Customer Experience: A Tale Of Opposite Stories

In Monday’s Wall Street Journal there was an article titled “Companies Strive Harder to Please Customers”.  This was music to my eyes and I read it immediately. 

In the article they discussed how companies have come to the realization that current economic conditions call for better customer satisfaction. I can’t believe it took this long to figure that out. The companies they highlighted included Sprint Nextel, Cheesecake Factory, US Airways, and Southwest Airlines.  This was a nice mix.  I consider two of them having a good reputation for customer experience and two who don’t. 

All four of them know that customers have choices and beefing up the satisfaction can be the difference.  For Nextel it was rewarding customer service people for solving a customers issue on the first call.  Cheesecake Factory is enhancing the service they provide while waiting for a table.  US Air is fixing its missing baggage issue.  This is a great idea since they charge you for baggage.  Southwest now offers free call-back from their call center if wait times are too long. 

All of this made me happy until yesterday when I realized not everyone is on the good customer experience bandwagon.

I received a text message from Verizon Wireless letting me know that at least one of my family phones had data usage charges.  Verizon Wireless has a phone store called Get It Now.  They also place apps on your phone that are demos.  What they are not clear about is they charge you for checking them out.  My kids phones don’t have a data plan.  They don’t need one.  They are offering customers to check out their products and then charge them to enter the store.  They place demo apps on the main screen of the phone and tell customers to try it “free”.  Without a data plan you are charged for the data usage to try it “free”.  Don’t they make money from customers buying apps, games, and ringtones?  Why would they charge you for looking?    The customer service person agreed with me. However, he said that the “fine print” explains they will charge you.  When is the last time a teenager or most adults ever read the “fine print”? The customer experience is not about the “fine print”. 

Being upfront with your customers is always the best customer experience.

The End Of An Era In Buffalo

This week the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (The Aud) was torn down.  Can’t believe I am saying this but I am a little sad.

The Aud was really the venue where I got my big start.  Good things and bad things happened in that building.  For a long time, I had the record of doing more Feld Entertainment shows in that building then anyone else. 

There was a time when I hated that building. I used to say it was the Disneyland for rats and roaches.  The first time I promoted a show in the building the ushers/ticket sellers union tried to scare me.  They had a little stuffed troll hanging in the corner of their office.  They said he was the last Ringling promoter who tried to f**k with them.

Anyone who has done a show in that building will never forget the ramps.  The only way you could load a show into the building was from the basement.  This required moving everything up long twisted ramps.  Try doing that with circus wagons.  It required two forklifts per wagon.  Those ramps are the reason I screwed up and became the victim of one of the cruelest Ringling practical jokes of all time.  It is known today as the “murder joke”. 

With all the bad stuff that has happened in that building, I remember good stuff too.  The people of Buffalo and Western NY always come first.  My wife and I had our first home in Western NY.  We saw some great hockey in that building.  There is something special about watching hockey in an old hockey building.  Even though the building was old and dirty the fans would still dress up to go see a Sabers game. I will never forget the Tux and Pucks games.  It was always an event.

The Buffalo News has posted a video tribute of The Aud which is really good.  Check it out.

http://video.buffalonews.com/player/?id=257

Mommy Bloggers: Hear Them Roar!

An article in today’s Ad Age Online caught my eye.  It’s an article on how advertisers are wooing mommy bloggers.  Were not talking about small advertisers, were talking P&G, Pepsi, Kodak, and Walmart.

The BlogHer conference was held last week in Chicago.  These big league marketers were lining up to get their brand in front of the 1,500 mommy bloggers that attended. 

I have heard of BlogHer.com but until today had no idea how big and marketing powerful they are.  The BlogHer website states they reach 14 million women through a network of 2,500 women bloggers.  Besides the tons of content on the website and a great forum for mommy bloggers, they host conferences that sell out quickly.  Why wouldn’t they when advertisers treat them like Hollywood celebrities.  The swag bag at this year’s conference included a new digital camera from Kodak valued at $100. Walmart had Paula Deen at the conference.  I know for a fact she gets big bucks for an appearance.

If you are in the family show business or trying to reach the female market, you should be moving some of your advertising budget to non-traditional marketing including mommy bloggers.   There are mommy bloggers in every major city in the U.S.  As you route your tour, you should budget comp tickets for every one of them.  If your PR people don’t have the mommy bloggers on the media release list, get it done today. 

If some of the most powerful brand marketers in the world see a huge value in mommy blogging then so should all of us in the event & entertainment marketing business.

IAAM In Boston

The International Association of Assembly Managers (IAAM) is currently hosting its 84th annual conference and trade show in Boston.  It actually started on Friday and ends Tuesday. 

This morning I attended the trade show. If you are in operations or food & beverage for a venue, then it’s like being in a candy shop.  The rest of us marketing people walk around to network and see who we know.

Today was the last morning of the trade show, the attendance was pretty light.  My understanding is that the conference is down this year.  Of course no one should be surprised by that.  As I walked around, I did hear a few exhibitors complaining about the smaller attendance. 

As I mentioned, everyone likes the trade show to walk around and mingle.  I was no exception.  When I first got to the convention I met up with my mentor David Rosenwasser.  David started in this business back in the 1970′s with Ringling Bros.  Today David is the Director of the Greater Saint Charles CVB.  David has been a very dear friend over the years. 

I saw Frank and Sally Roach at the University of South Carolina booth.  Frank is the senior lecturer at the schools Department of Sport and Entertainment Management.  Frank is running the Sport Entertainment & Venues Tomorrow (SEVT) conference November 11 – 13 in Columbia SC. Check it out at www.SEVT.org.

Went by the Ticket Alternative booth to say hi to Iain Bluett.  Iain and I have become Twitter friends so it was great to actually meet him outside the digital world.

Ran into Amy Latimer from the TD Garden hanging around the silent auction area for the IAAM Foundation.  Hope she won something.

While I was at the silent auction I also saw Sherry Powell.  I have known Sherry & Bill since I started in the business.  Speaking of the Powell family, the last time I saw their son Cory he was a little kid running around summer meetings at Feld Entertainment.  I saw Cory at the trade show and found out he is about to graduate from Frank Roach’s program at University of South Carolina. He is looking for his first job.  He gave me a flash drive with his resume and other info on it. Very clever idea!  If anyone is looking for a young, smart, event & entrainment marketing person ready to learn and take on our crazy business email him at corywp@gmail.com.

I ran into Brandon Lucas from Carbonhouse.  He was walking around checking everything out just like me.  He was there to get face time with venue managers about their digital needs. 

I stopped by the Global Spectrum booth to see who I knew and saw Joe Flanagan.  I first met Joe when he was at the Hartford Civic Center.  Today he is the Assistant GM at the MassMutual Center in Springfield MA.

I understand that conferences in general are having a tough year.  However, I still believe they are necessary for any industry.  Networking and meeting in person once or twice a year with others in your industry not only keeps you relevant but also re-charges the batteries.

The Friday Comment Board

I want to thank all my readers for your support.  Last night the Event & Entertainment Marketing Blog website went over 10,000 views.  This does not include my daily email subscribers, Facebook, Blog Catalog, and the many other places this blog is posted.  Thank you very much.  If you keep reading, I will keep writing.

Below are some recent comments on recent blog posts.  Enjoy!

 Is Radio Next To Go Bye-Bye? 7/20/09

While I am saddened at the loss of WBCN, the saddest point is the loss of diversity in radio in most markets.  While there are a variety of non-radio music options open to the audience, radio’s corporate programming certainly helped put a nail in its coffin. 

In Los Angeles station indy 103.1 was lost but we have a great resource to find new music with Santa Monica based, public station KCRW.  The diversity represented on KCRW’s music programs probably skews older but influences the music we hear in films and television programs.  Additionally college radio  around the country remains to be a resource for hearing a great variety of music.  Both KCRW and many college stations have grown their audiences by their presence on the internet streaming on websites and iTunes. 

I’d argue that the definition is changing much like it did with the rise of FM in the late 70s and how cable expanded television options.  Little thought is given today of AM vs. FM and who these days limits their television to ABC, CBS & NBC.  While I still listen to music in the car and sometimes listen to my iPod but today I listen to more music via radio than ever.  iTunes on my computer and Apps for iPod/iPhone bring me radio tuners so I can listen to my favorite stations from around the world regardless to my location.

My feeling is that  there are more opportunities for a greater variety of options for people to discover music and more opportunities for marketers to speak to a targeted audience.  True not all music options carry the ability for sponsorship but you can put out a message supporting public radio or find other options.  Starbucks has become one of the few places you can hold and buy a physical copy of CD and they offer free iTunes downloads giving customers a sample of new music to explore.

Times of change offer exciting ways for rethinking how we do things.  So come on, don’t be lazy marketers and events promoters start thinking of new ways to use these great new options to get your message out.

Annie Uzdavinis

Joe,

Very much agreed.

This is very similar to the downfall of TV commercials due to the DVR.

Technology can kill certain industries if they don’t adapt fast enough.

rinnis85

to commercial radio.  She learns about news music from internet radio, blogs and itunes. I admit to listening to internet radio at work.  There is a better selection of music and I don’t have to listen to the same songs over, over and over again.

Cori Pyndus

Events Can Be A Win-Win For Everybody 7/14/09

I cannot believe I’m about to offer this as an alternative, but in my city, we’ve got something called an “Amusement Tax” which is enacted for exactly this kind of thing.

(Before I go further, I must say that I’m actually *fighting* my city on the current incarnation of the tax which demands ten percent of a promoters gross ticket sales…which is the highest in the country…thereby hindering smaller promoters and lessening the profits of the 300-500 capacity show market)

I’ve argued that the tax *is* justified (to a degree) to offset the wear-and-tear and additional burden placed upon a city’s infrastructure when 10 or 20 thousand people come in for a concert or large event…BUT – being a small market, the tax makes absolutely no sense here…but perhaps in Boston something (more reasonable than ten percent of the gate) could be beneficial…

JerseyMike

We All Have A Passion For Something

I am a firm believer in doing what you love.  If you don’t like what you do, why do you do it? We all have a passion for something.  If you could create an event for anything you are really passionate for, what would it be?

I have a few passions in life.  Working in the event & entertainment business is of course one of them.  However, anyone who knows me personally also knows that I am very passionate about cooking and food.  Over the last few months I have been thinking how I can meld my event & entertainment marketing background with my passion for the culinary arts.  The answer is start creating culinary events.

The culinary arts have never been more popular.  We can all thank the Food Network for this.  Chefs are cool today.  They are the new rock stars!  When I was at the Great American Food and Music Festival last month, the culinary stars were the main attraction.  Sure the festival had some great musical talent, but the crowd went crazy when Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, Anne Burrell, and Aida Mollenkamp hit the stage.  The one day event sold 15,000 tickets. It was all about the food!

If you want to create an event you need to understand what you are selling.  I am so passionate about melding food and events together that I want to attend culinary school this fall.  Who better to create culinary events but an event marketing chef?

Having a passion for what you market is your best asset.

How About A Harry Potter Type Newspaper?

I have been thinking about newspapers and their transition to online.  The other night I was listening to a discussion on talk radio about how can newspapers make money from posting on the net?  What popped in my head were the newspapers in the Harry Potter movies.  If you have seen any of these movies then you know what I am talking about.  The pictures move. The newspaper is interactive.

What if a newspaper created a digital newspaper that did the same thing?  The layout of the paper would look the same as the newsprint version but it would be on the net.  The pictures could be video.  Think about the ads.  I could see Macy’s running video ads for a sale.  They could have video of models showing off the dresses.  How cool could the classified section be if you could post video or pictures of what you are trying to sell?  Real estate could run virtual tours of a house.

If someone still likes to hold a newspaper in their hand then they could print out a hard copy.  Advertisers could still put coupons in the digital paper for readers to clip.

If newspapers could make the digital paper truly digital and exciting, people would want to read it, which will bring in more advertisers.

Put your ad dollars on digital marketing

There is a really great article in today’s Ad Age Online.  Josh Bernoff who works for Forrester Research has written about his companies 5 year interactive marketing projections.  The bottom line is that digital marketing is about to explode yet advertising budgets are not.  What does this mean for traditional media?

It means they need to shit or get off the pot.  Yesterday, we discussed how commercial radio is going in the wrong direction.  I compared it to newspapers.  Now we have research from a leading research company that claims the ad money is shifting big time.

The article mentions that this current recession has been good for digital advertising.  Marketers have had an opportunity to look at new forms of media to sell their products.  Ad budgets have been cut and the traditional players are still charging too much money. This gave the new digital players a better position.

According to the article, digital will make up about 12% of the ad budget for 2009.  Within 5 years this will increase to 21% but your budget will not!

Is Radio Next To Go Bye-Bye?

Last week I wrote about the demise of WBCN in Boston.  This “tastemaker” station was once the place where you found your next great band.  Today, there is an article in The Boston Globe about young people finding their new music in different places but not on commercial radio.

Top 40 and pop stations still exist on commercial radio.  These stations still appeal to children and pre-teens. However, once they hit the young adult years, their choices on commercial radio gets really thin.

Have you listened to commercial pop radio today?  How much music are they really playing?  During morning drive on a commercial radio station you will hear very few songs.  You will hear lots of on-air personalities talking.  You will hear lots of commercial spots running. Instead of saying “where’s the beef”, we need to say “where’s the music”? While this may work for the moms and dads that are driving, what does this do to build a future audience?

Where are younger people hearing their music today?  They learn about new music from friends (word of mouth), the internet, bloggers, and social networking.  They are downloading songs on their iPod.  You can put thousands of songs on an iPod and plug it into your car stereo.  No need to ever listen to a radio station.  Satellite radio plays music with no commercials (endless music).  The listener can hear any genre they want.  Internet radio is on the rise.  The article mentions Pandora Radio.  Even mobile devices are playing music. On my Blackberry I have Slacker Radio.

If music is not what drives commercial radio today, what does?  The answer is talk. The problem with talk radio is that you are not attracting a younger audience.  If we don’t get the younger demos listening to radio then we are going to see a dramatic drop off of listeners. Fewer listeners mean less advertising dollars.  

Doesn’t this whole discussion sound familiar?  Didn’t newspapers lose the younger readers first?

Who Said Twitter Doesn’t Work For You?

As many of my daily readers know, I am a fan of Twitter.  I believe that if used correctly it can be a great PR and marketing tool.  Below are two examples where Twitter works.

There is an article in today’s Ad Age Online about Southwest Airlines using Twitter.  Last week you may recall Southwest had an incident with one of its planes.  To be exact, a hole opened up while it was several thousand feet up.  This is never a good thing!  As with our technology today, people on the plane started sending tweets out.  They were getting the news out before anybody.  Southwest is a very savvy digital marketer.  Their head Twitterer countered by getting out the company message on their Twitter page immediately.  She was able to get the correct message going before the issue hit the news.  Southwest has 290,000 followers on Twitter.

My wife is one of those out there who doesn’t get Twitter.  She saw no purpose for it.  She thinks collecting followers is like collecting Pokemon cards.  Our kids have been away at camp.  I found out that the camp director has a Twitter account.  He tweets everyday from camp.  As a parent, this is a great thing.  Kids are not always good at sending letters or communicating what they are doing at camp.  The camp’s Twitter page is updated daily and sometimes several times a day.  After showing this to my wife, she admittedly saw a purpose for Twitter.  We even know what the kids had for dinner on the opening day of camp. 

Have a great weekend!

Life After Event & Entertainment Marketing

If you decided to get out of the event and entertainment marketing business, what would you do? 

I am sure all of us have thought about this in the past.  Some don’t have a choice and think about it everyday.  Have you ever thought about all the different career paths you could take with your knowledge and experience?  With so many event marketers out of work and looking for the next big thing, let’s write down some of the different areas of business we can do with our backgrounds.

1.   Marketing
2.   Media Buying
3.   Advertising
4.   Creative
5.   Copywriter
6.   Promotions
7.   Public Relations
8.   Retail
9.   Sales
10.  Customer Service
11.  Management
12.  Accounting
13.  Public Speaking
14.  Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

I know there are so many more but I think you get my point.  As event and entertainment marketers, our daily grind will work for many types of business.  The hard part can be convincing someone in another business of this.  They just don’t get us! 

If you decide to leave our crazy business, know that:

1. You do have the tools to do just about anything
2. You entire interview will be selling them on the list above