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HelpEvent Management Tips: 7 Strategies to Keep Loyal Attendees
Surely you have heard of the 80/20 rule.
In the business world, it essentially means 80% of customers come from 20% of consumers. That 20% is your returning customers.
They are loyal, and you want to keep them that way. So, what are some ways to keep attendees returning to future events? Here are some ideas seasoned event planners have tried with moderate to great success in their event management efforts.
1. Provide Excellent Customer Service
Train your staff to be extra courteous and to help out guests whenever and wherever possible. Attendees should feel like they’re appreciated from the time they enter the venue until they leave. One easy way to boost customer experience (and customer relationship management) is to have a greeter at the front entrance welcoming and thanking guests for showing up. The greeter is also the quick go-to person for people with questions.
Likewise, you should also have a guest-service section. The last thing you want is for guests circling the venue in search of a staff. You can take it a step further and even designate staff to walk guests back to their car or escort them to their hotel. It’s the same way some grocery stores have their workers help load their customers’ groceries into their car.
2. Announce Next Year’s Event DURING the Event
It may seem a bit hasty to announce next year’s event when the current event is in progress. Nevertheless, you should announce it because it shows confidence on your end and reassures guests that there’s more to come in the near future.
The announcement should be made during the event’s peak. Don’t wait until the end when a good number of guests may have already left. You should also include as much detail as possible, including (at least tentatively) the planned speakers, venue, theme, and so on. This will mean you have to plan a bit for event #2 when event #1 is still in the planning phase. You can even start selling the next event’s ticket, and incentivize by providing a discount.
3. Approach Individual Attendees
It’s not that hard to spot an introvert. These are the people that keep to themselves and appear unengaged in the event’s activities. Have your staff be on the lookout for these type of people and politely approach them, asking how they’re doing and whether they would like to be introduced to other people or an activity.
Being directly approached in this manner gives guests the sense that you care and are truly looking to provide a positive experience. It will also almost certainly lead to a positive evaluation in the staff department in a post-event survey.
4. Get Your Staff’s Feedback
The day after the event, have your staff relay what guests told them. Any complaints would have been addressed to the staff, and you want to know what they were told.
Did attendees indicate that they were unhappy with the unkempt restrooms, or found the presentations to be too long?
Sure, you can get the same information from a post-event survey, but having staff relay what they were told by guests may provide some new insights. Not everyone, after all, bothers to take surveys.
By having staff parlay their knowledge, you’ll know what attendees liked and generally disliked. This way, you can announce in your next event that improvements have been made in areas of X, Y, and Z. Yes, you can and should admit shortcomings to your guests; people like honesty and transparency.
5. Ask for Suggestions
Part of your post-event survey should ask for suggestions on what they would like to see in future events. It certainly earns you brownie points when your guests feel like their opinion matters to you. The feedback should be put into practice when feasible.
For a more powerful impression, you can even host a remote get-together event using a platform like Google Hangouts. This is basically an AAR (After Action Review), but with the attendees instead of the staff. Rather than asking them general questions, such as what they liked and didn’t like, ask a more hypothetical question, such as how they would have planned the event differently if they were in your shoes.
6. Add Gamification
Gamify the event. People like games, and most people have an instinctive competitiveness in them. Add some form of gamification before, during, and after the event. Perhaps you can start a contest during the event by having members take selfies and upload it using the event hashtag. Provide digital trophies to people whose posts reach a certain number of shares and likes. Reward the top earner with an incentive, such as a gift card.
Gamification makes for a more memorable experience because guests are directly engaged rather than being passive observers. With that memorable experience, guests just might be more inclined for round 2.
7. Acknowledge Individual Attendees
Some attendees are more proactive than others. These may be people who participate in event contests, tweet throughout the event, and so on. Give a special shout out to these people. Perhaps in a post-event blog post, you can share an event summary outlining attendance numbers, the sum total of sales, and so on. You can also take this time to specifically thank individual guests that really contributed to the success by being active participants and generating plenty of user generated content on your behalf.
You can also reach out to these guests individually with a personal thank you. Instead of an email, though, consider sending an actual postcard along with a gift like a gift card or a free ticket for the next event.
Your loyal attendees are your lifeline. Without them, you have no business. Make your loyal guests return for more by catering your marketing efforts directly towards them.
After all, since they make up 80% of your business, make 80% of your promotion about them.
Guest Author Bio: Dan McCarthy is an Event Manager at JD Parties, an event management company based in the UK. Dan has 5 years of event project management under his belt. He has worked on many successful events, and currently he shares his knowledge by writing on the company blog. Follow him on Twitter @DanCarthy2.
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