Feedback is crucial to attendee satisfaction and improving your events. In this episode, we explore how to ask for attendee advice (not feedback!), the right questions to ask, and how to implement the insights you gain to create attendee-centric events.
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Connect with Clare:
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hello and welcome to episode 13 of not
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the same as last year we've worked out
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by now haven't we that attendee
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satisfaction directly impacts your
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events return on investment if they're
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satisfied and happy and they had a great
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time they will go off and probably do
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whatever it is that you wanted them to
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do which is why you ran the event you
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will have met your objectives but that
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doesn't always happened does it and
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finding out how and why your event
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didn't hit the mark for a specific
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attendee is challenging so yes today we
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are tackling the thorny issue of
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feedback now I'm going to start by
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asking you a question when you planned
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your event who was the real star of the
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show at this event was it your famous
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keynote speaker was it the illustrious
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expert that you had running a workshop
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was it your m see no it is the audience
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right they should have been your star
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turn but did you ask the star of the
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show what they wanted before they got
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there did you get their Rider you know
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famous people have a rider when they go
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to vent did you find out what it is
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that's going to make them happy at at
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your event chances are you probably
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didn't so now hopefully you're going to
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find out where you went wrong by asking
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for the feedback but the thing is asking
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for the feedback in the right way and
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then when you get it really applying it
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so that next year you actually exceed
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the expectations based on the feedback
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so it all comes down doesn't it really
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to asking the right questions now
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technology is amazing it enables lots of
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things right now and and one of the
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things it enables is the immediate
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feedback form that you can send or the
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survey I mean it's so ubiquitous now I
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literally get a feedback survey for
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pretty much everything I do and indeed I
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could spend an awful lot of my day
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filling them in you know from everything
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from the things that I've bought online
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to the events I've gone to every time
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I've had to call customer services about
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an issue with a product or a service so
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on and so on so to many people a
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feedback form is now just becoming a
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little bit of a pain another thing that
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keeps you busy in Modern Life and for
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the average B2B event attendee who's
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just been to an event it can actually
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become very intrusive and annoying to
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get another feedback form I mean you've
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been at this busy event for the last
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week out of the office possibly you've
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just got back in you've got loads to
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catch up on meetings you've missed
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emails that have mounted up then filling
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in a feedat form is going to slip right
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down the list and regardless of how much
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useful information you could impart
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about what was good about the
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event putting that to as side for one
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moment let's assume that your attendee
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does attempt to answer the form how easy
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have you allowed it to be for them to
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really share what they think have you
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just given them a random Mark out of 10
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you know how happy you know there's
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little pictures of the smiley faces
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you're supposed to guess which one you
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were from your experience and take that
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or do you really give them a real chance
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to share their feelings so you know what
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I think the first problem that we have
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to overcome is potentially with the
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actual word itself
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feedback I think it has a lot of
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negative connotations I mean for me
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personally I've never liked the word
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because when I started out in radio it
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was the one thing you never wanted you
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know you know you you didn't want that
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sort of terrible Amplified sound that
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you would get if any loudspeaker
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re-enters the sound system so you know
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if you had an open microphone that you
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could sort of hear it amplifying again
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and again and again at best a a ringing
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tone and at worst like a a piercing
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Screech so feedback to me was always a
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no no but other than that I think it's
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also has negative kind of feelings for
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for for a lot of things you know if you
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say something and your partner or your
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colleague or somebody says can I give
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you a little bit of feedack back you
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think oh God you know your heart sinks
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it's it's not going to be complimentary
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this is it so I think what we need to do
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is follow the suggestion of the event
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psychologist Victoria matey she is on
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this podcast actually in a few weeks
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time and what she says to do is to ask
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your attendees for advice now think
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about it if someone asks for advice from
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me I think wow they they they're really
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interested in what I have to say I think
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I feel like they're going to listen and
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they care and value the things I have to
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say and that is amazing because feeling
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like we matter is so important to us as
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human beings it literally makes a huge
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significant difference to our
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self-esteem our self-worth and actually
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not feeling significant has been linked
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to the cause of some mental illnesses
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and there are some really fascinating
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studies that show people who feel more
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significant actually live longer so use
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this vital human need to get the right
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information back from your attendees
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like calling it advice as I said above
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if your attendee feels that their advice
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is going to make a difference they will
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feel special that they matter and
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actually they'll be far more likely to
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fill in that darn form that you really
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need so we want to think as well a
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feedback as Gathering insights from our
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attendees not like oh I've got to get
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some good marks got to get my scores and
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that's what this feedbacks all around
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it's almost like you want to get
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valuable wisdom from that person who
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just came to your event so that you can
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get it better or if you got it right
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even more right next time you know
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really even better so if you explain to
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your attendees that if you share your
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advice you're actually going to be
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shaping the future of the event and
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ensuring that it really meets your needs
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and when you do send the form please do
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it properly don't just send the multiple
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choice questions I mean you can send
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them but make sure you give much more
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opportunity than that really consider
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the question so you're really asking the
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right ones you're not just bombarding
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them with loads of pointless ones whe
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they've got to fill in name the second
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name this just gets boring just quickly
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you should have that information you
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should know who they are um and you can
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just quickly send them out the feedback
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and it comes back with exactly their
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their results and you can connect it to
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each other and there is the tech to do
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that I know there is so then it's also
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about using a mixture of types of
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questions so you know multiple choice
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rating scales open-ended questions make
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sure your form is really intuitive and
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easy to use and looks appealing you know
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it actually needs a lot of time and
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effort spent on it this isn't something
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you just Chuck out at the end this is
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something that you know you need to
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consider you really want to get this
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information if you really want to get it
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then work hard at getting it and I think
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you know think about it feedback can
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sort of feel like um you know say that
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random stew that somebody makes out of
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the leftovers in the fridge some amazing
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delicious bits and then some bits you're
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like I don't know what that is but I
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don't like swallowing that so you need
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to be ready and you need to be willing
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to get the negative feedback as well and
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also share back to the people who've
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given the negative about how you're
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going to resolve
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it and now you've got that feedback or
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the input or the preferences or the
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advice from your attendees whatever you
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choose to call it how do you use this
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incredible information this data because
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we know everybody collects a lot of data
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now but how effective is it it's only
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effective if you use it to gain some
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actional insights and then go and act on
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those insights and how do you show the
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people who bothered to fill out that
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form that you actually heard what they
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had to say and you're going to make the
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changes they ask for or add the things
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they want first off I personally an
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automated thank you that's just come
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generally and I've spent a lot of time
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filling in a form feels a bit annoying I
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think if some individuals have really
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bothered to give you the good stuff then
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respond and let them know you appreciate
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it you could even go one step further
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and think gosh they've got a lot to say
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this is really interesting they're
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really engaged in this event so maybe
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invite them back get them to be on a
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panel next time if they said the panels
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weren't very good or get them to help
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design the agenda or get involved in
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some co-creation or just content
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planning for the event because you know
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that word co-creation it is a kind of
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feedback because it means your attendees
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are with you giving you kind of current
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feedback all the way through making sure
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that the event that they want to go to
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is actually going to happen now I talked
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about this I think in in episode six
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when I talk to you about some ways to
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let the attendees Take the Wheel so if
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you like what I'm having to say here go
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back and listen to episode 6 now we're
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also told of course that the timing of
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your feedback form or your advice
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Gathering is really vital and we should
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push to get it out within 48 Hours of
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the event because then people get so
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busy um and then they don't fill it in
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so I think as as well as saying we
really need your advice and we're asking
you now while it's fresh in your head
you know maybe offer an incentive a gift
if you get this feedback form in then we
will offer you this gift or that gift or
whatever it is that you think is going
to work for your specific event and of
course you can get information and
feedback and advice throughout the event
with the technology that's available now
you can get people to be responding to
questions in the app if they're coming
up quickly and your app is easy to use
it's almost like a slido or a um similar
Mentor meter idea that they can just
quickly respond there and then so you
get a pretty good idea before they've
even left what they're thinking you know
we're in the middle of a a lot of
politics this year it's kind of like um
early exit polls you're getting
responses from people before they go
home and fill in the form um and and
that gives you really good information
very very quickly ask things like what
are you enjoying here at the event what
is not working for you today what do you
wish we' provided today what have you
not managed to achieve so I I did this
at a talk recently I was actually giving
um a session a workshop session um on
the subject of a 10d experience funnily
enough and so I asked everybody there
what they were loving and hating about
the
event now one man told us that he loved
the budy system that was in place that
had been set up because it meant that
when he arrived he immediately had
someone to talk to because he didn't
know anybody at the event and it was a
great idea that's what he loved but then
others said well I didn't know about it
because the app wasn't working and I'd
love to have known about that so of
course that event gets a great point for
providing an amazing resource and at
least half a point off for not being
able to promote it properly or get their
app to work now it was interesting as
well that one person came up to me
afterwards and he said I I didn't say my
thing in the group because I didn't want
to you know turn the session into a
ranting about what was wrong at the day
that we were at the event which was
really really good and he then shared
some information with me which I could
pass on to the organizers and it made
him feel good that he'd been able to to
get it off his chest and that's quite
interesting isn't it I think when we
talked to Kelly who's also event
psychologist um and I cannot remember
what session that was um I think it was
quite recent wasn't it episode 10 she
was saying to me there's um a lot of
importance about the psychology of
feedback is that people need to get
their feelings physically out of the
body like that man said he wanted to get
it off his chest they want to get the
irritations and the annoyances out and
sometimes just getting out verbally is
what helps you doesn't have to do it in
the formal way so you know we talk about
polling a lot in events right now you
know to gather attendees questions for
speakers as a way of encouraging
engagement so you've got attendees now
that are getting polling they understand
it they understand the mentimeter they
understand the slido and all those
things so you know keep asking questions
about the event in the poll sections too
people are are used to that now and it's
super quick and also you know we were
saying there that guy wanted an
opportunity to come up and talk to me
and get it off his
chest make sure you're not ignoring
certain channels for getting this
feedback and just doing the email form
because it's easiest you are then just
doing that limiting other opportunities
for your attendees to express their
opinions because there are lots of ways
to gather it now you can use social
media platforms event apps online forums
and indeed if you listen to the radio
Podcast you'll have noticed that lots of
shows ask listeners to send in their
questions or their views or opinions
they can do it by text they can do it by
email or they can do it by voice note
now I don't know if it's an age thing I
much prefer to use voice personally in
loads of things that I do I use it
whenever I'm trying to formulate a
thought or um write a piece of content
or something as well I would much rather
talk into my browser than type something
in and and it's actually potentially a
less censored version of what I have to
say because it's just the verbal time
that comes out but but it's more
probably more honest uh feedback so I
would advise adding voice note as
another way your attendees can share
their thoughts easily and quickly
without having to download a form and
tick through loads of different
sections my top tip though and I kind of
mentioned it before but I want to go
into detail is to share back what you've
leared to your attendees be brave and
say look this is what you told us
because obviously it's going to be
different from different people and
different people have experiences but
it's it's kind of open and transparent
we heard that some of you hated this we
heard that some of you liked it but we
realized that the vast majority didn't
and this is what we're going to do next
time so you're telling them what you
plan to do as a result and then when
you've implemented that share that too
hey you guys didn't want this last year
the new we're going to be launching the
new one soon and just to let you know
this is where we are with it and this is
how it's going to change I'm not talking
about bombarding people with loads of
information about your event but it can
be little ways that you can check back
in with them so if they know that that
thing they did didn't like was there and
it's put them off and you sending it a
message saying it's not going to happen
this time this is going to happen it
will start to get them thinking more
positively about your event for when you
do start ticketing for it they will be
encouraged to try again because they can
see you have actively taken steps to
change it so there was a lot there I
hope some of it was actionable I think
I'm not a feedback expert I don't tend
to get the forms myself but I hear I
hear feedback from attendees all the
time I don't know why is the MC maybe
they think oh we can tell her it'll get
back to to the organizers and generally
it does and it's a very verbal kind of
feedback from me to them on what you
told me and obviously I also offer my
own advice anyway hopefully some of
these tips worked share if they did um
and of course feel free to share
feedback ideas you have advice tips that
you have and I will be back next week
talking about the three seas of events
content collaboration and contribution
look forward to seeing you then that'll
be episode
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