RETURN

ON
EXPERIENCE:
Why and how you must invest in
customer experience management (CXM)

01 why

ROE IS THE NEW ROI

Our world is becoming more transparent than ever. On the customer
service side of business, especially for high profile brands, there’s no
sweeping a bad customer experience under the rug. Thanks to the internet
and social media, those customers now have the ability to tell thousands
of people about their experience instantly, so the customer experience
is paramount.

Ever been to a restaurant where the food was amazing, but the service
sucked? Guess what you’re going to remember... The same goes for
events and experiences. No matter how much you spend on talent,
technology, food, and flowers, attendees will be disappointed if they
don’t feel like they were given enough attention. It’s that simple.

One of the true pioneers of people skills and customer experience, Dale Carnegie, wrote
in his most famous book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, “When dealing with people,
let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures
of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”

And therein lies the secret. Let me give you an example.

I have a friend who would take me to this awful Italian restaurant in Secaucus, NJ. He loved it.
I could never understand why, but then it dawned on me — he didn’t really care about the food.

He was greeted by the owner every time we went there, they had “his table” ready for him, and
the staff doted on him. From his favorite water (sparkling with lime), to wine (a nice Borolo), to
food (of course, a dish that wasn’t even on the menu), this guy was treated like a total VIP and
that’s all that mattered. Despite mediocre food and its strip mall location, he loved it because he
 “ When dealing with people, let us remember we are
not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with
creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices
and motivated by pride and vanity.
”
Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends & Influence People

felt important, and wanted the people he brought there to see that, too.
Let’s use the now infamous Fyre Festival as an extreme, but interesting,
example of Dale Carnegie’s premise.

Fyre Festival was marketed as an “impossible, exclusive, luxurious”

music festival experience, blowing up on Instagram with a promo
video featuring supermodels, celebrities, and influencers Kendall
Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski. Before a location was
announced or a single artist was booked, consumers flocked to the
website to buy their ticket packages, some costing six figures.

These people were sucked in by the allure of the celebrity experience,

only caring about the festival’s exclusivity and how they were going
to be treated at the event. Again, this is an extreme example, but the moti-
vation was pride and vanity, both for the organizers and the attendees.

It’s easy to see why some marketers don’t put as much thought into making sure each attendee’s
experience feels personalized and important. When researching event and experiential marketing
agencies, you will find an endless list of companies that specialize in production, design, event
tech, and social media strategy. There are thousands of choices for venues, florists, caterers, A/V
companies, photographers, entertainers, gift bags, rentals, wait staff, props, and decor. You’ll find
articles, whitepapers, and interviews all revolving around these same things. But you’ll find very
little about managing the customer, or guest, experience.

Why? Because most people mistake the event itself as being the experience. And yes, it’s a big
part of it, just as the meal is part of the experience at a restaurant, but there are many things that
go into the experience and it is imperative that they are treated equally. An event is really only as
successful as its guests’ say it is.

This leads us to the ever important return on investment (ROI). Every marketer has his or her
barometer for ROI, but most find events and experiences hard to quantify, especially today when
compared to digital media. The ability to track purchases that started with a click on a digital ad
or a Google search is easy and reliable. But it’s nearly impossible to link a brand experience to a
sale, right? That’s where our concept of “Return On Experience” (ROE), comes in. ROE has instant
brand benefits that can be parlayed into authentic brand evangelism and long term affinity. This
is not to say that “traditional” ROI metrics aren’t super valuable — they are essential, but an
exceptional guest experience is more important than ever.
Continue reading to discover why, in a world controlled by Yelp ratings and customer reviews,
events are only as good as their guests’ overall experience. You’ll be surprised by the power
of feedback and what you may be overlooking in your planning process.

01 why

EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES
REAP REWARDS

“ The problem for many companies is that they are still focused
on defining a successful customer experience in terms of
what’s good for the business’s bottom line, rather than what
really makes it successful for the customer.
”
Glen Hartman, Senior Managing Director of Accenture Interactive,
North America (Salesforce)

Let’s back up a bit and focus on events and experiences in general. Most
people have heard that countless studies have shown that a majority of
young consumers value experiences over material possessions. Event
management platform Bizzabo surveyed more than 1,000 brand marketers
for its Event Marketing 2019: Benchmarks and Trends Report, and found
that 41% of them considered event marketing to be their top marketing
channel — up 32% year-over-year and ahead of content marketing (27%),
email marketing (14%), and social media (6%).

The data goes on... Great customer experiences are a tangible business
advantage, resulting in up to a 16% price premium on products and services,
increased loyalty, willingness to try new products and openness with
personal data, according to PwC’s latest Consumer Intelligence Series
survey. Additionally, 65% of consumers say that a positive experience is
more influential than advertising or marketing.

So, now that everyone knows the power events and experiential marketing, where’s the
competitive edge? How can you set yourselves apart and deliver an unforgettable and
impactful experience? It’s really quite simple. Invest in your guests.
 Investing in your guests/customers means creating a thoughtful, frictionless, VIP experience
from the initial event announcement or invitation through onsite engagement, after they’ve
returned home, and even throughout the year. It’s our job as marketers and event professionals
to establish and nurture a personal, long term relationship with guests based on positive
emotion and trust.

An April 2018 research study from Salesforce found that across all age groups, roughly nine in
10 buyers worldwide said trust in a company will make them more likely to be loyal, make
recommendations, buy more products or services from them, buy more often, spend more
money, or share their experiences. That’s a huge statement.

These stats don’t only apply to consumer-facing events, B2B marketers who provide an ongoing
service to their clients need to clearly demonstrate the inherent value in being a customer.
Establishing loyalty programs and producing coinciding events can drive behavioral shifts in their
customer base.

01 why

PEOPLE NEED PEOPLE

(ESPECIALLY WITH TECHNOLOGY)

“ Ameans
superior customer experience is one of the few remaining
of sustainable competitive differentiation.
”
Jenny Sussin, Gartner Analytics

Technology is important and very useful, but in order to create truly

exceptional experiences, you need to invest in people, too. Hiring skilled,
personable employees/staff and providing very specific training is
essential. Disney has this down to a science. Each “cast member” (their
version of employee) must go through extensive training and follow very
specific rules of guest engagement, including one of the most important
skill sets, which is how to recover from “service failures.” Why? Because
events happen in real-time and let’s not kid ourselves — things go wrong.

The company has even created the Disney Institute to teach anyone how
to approach customer service and provide very simple, but powerful
strategies to achieve consistent results. This is no doubt Disney’s secret
sauce, and despite hosting millions of guests every year in its theme parks,
it finds ways to make each individual guest feel important and welcome.

Disney’s seven pillars of quality customer service:

01 Make eye contact and smile!

02 Greet and welcome each and every guest.

03 Spread the spirit of hospitality. It’s contagious!

04 Provide immediate service recovery!

05 Always display appropriate body language at all times!

06 Create dreams and preserve the magical guest experience!

07 Thank each and every guest!

When was the last time your event budget included a line item for “customer service” or
“guest experience?” Too many marketers spend their precious time and money investing in new
technology that can replace human interaction, like chatbots, mostly to serve their own business
needs. However, the majority of consumers are not “early adopters,” so new tech can often be
ignored and even become problematic.

Dealing with glitches and unfamiliarity with the technology onsite may actually hinder the guest
experience. In fact, in Usabilla’s August 2018 survey, more than half of respondents (55%), said
they prefer live help than from a chatbot — 46% said they would prefer interacting with a
human even if a chatbot saved them 10 minutes. Interestingly, this preference was strongest
among Gen Z (60%) and millennials (50%). Much of this resistance stems from the perception that
chatbots can’t handle complex problems, which is often the case onsite at events. This isn’t to say
that technology can’t play a role in your event, but people are just as important.

Having the best possible onsite staff is a guest experience gamechanger:

• According to a recent survey of US shoppers by private software research company Qual-

trics, customer service “deal breakers” vary when it comes to shopping in-store vs. online.
For example, nothing would steer in-store customers in a different direction more than rude
employees (42%) — followed by a disorganized store (17%), high prices (15%), and long
checkout lines (12%)
• Nearly three-quarters (74%) of internet users surveyed by customer experience
management firm InMoment said that a disappointing interaction with staff — whether
it’s a poor attitude or lack of knowledge — is a leading reason why they would consider a
brand experience as a negative one

• According to an August 2018 survey by Genesys, three-quarters of respondents

prefer to talk to a human to solve their customer service problems, as opposed to
digital options. Getting issues resolved in one interaction requires customer service
representatives to be knowledgeable and aware of the guests’ needs

• On the negative side, multiple studies have shown that poor customer service drives
customers away. According to Genesys, 58% of consumers have ended their
relationship with a company after receiving poor customer service. Close to half
(49%) of respondents in the Genesys study gave up a brand after just one bad
experience. Nearly half of consumers also discussed a bad customer service
experience with family and friends offline, while 24% made their opinion known
using social media

• A May 2018 survey of 2,000 US internet users conducted by brand experience agency
Jack Morton found that 45% of respondents said brands today rarely live up to the
promises they’ve made — essentially giving them a D grade for poor performance. And
nearly half said that when a brand doesn’t keep its promise, they no longer trust it and will
stop buying its products

While some of these facts and figures stem from traditional customer
service interactions, such as speaking with a call center or employee at a
retail store, the premise applies across all customer/guest interactions.
Your guests would often rather interact with a knowledgeable staff member
to answer their questions — and they will remember a negative interaction.

Be an asset to your guests by making yourself and your team available to

answer questions and offer peace of mind. Zappos, the online shoe
seller known for its stellar customer service, puts its phone number front
and center on its website to encourage customers to call for assistance.
Why? Because its customers are the most important asset. In fact,
Zappos customer service is weighted sevenfold toward the phone (vs. chat
or email). CEO Tony Hsieh said, “We’re actually experimenting with ways
to get more people to call because it’s such a valuable marketing and
brand builder for us.”

The lesson here? If you’re going to use technology, pair it with warm
humans and you have a recipe for success.
02 how

NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES =
NEGATIVE REVIEWS

“ Ifeach
you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might
tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the
internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.
Jeff Bezos (Clicktale)
”

Some guests who don’t get the experience they feel they deserve, will
complain. Not to you, but online to the rest of the world. Online reviews are
today’s word of mouth marketing. They can make or break your event,
and ultimately, your business. According to an October 2018 survey by
Zendesk, 49% of internet users share a bad customer service experience
on their social media pages, compared to 38% who share a good
experience. Similarly, 46% will post their bad experiences on online review
sites (while only 27% will post about a good experience).

Crowd-sourced online review sites like Yelp, Google Maps, and TripAdvisor
(among others) play a crucial role in determining the success of businesses
today. And trust in online reviews remains high, with only 3% of respondents
in BrightLocal’s annual survey saying that they don’t trust online reviews at
all. The survey also found that eight in 10 internet users said they generally
trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations if they meet
certain criteria, such as having multiple reviews.

Potential, current, and loyal customers are using these sites daily to make
their decisions about where to shop, where to eat, and how to spend their money.

Here are some pretty eye-opening stats around customer service reviews:

• 89% of companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience, versus
36% in 2010. (Forbes)

• According to Salesforce, 50% consumers are likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t
anticipate their needs. (Clicktale)
 • 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience. By 2020, customer
experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.(Super Office)

• On average, a one-star increase on Yelp leads to a 5-9% increase in a business’s revenue,

one negative review can cost you 30 customers. (Invesp)

• It takes roughly 40 positive customer experiences to undo the damage of a single

negative review. (Inc.)

• When customers are unhappy, there’s a 91% chance they won’t do business
with a company again. (Inc.) ”
Unfortunately, your guests will have a stronger memory of a bad experience
at your event than a good one. In an interview with The New York Times,
Clifford Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford University said, “The
brain handles positive and negative information in different hemispheres.”
Negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the information is
processed more thoroughly than positive ones, he said. Thus, we tend to
ruminate more about unpleasant events, and use stronger words to describe
them, than happy ones.

However, don’t live in fear of guest feedback — embrace and encourage it.
Offer incentives for early registration or social media posts about your event,
make it easy to communicate with your team online, and never delete
negative comments.

In an interview with eMarketer, Rob Gonzalez, Co-Founder and EVP of

Business Development at Salsify stated, “Reviews are awesome for a brand in
a lot of different ways. From a market-research perspective, reviews are
extremely underutilized. It’s candid feedback directly from your market that
you don’t have to pay for. Too few brands see reviews as providing them with useful data.

“They’re also underutilized from a brand loyalty perspective. Brands can respond to reviews —
it’s a chance to have a dialogue with somebody who’s upset about your product and learn
something from it. Negative reviews in particular are great market signals.”

B2B user events or conferences also allow advocates to be a mouthpiece for your brand. Getting
current customers who are eager to share their success stories with other customers, or even
prospects, is a great tool to close the loop in the customer life cycle and drive more revenue.
Those stories can be aspirational for other customers and may even get them tospend more
through upsells or contract extensions.
 02 how

BEING A VIP IS NO LONGER THE

EXCEPTION, IT’S THE EXPECTATION

“ Focusing on customer experience management (CXM)

may be the single most important investment a brand
can make in today’s competitive business environment.
”
Forbes

Increased customer expectations, and with it, implied VIP service, are the
result of changes like the explosion of digital, the empowered consumer, and
the acceleration of innovation. Today’s event guests are more informed and
in charge than ever before — they expect event organizers to know their
individual needs and to personalize the experience to fit them exactly. But
don’t be mistaken as to what constitutes a ‘VIP.’ A VIP is no longer just a
subset of more important guests at an event. Sure, there may be specific
guests with more access, better seats, or invites to exclusive experiences, but
everyone should be viewed as a VIP.

So, what is the key to meeting those expectations and providing VIP
treatment at every level of entertainment? Service and attention.

Well-informed guests want to attend events that provide personalized

service and continued attention. Even just a little VIP treatment can go a long
way — and if you put your guests’ wants and needs at the center of your
event planning, they’ll be talking about it long after the party is over.From
knowing their names at the door to asking them about their day, understand
your guests intimately from the initial invitation to the final thank you email.

This brings us back to where we started — everyone wants to feel important. Another great
quote from Dale Carnegie resonates, “The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief
distinguishing differences between mankind and animals.” The motivation in human life mostly
revolves around ways to achieve a feeling of importance. Let us repeat that. The motivation in
human life mostly revolves around ways to achieve a feeling of importance.

Think about all of the ways humans strive to feel a sense of importance.
Here’s a few examples:

• Social media: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

• Celebrities: Actors, entertainers, musicians

• Inventors: Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Elon Musk

• Politicians & presidents: From George Washinton to Donald Trump

• Queens & kings: Catherine the Great, British royalty, Dictators

• Foodies: Chefs, wine enthusiasts, food influencers

• The wealthy: Warren Buffet, the Kardashians, Jeff Bezos

• Athletes: Quarterbacks, pitchers, starters

 02 how

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

“ People do not care how much you know until they

know how much you care.
”
Teddy Roosevelt

01 Before the event: Anticipate

Anticipate the potential issues you will be dealing with:

+ Information deficit:
Because people don’t read

+ Traffic:
Because people will blame you

+ Parking:
Because people expect ease and convenience

+ Check-in:
Because people hate waiting in line

+ Questions:
Because people expect quick answers

+ Access:
Because people will complain

+ Crowd flow:
Because people will get stressed, very quickly

+ Seating:
Because people will feel slighted

+ Special needs:
Because people are high maintenance
02 Before the event: Prevent and invest
Prepare and invest in a customer/guest experience strategy:

+ Invest:
Start with your guests in mind, not your budget

+ Staff:
Hire the right people for the job

+ Train:
Set expectations; teach communication

+ Test:
Don’t leave anything to chance

+ Document:
Have a guest plan and write it out.

+ Assign:
Give staff specific jobs with very clear roles

+ Prioritize:
Know what’s important

+ Collect information:
Know your guests, their needs, and preferences

+ Backup:
Have Plan B, C and D ready to go should something fail

“ First ask yourself what is the worst that could happen?

Then prepare to accept it. The proceed to improve on
the worst.
”
Dale Carnegie
 “ Successful communication depends on how well you can
make your message a part of the listener, and the listener
a part of your message.
Dale Carnegie
”

03 Before and during the event: Communicate

Communicate effectively and often:

+ Manage expectations:
Nothing is more important

+ Provide direction:
The right communication at the right time

+ Simplify:
Communicate in parts, not paragraphs

+ Excite:
Build anticipation for the event

+ Update:
Communicate changes. No surprises

+ Respond:
Create a two-way communication channel

+ Wow them:
Be creative with communication and use personality

+ Again, manage expectations:

Don’t risk a let down!
04 During the event: Make it personal
Communicate effectively and often:

+ Personalize through actions and body language:

Nothing is more important

+ Greet:
Make every guest feel important!

+ Know names:
And use them

+ Make eye contact:

Your body language counts

+ Smile:
This isn’t brain surgery

+ Engage:
Be “assertively friendly” like Disney cast members

+ Read the room:

Look for any guests that look lost or frustrated

+ Direct:
Know where to send guests and show them the way

+ Surprise and delight:

Plan personalized surprises and go the extra mile

“ Names are the sweetest and most important

sound in any language.
”
Dale Carnegie
 “ Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a
present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward
”

05 After the event: Show gratitude

Communicate effectively and often:

+ Recap:
Acknowledge service failures and identify improvements

+ Say thank you:

Show guests you value their time. Acknowledge any hiccups

+ Gift:
Give guests something thoughtful, not typical

+ Ask:
Get feedback and ask for guest’s opinion

+ Share:
Send photos and videos that can be easily shared

+ Reach out:
Keep guests engaged and informed

+ Invite:
Offer early access to the next event

+ Repeat:
Go back to step #1
 03 conclusion

CONCLUSION
Our mantra at Concierge.com is “Being a VIP is no longer the exception,
it’s expectation.” Every one of your event guests should feel important,
like a VIP, and that requires thoughtfulness on the event professional’s
part. Again, with a clear focus on the guests, you can expect an instant
ROE (“Return On Experience”) in the form of positive feedback, brand
loyalty, and repeat attendance.

We help our clients create a clear strategy around the guest experience
and give them the tech and talent to execute it. Subscribe to the
Concierge.com newsletter to learn even more about the ever-changing
guest management industry.

03 about concierge.com

ABOUT CONCIERGE.COM
Concierge.com was designed to deliver a much better guest experience for attendees while
saving event producers a significant amount of time, money, and resources. Imagine impeccable
attention to detail and accurate communication with every guest and every vendor (without
using spreadsheets).

From the first invitation to the final itinerary, Concierge.com acts as a smart, digital concierge,
making sure that no detail is missed, everyone feels like a priority, and every type of guest is
handled the right way. Whether you’re managing a party of 10 or a group of 10,000,
Concierge.com is ideal for VIP hospitality, weddings, corporate events, incentive travel,
sports camps, charity galas, and any event where an impeccable guest experience is job #1!

One World Trade Center 212.286.3406

37th Floor [email protected]
New York, New York 10007