by Rick Quinn on October 29, 2009
I see this a lot – if you like this story, please share it with friends. You can email the link to your friends (with a neat customized message), or share the link on delicious, facebook, digg and other social networking sites. Yes, you can do this within the registration process, but, as event planners, wouldn’t you rather already have the data than rely on your attendees “friends” to fill it out??
Expand on this feature – integrating it within the registration process, rather than an afterthought. Ask the attendee to enter in their friends / colleagues information - name, company, job title, phone and email. Anything more than that may seem like too much work and act as a deterrent. Anything less and you may lose some critical information. But, you would have the data. They can always update their information later – filling in everything else that is required in the registration process and entering in the individual demographics (company-level demographics can be already copied over) . Yes, you can make the argument that these people didn’t register themselves for your event and therefor they shouldn’t be counted. I am not saying that. Get them in the system, market to them, confirm them, badge them, whatever. Our sister company, CrossTech Media, owners and producers of the ITEC events have implemented this with success this past fall.
For the past several years, ITEC implemented the refer a friend program with some limited success (similar to other registration processes). Since changing the registration process to the colleague style as described above, the results were extraordinary, both on the registration rate and the verification rate. While it was expected that the registration counts would increase (“colleague” registrants doubled compared to “friend” registrants), what was not expected was the higher verification rate. ITEC didn’t change much with how they marketed to the colleagues, the exercise was more of a proof of concept that anything else. This concept works. Just ask the folks at ITEC.
Remember, only a registered attendee can show up.
by Rick Quinn on August 25, 2009
Ok – so I have a busy life, both professionally and at home. I have a challenging job that keeps me more than busy and takes me all over the country, and across the world. At home, I have a wife and 4 young children. We are always on the run between school, sporting events, girl scouts, etc. You get the idea. You probably live it as well. Tonight was no different and we called on America’s Favorite Neighbor to make us dinner – via take out.
So, after placing our order and coming home, we came to realize that we were missing part of our order (my dinner). What to do?? I called back, telling the hostess that I was missing my order, and that part of our order that we did get was incorrect (this was probably my fault, though). What happened next was incredible. While the person who answered my call couldn’t help me, he put my in touch with someone who could. The manager came on the phone, I explained my story and he gave me several options to fix it – a credit on the card we used to pay, a gift card for more than the value of my meal, or a free replacement of my missing order. Seeing that I hadn’t eaten yet and the restaurant was less than 10 minutes away, I took that option.
When I got there, rather than having the standard Carside ToGo waitperson deliver my meal to me, the manag
er himself came out to greet me. He introduced himself, shook my hand and sincerely apologized for any inconvenience this caused me and my family. He doubled my order (I ordered buffalo wings) and pointed out that during ball games these and other appetizers are offered at 1/2 price.
Look, we have all made mistakes. It’s human. You learn from them. Some people are just too stubborn to admit it when it happens. This isn’t what happened here. How many times do you place an order to go and think that there is a good chance you won’t get what you ordered. This is what happened, but what happened afterwards is what really matters.
Let’s look at the chain of events that caused this to be a good experience:
- I was given several options on the best way to remedy the situation. By putting the power in my hands, this is a win-win for everyone. How can I be upset if I picked the best way to make it better??
- Admitting your mistake. This is hard to do. I make many of them and don’t always (hardly ever??) admit it when I screw up.
- Be personnal when you can. The manager didn’t need to come see me. He could have sent the wait staff and have taken a backseat to this, but he didn’t. He did it because of good customer service.
- Over-compensate. True, this was short money, but the message is clear. If you make a mistake, go way above and beyond to fix it.
- Keep selling. Admirable. During all of this he managed to pitch to me the promotions that were going on and the reasons why I should still come back. I will.
Again, the toughest part here is to realize when a mistake is made. How you handle it after the fact defines you. Exceptional customer service is one of most under-rated and most important qualities a company should have.
by Rick Quinn on July 21, 2009
I was recently at a client’s office and was asked, in my professional opinion, what the future held for RFID in the trade show environment. We all know that in today’s economy that businesses need to be budget-friendly. Yes, RFID pricing has come down dramatically in the past 3-4 years (remember the days of the $5.00 tag??), but like all technology, as it becomes more mainstream, the cost will decrease more, and the technology will increase. 
That being said, where does it belong??
Aisles and Entrances, YES / Booths, NO. One of the primary functions for RFID in the event marketplace is to measure traffic flow in and around the exhibit floor. By placing these units at the entrance ways and in the aisles you can easily measure hot spots on the floor, total time spent on the floor, and the # of days an attendee comes back to the exhibits. On the other hand, using this technology for lead retrieval is not ideal. I have a few issues with this, specifically around data privacy. Since RFID is touch less (one of the beauties), there is the potential for gaining false leads. Lead retrieval is something that you opt into – allowing the exhibitor to scan your badge. True, you can tune down the range on the reader so the tag needs to be inches away from the reader, but at that point, bar code or magstripe is just as easy (and less expensive).
Keynotes and General Sessions YES / Required Sessions, NO. RFID technology is a great way to track a large amount of people going into an area, and most readers will have a read range greater than the number of people in the “zone”. For this simple reason, using RFID in a CEU / PDH setting generates issues. People love to see the instant acknowledgment of “seeing” that their badge was read. They like to see the screen, or a person to confirm, that has their name on it, turns the screen green, or other ways that displays a “successful” read. Doing this for 10+ people at the same time is not feasible. Yes, some RFID systems work similar to an airport security booth – built on an entrance way trellis that allows people to come in single-file, but again, at this point, Bar Code or Mag Stripe technology would be a better solution for a lesser cost.
The greatest part of technology is that it is always changing and there may be a more purposes for RFID at tradeshows. I don’t see it. Do you??
by Rick Quinn on May 29, 2009
Originally aired in May, this video blog features Bill Sell and I talking about the swine flu and other pandemics at your event:
