Tom HallEyal Gluska, co-CEO of Setoo, advises event organisers to provide consumers with ancillary products, like insurance, to boost the bottom line and customer experience simultaneously.
The recent Netflix documentary on the Fyre Festival fiasco has highlighted the importance of a reliable event organiser, but it has also ignited a conversation around customer expectations – and the expectations of millennials in particular.
Part of the reason the Fyre Festival was so widely criticised was because it was completely inconsistent with the high quality experience millennials are used to getting, and it’s a lesson that event organisers should bear in mind.
A 2018 study from Expedia found that 74% of respondents prioritised experiences over material goods, with millennials the age group most likely to hold this view. It’s little surprise then that global concert sales hit a record high in 2018, with the top 50 best-selling tours generating $2.21 billion. But the greater emphasis on events puts more pressure on organisers to meet the high standards of today’s consumers. This can be problematic as events are, by their very nature, unpredictable and subject to disruption from exogenous factors.
By providing ancillary products, event organisers can take greater control over the whole experience enjoyed by their customers, and reap the rewards as a result. Yet, there is one area that gets overlooked when it comes to ancillary products – insurance.
Event organisers have a great range of options to boost the customer experience, including travel to and from events, accommodation and VIP upgrades. But event organisers should also consider improving their insurance offerings to consumers.
Insurance can present numerous ways to protect the experience of event attendees from a range of activity-specific risks, whether a sports match is rained off, or a headline act doesn’t show up to a concert. Yet, in order to convince millennials to add insurance to their ticket purchase, there are some key characteristics the products need to have.
An insurance product should avoid jargon, explaining to consumers in simple and clear language what they are protected against, while ensuring total transparency. If consumers know they’ll be protected against risks relevant to the activity they’re undertaking, they’ll be more likely to buy the product in the first place.
Event organisers should also ensure the insurance they offer is personalised, worry-free and hassle-free, with products that provide automatic compensation to consumers in response to a pre-agreed trigger. This means consumers don’t have to go through any claims process, clearly easing frustrations at a potentially stressful time. What’s more, by making the whole process less stressful, it can also build brand loyalty for organisers and their future events.
For event organisers looking to boost revenue, it’s worth leveraging ancillary products, and making sure insurance is on the list. It will give consumers peace of mind and ensure they’re protected, so that if something does go wrong, event organisers can rest easy knowing it won’t serve as Netflix’s inspiration for a Fyre Festival style follow up.