Nature Of Customer Focus
Watt (1998) states that ‘The customer is king’. In effect, meeting the customer’s needs and values are paramount in event management and should therefore be focused on (Christison, 2006; Grainger-Jones, 1999).
However, it can be difficult to focus on and deliver these values due to the heterogeneous nature of customers. Within anyone audience you are likely to have numerous market segments (Bowdin et al, 2001), within which, the customers will expect, want and need different things from an event (Yeoman 2004). All of which need to be considered and targeted appropriately to keep the customer satisfied (Bowdin et al, 2001; Christison, 2006; Watt, 1998). Focusing on the types of the types of attendees and their expected behaviour will help create the correct environment and in turn, the success of the event (Shone & Parry, 2004). However, it is often hard to ascertain what customer expectations are when they do not even know themselves (Bowdin et al, 2001; Grainger-Jones, 1999). Additionally, customer expectations and moods can change at any time (Yeoman et al, 2004). Therefore event managers should plan extensively and have contingency plans in place.
As the production and consumption of events occur simultaneously, all levels staff must be focused on the customers at all times (Watt, 1998). Event management is a unique industry in that the customer is in constant contact with the producers of the product they are consuming (Shone & Parry, 2004). Therefore, managers should take extra care to deliver the event to the customer’s specifications. Overall, it is important to remember, that without the customer, any event is futile (Watt, 1998).
Literature does suggest that events are perishable by the way organizers lose interest once the event has concluded (Yeoman, 2004). However, this is bad practice and should not be consistent with customer focus. In fact, post event evaluation is useful to help ascertain the intangible elements of...
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