Annie Smith , senior event manager , Hanson Wade Engage , explains how to engage with customers in a post-pandemic world

mproving customer experience on a regular basis is essential in today ’ s conference world . How do you make the experience even better than last year ? How do we encourage people to jump on a plane and book accommodation away from their families after two years of digital conferences that can be accessed from anywhere ? These are all questions that we asked prior to Covid-19 anyway . However , now , they have become even harder for us to answer .

While it may seem as though we are taking a lot of time to answer these questions , the answers provide a lot more value than you may think . A positive customer experience helps you to retain your customers , encourages brand advocacy as well as promotes loyalty from those customers that you ’ ve been working with . Based on all these things , the customers hold the power , and that power is stronger than it ’ s ever been before .

Meeting demands

Over the last year , I have found that previous ways of communicating with customers aren ’ t fit for

Annie Smith

purpose , as we are now in an industry that is backed up by two years and therefore , we are playing catch up .

My focus has been around how I can ensure I ’ m serving my customers in the most efficient way , while understanding that they are receiving requests from other corporate conference

“ A positive customer experience helps you to retain your customers , encourages brand advocacy as well as promotes loyalty from those customers that you ’ ve been working with .”

organisations , our competitors . Communicating the right way has never been as important as it is today . I have created a customer portal website for my event portfolio which allows my customers to access all the relevant information in a visual and central place .

Put yourself in the shoes of your customer . Sending multiple email communications is not something that is going to catch the customers eyes when they simply don ’ t have the time to acknowledge the communication .

Working in life-science conferences and bespoke networking events , there is a high demand to have key voices at these events to create value and in turn increase customer sales and retention for the years that follow .

I work closely with our conference production and customer experience team to understand what more we can do to create value at our events . What do our customers want to see ? How do we find this information considering there has been a gap in physical event feedback ? Keeping up with modern industry trends and having these conversations with our customers is what I have found to be most valuable . There is nothing wrong with asking your customers those specific questions of ‘ what do you want to see from us ?’ over calls and at the events rather than in a feedback survey post event .

Customers remain at the heart of what we do and having those conversations make them feel as important as they are to us . CN