Each organizer of training courses and conferences deals with the attendees before, during and after the event. All activities related to this qualify as Customer Service. In this post, we will focus on the most important elements of customer service before the event, so before you meet your attendees face to face.
Event attendee = customer
Often you can meet with the approach that attendees are an unpleasant consequence of the organization of events – an unwanted, one-time ballast that needs to be dealt with. Not infrequently, the conviction is that partners, sponsors or lecturers are more important, and the attendees are only the background noise. Nothing more wrong!
If you are aware that the attendee in your event is also your client, then you understand the basic relationship between you. Proper customer service is an essential element of building positive relationships and deriving long-term benefits from them.
Build relationships with attendees
Even the best lecturer won’t guarantee the success of the event if you don’t provide its attendees with professional service. It seems to be a cliché, but you can often find an approach to customer service calling for vengeance to heaven. Meanwhile, by following a few simple rules, you will avoid errors that may cost you dearly in the future.
Receive calling phones
You can’t afford to NOT receive calls. Any ignored telephone contact is a potentially lost attendee. Recall, event attendee = customer. If you can’t answer the phone at the moment, call back as soon as possible. People greatly appreciate the fact that you contact them in person after an unsuccessful attempt to contact them. This is the first element that builds a good impression of your business.
Understand the client’s needs
If you have picked up the phone or called back, put in an effort to listen and UNDERSTAND his needs. Otherwise, you will only lose time for a fruitless conversation. If somebody took the trouble to call you, they probably had good reasons. Identify them.
Manage the crisis
If the caller has only technical questions, the matter is simple. Worse, when he calls with a complaint or he is dissatisfied with something. If you don’t handle him well at this point, he may make your life really difficult during or after the event. The point is not to meet every customer’s wish, but to understand and manage the situation.
Be polite and consistent
Another cliché? Unfortunately not – how many times have you met with reprehensible service? Don’t make these mistakes yourself! Just be “smiling” in a telephone conversation. You’ll see how much easier and faster you can solve the conflict situation.
Second important matter – after completing the conversation, follow or initiate the actions that you have settled with the client. There is no worse situation in which the client feels ignored. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Just do what you said you would do.
Act according to established rules
Customer service is the easiest and most effective when you use standards and procedures. This means that you treat clients equally and act according to established, repeatable rules. This is especially important in a situation where the customer service is handled by many people in your organization. Avoiding chaos is crucial in this case. Use available tools to automate and standardize your work, especially online event registration software.
If you and your employees know how to proceed in different circumstances, then most matters will be solved quickly and efficiently. This is an important value for your clients.
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Customer service is one of the most important values that can attract attendees to your training courses or conferences. The biggest mistake is treating them as disposable customers. Building customer relations is an investment that will pay off in the future.