Were you around in the days when sponsorship was nothing more than presenting a stock package that was either accepted or not? I remember when I first started working for the Calgary Flames broadcast in the early 90’s. There was an arrogance at the time with the broadcast and the Club. The team had recently won the Stanley Cup and it was THE brand to be associated with at the time. Prior to Lanny MacDonald taking over the marketing department and overseeing all the sponsorship as well, the philosophy had been, “We will wait for the phone to ring. We will let them line up and they will get what we offer them at the price we want, or they will get nothing.” That soon wore thin, and after a short while, the Flames became a sponsor-centric property. They began to customize, listen to sponsor needs, and deliver what the sponsor needed instead of what they wanted to sell.

I had the same issue when Rogers took over Calgary Flames Radio and the broadcast. I was working for a general sales manager who thought hockey/sports broadcasts were like selling flights of regular radio. His name was Jim Dunlop and he thought that they could be bought effectively through a GRP perspective, but insisted on keeping the rate high. He did not understand the experiential side, activation requirements, or ownership of features. He thought it was about the commercial itself. I remember him telling me one day, “Pitch this package and only this package. If they don’t like it, move on. Someone will buy it.” I left the organization shortly thereafter!

The world has always been, and will always be, about customer service. We tell people about bad service to warn them off being “taken” like ourselves. We rave about great service and share our experiences with restaurants, home builders, or whatever. Service reviews (especially in today’s world of social media) can make or break a company. Recently (well not so recently), I have been having a bad customer experience—or ongoing one. Though my wife, daughter, and I live in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island—and have since the fall of 2015—we still have our house in Calgary (it was not the time to sell when we moved!). My nephew lives in the house and pays us “rent” to cover the basic costs of maintaining the house. In the spring of this year, the fridge broke down. Actually, I was there. It was running one day, then not the next. It just stopped (OK, the fridge was over 15 years old). I told my nephew just to go out and buy a new fridge and invoice me. He was cool with that. Then I saw a sale on at BestBuy. I thought, “Hey, that is a good deal and I can take away the burden of him having to go and buy a fridge.” So, I went online to order it. But I could not order it online because I needed a left door open versus the standard right door. That should have been a red flag.

I went to the BestBuy store in Nanaimo. I waited for over 20 minutes at the counter for service. Then someone noticed me and helped me, except they knew nothing about what I was talking about and had to call three different people. Finally, the product was purchased. We had a date chosen for delivery. I also arranged and noted on the purchase notes that I was in Nanaimo, that the fridge was for delivery in Calgary, and that my nephew would be receiving it and was the on-site contact. All good. They showed up a day early. He was not there. Fancy that—he was at work (earning money to pay his rent)! This was in May. Then they would not let him reschedule because he was not the purchaser. So I had to step in to confirm that he was the on-site contact and needed to be the one choosing the delivery date. He went through the crap that they don’t deliver on weekends. What sort of customer service it that? They did two no-shows for delivery dates he stayed home from work for. As I write this month’s letter, my tenant has not had a working fridge in his home for over six months. Thank goodness for the wine fridge—probably all he needed to keep cool anyway.  He hopes they are coming next week. It would be nice to have it before Christmas. I can tell you that I will never buy anything from BestBuy again. They have had my $1000 for the fridge all these months and not delivered. They have neither responded from a customer service perspective, nor do they even seem to care.

For your event, property, or sponsorship program, treat customers like gold. Don’t treat them like BestBuy does or you will lose them like they have lost me. Don’t be arrogant—even when you property is highly sought after. Be humble, take the time to connect with everyone interested, and treat them like gold even though you don’t have a place for them—today! For anyone who calls, emails, or connects with me through social media or Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists® I make a point of returning the correspondence. We may not be able to assist them, service them, or be a supplier to them, but hopefully I have touched them and made them feel good about us anyway! Be customer (and future customer) focused if you want to succeed over the long term.

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