Tipping point of relational problem solving
Since AI became a resource, our demand for strategy calls has gone up. Even though you can get the same information from ChatGPT, delivered in a similar conversational style, many people still prefer to work through their problems getting quizzes set up with another person. Now I will say that we did get a net new group of people from AI that we weren’t getting before, so showing up in AI search is still very valuable.
But back to the topic at hand, what we’ve deduced as the reason why people keep asking for strategy calls, even though AI can give the same information, is because they want to solve their problems in the presence of an expert who can help guide and regulate emotions as they solve the problem. The fascinating thing about our strategy calls is that we are just asking questions of people to get their expertise to come out. We aren’t the ones writing the quiz content on behalf of the client. They are writing the content, we are sometimes guiding on how to phrase something, but more often than not we are just asking questions and letting them work it out.
The main purpose of being there is emotional regulation. Co-regulating, where you are talking to someone, and your emotions help to calm their emotions, is what people are after. They know how to do the work, but it’s nerve wracking. There is a lot of fear, particularly about creating a quiz that doesn’t work well, and then that brings up all kinds of emotions about failure and not getting things right. So having someone there who can just be a calming presence, even if they aren’t really saying much, is huge. Of course it also needs to be someone with some expertise around quizzes, otherwise it wouldn’t be very helpful, because the person trying to make the quiz wouldn’t believe that the guide could help, and that would re-ignite the emotions.
I think this concept of co-regulation is something that the quizzes built on our platform also do quite well. You don’t have time to talk to every single person and help them co-regulate, but a quiz can represent you in a way, where you are asking questions and giving advice in a way that feels like you are there. Quizzes have insane engagement and conversion rates, but only when someone is able to infuse themselves into them in a way that feels like co-regulation.
Quizzes aside, the idea of solving problems for people in an emotionally regulating way is a big one. It helps people to walk away from their interaction with you feeling smart, capable, and confident. You are able to make them feel positively about themselves. And that’s what matters when it comes to word of mouth marketing. How did you make that person feel? At Interact, even customers who decide a quiz is not the right solution for themselves will often refer people to us because we helped them solve some problems relationally. Don’t sleep on this, work in at least 5 customer calls a day if you are just getting started, then as you can hire people to run the calls, continue doing 1-2 a day for as long as you run your business. The compounding effect of relational problem solving will get you over the tipping point to where your business grows on its own, even when you take a week off.
