Creating a World-Class Customer Experience

Imagine that you have been working with an out-of-town venue for months primarily via telephone and email to plan a 3-day conference. You arrive on setup day to attend a pre-con meeting with your event manager. She invites you into a conference room to go over the details of the event one final time and discuss any last-minute changes. When you open the door, you stop dead in your tracks. There appears to be a meeting already in progress. You quickly take a step back, thinking that there has been a mistake, that the room has been double-booked. But your event manager says, “No, this is for you!”

That’s when you see a placard at the front of the table with your name on it as well as the names of the other members of your event planning team. As you take your seat, you notice the array of beverages on the side table and the yummy looking dessert at each place setting. As you scan the table, you see people in suits and others wearing polo shirts and khakis. One is even wearing an honest-to-goodness chef’s hat!

Your event manager asks each person to introduce themselves; that’s when you finally understand that these people will all play a key role in your event. You meet the general manager of the venue, the director and assistant director of sales, the beverage manager, the banquet manager, the head chef, the floor manager, the sleeping room coordinator, and several others.

After your team has introduced themselves, you get down to business. As a group, the event detail sheets are reviewed; day by day, hour by hour, room by room. Questions are asked, notes are made, and at the end of the meeting I am completely confident that the entire staff is on the same page about what I need in order for my event to be successful.

At the conclusion of the meeting, each of my team members is presented with a lapel pin to wear throughout the event, indicating that we are the decision makers and that nothing gets added or changed without our approval.

“Unbelievable,” you say? “Never happens,” you say? Well, this was my recent experience at the Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in Sandusky, Ohio. Their mission is clear; to provide a world-class experience for the event planning organizers that chose Kalahari so they want to come back again and again. This commitment to excellence carries through the entire organization, from buffet line workers and bartenders to janitorial and housekeeping.

We can all take a page from the Kalahari playbook, and strive to provide a world-class customer  experience at every event we plan for our customers. It’s the only way to do business!