The magic’s in the medium and podcasting is hot – molten hot. It wasn’t long ago a simple search for podcasting in Google turned up about 600,000 results. Now, in less than a year’s time, the search boils over with 36,400,000!

And… the numbers are rapidly growing!

Wake up call. Podcasting is exploding. This is the Internet powerhouse to watch in 2006.

Exactly how is podcasting turning customer service into gold? Let’s take a look inside Merlin’s cave and see what going on with this phenomenon…

First of all, relatively speaking, podcasting provides a powerful bang for the buck. It’s your show, your way, to your audience… who is looking to you as their subject matter expert. They want to hear you and through the miracle of RSS, they simply subscribe once and automatically, each week you have their attention.

Unlike the splatter of radio ads, podcasting audiences want to hear what you have to say. And because the focus is on niche content tailored specifically to your audience, compared to radio advertising costs, podcasting stomps the competition in overall cost-effectiveness.

Studies have proven that we retain more of what we hear than what we see or read. You talk to your customers and they grow to know you. Tom K., a loyal listener of a popular podcast about digital camcorders had this to say, “With podcasting it’s personal. It’s one-on-one. I feel like I get to know the host and I grow to trust what they’re saying. You can tell if someone’s on the level when you spend time with them each week.�

Little wonder customers are feeling loyal to their podcast programs. This is beyond branding… this is alchemy turning the relationship into familiarity and trust.

What else is it but pure gold when you earn the loyalty of your customers? Earn… well yes, indeed… the old fashioned way… as the once popular commercial stated, “we earn it�.

The more you shine the light on the benefits to your customer, the more you gain position and value in your customer's mind.

Here's a few ideas:

    * Technical Support: Make your support folks into customer superstars. Providing detailed technical support for your product ensures a positive customer experience and loyalty. Bring your support staff into your show and teach your customers how to use your product or service and most importantly, how to correct any problems that may arise. Plus, this saves you money in human capital and costs of customer support.

    * Preview of New Features or Services: What better way to get market research than to ask your customers what they want and what they think about proposed new products. Podcasting opens the door to two-way communications as your customers post comments and send emails providing you valuable insights.

    * Share Best Practices: How are your customers using your product or service? Have you heard of an innovative way to get additional value from your product? Many times you'll hear from a customer how they have developed a new or more efficient way to use your product and podcasting gives you the forum to share these tips.

That’s just a few of the creative ways podcasting is opening new possibilities each day. The sky’s the limit so now is the time to bring your company into the podcasting revolution.

Get a MP3 player or simply listen from your computer and explore the myriad of podcasting shows out there. You’re going to be amazed, enthused, and eager to get involved.

Go for it! Turn your customer service into gold!

Mark Orion is Director of Marketing with http://www.epodogy.com, an Austin, TX company dedicated to serving clients with podcasting consulting, design & creation services.

Visit http://www.epodogy.com and get your company started podcasting to your customers.