As
I do my last event in Barcelona and prepare to return to London after
an around the world speaking tour, I can’t help but reflect on the state
of the industry in 2013. Since 2008, I would describe the audience as
more demanding and with higher expectations. Maybe it is because people
are under pressure for their time and want to ensure that the time they
spend at a conference is meaningful. Maybe it is because the people
attending events are more seasoned and have seen and heard a lot of what
there is before. Mostly I find people are desperate to hear something
new and something that will help them be better at what they do.
If
the audience has changed, the venues and providers have not shifted
very much at all. In fact I am not convinced that the venues have learnt
anything from the last five years. The world has moved on but this
group seem to have held their breath and waited for it all to pass, and
now want to get back to business as usual. It is as though the venues
see the business coming back and are now trying to grab as much as they
can for as little as they can so they can make some money!
Here
are some of the highlights of my four weeks, speaking 12 times, in North
America, Mexico, Australia, Asia, Barcelona and finally in the United
Kingdom. At three venues people have been ill from the food provided. I
see less staff and longer queues in hotels and venues. Whether it is
queues at reception, for lunch or for coffee stations, it appears that
there are less staff providing even less services. In over half of the
places, food ran out before everyone had eaten and coffee also ran out
before the breaks were over. If you add to this that in many of the
places the set up was so late that the delegates were unable to get
their refreshments before the sessions began, there are signs that the
venues are cutting back on servers and maintenance. As I sit in a
bedroom where the pile of the carpet has worn down to threads and the
meeting room this morning had torn wallpaper and marks on the wall where
pictures had once hung, I reflect that I don’t think I would have had
this experience in at a five star hotel in 2007.
Speaking to
Venue Managers, Meeting Planners and Event Co-ordinators they tell me
that they deal with clients that are demanding more for less. I hear
them say that they are forced to find cheaper suppliers (which are
available) but then face the problem of getting them to understand their
ways of working.
To me it seems amazing that at a time of such
change and pressures, that more is not done to find synergy and work
together. The customer’s demands are not going to go away. The customer
is going to demand more and have higher expectations. The key to
profitability is going to be in the ability of all parties to better
understand the customer’s needs and then seek ways to work together to
deliver those needs.
To me it is the difference between
organizations trying to deliver customer service, compared to delivering
a customer experience. There is a big difference between providing
customer service and delivering a customer experience. Think of it as
the difference between being polite and being helpful. Having stayed in a
range of four to five star hotels, I can honesty say that I got good
customer service in the five star hotels, but did not enjoy the
experience. It was the four star hotels that came closer to delivering
on ‘experience’ and were far more satisfying as a result.
The
last four weeks has given me the opportunity to stay in a number of
hotels, work with a range of meeting planners, visit a number of
conference centres and venues and deal with a range of audiences. My
summary is that the customer is expecting a lot more, is desperate for
new ideas and seeking ways to raise their game. The industry is seeking
to please their customers whilst cutting costs. In reality the answer
lies in the industry learning how to work together more effectively and
not everyone in isolation.
Any comments? Email sarah@mashmedia.net
