-suggested product appear, and then another item for the cross-sell that is then placed directly into the cart makes that “aha” moment happen. Then, when they get to upload an image right into the coviewer, and talk about the potential scenarios that would be useful, their mind usually blows.

At this point in our demo we haven’t even shown them all of the great insights they get through our reporting and analytics. That’s what will help a company optimize their business by being able to see who is their most effective salesperson, how they sell products, and why they are successful. It’s all more icing on the “aha” cake.

Bottom line, showing Oct8ne live gets everyone to “Aha!” and we love watching customers’ eyes light up at that moment!