(CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Live Nation has announced a partnership with LRA Worldwide, Inc., a leading consulting and research firm specializing in Customer Experience Management, to help create an exceptional guest experience at its 40-plus outdoor amphitheaters.
LRA is working on an integrated program of standards writing, service culture development, training and performance measurement to help Live Nation “opertionalize” its brand, translating the company’s marketing message and stated focus on guest experience into operational reality.
As part of an increased focus on the guest experience, Live Nation launched its initiative this past summer. LRA Worldwide consultants “mystery shopped” several concerts at a number of different venues, performing a guest service and operational audit designed to assess the guest experience. LRA compiled its findings in an assessment report that was presented to Live Nation corporate personnel.
“The report confirmed what we had suspected,” remarked Bruce Eskowitz, Live Nation’s President, Global Venues and Sponsorship. “Overall, the guest experience at the venues was positive, but LRA identified a number of areas where we could improve and developed an action plan to do so.”
The next phase of the project involved an LRA-facilitated meeting where Live Nation executives and front-line personnel alike created a blueprint for a consistent and exceptional guest experience at all the venues, across all of the customer-facing “touch points” at the amphitheaters. When the process was completed, LRA and Live Nation had created the foundation for a universal guest service culture to apply enterprise-wide, as well as the standards, practices and training tools to bring that culture to life.
“We had always been wary of creating universal ‘standards’ to apply to all of our venues, for fear of creating a ‘cookie-cutter’ feel,” explained Tracy Tucker, a venue General Manager for Live Nation who is spearheading the “guest experience” effort at the company. “LRA’s Customer Experience Management methodology will allow us to create a common guest service culture and gain efficiencies in training and best practices sharing while allowing each of our venues to maintain their distinct personalities.”
The timing of this program is particularly advantageous for Live Nation, which has recently refocused the company on its core offerings of live event production and venue management. This reinvigorated effort to improve the guest experience on every level is evident in the company’s engagement with LRA.
At this point, much of the “experience design” work has been completed and LRA and Live Nation are actively working on implementation and reinforcement plans in order to have maximum impact on the 2006 summer concert season. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
