Within the meetings and conference industry your customer retention percentage is a great barometer when it comes to measuring the strength of your business.  A high customer retention rate means the customers are satisfied with your venue and choose to come back again and again.  A low customer retention rate is usually a red flag indicating that customers are unhappy and are choosing to go elsewhere.

When you start looking into investing in any new product or service the question of whether or not you will see a return on investment or ROI will come up in conversation usually with the finance person or your boss.  It can be a difficult question to answer if you are not prepared.  Before we get into any formulas to figure out the ROI it might be good to define the term.

As we look at closing the books on 2016 and starting a fresh new chapter in 2017, have you given any thought to making some resolutions for your conference and event business?  It’s fun to reminisce about your past successes, but it can be a bit more challenging to identify what needs tweaked or revamped to continue to build onto your success into the future.  Here are a few ideas that you might consider adding to your list of business resolutions:

1) Share the Workload by Delegating

With another year almost under our belts this is a good time to reflect on the good things and not so good things that have occurred over the last 12 months.  This is also the perfect time to consider looking at different ways to attract new customers to your venue.  One method is to look at your business and see where you have the ability to make some minor tweaks that could turn into major gains.  One solid idea is to consider adding a complete meeting package to your pricing options.

When looking at making any sort of purchase at your venue, especially software, it can be a daunting endeavor no doubt.  The purchasing process is like the game of Chess, strategy is key to winning and knowing the rules are critical to your success.  The hoops you need to jump through or committees that need to be convened in order to secure a software system can dissuade even the most seasoned professional.

In your ongoing effort to improve your business and customer experience it is inevitable that you will come across naysayers when you start to look into adding a new software system.  As we indicated in our last post having a cross-functional team is an important early step in the process because it takes into account a variety of viewpoints and operational needs.  We also find it helps with building up support for this type of project.

Psst did you know that all software systems are not created equal and that is what makes finding the right software system a challenge especially for conference and event professionals.  However, if you follow some simple rules the experience of searching for a system should be more productive and, even better, you will eventually get a system that is going to fit your specific business needs.  Here are some important things to consider as you set off on the journey to find a software system:

In this day and age where your operational budget continues to shrink, but demand to deliver the highest level of customer service continues to grow many conference professionals are looking for ways to do their job better and reduce costs.  SAAS or software as a service has become a great option since it provides a lot of benefits other server based software cannot.  Here are a few reasons you should consider switching to a cloud based tool at your venue:

Like a mime that goes to the trusty trapped in an invisible box skit, the feeling like the walls are closing in on you is common especially for many users of server based commercial and home-grown software systems.  The key to avoiding your business from being trapped in a software’s confined area is scalability.