Staff and Stakeholder surveys are one of the most valuable measures of event effectiveness. They provide “internal customer feedback” for your events. This critical information should be a cornerstone for any well-run event marketing program.
These surveys serve to measure the perception of event marketing effectiveness among those who worked or funded the event. Often, booth staff comes from the sales side of the business. A post-event survey provides the staff with the opportunity to report their perspectives on:
- Quantity of targeted attendees
- Quality of targeted attendees
- The company’s overall presence at the show vis-a-vis the competition
- Names of important guests that may not show up in lead documentation, such as valued partners, media or an industry influencers
As a bonus, a staff survey can do much more! If well-designed, a survey reminds the staff that they are expected to deliver results at a show and then allows them to rank their performance relative to expectations.
Staff and Stakeholder surveys are particularly useful for companies with multiple event managers who are spread across geographies or divisions of the company. Event managers can filter their own responses from the aggregate data for a review of the effectiveness for an event in their specific area.
Given that event managers typicallyare pressed for time, there are a number of automated email-driven tools that can be easily administered. The results for all measured events may be aggregated into both quarterly and/or annual performance summaries for review and program adjustments.
Reviewing performance of various aspects allows the event manager to react appropriately to event staff suggestions for improvement and gather new tactics for future shows. For example, surveyors may have identified that an event should be cut from the program or that participation should be downsized. When the staff clearly indicates that an event might fall into one of these classifications, others with an eye to corporate results will take notice. It is hard to argue with a rock-solid response from company employees who witnessed the action firsthand and know the value derived from participation.
Measuring results in a number of ways, including internal surveys, are critical in gaining the appropriate recognition for all the hard work the event management team does! For assistance with developing your own method of gaining staff and stakeholder feedback, contact Exhibitus’ Results Division today.