According to Douglas Adams, the author of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to life is 42. Forty-two is also the only jersey number to be retired by all Major League baseball teams, and of course is the number worn by the legendary Jackie Robinson. It is also (coincidentally) the average age of a live sports attendee in New Zealand. I guess the crux of the matter is, if the answer is 42, then what is the exact question?
In our obsession to improve the customer experience, are we asking the right questions? Are we getting truthful answers? Is what we are doing making a difference? Has anyone bothered to ask me what I want at a sports event? So below some of my experiences.
I attended a P!nk concert along with 15,000 other people a while back. The concert was in a wonderful venue with a great naming rights sponsor, which happened to be associated with a telecommunications company. So keen was I to share my experience with others that I took a photo but could not upload it because too many others were trying to do the same the thing. My first thought was that the venue should have had high density WiFi. Now, many stadiums around the world are rushing to put in Wifi.
At the beginning of this year, in a fleeting moment of insanity, I decided to give up refined carbs, potatoes and sugar for a year. Darn silly idea, except for the health benefits of course. So how many sporting events can I attend and get a meal? It turns out, I could in Texas, where the Texans serve up sweet potato fries and if you ask, they will even give you a chicken breast without sauce on it (although you do get a puzzled look).
A have a good friend who is the Commercial Director of Cardiff City Football Club. They play in the English Premier league. This friend once said “only one side can win the league or win on the day, so the experience better be exceptional". Cardiff struggle sometimes, so they need to compensate by giving people a great experience. Given the issue England has had with safety at soccer games, Cardiff worked really hard to provide a family friendly experience at their ground; one which even recognizes the away fan and the distance they have traveled to watch their team compete.
When visiting the AT&T stadium for a baseball game in San Francisco, I was pleased to be photographed and tweeted by the team at the venue and even retweeted – a real honour. The number of likes or retweets of a status is how we know we count in the world isn’t it?
There is always much talk of how we view our market, and marketing for many years was broken down by demographics. Perhaps it’s not age that determines our needs, wants and desires, but our psychographics?
The sports and entertainment industry, according to the brilliant sponsorship consultant Kim Skildum- Reid, should be broken down into the following psychographics:
Traditionalist- This is the fan who loves the game, knows the players and reads the statistics. It does not matter if the team wins or loses. They feel part of the team and the team belongs to them. These fans are a shrinking market and make up only about 10% of the market. They’re gold. They want to be valued and cared for and made to feel part of the team.
Tribalist or Enthused- This is the fan who likes to be part of a group. They like to wear the colours and are there to be a part of a wider audience. However, these fans are fickle and will stop coming if the team is losing.
Socialite – This fan is there to network, be seen and be part of the in-crowd. They love the occasion as long as it’s from a comfortable seat and with the right people. They have money to spend but can equally take their money elsewhere if the next cool thing or opportunity is somewhere else.
Family- They are your biggest market, with limited disposable income and varying needs. They choose cost effective entertainment that adds value to the family and a day out. They want something suitable for the whole family at the right price, and this includes food and drink or they will just go to a park or the movies.
I wonder, when deciding what this allusive goal of finding a guest experience that meets everyone’s expectations is, if we know who we’re asking and who is answering our survey’s and questions?
What are the right questions to ask to get the right answers? Are we just trying to suck it and see? How truthful are marketing survey’s when you only have a few choices to pick from and how do we get enough qualitative information from focus groups?
My good friend at Cardiff City said they did something very simple: they asked their fans what they wanted and gave it to them. Easy and really good advice. I spend way too much time thinking through how we deliver this defining quality experience that brings the fan back for more and more, but I guess I saw the answer at the Georgia Dome on my last visit there, which said in their policy statement:
“You need management permission to say ‘no’ to a customer”
“You will never be reprimanded for trying to assist a customer.”
In the venue management business, we are not out to find the answers to the complex, age-old questions about life. The most complex question we are faced with is 'what do the customer's want?' In order to find the answer, we need to learn to ask the right questions of the right people. In my experience, some venues are doing it right and delivering exceptional experiences and meeting the needs, wants and desires of their fans with the right people delivering them.
[O1]All the paragraphs above seem very incongruous. What is the point you are trying to make? You only integrate these paragraphs very loosely into an idea much later on in the piece which doesn’t read very well.