Hit a Sales, Marketing and Customer Service Home Run with Microsoft Dynamics 365

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Sports and entertainment organizations are always looking to maximize ticket sales for both game and non-game day events. I know I’m stating the obvious. They’re constantly contending with rising venue costs and ever-increasing pressure to sell out their stadiums and arenas. Understandably different events attract a variety of demographics (sports events, concerts, circus, etc.), making it essential for them to gain deep insights about attendees and their buying patterns. With these insights, sports and entertainment organizations are in a better position to expand their reach to broader demographics and achieve their ultimate goals of maximizing ticket, concession and merchandise sales.

But that’s easier said than done, or is it?

The Challenges Blocking a Professional Sports Organization’s 360-Degree View – A Real-world Customer Example

One of my customers was struggling to better understand their fans’ interests and buying patterns. The organization had made a major investment in a new arena, resulting in even more pressure to maximize revenues and offset their increased operational costs. They chose to engage our Dell Technologies Consulting Services team and leverage our new ProConsult Advisory offer to develop a vision and roadmap for increasing their share of wallet across all points of sale.

Our consulting experts helped them identify their current challenges inhibiting their customer draw. Lacking key demographic information about their fan base, interests and buying patterns was a big obstacle they needed to overcome. For example, if a salesperson sold 4 tickets to an individual and knew that individual had 2 young children, they’d be a prime target when the arena was hosting a circus or other family friendly event. If sales sold 2 tickets to a middle age couple with no children, they could be a prime target for a specific concert at the arena. Lacking visibility into this customer data prevented their sales teams from effectively cross-selling and marketing other activities to their fan base.

Fan interests and buying patterns weren’t within their purview, unlike Amazon and others who’ve mastered this. They had no idea which fans preferred weekday versus weekend games or who typically only attended games on promotional nights. By gaining these insights, their sales team could create and sell customized ticket packages based on fan game preferences.

What about fans’ total spend, that’s something good to know, right?

Ticket sales directly through the organization was the only method being tracked. Visibility into the secondary ticket market (stubhub) was lacking, inhibiting their ability to track fans entering the venue through all point of sales mechanisms. They hadn’t yet developed a loyalty program/strategy, which meant they weren’t capturing key data on fan spend on concession and merchandise.

When all is said and done, fan experience trumps all!

If fans weren’t returning, why not? The organization felt by increasing the level of customer service at the venue, this would lead to an increase in repeat customers. A way to measure customer experience was a must have.

Ultimately the organization wanted a solution that allowed them to aggregate all the various sources of fan data and apply analytics tools to more effectively target fan groups and tailor marketing campaigns to individual fan interests.

The Solution – Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, Marketing and Customer Service

Our consulting experts created a solution using Dynamics 365 for Sales, Marketing and Customer Service, giving the organization the 360-degree view of their fans they so desired. With richer insights, their sales and marketing teams are better positioned to effectively expand the reach and wallet share of their existing fan base. Reporting capabilities in the new solution allows them to consume critical data to their business in near real-time such as fan trends, sales pipeline, market penetration, opportunity conversion and marketing campaign success.

The organization is now leveraging Dynamics 365 Sales to enable their sales teams to track key purchase history, types and frequency of ticket purchases (online, box office, secondary ticket market) and fan demographic information. Dynamics 365 Marketing is being utilized to promote and track the success of key programs, events, and promotional nights as well as promote non-game day events being hosted at the franchise’s venue, while Dynamics 365 Service helps them track any customer satisfaction issues related to fan experiences at the venue. Our team developed integration into the customer’s loyalty program and retail management system to enable the organization to track a fan’s spend on concession and merchandise. The combination of all this data gave them the 360-degree view of fan spend and experiences per game/event they desired.

Need Help Optimizing Your Dynamics 365 Solution?

Dell Technologies Services helps organizations like yours re-imagine new Dynamics 365 business solutions. Our Dynamics 365 Practice has deep industry expertise designing and delivering modern ERP and CRM solutions. All of our engagements benefit from our breadth of experience that’s been honed over years of helping customers understand what good looks like and making it their reality. If you’d like to learn more about our approach, read our eBook.

Comment below to start the conversation, or contact Dell Technologies Consulting, Microsoft Dynamics 365 experts, to learn how we can help you.

About the Author: Mark Giuliani

Mark Giuliani leads the Microsoft Dynamics and SQL BI practices. He oversees all aspects of pre-sales, delivery and support to drive growth and deliver high quality solutions to our customers. Prior to this role, Mark led the Global Dynamics and CRM Consulting organization for Dell Services/NTT. Mark is a technology leader with 23 years of IT Experience and 14 years with Dell EMC. He is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mark joined Dell in 2009 as part of the Allin acquisition. Prior to Dell Technologies he held positions at Ernst and Young, UBICS and Premier Technologies.
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