At EngageMint, we’re huge proponents of surveying your customers to discover insights and drive innovation. If it was up to us, every athletic department would have a customer insights program that calls upon its most passionate fans to share their voices and opinions like Penn State.
That’s why we love what FIFA, the international governing body for soccer (football to the rest of the world), is doing with its Fan Experience Panel. A group of 25 football fans from across the globe were handpicked to be continuously consulted on various ways to enhance the experience on and off the field. Panel members represent 6 continents and 17 countries, coming from a variety of backgrounds to bring diverse experiences, views and ideas.
Here’s three takeaways when considering using customer feedback to source ideas from outside your department :
- Create a collaborative dialogue – FIFA’s program isn’t simply collecting a bunch of user feedback a la Amazon Reviews. Rather, fans participate in a series of workshops and provide direct input over time. Giving fans the opportunity to watch how their feedback is being applied creates more skin in the game which will ultimately lead to more collaboration and an on-going dialogue.
- Make diversity a priority – Academic research shows that organizations with higher diversity of thoughts and opinions are more likely to succeed over homogenous organizations. FIFA easily could have roped together 25 fans from a few countries in Europe and called it a representative population but the decision to select fans from 6 continents and 17 countries shows FIFA values a wide-range of opinions and backgrounds. That’s the best way to ensure no stone gets left unturned.
- Unearth the passion – The 25 fans selected had already been a part of the FIFA Fan Movement, a community with open lines of communication to the FIFA board. These fans live and breathe soccer and were willing to complete an application to become involved. College athletics fans have the same elevated passion and thus, your organization can easily tap into this network of hungry individuals looking to improve their experience.
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