CHICAGO — In October and November of 2024, South Florida Ventures, a division of Informa Markets that produces its fast-growing U.S. Boating Shows portfolio, introduced a new Customer Success program for its Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS), which has garnered positive feedback from exhibitors through improved NPS and Customer Satisfaction results.
To implement the program, South Florida Ventures evaluated its internal talent and shifted people where appropriate, along with slightly increasing the size of its staff to accommodate the program across the business — but overall stayed relatively headcount-neutral.
A Purposeful Program
“The vision of the Customer Success program was to foster a personalized relationship between the exhibitor and the CS team member, where they could rely on a dedicated point of contact for consistent support throughout the event. By cultivating this connection, the goal was to offer tailored recommendations and valuable resources to enhance the exhibitor’s experience,” Terri Kennedy, Vice President of Registration & Customer Success at South Florida Ventures, said.
The Customer Success program was created to reduce the frustrations of exhibiting by making sure customers are aware of the products that are included with their packages and the other opportunities open to them because of their level of participation.
“This program is really elevating the exhibitor experience,” said Michael Robbins, Director of Customer Service and Success at Informa Markets. “As soon as they sign and close their deals with sales, it moves over to my team, and within three business days we’re reaching out. We’re making sure they have access to the exhibitor kit, and to really be there to answer any of those initial questions to relieve the pressure off of the sales team.
“We collaborate and interact with all other internal departments to help identify opportunities for exhibitors to maximize their time, resources and budgets. This is accomplished through understanding the needs of the exhibitor, whether they are a first-time vs legacy exhibitor, and through relationship building conversations with the exhibitor to encourage participation in additional marketing opportunities to help leverage their brand to our attendees.”
Four-Part Process
The program’s success plan includes four steps: Introductions, Pre-Event Planning, On-Site Support and Post Event. Each step has intentional and proactive touchpoints and documents, and a specific metric to track success.
In the first part, the Customer Success Specialist at South Florida Ventures connects with the exhibitor to share their contact information and transitions the exhibitor from the sales team to the Customer Success team.
To successfully communicate the right information, there is a dedicated person and team assigned to the show, who are also dedicated to the same exhibitors year after year. Doing this helps establish a relationship and build more trust, similar to a sales relationship but focused on the service side.
For the Pre-Event Planning phase, the team shares important information like the exhibitor kits, deadlines and move-in specifics. This is also where exhibitors are reminded to book their travel and lodging and officially register for the events. This is also when they can make special requests and get information like requirements for insurance and payments from their Customer Success Specialist.
When the show is taking place, during the On-Site Support phase, these teams take a proactive approach to solving issues by being onsite to ensure they are the main point of contact for their exhibitors from move in to move out.
After the event, these team members handle any final questions from exhibitors, express gratitude for their participation in the show and encourage them to fill out the post-event surveys and give feedback.
“While this program is still in the early stages, we have seen success throughout all phases of the live event cycle,” Robbins said. “Due to the nature of the Exhibitor needs, the most immediate impact has been felt during the Pre-Event Planning and On-Site Support stages. We are developing a consistent relationship-oriented team that will listen, learn and provide expertise and guidance to ensure each exhibitor has the information and resources needed to have an optimal experience at each event. We are also adjusting and refining the experience based on our commitment to continuous improvement, through informal feedback, post-event survey data and the needs of our internal departments to help support this program.”
Related. New South Florida Ventures Headquarters Reflects Dedication to Growth
Timing is Key
Due to the timelines of events, the Customer Success teams have certain goals for different time frames when working with their exhibitors.
“Throughout the entire process, we’re really honing in on the key 90-day period of time between move in,” said Robbins. “We’re reaching out at least three different times within 30 days of each other, really focusing on the initial planning needs at the 90-day mark, and the next touch point is in regard to discussing deadlines. The last 30 days are about final needs, like shipping and the last-minute things to get exhibitors up to speed and comfortable for their show experience.”
The Specialists also know how the exhibitors prefer to communicate, so whether that’s emails, phone calls or text messages, they’re ensuring they’re communicating in the way the customer wants. When the show is taking place, these teams take a proactive approach to solving issues by being onsite to ensure they are the main point of contact for their exhibitors from move in to move out.
Measuring Success and Results
To help understand how successful the program was throughout the whole process, the Customer Success team used reporting methods like an activity log and email campaigns through Salesforce to understand how many touchpoints were made and that key communications went out at the right times.
In total for FLIBS 2024, the Customer Success team made 2,456 touchpoints, which is comprised of more than 1,000 emails, and more than 1,000 calls and texts.
There was also a post-event customer survey that went out and had a specific question about the Customer Success experience to provide NPS and satisfaction-level data.
The survey results found that Customer Success Problem Solving was deemed “very good/very satisfied” by 99.97% of customers. Additionally, customers who engaged with the CS team, had double digit percentage higher SAT scores than those who did not.
In the events cycles ahead, the Customer Success team already has identified opportunities to improve and provide more value through redeveloping emails and collateral materials, continuing to partner with internal departments on focused opportunities and develop training sessions for the Customer Success Specialists on key pain points for exhibitors, just to name a few.
“We are extremely pleased with the early results of our Customer Success program,” said Randy Field, Senior Vice President of Marketing for South Florida Ventures. “The intent behind this initiative was always to create a scalable model that would elevate the exhibitor experience at our events. Seeing the positive feedback and the impact it’s had on exhibitor satisfaction reaffirms that we’re on the right track, but there is more work and refining to be done. Moving forward, we are excited to roll out these best practices across all South Florida Ventures boating, art and beauty shows to ensure continued success and a seamless experience for all of our exhibitors.”
Want more content like this? Subscribe to Trade Show Executive’s weekly newsletter for the hottest news, case studies and thought leadership in the industry.
