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125: Bringing Greater Hospitality to the Ballpark w/ Eric Weisberg

The baseball business is a relationship business and has the same core values as any other hospitality industry. It’s a practice that Eric Weisberg preaches as the Vice President of Fan Experience. In this episode, Eric discusses the influences roles with Disney and the Kansas City Zoo has on his career in baseball, his “Fan Host for a Day” program and how to show up for a job in the sports industry.

3:43 Eric’s Career Journey to Tampa

11:09 Hiring for Skill Sets over Industry Experience

13:44 Fan Host for a Day

21:02 From Negative Experience to Brand Ambassador

26:45 Reviewing the Savannah Bananas

32:12 The Tech Driving the Future MLB Fan Experience

34:27 The Effect of Promotions and Theme Days

43:07 Influencing the Fan Experience Vision Across Departments

45:45 The Best Fan Experience: Naturalization Ceremony

48:46 Breaking Into the Industry

55:46 Parting Advice: Place Emphasis on the Staff

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Connect with Eric via email
Join Sports Learning Online – a cross-functional community of sports business professionals coming together to share best practices and foster professional development.

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124: How to Intentionally Serve Your Premium Clients w/ Lisa Holladay

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Lisa Holladay, Chief Experience Officer at Tiger 21, a high wealth membership organization. Lisa has spent her career in service hospitality, with stops at Mercedes-Benz and Ritz-Carlton. By viewing customers as owners, guests or members, each of these brands have created more personal relationships, resulting in more memorable experiences.

We break down the principles that make these brands synonymous with guest experience, from their customer framework to the strategies that empower staff, encourage trust and enable transparency within the memberships.

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Show Notes

3:12 Lisa’s Career “Homes”

6:00 Guests vs. Owners vs. Members

8:09 From Rational to Emotional Purchases

9:47 What is Tiger 21?

15:18 It’s the Little Things That Matter

20:38 Curating Trust and Transparency in Community

26:28 KPIs to Building a Successful Community

29:30 Recognizing Loyalty

34:16 Joshie the Giraffe and Empowering Staff

40:00 The Value of Kudos

41:28 Linking Experience to Brand Promise

46:35 Hot Take: Fake It ‘til You Make It

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For more on topics covered in this episode:

Tiger21

Ritz-Carlton and Joshie the Giraffe

Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn or Instagram

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123: Cultivating Meaningful Conversations Through Social w/ Brooke Sellas

In today’s episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy are joined by Brooke Sellas, Digital Customer Experience Specialist and CEO of B Squared Media. With more than 15 years of marketing experience and 10 years in social media management, Brooke recently authored a new book, “Conversations That Connect.” We dive into several tactics and strategies from the book, demonstrating the value of social media listening to connect with, converse with and convert customers.

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Show Notes

2:52 The CF Community Bar Crawl

7:12 Social Penetration Theory

8:52 Social Cliches

10:40 Getting and Giving Opinions

13:55 Sharing Brand Feelings

18:06 Embracing AI in Marketing

19:13 Demonstrating Brand Values and Personality

29:03 Conversations That Connect

31:07 Digital Customer Journey Flywheel

34:11 Attribution Models

35:31 Social Led Customer Care and Social Media Listening

40:38 Preparing for Primarily Social Media Customer Service

45:10 SEO is not dead

46:36 Acquiring New Customers through Social Listening

50:27 Social Media Manager Role Clarity

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For more information on the topics that we covered today:

Read Conversations That Connect

Check out Brooke’s work at BSquared.Media

Follow Brooke on Twitter or LinkedIn

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122: Inspiring Impactful Change w/ Guido D’Elia

To orchestrate a compelling game day experience for all fans requires thinking more like a play caller, an offensive coordinator, rather than simply directing a run of show. In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy sit down with Guido D’Elia, a consultant in strategic communications and college athletics game day experience. As Penn State’s Director of Football Branding and Communications, Guido was the mastermind behind the “Penn State Whiteout”, an experiment that has resulted in one of the greatest game day experiences in college football. Through insights from the Whiteout, we unpack how to deeper engage your fans and strategies for successful change management.

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Show Notes

3:47 “Offensive Coordinator” Show Calling

8:33 The Need for the Whiteout

11:30 Selling before Social Media

13:48 Communicating the Vision & Benefits in Change Management

18:26 Expanding the Whiteout Stadium-wide

20:45 Holding Back on Change

23:11 Applying the ‘Playbook’

29:11 Combating Falling Attendance Numbers

32:56 The Pain Points in the Fan Experience

37:32 The Impact of Parking

40:19 Making the Perimeter Something That Happens

45:09 Perfecting the Current Experience

47:55 The Ramp Up to Kickoff

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For more information on topics covered in this episode:

ESPN College Game Day feature: The Origin of Penn State’s Whiteout

America’s favorite family outings are increasingly out of reach

GConsultsU.com

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121: How to Incite Loyalty and Increase Customer Retention w/ Ed Frame

It’s 5x cheaper to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one and increasing retention by 5% can increase profits by 25 – 95%. Yet so many companies still prioritize customer acquisition over retention. In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy sit down with Ed Frame, CEO and Founder of Exemplify CX and discuss his 7-phase approach to Customer Longevity, converting buyers into repeat customers and brand advocates.

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Show Notes

2:35 About Exemplify and the Retention Funnel

3:59 Working Backwards – The Ideal Customer Experience

7:49 The 7 Phases of Customer Retention

11:32 Solving a Problem – Known and Unknown

16:15 Creating a Tangible “Unboxing” for Experiences

20:43 Overcoming Buyers’ Remorse

23:42 Giving Customers More

25:49 Driving Customer Loyalty

29:19 Inciting Loyalty through Social Media

32:45 The Cost of Retention vs. Acquisition

38:28 Cultivating Brand Advocates

41:08 The Value of Service Recovery

43:43 Hot Takes

46:30 Parting Advice

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For more info on topics covered in this episode:

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn

Learn more about Exemplify | 7 Steps to Customer Longevity

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120: The Simple Science Behind Successful Marketing Strategies w/ Phill Agnew

Today’s guest is Phill Agnew, a senior product marketing manager at Buffer. After struggling as a marketer in his early career, Phill discovered behavioral science and started applying psychology principles to improve his work. From distinctiveness, social proof, primacy effect and framing, Phill developed the Science of Marketing course and The Nudge Marketing Podcast to help others understand how to boost their marketing strategy.

This episode explores key strategies to apply in each of the sales funnel phases – awareness, consideration, acquisition and retention.

2:42 Breaking Down the Nudge Marketing Podcast

5:08 The Framework to the Science of Marketing Course

6:58 Awareness and Countering the Sea of Sameness

13:23 Consideration and Social Proof

16:37 The Scarcity Impact

23:19 Reciprocation in Acquisition

31:59 Choice Overload and Simplifying Decision-Making

39:19 The Pratfall Effect and Highlighting Your Flaws

47:30 The Replication Crisis

49:57 Phill’s Parting Advice on Consumer Psychology

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For more on topics covered in this episode:

Follow Phill on Twitter | LinkedIn

Subscribe to the Nudge Podcast

Subscribe to Phill’s Newsletter

Check out The Science of Marketing course

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Dr. Robert Chaldini – Influence at Work

Pret a Manger’s “Random Acts of Kindness”

Sweden’s Speed Camera Lottery

@ShitLondonGuinness

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119: Reframing Retreats & Resetting Your Operation w/ David Millay and Katie Rudy

In the daily grind, it’s hard to find time to work on the business when you are working in the business.

Staff retreats offer teams the opportunity to reset, reframe the operation and define goals for a new chapter.

In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy break down approaches to team retreats and key activities to include to break the cycle and improve your operation.

We cover:

Defining goals of the retreats
Establishing success metrics
Evaluating realities of your industry
The role of a facilitator

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To find out how we can help you reframe your staff retreat and set a new path for the year, email David or Katie for a free strategy call.

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Other topics referenced in this episode:
Greg McKeown: Where You Learned to Handle Conflict

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118: The Parallels Between Rabid Fandoms and Religions w/ Jodi Eichler-Levine

Taking a non-traditional exploration of fandom, today’s episode features Jodi Eichler-Levine, who studies the parallels between classic religions and fan cultures. After learning of Jodi’s research from her a Twitter-trending analysis on “Disney adults” or “Disney-files”, David and Jodi take a deeper dive into the principles that Disney has utilized to create evangelists of their brand and the strategies and tactics brands can adapt to their organization to inspire their own fanatics.

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Show Notes

3:52 The Foundation of Jodi’s Research

6:00 The 3 Parallels

7:28 Story

12:11 Core Memories with Disney

14:41 Transitioning Into the Story Through Theme Parks

16:00 Ritual

19:43 Creating an Environment for Individual Rituals

22:41 The Emotions of Being a Fan

25:56 Merchandise and Souvenirs as an Amulet

30:20 Community and Collective Effervescence

33:07 Creating a Environment for Community

34:33 The Magic in runDisney Races

46:52 The Diversity of Disney Fans

49:39 Journeying to Marceline, Missouri, Walt Disney’s hometown

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For more information on the topics covered in this episode:

Follow Jodi on Twitter and check out her website

Once Upon a Time – the Twitter thread that started it all

“The Gospel According to Disney” by Mark Pinsky

Disney Pin trading

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117: What Drives Customers to Buy w/ Katelyn Bourgoin

Before the “driveway to driveway” customer journey begins, there’s the whole buying process. What prompted the customer to consider your brand, product or service? What motivated them to complete the purchase?

This week, we’re jumping into the psychology behind why people buy with Katelyn Bourgoin, CEO of Customer Camp. Katelyn and David hit on the journey before the journey, the four key trigger events that lead to purchases and solutions companies have created by truly listening to their customers.

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Show Notes

0:00 Introduction

2:30 The Golden Nugget – Review Mining

5:54 Customer Camp Background

8:55 Marketing Takeaways from an Old School Alarm

14:21 Building Trust with New Customers

17:54 Creating “Instagrammable” moments

20:33 The Trigger Events

28:47 Understanding Who Customers Are and What They Want

35:34 Targeting Customers on Jobs to be Done

45:13 The Biggest Misunderstanding – We Aren’t Rational

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For more information on topics covered in this podcast:

CustomerCamp.co

Follow Katelyn on Twitter and subscribe to her newsletter

Clay Christensen | The Theory of Jobs to be Done

Other Flip the Switch podcasts referenced –

Ep. 115: How the Savannah Bananas Create the ‘Greatest Show Possible’ w/ Jesse Cole

Flip the Switch

116: The 5 Key Elements Impacting Powerful Customer Experiences w/ Elizabeth Dixon

To design a first-class customer experience, it starts with the mindset, the stories we’re telling ourselves internally and the framework for how we’re viewing the world and aligning it with what we want to create for people around us.

In this episode, David sits down with Elizabeth Dixon, entrepreneur and business leader at Elizabeth Dixon Speaks. Elizabeth has worked for or alongside several customer-centric organizations, including her current role of Principal Lead of Strategy, Hospitality and Service Design at Chick-fil-A corporate. Combining best practices and insights from her career, Elizabeth shares the 5 key elements of a great customer experience.

From mindset, we discuss the differences between service and hospitality, customer clarity, defining what makes your organization unique and innovating to meet customer needs.

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Show Notes

3:27 Applying Strategy and Design to CX

5:03 5 Key Elements of Great Customer Experience

6:52 Elizabeth’s Career Path through Chick-fil-A

7:53 The Difference Between Service and Hospitality

15:09 Choosing Your Mindset

22:15 Recovery Situations and Broken Processes

26:15 Disney and Ritz-Carlton’s Service Recovery systems

29:55 Create Your Culture

35:19 Know Your Customer

40:24 Define Your Differentiator