Does email feedback suffice or do London venues really analyse customer feedback?
20 August 2013
This blog post was written by Michael Aldridge, General Manager of Events, Merlin Events London on Tuesday 3rd September
We all like to give ourselves a pat on the back because we’ve had a good feedback email from a client about their recent party at our venue, but how do you analyse this feedback and use it constructively to improve the business? We all like to think that
we are loved by our clients and we have the best team in the industry. Some of us
are slightly more realistic and understand the relationship is not unlike that
of siblings – a bit more love and hate on the odd occasion!
Constant evaluation of your events is key to ensure that all team
members are delivering the product successfully and any development issues are addressed; for example analysing your sales team through mystery shop calls (Maybe this is exactly
what the government’s 111 call system needed before it went live) This is not
about hitting staff with sticks but engaging with them and their development
for the greater good. Yes, I too have been mystery shopped and scored the worst
percentage and as the great Arnold Mormon said “you need to man up” to be a
Manager.
However, post event
analysis is as if not more important. I have just answered a
comment on LinkedIn about KPI and managing Event Managers, have a read here.
We have found at Merlin Events our greatest source of
business is Word of Mouth. I find it interesting so few venues take the post
evaluation seriously and ensure that they have quantifiable data to analyse. I
don’t mean send a questionnaire and hope you get it back (there are people out there who did this!). Merlin Events ensure
that after EVERY event somebody not involved with the event (this is key)
contacts the client normally the next day and asks them a whole series of questions to get their open and honest feedback.
Yesterday I showed a client around the SEA LIFE London Aquarium
who had hosted a dinner at a large Museum last year. She said she will
not use them again as she felt her company was an inconvenience. One
issue she highlighted was that the retail points could not easily be covered. If the venue analysed this feedback afterwards then perhaps they would do what we have done and ensure that all retail points in the attractions are covered with black curtains; nice and simple but easy. My point is, taking client feedback on board is crucial to improving your business and the clients opinion is valued meaning they are more likely to be a brand advocate for your venue and your team.
It’s interesting to hear from so many venues that it’s
difficult to change this because of x,y and z. Highlighting issues and
reasons for the problems are not going to solve them. I can honestly say in the
past ten years I have had to battle with various stakeholders to ensure event
requirements are part of new projects, battle is the operative word but as you
get older you choose your battles more wisely. My team do a great job to
engage with the studios department, operations team etc to ensure we are
communicated with and know what is going on; another challenge when you are not
the “core” business.
How do you measure your client satisfaction and implement improvements?
This blog post was written by Michael Aldridge , General Manager of Events, Merlin Events London on Tuesday 3rd September