When they return, sports leagues will overlap more than ever, and corporate sponsors will face the challenge of placing all their tickets
Marie Forleo, famed American entrepreneur, once said “Show up in every single moment like you’re meant to be there.” As someone who manages corporate hospitality assets and event activation, this hits home. We’ve all experienced an event or engagement where we are invited with the promise of fun, interaction, and value. However, when we arrive, the experience is less than desirable.
What does providing the Best.Day.Ever. mean? What is the right way to manage corporate hospitality assets? In the third post of our miniseries, The Big Push, we dive into that very answer; FULL service.
Full service?
In our first iteration of this series, we discussed the importance of freshly designed invites as they are the first impression the client will see. Next, we explored the best practices of how to optimize internal workflows so that the right customer gets the invite at the right time. However, none of this will matter if the event itself does not deliver above and beyond customer expectations.
From a business impact perspective, there are two key objectives: create an inviting and engaging environment AND obtain key sales information from the customer or prospect.
Set the Tone
No matter how well you articulate expectations and drive anticipation, your guests will always have feelings of uncertainty. It comes with anticipation; defined simply as feelings of something upcoming and therefore unknown.
When guests arrive at your event, the first thing to do is approach with a giant, friendly smile and introduce yourself. Make it known you are the HOST or EMCEE of this event [read: the PERSON WHO CAN HELP THEM] and will do whatever you can to ensure a positive experience. Then, brag about what all the fun things they can expect.
Best.Day.Ever. has found incredible success through gamification at our events. Our hosts, after a friendly introduction, clearly walk our guests through the games that will be played, answer any questions the guests have, and then continuously provide updates on answers and winners throughout the event. We are constantly evolving our approach to engagement and gamification is always at the center. By giving guests the opportunity to participate, you receive their investment of time and thought. Investment is a huge benchmark when it comes to relationship building.
That is the first step. No great event host says hello and disappears. The key here is to continue to develop the relationship with the guest throughout the entirety of the event. To do this, it is imperative that whoever your company assigns to attend the event is outgoing and engaging. They must have a desire to learn things about the attendees. If at the end of the event guests are leaving and do not call you by your name, then you did not leave a lasting impression.
Connect the Dots
Aside from a warm and welcoming introduction, clear and friendly communication, and consistent general interaction, remember that a customer is attending an event due to a business relationship with the hosting company. You’ve done well leading up to the event, but now you need to provide a return on all that work put in.
This is achieved by using those consistent general interactions to obtain key sales information. Using open, non-obtrusive questioning, try and find the who, why, what.
Who are they? This applies to who are they as a person AND professional.
Why were they invited? This applies to learning the current relationship they have with the hosting company. Leveraging CRM and ticket requesting software often supplies context here.
What are the next steps after this event? What needs to happen for their business with the hosting company to further? What happened in the event that is notable and worth sharing to the company’s sales representatives?
Remember the answers to the above questions and write them down for a professional report recapping the action to be sent the following day.
Be an APPL
At Best.Day.Ever., we tell our event staff to host with a mindset of being Adaptable and Passionate while also being Professional and Level-headed. The customer was invited with a promise of an amazing experience. However, we are in the hospitality business, so being able to adapt to any situation while providing passion in the pursuit of providing those experiences is crucial. Keep in mind that you are representing the company. Thus, you need to remain professional and calm when those challenging episodes present themselves.
The Big Push…
It is coming. Sports are cautiously returning to form and soon all professional leagues will be played at once. Your customers will be getting invites from numerous companies which will lead to invite fatigue.
To avoid this, full service is needed. This includes those freshly designed invites to win the first impression, optimizing internal workflows to ensure those invites go to the right customers, and then actually showing up at the event to provide an unmatched experience.
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That’s what Best.Day.Ever. can provide your company. Don’t lose business due to invite fatigue. Contact us to learn more.