Best practices: Customer focus under scrutiny
Practised successfully for years in many industries, company benchmarking was a novelty until recently in the European exhibition industry.
In management theory benchmarking is a recognised way of establishing relative competitive positions and identifying best practices by comparing organisational units or companies. Late last year the Institut für Messewirtschaft at Cologne University presented the results of the first Europe-wide benchmark study of exhibition organisers.
Customer focus as
the key to success
The research revealed that some 90% of the exhibition organisers interviewed perceive participation by market-leading exhibitors and professional attendees as a pivotal success factor. This underscores yet again the huge importance of customers, and therefore ultimately of customer focus, to exhibition companies. This insight is important, on the one hand, in shaping processes within a company. On the other, it raises the question as to how far customer focus is actually practised by European exhibition organisers. By comparing selected aspects, the study sets out to show whether European exhibition companies merely pay lip service to customer focus, or whether the credo of concentration on the needs of exhibitors and visitors has already found its way into their corporate behaviour.
A tool to help
determine exhibition
benefits and costs
The cost-benefit ratio of an exhibition is moving increasingly to the forefront of exhibitors attention; of late it has become an important criterion when deciding whether or not to register for a fair. During the survey period roughly 32% of exhibition organisers offered an online cost calculator. Marketing-specific consultancy for the strategic planning of an exhibition participation was available as a service at some 50% of exhibition companies. But only two exhibition organisers were able to offer their clients support with the complicated measurement of exhibition benefit and the resultant individual exhibition success (cost-benefit ratio).
It is worth noting that both these companies come from Germany and that no other European exhibition organisers explicitly stated that they offered their exhibitors a service designed to measure exhibition performance. Yet as competition intensifies and marketing budgets are constantly being cut back, the call for transparency of exhibition benefits is becoming more strident. Moving forward, greater use will therefore presumably need to be made of the potential this holds out in terms of customer focus.
Online services
Another aspect flagging a strong customer focus and high innovation potential is online services. In the study around 84% of participants identified the provision of Internet services as an important success factor for tradeshows. An extremely innovative service is the possibility of reserving one's own stand location on the Internet when registering for a fair, with reference to a map of the exhibition site. Only one European exhibition organiser, from Switzerland, offered exhibitors this facility.
According to the participants in the study, standard online facilities include an overview of the services offered by the organiser, more or less detailed site plans, links to the exhibitors homepages or lists of the exhibitors already registered.
Particularly important in terms of customer focus are Internet services that help exhibitors and visitors prepare their exhibition participation, such as the arrangement of appointment schedules online. At the time of research only about 14% of exhibition companies offered their clients a digital organiser service on the Internet. At present, however, this service features more prominently. Nonetheless, there is still potential in some countries as far as electronic exhibition preparation is concerned.
In the survey period various exhibition companies from Germany and certain of its immediate neighbours, as well as northern Europe, showed themselves exceptionally progressive in terms of online features.
Complaint management
Very few exhibition companies possess an institutionalised complaint management system. According to about 40% of responses, the time that elapses from the receipt of a complaint until it is dealt with has not yet been systematically recorded. Most of the exhibition executives researched rely on individual solutions by the respective product managers/departmental heads. Consequently the treatment of a customer complaint differs from one event to another. However, roughly 21% of the respondents could confirm that problems giving rise to complaints were resolved within 24 hours. This mixed, event-specific handling makes regional or country-related statements on best practices in complaint management very difficult
Customer relationship
management
A noteworthy finding in the survey is that notwithstanding the considerable relevance of electronic media, most companies rely chiefly on personal contact with exhibitors in their customer relationship management (CRM). Phone calls with exhibitors were cited as the second most frequent instrument after personal contact. Third came direct mailings by email or post. Only one exhibition company from northern Europe said in the survey that it used a sophisticated customer relationship management tool. This means the majority of exhibition companies live mainly off their employees personal networks.
Comparing the aspects discussed in total, an above-average customer focus emerged most clearly at a large number of German exhibition companies. On the whole, companies from east European countries also turned in results generally meriting a positive comment. An exhibition company from Germany achieved the highest customer satisfaction rating.
To summarise, it appears that notwithstanding the issues criticised in the above, European exhibition companies do display a high degree of customer focus in many areas. Customer focus is therefore more than just an empty phrase. That said and mindful of increasing competition, companies would be advised to exploit better and more systematically the potential that is clearly still out there, in order to secure or develop their competitive positions as they move forward. The slogan "Make participation easy" can safely be taken as the benchmark for customer focus in a needs-based event programme. Werner Delfmann, Rowena Arzt
Following professorships at the universities of Münster, Osnabrück and Frankfurt/Main, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Werner Delfmann, born in 1949, has been head of the Department of Business Planning and Logistics at Cologne University since 1988. He was Dean of the Department of Economics and Social Sciences from April 1999 to April 2001 and played a major part during that time in foundation of the Institute of Trade Fair Management and Distribution Research, belonging to its Board of Governors from the outset. In addition to various research projects, he also headed the first UFI European Benchmark Study completed in 2004.
After obtaining her higher school leaving certificate, Rowena Arzt, born in 1975, studied business management in Cologne, specialising in planning and logistics, marketing and market research and transport economics. Since the foundation of the Institute of Trade Fair Management and Distribution Research at Cologne University in 1999 she has worked there as an assistant. Besides helping to build up the Institute, Arzt has run and accompanied various practical projects with exhibitors, exhibition organisers and general service contractors for events, one of which was the UFI European Benchmark Study. In her doctoral thesis, which will probably be finished in Autumn 2005, Rowena Arzt examines exhibition organisers competitiveness.
m+a report Nr.2 / 2005 vom 23.03.2005
m+a report vom 23. März 2005