Why Liverpool Convention Bureau love to hear your thoughts.
Everyone dreads the often-ignored question, ‘Can you spare just a few minutes for a short survey?’ Nevertheless, in the world of marketing, gaining feedback has never been more important.
As businesses across the globe continue to react and evolve to the shifting sands of a post-pandemic world, understanding our target demographic is more critical and insightful than ever before.
Jenny Jensen heads up Liverpool Convention Bureau, a highly successful branch of Marketing Liverpool. Her team understand the value of habitually securing customer feedback, seeking this out at every opportunity.
Here we’ll highlight a selection of the latest testimonials Liverpool Convention Bureau have received and discover how reputation is everything, when it comes to securing high-profile and highly-lucrative events.
The Liverpool Convention Bureau team. L-R – Suzanne, Jayne, Jenny, Lisa and Rachael.
I meet Jenny at our open-plan, Cunard Building office, as she just finishes leading a team meeting, before we sit down for a quick catch-up. It’s the first time I’ve seen some members of the team in a while. I remark on how nice the convention bureau crew are and Jenny agrees.
“That’s the thing about the events industry. It tends to attract sociable, outgoing people. The type of people that love meeting, sharing ideas and they’re the type of people that love to talk and when they talk about Liverpool, be it our venues, or our convention bureau, we want that conversation to be positive”, which leads us straight into the main thrust of our meeting.
Jenny shows me her market research databases and talks me through her team’s qualitative and quantitative feedback analysis process, explaining how her team collect data for each client and event, that is then analysed and forms part of post-event report.
“Feedback is paramount in this industry. In the rare instances that there’s an issue with an event, whatever it may be, it’s our job to jump on this and sort it out as fast as we can. Making the effort to regularly request feedback ensures that issues are not only identified but also rectified and hopefully prevented from occurring again.
“We’re here to not only secure events for the city but to ensure they are as successful and run as smoothly as they can be. If you’re serious about delivering an outstanding experience, you need to be serious about your market research.
“It may seem like a small thing, but event organisers talk. They tell other event organisers about their experience. The reputation that Liverpool City Region has built up is nothing short of incredible but we have to keep earning that reputation, with every event.
To do this, the Liverpool Convention Bureau team employ a variety of methods to collect and analyse data, including online questionnaires, face-to-face-feedback and even ‘thank-you’ messages received organically from client’s emails. This is then collated and analysed to create a reliable and informative impression of the event’s success.
“It’s great to see the big picture and to get an overarching impression of success, but I actually find the individual comments to often be the most revealing. There’s usually a high-level of consistency and I must admit that it does give us a sense of affirmation. One that confirms all that we say about the city and the things we pride ourselves on as a team.”
I ask Jenny to tell me what these things are. If she had to condense decade’s worth of feedback received into a short, concise, what would she say?
“People always talk about friendliness. How friendly Liverpool is, how people couldn’t do enough to help them and how beautiful the city is, how much there is to do here and we’ve seen a real shift away from this being a surprise to being the expectation that was delivered.
“When people talk about Liverpool Convention Bureau, they always talk about our dedication, our connections, our knowledge of both the industry and the city region and how easy it is to work with us, which gives us great pride.
“It’s just like what you said earlier, we’re a friendly bunch and we genuinely enjoy welcoming and helping people. That character will take you far in this industry, which is about being a great host. In that sense Liverpool Convention Bureau team offer the perfect introduction to our city region and the feedback confirms this, again and again.”
Read a small selection of typical recent Liverpool Convention Bureau feedback below:
ARE YOU AN EVENT ORGANISER WHO HAS WORKED WITH LIVERPOOL CONVENTION BUREAU?
Please vote for Liverpool Convention Bureau in this year’s M&IT Awards in the category of Best UK Convention Bureau! In 2021 we took home the silver award so in 2022 help us Go for Gold! The convention bureau team work tirelessly and passionately to attract conferences to the city which supports the wider visitor economy.
Vote here: https://www.mitawards.co.uk/vote/ and scroll down to the category of Best UK Convention Bureau
Please note you must be a bonafide event organiser to cast a vote.
Visit the Liverpool Convention Bureau website for more information and follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn.