Presentation slides from education session 'Breaking the Barriers of Good Customer Service' at IAEE's Expo! Expo! Annual Meeting and Conference, Dec 5th,2012, Orlando, Florida. Special thanks to those who attended the session, Tim Hadfield, SME and IAEE for your support.

1. Unleashing an Untapped Resource
Nick Samain, Group Show Manager, SME Canada

2. • Discover practical methods to connect your customer
service with your sales and marketing programs to
grow your event with new exhibitors and attendees
• Find out how your peers in the industry are using customer
service to serve prospects before they become a
customer
• Learn tools on how customer service can help you break
into new markets, lead your competitive strategy and grow
market share

3. • Customer Service ...
is what an organization does when delivering its products and
services to customers, and how it does it.
• Customer Experience ...
is about how customers feel as a result of the service they
receive.
• Customer Engagement ...
is the outcome an organization wants as a result of the service
they deliver and the experience the customer has.
*with permission and courtesy of Tim Hadfield, Everything Engagement Blog, http://everythingengagement.blogspot.co.uk

4. Group Discussion:
As a consumer, think of a company you have
dealt with that provided you with ‘good’
customer service. Go around your table and
discuss.
• How or what makes them unique and standout?
• What similarities do they share? (delivery, follow
up, feeling you get, efficiency of service, quality
of care, go the extra mile…?)

5. • Methodology vs. application
• Quality of messaging
• Communication mediums
• Who is responsible for customer service in your
organization?
• Measurement of inbound & outbound
• Crossover of sales and service

6. Group Activity: Using the flipchart at your table,
make a list of everyday customer service
tasks/activities that a typical show organizer may
perform in the lead up to a tradeshow or
conference.
• Examples: collecting insurance forms, show guide listings,
operational or marketing deliverables…
• Tape this list to the wall

7. • Customer service – a necessary expenditure
• Where the sales process ends and service begins?
• You have a problem? Call customer service
• Customer service defines a quality experience
• Oh what a feeling! Examples of memorable
communications and its lasting impression (positive
and negative)

8. • Service first and sales will follow? Defining the
lines of battle
• Customer service benchmarks – focus on loyalty
• Extend your reach into the marketplace without
adding resources
• Seasonal nature of inbound customer service?
• Offense or defense – the right mix
• Calling customers before they are a customer?

9. Empower your customer service team
• Audit your ratio of inbound vs. outbound – do you
have the right mix?
• Consider your seasonality and any excess capacity
• Count and evaluate the number of times you
interact with your customer per cycle
• Be objective in measurement of the quality of
messaging – can it improve?

10. Messaging your value
• Identify all value add engagement programs that
support your event throughout the cycle –
communicate!
• Old is new? Use the telephone!
• Direct mail opportunities – make it personal
• Balanced messaging and avoiding direct sales
• Make every message an opportunity for further
engagement by your customer – on their time

11. Value-add engagement programs
• Definition?
• Group Activity: On your flip chart, list some of your
own value-add engagement programs that you
have used (past or present) at your event to engage
your attendees or exhibitors.
• Examples: loyalty programs, new product programs,
special event features, online engagement…
• Tape this to the wall next to the first list

12. Group Activity: Using a new flipchart…
1. Consider all of the customer service initiatives from
the first list
2. Evaluate your second list of value-add engagement
programs
3. Now try and bundle one of the customer service
initiatives(list 1) with a value add engagement program
(list 2).
4. You can pair more than one value-add engagement
per customer service task

13. Group presentation
How can your group suggest a practical example
of how to improve the effectiveness of a customer
service message by adding value-add messaging?

14. • Eliminate any ‘one-way’ conversations and add
engagement opportunity to every type of
communication. Make the most of any
communication deliberately!
• Create the ‘myth’ and remove fear: your customer
service can do anything (and will) to win absolute
satisfaction of your clients. (Ferrari speed example)
• Ever increasing expectations – recognize this now
and turn it into a competitive edge

15. • Focus on the ‘how’ of customer service is crucial to
achieving client satisfaction – however don’t ignore
the ‘where’ and to ‘who’ it is being applied
• Consider ‘offence’ vs. ‘defense’ when it comes in
inbound and outbound touches with your clients.
What is a healthy mix for your org?
• You have great value-add programs already, use your
customer service to help these reach new clients and
drive business

16. THANK YOU!
Unleashing an Untapped Resource
Nick Samain, Group Show Manager, SME Canada