Customer Focused!

1. Customer Focused! Planning major events Michael Moschogianis Director of Sport and Community Liaison St Virgil’s College

2. Background • Oct 2011 – Dec 2018 Manager – Tasmania, North Melbourne Football Club • Sep 2004 – Jul 2011 General Manager – Sales & Marketing, Cricket Tasmania • Jun 2003- Sep 2004 Event Coordinator, Hobart City Council • Nov 2002- Jun 2003 Leisure Co - Centre Manager, Whitlam Leisure Centre • Aug 2002­– Nov 2002 Project Manager, Sold Out Event Management • May 2002– Aug 2002 National Events Manager, PGA of Australia • Nov 2000– May 2002 Manager Tennis Services, Tennis New South Wales • Oct 2000 Event & Live Site Manager, OCA – Sydney 2000 Olympics • Apr 1998- Sep 2000 National Events Manager, Surf Sports Australia • Apr 1995 – Sep 2000­ National Competition and Events Manager, SLSA • Apr 1995 ­– Apr 1995 National Development Officer, SLSA • Apr 1993­ – Apr 1995 National Development Officer, Surf Life Saving Tasmania

3. My World of Major Event Experience • 2 Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Surf League’s. • 5 Australian Open, Masters and IRB Championships. • 3 International Surf Test Series. • 1 World Lifesaving Championships. • 1 Goodwill Games. • 5 National Lifesaving Conferences and Development Camps. • Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Live Sites, Torch Relay and Volunteer Parade. • 2 Sydney Internationals • 2 Davis and Fed Cup Ties. • 1 Sydney Marathon and Half Marathon. • 1 Hobart Summer Festival, City of Hobart Carols by Candlelight and Hobart Christmas Pageant. • 62 Interstate/International cricket matches. • 17 AFL matches.

4. Experiences via Pictures

5. Customer Focused • A happy customer (attendee) is often a returning customer (repeat attendee). Yet don’t forget about the first timer! • How to create the WOW factor in events and how to be customer focused. • Ensure your event is memorable for all the right reasons and to keep your guests happy, loyal and most importantly coming back to your events!

6. 10 Keys to Customer Focused Events • Great First Impressions. • The Customer Journey. • Be Attentive. • Don’t Keep People Waiting. • Service with a Smile. • Do Something Differently. • Personal Touches. • Surpass Expectations. • Great Last Impressions. • Review and Continuous Improvement.

7. Great First Impressions • You only have one chance to make a first impression. A customer’s first interaction with you could be via one of many different mediums - through an email newsletter, on social media, over the phone or face to face. • Ensure that your brand voice and company ethos shine through all of these communication channels and that every interaction is a positive one. • Think about what is important to you. What do you want people to feel or think or say following your event? Plan for this from the very first touch point.

8. The Customer Journey • Anticipate your attendees every need and ensure they have a positive experience from start to finish. • What industry are you in?...dictates the care and attention that should naturally entail! • Your relationship with an event attendee may begin many months before the event - when they first make their online booking to attend. Ensure you stay in contact after the booking confirmation and provide all of the information they will need in a timely manner. Make it easy for people and minimise their stress levels by anticipating their frequently asked questions in advance. • When guests arrive reassure them by providing plenty of signage and if possible human “meeters and greeters”.

9. Be Attentive • In the middle of a busy event this isn’t easy but when you are talking to a guest, stop everything and ensure they have your full attention for that moment. Ask questions, take a real interest in the individual. Make sure they know they are valued. • Take detail very seriously. Special dietary/access/disability requests • Everyone attending your events should of course be valued but consider paying extra special attention to VIPs, speakers, performers and media. • Be constantly aware on site and try to pre-empt problems before they become an issue. For example if people’s body language suggest that they are too hot or cold, adjust the room temperature accordingly. If someone looks unhappy don’t ignore it, approach them, find out what is wrong and try to take immediate action to remedy the issue. • During breaks do you spot someone standing alone, rather than networking and joining in conversations? Strike up a conversation with them and/or look to see who you can introduce them to nearby to ensure they have a positive event experience rather than shrinking on the side-lines.

10. Don’t Keep People Waiting • I loathe waiting and so do your guests! Queues at the registration desk, catering stations, ticket booths etc can encourage feelings of frustration and unease. Plan to minimise waiting time as this is wasted time that attendees are not networking, engaging and enjoying your event experience. • Also don’t forget that even during the event people may communicate with you via social media and they expect a fast response, even 30 minutes or an hour could be considered too long so make sure you plan for this.

11. Still Waiting?

12. Service with a Smile • I am a big believer in service with a smile. Open body language, good manners, tone, word choice; these are all little touches that cost nothing but can make all the difference to the event experience. Staff with people skills are a must as having a natural intuition and empathy is priceless. Experienced staff and/or well briefed. • Make sure your staff are easily identifiable so people know where to get help or ask questions. Staff badges or uniforms with “Happy to help” are warm touches too.

13. Service with a Smile?

14. Do Something Differently • Analyse your competitors events aimed at similar audience profiles. What do they get wrong/do badly? Ensure you excel in these areas. • Things don’t have to be done the same, innovate and make sure your events take a different and unique approach which people will remember and want to share with others. • You want the event to be remembered and talked about for all the right reasons and a good way to do this is to provide an unusual talking point. What matters to your audience? What will wow them? What will they not have seen/experienced before?

15. Differentiate!

16. Personal Touches • Your team should be well trained to your exact standards of working and encouraged to bring their personality to their role – you don’t want robots! Staff need to have the 6 ‘P’s – be Passionate, Personal, Proactive, Productive, Professional and Punctual. • Try to remember details about your regular attendees from one event or point of contact to the next so you can strike up a conversation and they know they are valued. Read name badges and use attendees names when you can too to make it more personal. • If someone needs direction and you can spare the time escort them to the location they require rather than just pointing them in the right direction. This is a great time to find out more about what they are getting from the event and anything that could be improved. • The biggest reason people stop doing business with you or returning to your events is customer service, so it is vital that you get this right. Event research tell us that it takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one bad one and 91% of unhappy customers will never willingly return.

17. Surpass Expectations • Always strive to surpass expectations or to “go beyond” to really wow your customers. • Do everything in your power to reduce the effort the attendee has to make. If a customer needs to do something to resolve an issue try to do it for them. This could be calling them a taxi, sending a runner back to check a room where someone thinks they may have left something, or updating someone’s booking details for them over the phone rather than making them log back into the online booking system to update it themselves.

18. Great Last Impressions • Don’t relax for one second until every event goer has left. You may have been on your feet for ten plus hours but your farewell to the last guest should be as warm and your smile as bright as it was to the first arrival that morning. • If budget allows and you can go beyond this by handing out a gift or souvenir as people leave this helps the warm fuzzy feeling continue on the guests onward journey – everyone loves a well thought out freebie!

19. Review and Continuous Improvement. • It is 14 times easier to sell to an existing happy client than it is to secure a new customer so you must do everything in your power to keep your guests coming back. • Happy customers can also become event ambassadors with a 48% chance that they will spread positive word of mouth and help to market your event and drive new registrations. • The most successful events are when there is some behaviour change as a direct result of the event. The attendee may be determined to do something differently and inspired to connect further with new connections made at the event. The attendee should feel that they made a positive contribution to the event and perhaps even feel some kind of ownership or that they “made their mark.” • Don’t forget to follow up after the event. Send personalised messages or surveys after the event e.g. “Thank you for attending” or “we are sorry you didn’t make the event.” Share content from the event and prolong the excitement and experience. Keep your promises and provide all the presentations, video, pictures, reports, etc promptly. • Ride on the wave of the event…tell everyone about it.

20. Wrap • In writing this presentation and reminiscing about my past event experiences, one thing that struck me is how important the little touches and small details are to the overall event experience. Hopefully as an Event person attention to detail will be your forte and so you have the best chance of delivering a flawless experience to WOW your customers! • This post focuses on the customer in terms of an attendee at one of your events and how to impress them for the right reasons. However never forget that an attendee at your event today could become a client of the future. • If you follow these ideas and think carefully about your event delivery with a CUSTOMER FOCUSED outlook, your events will be a smash hit.