AIPC
The customer journey
These days centres need to put a major effort into staying ahead of the competition by understanding who their customers are and what ’ s important to them , writes Peter King , Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre CEO .
At the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre ( MCEC ) that has meant a specific initiative focusing on the customer journey that we undertook two years ago . It was a game changer for us , and a project that has generated great interest amongst other venues around the world . In fact , it is a piece of work that provides insights that impact all customer-facing businesses .
MCEC had built a thorough three year plan encompassing all parts of our business , resulting in a detailed series of goals , objectives and delivery strategies designed to help MCEC remain ahead of its competition . This is nothing different from what most businesses do these days . However , in our view , one critical element was missing , MCEC ’ s customers . We were historically operationally focused and prescriptive in the way we interacted with our stakeholders .
This needed to change . We felt we needed to become completely customer centric , with the needs and expectations of our customers driving every decision we made . This proved to be the most important decision we have made and has transformed our entire business , our relationships , our understanding and our structure , including even our event delivery model .
The Customer Journey project had a very clear scope and sequence , which was to accurately define our key customers ; outline their needs , desires and influences with respect to events ; map how they currently make decisions and interact with MCEC ; and use those maps to identify clear opportunities to improve the customer experience .
Ultimately , we wanted to deconstruct our customers and their needs with precision , so we could determine the best way of satisfying their requirements . As a result of our findings , we reorganised our structure to ensure we provided assistance and support to customers at critical times in their particular journey with us . Our team has received constant positive feedback since this change , and we know that they now feel more empowered to provide immediate outcomes that satisfy our customers . Across the business , our post event survey results are at the highest levels we have ever seen .
Of course , the customer journey project is an ongoing one . We recently announced the launch of our customer portal , myMCEC , which aims to ensure customers continue to find it easy to do business with MCEC . We are also soon to begin stage two of our customer journey understanding , as we all know our customer and visitor expectations are evolving very quickly . We have to reset our teams , continue to challenge them and improve our delivery performance every year .
28 Convention & Incentive Marketing , Issue 3 , 2018 www . cimmagazine . com