3 Steps to making 2012 the Year of the Customer

Starting the year off with a renewed focus on our customer will only produce benefits for us!  Showing how much we value our customers on all levels can only bring us continuity, deeper commitments, repeat business, and ultimately a stronger bottom line.

Whether you measure success by business growth and profit or by not for profit standards, you will ultimately benefit from treating those who come through your “door” with increased respect.

Managing your meeting(s) with an eye to the how the most important customer, our attendee, is received, how the attendee is directed when they step off the bus, how they are “seen” by your staff will all coalesce in that critical first impression of respectful treatment.  And, respectful treatment results in attendee comfort; ultimately attendee comfort produces a reason for the attendee to commit to your meeting, want to be at your meeting year after year.

Of course, comfort alone isn’t the only reason attendees commit to our meetings, but it goes a long way toward influencing more “hard” reasons to commit—financial, location, schedule, etc.

How do you make the attendee feel this respect or comfort at your meeting?

1.  Make your attendee’s comfort a year round goal—in emails, in pre registration materials, in phone contacts, on social media, etc. use the words and the contexts to show your attendee clearly that you respect them and their decision to attend your meeting every years is not assumed.  Offer attendees incentives, network opportunities, creative problem solving, etc. in a tone of respectful treatment of their expertise, their expressed/not expressed needs, etc.  This year round effort sets up that moment on-site when the attendee steps into registration at your meeting; they come through the door expecting the same treatment they have received prior.

 2. Once on site, your attendees will feel the buzz of your meeting if you have created a receptive physical space, clear signage, engaging staff, and clear welcoming and directional guides for the attendee.  It’s often said that we are best served by “wrapping our attendees in the warm embrace of customer service,” making our attendees feel safe and honored as individuals.

Within this positive customer service environment, we treat our attendees with deference, not assuming they know our terminology, our systems or operations.  It is up to us to “walk” our attendees through our process seamlessly as we treat them as our honored guests.  Extending this effort beyond the registration process to all the education sessions, the general sessions, the special events, tours, etc. will complete this total impression of respectful  treatment.

 3.  And, critically important is how we treat our attendees post event.  We need to deliver on promises made: survey results, wrap up notes, conference recordings, even a refund.  The lasting impression of how we fulfill our promises will be key to an attendee’s commitment to our meeting and ultimately to our organization.

 None of these points is a news flash for us, but we can all use a reminder especially at this time of year when we are looking backward to see what worked and didn’t work at the same time we are looking forward, making plans to improve or expand current successes.

If you have ideas to share with our blog audience re ways you’ve found to show your attendees some “love” & how it has helped your organization, please respond.  We’d love to have you as a guest blogger!

 

 

 

 

 

Increase Benefits:Supplier/Partner Relationship

When we feel part of something bigger than ourselves, we can accomplish great things.  Being part of a team in which each individual is focused on one singular outcome makes for extraordinary achievements. 

Maeagn Gunderson, a young lady/sports enthusiast from Wisconsin, said it well; “Finding each other is the beginning, staying together is the process, working together is the success.”

As a supplier partner focused on event staffing management, serving a variety of clients, cross industry, variable show sizes, and internal cultures, we find those clients who treat us as an extension of their management team pre, on-site and post event, benefit the most from our integral involvement.

It is understood that we will perform our specific staffing management responsibilities as outlined in our contract, but when we are encouraged and expected to participate actively with our clients in the larger world of the whole meeting, we offer tangible benefits to our clients at a higher level.

Examples of such benefits include:

Pre-event:

1. Creative solutions to site issues since we experience a variety of event venues in various cities across the U.S. and Canada.  Being part of planning conversations re site challenges and usage taps into our experience and helps the team conclude their action plans.

 

             2.  Talent pool assessment as we work with vetted event staffing partners in each city and are current on temporary event labor quality, availability, and related issues.

 

           3.  Meeting configuration challenges can be analyzed and solutions determined due to our expertise in staffing session rooms, providing uniformed sessions directionals, etc.

On-site:

1. Orienting the ProShow on site team along with the association team to key on-site issues, “hot spots” in sessions, budgetary concerns, etc. will ensure we function as an extension of meetings management. Once given the information, we act “as if we are the client” without need for further direction.  This allows our clients to focus on their myriad other duties because they are confident we have their back in staffing and more.

 

          2.   Acting without direction is illustrated by initiating registration cutbacks in staffing after the rush of the opening day is past.  While we ensure quality placements, there are those individuals who might not consistently give 110%….those whose hours we can scale back, and still retain the core best staffers.  We will initiate these cutbacks working with the registration vendor as a team, serving our customer, while sustaining customer service standards.  

This benefit will not typically arise with a temporary staffing agency since their billing would be affected, and after all, we function as the “eyes and ears” or our clients, protecting their financial interests as well as their brand issues, etc. when we part of the team.

Post-event:

1. Offering feedback ideas for improvement for the team for future meetings arises out of being part of the overall management team.  A wrap up meeting or conference call offers the opportunity for the total team to share what worked and didn’t work on site, and envision improvements for future.

 

          2.    Auditing staffing billing and ensuring our client is billed correctly as well as “within budget” is central to wrapping up a project successfully.

The level of cooperation necessary to win is based on a common wish for success; when we all work toward this common wish, there are only winners.

Michael Jordan is quoted as stating: “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”

We work with our clients in all major Tier 1 cities in North America improving the quality of attendees’ experience; call us and we’ll share some ideas on how to take your show from great to outstanding!

Lee Nold-Lewis

Direct: 415-225-2517

www.pro-show.com

 

 

 

 

Improving the Attendee Experience—more than a numbers game

“What have you done for me lately”?  We must continue to delight our customers, year after year, and often we review attendance data reports and if our show is growing, we sigh with relief, and leave it at that.  Digging deeper into these numbers may show you external key reasons your attendance is growing currently, and after all, you want to control the outcome of ever increasing attendance…focusing on what you can control to enhance the attendee experience.

After all, once the external environment shifts—and it will—your attendance might dip.  What can you do—within your control– to exceed your attendees’ expectations?

Steps to sustain your attendance today and build for increases tomorrow:

1.  Create a warm welcoming environment – the first impression is all you’ve got.

USGBC’s Greenbuild show deployed ProShow greeters in co-branded “Ask Me” shirts.  These uniformed staff welcomed attendees in registration and the show floor.  The American Dental Association’s Annual meeting kicked off with a person on a raised booth at the entrance to registration, repeating scripted info about the reg location, the time the show floor opened, etc.  Since the annual meeting was in Las Vegas,  this pleasant announcer, was supported by Elvis and Marilyn Monroe characters circulating in the crowd.  Pick the fitting light hearted and joyful idea for your meeting audience and create that warm welcome, that positive first impression that will carry the attendee into the full meeting experience.

2.   Lead your attendees to the areas you want them to see, hear and feel.

Use your “front door” space in imaginative ways: the visual impact is obvious, but consider what your attendees hear as they enter the lobby of the convention center or hotel space.  Maybe a harp is being played; maybe a mariachi band is circulating.  Combining the sights and sounds to fit your audience will create a feeling of your meeting’s theme that will set the stage for sessions, keynotes, etc. to come.

With budgets being crunched in the last few years, we have shied away from “unnecessary costs”, but isn’t your attendee’s first impression critically important?  We want them to enjoy a particular meeting, AND, we want them to keep coming back.

 3.  Create an opening event that allows for networking before education.

Much like an “ice breaker” session in a training setting, we can use a short event that encourages like-minded attendees to chat just prior to an education session.  Back to back education sessions which force the attendee to rush from session to session simply tires them and ultimately loses them as the attendee will create their own networking or down time rather than jump from room to room—often cutting into key education components.  Why not control that with programming?  At PCMA’s Education Conference last June, attendees enjoyed pre events which opened their minds to wonder what’s next, and encouraged engagement with other attendees.

4.  Keep it simple and meaningful.

It doesn’t have to cost a lot to be impactful.  Structuring a straightforward event that allows attendees an opportunity to discuss a speaker they just heard or meet up before a programmatic element can be scheduled so the attendee can opt in or out.  The refreshments can be minimized, and the information exchange emphasized in such a setting.   Creating focus groups on topics selected through “crowdsourcing” can be an effective way to engender conversation.  Holding a “meetup” in the hotel bar (where many attendees will congregate anyway, can offer an informal yet meaningful idea exchange and buzz.

 5.  And, leave your attendees with a lasting impression of accomplishment.

We are often so focused on the first impression, we put little effort into the lasting impression.  Do you set up recycling bins around the area for badge holders, books, etc.

In 2012, being “green” is mainstream, and greening of meetings is assumed so make sure you offer such opportunities.   Is the primary departure area absolutely as clean and neat as it was for the opening, and is your staff upbeat and just as friendly as they were at the beginning of the show?  People working behind the counters need to sustain their smiles and deal pleasantly with attendees on Day 6—just as they did Day 1.

High customer service standards must be sustained throughout your meeting, and attendees must be told to travel safely, and to please come back next year!  A word of appreciation is “gold” in these parting moments.

These are just a few ideas of how to enhance your attendees’ experience, and hence, keep them engaged.  Please share your successes with us: post on our facebook page and let’s see what great ideas are already out there!

Create a Vision for Success: Real Leadership

Leaders are made, not born!  Yes, there is such a person we characterize as a “natural leader” but effective leadership is developed over the span of one’s career.  We all know people who have acted as  extraordinary leaders when situations call for such actions, but right now,  we are focused on building the skills sets which define and express leadership in ALL situations.

First, define leadership within your world: a meeting planning environment, a trade show environment, a member association or a vendor supplier company in support of the meetings industry.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who is an effective leader in my immediate work group?    
2. What are the leadership qualities I see in that person?
3. How is this person viewed by upper management in my work culture?
4. Do I want to be like that leader? 
5. Am I comfortable learning from that leader?

Answering these and other related questions enable you to “try on” a level of leadership that appears effective in your world today.  This is the first step in determining your vision of future success for you personally.

Also, you will begin to define for yourself what leadership is for you.  It’s not the same for each person; it is individualized not as if it were comprised of some “canned” characteristics that we pull out of our bag of tricks.

Effective leadership may be strong clear communication, intelligent analysis, and a good dose of charisma, but it can be quiet, nudging from the back of the team, and asking compelling questions.

Second, leadership is encouraged by others, by mentors who will help you on your path as a developing leader.  Don’t rely on a formal mentoring program; if your organization doesn’t have such a program, select someone who exhibits the leadership qualities you want to develop and ask that person to guide you.  There were “mentoring” activities going on in organizations well before the advent of mentoring programs.

Of course, if you are an established leader in your organization, offer to mentor a young professional.  Get to know what the person wants in leadership development and mutually agree on a simple plan.

Next, expose yourself to all the leadership educational opportunities you can find.  PCMA’s Education Conference offers an extensive array of training in leadership plus various areas every year, and of course, there are many online tools, social media groups, etc. for the exchange of ideas about leadership.

Also, be patient, this is not a personality change, this is personal development and it takes time to try some things, fail at some things, and succeed at others.

However, the last point: it IS important once you have chosen your career path, and defined your intention to fulfill your professional standards, that you set your sights to achieve success as a leader, as defined by YOU.

 

 

Breakthrough Results Start with You

Breakthrough Results Start with You

Often we look around a meeting room, and we see all these creative people brainstorming, engaging in sharing ideas, and we think “ I’m not that creative; I can’t come up with great ideas and results”.  WRONG!

This thinking keeps us stuck in same old, same old in our business and personal lives.

Maybe you want to improve your attendance at your next meeting or you want to retain the talented colleagues on your team or you want to engage your exhibitors more in revenue stream conversations.  Whatever your goal as a meeting planner or show producer, it all

Start with YOU:

1.  What do you want to have happen?  Visualize yourself on completion day…how do you want to feel about the project?  Who in your circle will you want to tell about it?  Why?
2. What is your role in the relative success of the project?  How will you deliver your role?
3. What assumptions are you making  that could get in your way?  How will you lower or lose  those  barriers?

Next, look for your support:

1. Who can you engage in your plans?  What roles will they serve?  How will they participate?
2. Why would they participate and how will you share your success with them?

Write it down: ACTion plans to live by:

1. What are the steps to breakthrough results?  Envision the result and work backwards listing the action steps that got you there.
2. For every action step, list how you feel about it now and how you want to feel about it when you get the result.
3. Tie deadlines to your action items –keeps you on track.

Breakthrough results are not magical and they do not occur for only certain people.  Breakthrough results  come from engagement, inspiration, and organizing for success.   When you are standing at the top of the mountain, look around, and breathe the clean air of personal achievement.

 

Mistakes by the multitudes

 

WHEN you make a mistake not if…5 Keys to Understanding & Accepting our flaws

by ProShow

We all try our best to be perfect performers in all areas of our lives, but this ideal is often unattainable.  We do our best to keep track of all the details, and mind the “gap” but, when we make a mistake, how we handle it is the most critical measure of us individually.  Sometimes the easy way out—blaming others or situations– is appealing, but blaming others reflects more on you than on the ones you are blaming.

Keys to dealing effectively with our mistakes are:

                Quickly and directly accepting responsibility

                Offering a feasible solution.

                Implementing the fix with grace

                Following up to test satisfaction.

                Moving on…

Accepting responsibility should be fast and clearly communicated.  Ruminating and procrastinating to find the “perfect” way to step up only makes matters worse, and delays the inevitable.

Offer a solution that is win/win for all concerned and implement it without blaming anyone or anything.

Explaining a situation is appropriate; justifying your error is not.

Check back to ensure the fix is working and all parties are satisfied to move on, letting go of the feelings surrounding the situation. 

Often in a business setting, mistakes occur when several hands are in the mix, and it’s not important to find someone to blame; it’s important to look for ways to prevent this error from occurring in the future—to the extent possible.  And, in these moments, it’s critical to be a problem solver, not a shirker…

To err really is human so lighten up!

Attitude Adjustment

I was recently interviewed for a new program, “Attitude Jumpstart,” to be aired on a local educational  tv channel . As a business owner, I was asked to discuss how I stay positive thinking and acting in a down economy.

Well, when the economy first started tanking in 2008, I wasn’t so positive.  My first thought—typical entrepreneur– was what have I done wrong??  This self condemnation was slowly followed by an understanding that none of us small business owners had much control over the economic downturn.   Many of us found ourselves in a quickly changing situation, not unlike a rapidly emptying bathtub, the water was cycling down the drain and we found ourselves trying to stay afloat in a decreasing water supply.

I had to grasp the full impact of the economic conditions, particularly on the meetings industry, assess our business model and determine what more we could be doing to assist our clients, and at the same time, stabilize our business.

In the face of the rapidly declining economy, we launched a new program, the “Gold Team of Certified Registration Typists,” in early 2009, followed in 2010 by expanding our business model to offer a broader range of logistical support services to our clients.

We analyzed the realities around us and made plans, then took action to contribute to our own business future.  I guess this is what most entrepreneurs do after they blame themselves first; maybe next time, I’ll go a little easier on myself but then again, it’s my nature to look inward first.  Maybe I can just shorten the time I spend stuck on that part!

Staying positive and taking proactive steps are kesy to survival and ultimate success!

Climb Half Dome?

I don’t know about you, but exercise for the sake of healthy living wasn’t on the list when I was growing up.  At age 38, I decided to get in shape, make an exercise plan and work it!  Well, that was the first of several attempts to jumpstart an exercise program—from jazzercise classes, to a body kinetics program, to aerobics classes,  ultimately to running and finally to strength training.

 I have been dumbfounded to figure out it’s a process.  Of course, it all started with that first step from no exercise plan to something, but what I didn’t mention above were all the months inbetween when there was NO exercise let alone an exercise plan!

 After all these years, it has become clear that what was working in me was a VERY slow evolution from intellectual acknowledgement to fully embracing regular exercise in my life.

 This foreign activity, not part of my existence until mid life, stands as a great example of what we hold onto most fiercely when it’s unknown, not experienced and at the outset, not connected to us–psychologically or emotionally.

As we think about the “new normal” of this decade—all the fast paced changes in our work and our personal lives, be kind to yourself and remember it’s a process.

June 30, 2010

 Lee A. Nold-Lewis

5 Tips in Event Staffing Selection

First impressions are called FIRST for a reason!  Rarely is there ever an opportunity to change an initial impression.  As meeting and event planners, we live and die by this maxim.

We plan for every eventuality and then we plan some more;  we figure out all the logistics, ensuring all details are in place and when we have a second to breathe, we realize we need event staff—for reg, directing traffic, monitoring rooms,  running the show office, etc.

What to do? How to do it?  For years, the knee jerk reaction has been to call the local CVB for staff, but  in the past few years, many CVB’s across the country have gotten out of the staffing business and/or provided minimal numbers of staff.

So, we need a better plan:

1. Start at least 3 months out from your meeting:  determine your needs and desires for staff.  Analyze what’s worked/not worked for you in the past, and interview in house end users to understand their expectations.  Ask yourself hard questions such as: is price the true determiner of selection, how much flexibility do you have to find an exceptional resource that might cost a bit more?  Ask yourself if you are as “locked in” as you really perceive you are re your options.  In other words, avoid the mentality of doing what you’ve always done or settling for an inferior service just because you have determined you have “no choice.”
2.   Decide what’s important to YOU re staffing.  Shake it up!  Do you want staffing management services, managers and supervisors who put the client first and handle all the day to day of the staffing function?  Do you want customer service training so all staff is on the same page re a high quality delivery of customer service?  Do you want a service to look out for YOUR budget and YOUR imperatives, instead of protecting staffer billing?
3. Research the best options on the planet: check with your industry friends to find out who they have worked with; check with your industry associations for member recommendations, and look for meaningful unique alternatives to same old, same old.  You don’t have to settle for less than that great first impression!
4. Narrow your search and based on the best referrals you’ve been given, call the top three staffing resources and ask them to talk about how they are unique, what they can do for you that is above and beyond  their existing service offerings.  Ask what they would tell an unhappy customer and then LISTEN to how they handle the situation—not just what they say, but how they say it.  Think of these conversations as opportunities for information exchange but listen more than talk; test fit.  Personalities matter SO much in this relationship based business. 
5.  Now, you figure you need to check references, but we all know, we usually list only references who  say positive things about us!  Do ask for a list of current customers, industry type, years of service, number of staff supplied , management provided, and ask the staffing resources to provide you with a plan to handle a particularly thorny challenge you are facing with your meeting.  While this mythical scenario may be just that, it can also include some actual reality; the proposed way of handling this scenario will speak volumes about the staffing resource.

Same old, same old won’t work in this “new normal” re-invention phase of the meetings industry.  The past ways of doing don’t always fit, and we need to re-invigorate ourselves with new ways of being and approaching our meetings and all the logistics involved with them.  This “new normal” requires strategic planning and action, and in many cases, partnering with our colleagues to achieve great things!

Gold Team Registration Typist Program

It’s so frustrating to create an effective Attendee registration layout, select appropriate registration hours, plan thoroughly with your registration company, only to have incompetent disinterested event staff show up to sit behind the computers!

Planning for and actually getting top talent placed in your reg area is critical to your success; after all, the reg staffers are viewed AS the association, not separate from the association.  Your attendees don’t make such distinctions, and you pay a heavy price for poor customer service, inaccurate data entry, mis-spelled attendee badges and on and on.

 What to do?  First make your issues known, then ask for improvement with a measureable plan!

We were challenged  with improving data entry accuracy from one of our clients in late 2008, and developed the Gold Team Registration Typist Program which quantifies the speed and accuracy of data entry, not on a random test, but on the actual screen shots from the registration vendor.  That proof coupled with a review of keying instructions –all BEFORE the typists arrive on site allows for a huge improvement in accuracy.

We implemented the program with a variety of other clients in 2009, not because we had issues with accuracy, but because we seek to improve our systems at all levels for all our customers.

The results have been very favorable: consistent matching to position,  less training time for the reg company onsite,  more committed event staffers, and happier attendees.  When staff is confident and well prepared for their assignments, they deliver better customer service. 

Seems so simple doesn’t it? Check out the ProShow page on facebook and linkedin for more details.

Lee A. Nold-Lewis

President, ProShow, national event staffing management