Client relation management keeps the money coming in
If you do your job well, you don't need customer loyalty measures - but that's not how most event agencies see it and pamper their business associates outside day-to-day business.
Many agencies in the event business complain that customer relationships are getting shorter and shorter. Co-operation is limited to the project level and long-term partnerships are rare. All the more reason to practise good customer retention to keep hard-won relationships and to nurture the customer's loyalty to the agency after the project is completed. Some agencies are past masters at this.
For the team at the TAS agency in Essen, good customer relationship management (CRM) is central to customer care. "We try to bring our company name and corporate philosophy ‘emotional marketing' into CRM. For instance, we value personal contact with our customers rather than broad, general mailshots. We create emotional experiences with individualised measures. We communicate and meet our customers on specific occasions and, of course, we have a whole gamut of quality TAS souvenirs, such as TAS-branded Moleskines" (notepads), reports managing director Thomas Siepmann. The customers response to these measures had been thoroughly positive. A customer satisfaction analysis is planned this year to prove it. For example, one enjoyable event that was also good for customer care and supplemented CRM measures was a pre-premiere screening of the film "The Miracle of Bern", to which the agency invited its business associates and customers.
MCI (PGI) in Stuttgart is not keen on customer loyalty in the strict sense of the word: "Customers cannot be tied in a bond of loyalty. Our approach is to build and develop a mutually beneficial relationship. This is a process that ensures long-term co-operation. The measures to achieve this can be anything that gives customers genuine additional benefit and strengthens a positive relationship. One-sided ‘agency navel-gazing' is counterproductive" judges managing director Carsten Knieriem. "Of course, personal conversation tops any list of priorities. We prefer listening and personal contact. It gives us an even better understanding of the challenges facing our customers so we can develop really targeted solutions."
But even in Stuttgart, they don't dispense with customer events entirely. PGI regularly invites friends and associates to Stuttgart to the "PGI House of Live Communication". Otherwise, the agency uses the tools of continuous PR work for basic awareness.
"The simplest and most effective customer loyalty measure is simply to do the job so well that the customer does not even consider changing agencies", concludes Andreas Grunszky of First Class Events, Berlin. The Berliners use various instruments for customer communications. Since 2000, they have been inviting customers to "event spots" at which customers from allied sectors can exchange information. "This measure is well received because it concentrates on networking rather than on canvassing for the agency", Grunszky points out.
"And at the close of each business year, we find a surprise way of vividly presenting a unique selling point of our agency and our guiding principle for the coming year to our clients." Grunszky: "This measure is always well received because it is not comparable with a conventional supplier's Christmas present, because both in this and in our daily business, we want to be unique and unmistakeable."
For the past 14 years, the Wuppertal-based Vok Dams group has been inviting guests to trend.lab to discuss the latest market developments with clients, speakers and experts. The agency staff also participate in symposia and seminars as an important way of disseminating and picking up ideas in the sector and thus strengthen their own brand. They also make use of "e-dialogue", which supplements the usual newsletters as a way of informing customers about new projects and developments at the agency.
As part of a roadshow, the Wuppertal agency presents itself in German cities in an attempt to reach customers who were unable to travel to trend.lab. "Time and again it has been shown that nothing is more effective than personal contact. Of course, we try to provide a framework for this, one that communicates stimulating topics and food for discussion in a relaxed atmosphere", says Wolfgang Altenstrasser, manager at Vok Dams. The agency regularly runs studies on important topics relevant to live marketing, which are also intended to encourage customer loyalty.
Antje Peters-Reimann
m+a report Nr.7 / 2006 vom 27.10.2006
m+a report vom 27. Oktober 2006