Enhancing Customer Journey Across the Event Lifespan - Insights

By Tengku Fairuz Khalisah Tuan Ibrahim, Planning & Project Management

It is undeniable that attendees lie at the heart of every event. After all, what good are the latest content, the most engaging networking opportunities and renowned speaker line-up if no one’s watching or listening.

A commentary by Forbes highlighted that not only do 65% of a company’s business come from existing customers, but loyal customers are also four times more likely to recommend the brand to others. It is therefore important to understand our event attendees in order to build good customer relationship and retention. Satisfied participants whose event needs are met and addressed are more likely to become repeat customers for future editions of the event series.

Understanding event attendees is not a once-off activity, but rather takes place throughout the entire event journey. Consider these steps in delivering a customer-centric experience across each phase of the event:

Pre-Event

Leverage on past event data to understand customer behaviour: popular sessions, average viewing time, preference towards live or on-demand content. Look for patterns to derive insights and close the gaps.
Perform benchmarking exercises to look at what competitors are doing to emulate best practices or to stand out and deliver the unique selling proposition.
Conduct inclusive planning to consider religious and cultural celebrations or disability implications to ensure that the event is accessible to all.

During-Event

Be attentive to participants’ needs. For virtual events or events with a digital component, it is handy to provide a user-friendly guide on the features of the virtual platform. 24-hour tech support is also needed to cater to international participants from different time zones.
For hybrid events, be mindful that there are two separate audiences attending the event. Hence, networking, engagement, speaker interaction and even housekeeping announcements will need to take this into consideration.

Post-Event

Share relevant conference content on demand to extend engagement and value of content beyond the event.
Conduct in depth attendee surveys to gauge their sentiment, aspirations and issues they want addressed during the event to help in tailoring content to suit their needs.