Internship - Problem Resolution Paper

Retaining the Fan: They bought the ticket- Now how do I get them to return?
Abstract: A resolution for how to increase fan retention among all fans via the avenues of better communication, the gathering of data, and social media.

Submitted by: Matthew Phillips

MGT 494 Internship Summer 2012 today's date 10/01/12

Internship Client Contact information

Scott Bailes Manager of Market Development Springfield Cardinals 955 Trafficway Springfield, MO 65806 417-766-5072 sbailes@cardinals.com

Table of Contents
Identify the Problem What is the Ideal Situation? Solution Process Following up with fans who attend a game (Group Leaders) Collecting Data (Research) Social Media Conclusion References Appendixes A B C D E F G 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 3 4 6 6 9 11 13 15

As I approached my task of identifying a problem with the Springfield Cardinals franchise, I struggled with the idea. Knowing the sheer number of interns that had worked their way through the internship, I wondered if all the problems had been solved. As I looked around, it seemed as though everything was running fairly smoothly, but I knew there was always something within an organization that could be improved on. A closer examination revealed one of the major problems with the Springfield Cardinals organization is connecting with the fans. To expand on this rather broad statement, I would narrow it to connecting with the fans following the agreement to purchase tickets. In addition, I would cite three areas where the organization fails to reach its potential: following up with fans who attend games (especially group leaders), collecting data from the fans via research, and using social media as a constant outreach to fans during and after games. I discovered connecting with the fans to be a problem with the organization once summer rolled around and I was fortunate enough to have more free time to sell tickets. As I looked for an approach to sell tickets, one of the areas where I thought I could make a pretty good pitch was the area of fundraisers. As I approached a number of non-profits around the community, one glaring weakness in the Springfield Cardinals organization became apparent. They had not effectively communicated with the non-profits between initial sale and game day, nor had they followed up with the customer to understand any problems or difficulties they were having. In a few cases, I was met with initial approval from a first level of influence and ultimate shutdown from a superior that cited a previous bad experience as the main reason for not wanting to purchase tickets for a possible fundraiser.

Another area where I saw a lack of effort was researching fan preferences. I was present on more than a couple of occasions where decisions were made based off of a hunch or a simple questioning of the sales staff. Although this may be acceptable in a few occasions, the ease of data collection and the abundance of data that can be collected make it unacceptable to not consult in most situations. Implementing a plan to gather data from the fan will go a long way in helping the organization make better decisions. Finally, I realized later in the season that the social media presence was entirely too basic and not utilized to the fullest potential. As I started to follow the Cardinals on twitter and liked them on Facebook, I would occasionally see what they were tweeting about and what kind of posts they had on their page. It was shocking how many posts and questions went unanswered by the page. I have been in the office on multiple occasions and walked around and seen half of the interns and fulltime staff on either Facebook or twitter, but then looked at the page and saw a complete lack of interaction with the fans. There are market norms in each of these areas, and I think the Cardinals fall at or below the norm in all of these categories. They may not be able to move to the top of any of these categories in the next couple of years and may never reach the ideal situation, but I think there are definitely some steps that can be made to begin to make improvements in the short term. In some cases, short-term results may just be a case of making the problem a priority for one or two employees. The first situation seems to be the most straightforward out of the three. Ideally, the Cardinals staff member should contact the group leader multiple times between the initial sale
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and the day of the game. This contact should not just be calls about when they will pay the rest of the money, but instead calls regarding anything extra that could be done to improve the quality of time the group will have at the game. These calls are especially important and should be doubled for the fundraising groups. The fundraising groups have bought tickets in advance to try to sell to others. This can turn out to be a great event or a case (as it was with some of the non-profits I approached) where the organization loses money on what should have been a fundraiser. Following the game, the employee who sold the group should personally follow up with every group leader that attends a game at Hammons field. This would be the ideal situation, should start as a policy, and will take a major buy-in from the employees. Although it may not be achieved right away, it could be ingrained in the culture of the organization a few years down the road. The next area of discussion has a little less in terms of a concrete ideal situation. Organizations struggle with the balance between collecting data and endangering the fan relationship by bothering them too much. This makes for different ideal situations for different areas of the world and different segments of the population. For this reason, the ideal situation should start with a program that collects the data that already exists in your system such as a database of emails, numbers, type of tickets, number of tickets etc. The Cardinals should have an excel sheet with all of this information on it following the end of each season. After this basic information, the organization would ideally also conduct a number of their own surveys and hire an outside source to conduct one or two as well. The type of surveys will vary, because in most

cases there is a point where you are simply conducting too many.
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The final area, social media, proves to be the most difficult area to find an ideal situation because of how quickly the market changes. In addition to the changes, there is now a vast majority of options available to the sport property. (Yi) Speaking in broad terms, your organization should have a major social media presence. This can be accomplished through a variety of mediums, but the ideal situation for the Cardinals would be to start with a solid website and parlay that in to the other social mediums. They need to have a running blog on the teams activities, a very active twitter account, a special area of their site for season ticket holders to interact, and a Facebook account that is widely followed, updated often, and responsive to fans interactions. (Read) The solution to the first problem is both complicated and difficult to achieve from an organizations perspective. The problem starts with the culture of the organization. One of the most important building blocks for a highly successful organization and an extraordinary workplace is "organizational culture. (Dynamics) The culture of the sales staff for the Cardinals organization is as a jumping off point for a career. Only two of the seven full time staff for Springfield had worked with the Cardinals for a year. When individuals know they will be leaving an organization than the importance becomes sales numbers for that year as opposed to long term retention. Eventually, this culture needs to change and emphasis needs to be placed on retention of groups from year to year. Without a strong culture this may never change. (Difebo) The emphasis on changing culture may take a little time to catch hold, so there needs to be some quantitative benchmarks put in place to ensure the program achieves success. (Difebo)
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The first benchmark I would put in to place is a required number of follow up calls with the group prior to the date of the game. This is something that can easily be added to the daily reports that the full time sales staff is already required to give to the Sales Director and Ticket Director. In addition to this change, I would also administer a survey to each group leader that attends the game. The salesperson with the best cumulative results from the surveys every month would be given a reward and there could be a traveling trophy sent around the office. (Neuborne) I would make sure to follow up the ensuing year and check to see if the survey results matched up with retention statistics. Although some of these statistics would be very helpful in evaluating the sales performance of the staff, it would also be beneficial to assist in the efforts put forth by the fundraising groups that purchase tickets. This is a major issue for the Cardinals organization. Many of the fundraising groups that book with the team do not end up having a beneficial fundraiser and fail to make money off of the event. There are many options out there that other teams are taking advantage of in the minor leagues. One organization that has a much more successful fundraising effort and system is the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The Cats have made major strides in the area of fundraisers by offering incentives to the individuals in each organization who sell the most tickets. The structure they use rewards individuals for tickets starting with just 10 tickets sold. The rewards included items such as an MVP Healthcare KidPower Play Area Pass, a ballpark tour, the opportunity to meet a Fisher Cats player, and the chance to throw out a First Pitch if they sold over 30 tickets. Not only did the Fisher Cats provide great incentives that cost them almost no money, but they also offset what little cost they
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had by putting a sponsor on the entire program. The program now called the Centrix Bank Community Outing Fundraising Program turned a cost of incentives in to revenue for the team. (Official Site of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats) In addition to rewarding the individuals within the group that sell the tickets, other teams have also taken big steps to reward the individuals who set up the group. This is something that I simply did not see a lot of in the Cardinals organization. In most cases, putting the group together and getting everyone their tickets can become a very stressful undertaking for the individual that is placed with the responsibility. This individual deserves to be rewarded accordingly. More than likely, the group leader will be the same person in upcoming years. Therefore, it is the duty of the organization to make sure it was worthwhile for that person to go about purchasing tickets. (Gregg) Even if the entire group had a fairly good time, they may not be interested in being the individual that books the event the next year. One such business that understands this entirely is the Telios Group. The Telios group stresses the importance of group rewards programs. (Goch) In addition to the emphasis by the Telios group, there are a number of different teams who have great programs in place to attract group leaders who will be eager to put together large groups of fans to attend a game. One such organization is the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts offer the group leader items such as a Super Bowl hat, a colts jacket, and an autographed ball depending on number of tickets sold. (The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts) One of the programs that Telios mentions that relates a little closer to the Cardinals is the Florida Everblades. The Everblades reward group leaders with autographed pucks and sticks, as well as pairs of complimentary tickets to future games. (Goch) Although these rewards are not
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big enough to influence someone to put together a group just to get the discount, they show the group leader that the Cardinals realize the effort that you put in and they appreciate it. If the Cardinals followed these steps in creating better retention for groups and casual fans, I think they would see increases immediately as well as major gains down the road. The next area where the Cardinals are failing to make inroads is the area of research. There are far too many decisions made by the Cardinals without consulting the fan. These decisions may be made on the basis of the fans best interest, but this notion is simply not good enough in the competitive market we are in today. The Cardinals need to be actively searching for fans opinions via a variety of methods and using those opinions to create a better product for their customers. The first step I would take on my road to the solution process is to figure out who you want to collect data from the most. In the world of business, it has long been understood that loyal consumers typically spend more, refer new customers, and cost less to do business with than the average consumer (Boone, Kochunny, & WIlkins, 1995; Kuo, Chang, & Cheng, 2004). In no place is this truer than in minor league baseball. Despite this fact, a number of minor league baseball franchises have lost fans the past year. As competition for the entertainment dollar increases, sport managers must become increasingly aware of the intangibles associated with marketing the sport product as well as factors affecting fan retention and loyalty. (Miloch) From this data, we can conlculde one of the most important collections of fans is your season ticket holders. They are going to be bringing in the majority of your revenue, so it is very
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important to keep this constituent of your fan base very happy at all times. (Gromko) Simply understanding what your season ticket holders want will immediately increase your ticket sales, but even more importantly, your merchandise and concession sales. Most of your season ticket holders have already bought all the tickets they will purchase, and this leads an organization to forget about them during the regular season. This can be a detrimental move for the organization as these season ticket holders are still contributing a good chunk of revenue throughout the course of the season by way of other avenues. (Miloch) A great way to collect in season data from these fans is to approach them during a game and ask about their recent purchases. Even if they turn you down, you can at least stay and hang out to show you are expressing interest in them. If they do comply, you gather valuable data about purchasing decisions that cannot be gathered at any other time. The reason for this is because they may not remember down the road why they purchased the hot dog instead of the funnel cake. This makes the data very tough to gather following the day of the game. Although data gathered during the season is very important, the off-season is still the most crucial time to interact with your season ticket holders. This is when fans feel disconnected from the team and strive for more interaction from the sport property. A survey to season ticket holders by Mental Insights LLC reported statements from season ticket holders such as, We wish that they would communicate a bit more during the winter months when there are no games. (Mental Insights LLC) This seemed to be the sentiment from the season ticketholders I spoke with at Springfield games. While we do an excellent job of communicating with the fan during the game, we seem to struggle to develop a line of communication outside of the baseball
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season. A survey that allows them to participate and give feedback would be a great way to break up those winter months. One team that is proving to be a benchmark in the area of survey taking, giving, and reporting is the University of Tennessee Volunteers. The Volunteers saw a dramatic increase in revenues due to an increase in the effectiveness of the surveys they gave their fans. The Volunteers looked at the results of the surveys and made a number of changes to the way they conducted business. (Beck) Some examples included reducing prices of concessions,

improving the cell service, and increasing the selection and quality of food in the concession stands. (Beck) The last section is the hardest to predict because of how quickly the social landscape changes in the world today. Despite these facts, there are some very basic social media plans that need to be followed by your entire organization. Right now social media does not even seem to be on the radar of the Springfield Cardinals. They have one individual controlling both the twitter and the Facebook account. This makes it nearly impossible for him to keep up the necessary banter and interaction required to keep fans interested. The first step I would take towards developing a better social media plan would be to get to know my audience. This would require the user to not jump directly in to the social media, but rather take some time to answer three important questions- Who, What, and Where. These three questions must be answered before the Cardinals try to fully immerse themselves in social media. (Read) The first question of who involves getting to know who the key influencers are
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when it comes to your property. Turning influencers in to advocates is a great way to reach both old and new fan markets. The next question to be answered is what. When answering this question, you want to figure out whether the majority of talk revolving around your organization is negative or positive. If possible, you want to spin any negative talk in to positive talk. Finally, you want to answer the question of where. This involves deciding which form of social media you want to use to spread your message. It is hard to predict for the Cardinals based off of just likes and followers, but it seems as though they need to use both twitter and Facebook to spread their word. Once the Cardinals know their audience, I would encourage them to outline specific goals for each medium they are currently using and discuss the options of moving in to another medium. Next, I would immediately utilize my interns, who are probably the most qualified for anything to do with social media. Following the development of the goals and picking of my interns, I would place the ones who are most proficient with each medium in that particular discipline. There would be overlap to make sure no question went unanswered. I am going to start with the medium of social media that has been utilized the longest and work my way backwards. The first part of the Cardinals social media outlook is the website. While the Cardinals have a decent website, there is nothing on the website that grabs fans to connect to it and stay connected. For example, the poll on the front page of the website has been up on the first page for almost the entire year. If the Cardinals could change this weekly, the avid fan would have a much better chance of coming back to vote for the weekly question and hopefully also hang on to read some of the other stories. (Follett) Another area that needs some
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work is the season ticket holder area of the website. An area that allows them to communicate amongst one another and possibly trade tickets with other customers who may have the game you are interested in. (Official site of the Indianapolis Colts.) Once I was satisfied with the website, I would turn my focus to the Springfield Cardinals Facebook page. A quick glance through the page shows a lack of care on the part of the Cardinals. There are over 10 questions in a row that went unanswered. This cannot be blamed on the person controlling the Facebook, but rather on the organization as a whole. It is simply unacceptable to not respond to fans who are reaching out to your organization. The Facebook and Twitter mediums need to be fully utilized to engage with fans and interact with anyone who is trying to get more Cardinals baseball. A quick fix to this problem would be to just give more people who are trusted the password to the account. This allows multiple people to have the opportunity to answer the question people are asking. (Yi) A lot of the same problems that exist with Facebook also exist with Twitter. An additional problem with the Cardinals Twitter/Facebook effort is the lack of pictures of promotional items or information about upcoming special days at the park. I cannot figure out why the Cardinals have not jumped on the idea of tweeting out promotional items or posting them as Facebook pictures. Another possibility is using either of these mediums as a way to sell tickets by pushing upcoming deals. In conclusion, I believe that the Cardinals focus too much energy on the initial sale and not enough energy on the follow up with the customer. This lack of follow up leads to a lack of connectivity and ultimately can result in not retaining that customer or not getting the highest

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possible dollar amount from the customer. There are three factors that contribute to this lack of follow-up with the customer. The factors include failing to adequately talk to customer following a sale, refusing to do the necessary research to fully understand the customer, and not utilizing social media as a great new way to connect directly with fans. I believe a turnaround in these areas will lead to better retention and a stronger more consistent fan base.

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References Beck, Eleanor. (2011). UT Athletics uses Survey to Upgrade Fan Experience. http://www.wbir.com/news/article/233772/2/UT-Athletics-uses-survey-to-upgrade-fanexperienceBennett, Gregg and Jason Reese. Perceptions of Season Tickets: A Minor League Baseball Franchise Setting. 2010 North American Society for Sport Management Conference (NASSM 2010). 2010. Boone, L.E., Kochunny, C.M., Wilkins, D. (1995). Applying the brand equity concept in Major League Baseball. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 4(3), 33-42. Centrix Bank Community Outing Fundraising Program. Official Site of New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Hampshirehttp://www.milb.com/team3/page.jsp?ymd=20100427&content_id=9608258 &vkey=team3_t463&fext=.jsp&sid=t463. 2012 DiFebo, Matt. (2008). A Great Start. Articles and Resources- Athletic Management. http://www.difebocompany.com/difebo-articles-athletic-management-feb08.htm. Accessed 9/27/2012. Dynamics Foundation LLC. (2011) http://www.dynamicfoundations.com/culture.htm. Accessed 9/22/2012 Follett, Andrew. (2010) Simple Strategies for Engaging your Visitors. http://sixrevisions.com/content-strategy/strategies-engage-visitors/ Accessed 9/27/12 George, John. BlueClaws minor league baseball team so popular it caps ticket sales. Philadelphia Business Journal. 2012. Goch, Ron. (2012). Group Leader Rewards Programs. http://www.theteliosgroup.com/qa/group-leader-rewards-programs#more-368. Accessed 9/23/2012 Gromko, Sarah. (2012). Fanta$tic: How a Broad Understanding of Your Fan Base Can Increase Your Bottom Line. GromKo. http://www.gromkomusic.com/2012/01/fantatic-how-abroad-understanding-of-your-fan-base-can-increase-your-bottom-line/ Accessed 9/25/2012.

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Heinz, Matt. (2012). How to Innovate like a Minor League Baseball Team. http://www.heinzmarketing.com/2012/07/how-to-innovate-like-a-minor-league-baseballteam/. Accessed 9/22/2012. Kuo, T., Chang, C., & Cheng, K. (2004). Exploration of consumer loyalty in recreational sport/fitness programs. The Sport Journal, 7(1), 1- 8. Liyakasa, Kelly. (2012). CRM in Baseball: A Conference Closer. Destination CRM Blog. Accessed 9/22/2012. Migala, D. (2005a). Retention center: Learn how to maximize the fan experience to create lasting impressions to keep fans coming back and increase ticket sales. 2005. Miloch, Kimberly. Making it in the Minors: An Integrated Strategy to Achieve Sustained Financial Health. The SMART Journal. Volume 2, Issue 1. 2005. Neuborne, E. (2003). Complaints welcomed. Sales and Marketing Management, 155(5), 20. Read, Ash. (2010). Utilize Social Media to Grow Your Fan Base. Sports Networker. http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2010/10/04/utilize-social-media-to-grow-fan-base/. Accessed 9/25/2012. Strauss, Brian. Power to the people: Sounders give fans right to retain or fire GM Adrian Hanauer. SportingNews Soccer. 2012. The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts. 2012. http://www.colts.com/ Accessed 9/29/2012. Trail, G.T., Fink, J.S., & Anderson, D.F. (2003). Sport spectator consumption behavior. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 12(1), 8-17. Westerbeek, H.M. & Shilbury, D. (2003). A conceptual model for sportservices marketing research: Integrating quality, value and satisfaction. International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 2003(March/April), 11- 27. Yi, Joseph. (2010). Does Branding Through Social Media Work for Teams? Sports Networker http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2010/09/02/does-branding-through-social-media-workfor-teams/ Accessed 9/27/2012

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Yi, Joseph. (2010). Limits of a Teams Brand. http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2010/09/23/limits-of-team-brand/ Accessed 9/27/2012

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Appendix A
Benchmarks Number of calls b/t initial sale and game day Group Leader Review Score Follow up with Group Leader during the game Follow up with Group Leader following the game TOTAL Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5

*All ratings on a scale of 1-5

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Appendix B
Group Leader Evaluation Form Name of Group_________________________ Group Contact____________________________ Was this your groups first outing at Hammons Field? Worst How well did you enjoy your experience at Hammons Field? 1 How likely are you to return to Hammons Field? How would you rate your sales executive? How would you rate the stresses/perks of being a group leader? 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 Yes No Best 7 7 7 7

What improvements would you like to see made to the experience of the game or the process of bringing a group out to the game? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ What did you enjoy most about coming to the ballpark or the process of being a group leader? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Questions for Fundraisers ONLY Were you able to sell all of the tickets you purchased for resale? _________________________ If not, what do you think went wrong in the process? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ What improvements can we make in the future to fix this problem? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix C
Springfield Cardinals individual fundraising incentives 10-20 tickets- Free wristband for the fun zone at an upcoming game 21-30 tickets- Free wristband and individual tour of ballpark (may bring up to two guests) 31-40 tickets- Meet and Greet with player before game and Free wristband 40+ tickets- Chance to throw out first pitch and Free wristband

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Appendix D
Springfield Cardinals group leader REWARDS program 20+ tickets- Free Cardinals T-shirt OR hat 50+ tickets- Free Cardinals T-shirt AND hat 100+ tickets- Autographed ball by player of choice 250+ tickets- Autographed ball and Cardinals jacket

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Appendix E
In game survey for season ticket holders Note: Make sure you know name and background information before approaching the season ticket holder. Small Talk (3-5 minutes) Hello Mr. /Mrs. ___________________________________________ How have you been? Are you enjoying the game? How do you like your seats this year? (Make note if they want to change for next season) Survey We were looking to get some more information from our season ticket holders about their thoughts on the concession stands and the team store. Would you care to participate in a quick survey? Have you purchased any concession items at the park today? If so, what were your thoughts on the price point of that item? How did you view the items against one another? Were there some changes you would like seen made to the concession stands? Have you purchased any merchandise recently? How has that merchandise worked out for you? What were your thoughts on the price point of that item? Were there any items we are currently not carrying that you would like to see in the future? Any other thoughts on the team store, concession stands, or your experience in general?
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Appendix F
Survey for Any Fan that Attended Game as They Leave Did you purchase your tickets? How many games do you normally attend in one season? What is the Likelihood of you recommending a Cardinals game to a friend? Very Likely
7 6 5 4 3 2

Not a Chance
1

What was your favorite between inning promotion? _________________________________________________________________ Did the Cardinals win? _______________________________ Did you have fun? _________________________________ What changes would make your experience more enjoyable? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

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Appendix G
Social Media Plan Step 1: Get to know the online influencers in our niche Step 2: Conceptualize and communicate your social media goals. Step 3: Allocate a budget for resources Step 4: Find the right people. Step 5: Determine what our value exchange is and how we will articulate it. Step 6: Take care of our social media program with continuous nurturing.

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