Interesting concept. Mobile CRM (customer relationship management) is still a pretty new concept, and not too many businesses have adapted to it yet. So its interesting that MLS is taking a first mover strategy for the sole purpose of tracking ticket sales.
I'm not sure why they still think this is rocket science. Look at the NFL - 1. Parity 2. Large National Footprint 3. Good Stadiums 4. Good Players 5. Advertising 6. various TV contracts 7. Entertainment
But what their doing isn't mobile CRM it's more or less a quicker way to gather and report on brief surveys. And the article mentions that it's to gather customer feedback. With this type of short survey, your rather limited on the amount of information that you can gather and at what detail. But it sounds like a good way to gather a quick pulse on your customer. And from this should be able to determine what topics to do more in depth research on.
Good to know that MLS is only #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and possibly #7 away from being as big as the NFL. Not to mention a possible #8 as major interest in the minor levels of football such as high school and college.
It is mobile CRM, and the teams will most likely have several different surveys to give with different specific questions. I do FanTrak for the Boston Bruins, and the surveys are good, in my opinion... good details and they have an option for leaving whatever feedback you want at the end.
Parity blows. I hate the parity in the NFL. I don't want to see UCLA win the NCAA tournament 47 years in a row, but it sure is cool when a team or two create a dynasty for a few years and another team has to knock them off. There have been far too many teams that have won the Superbowl recently that weren't very good teams. No awesome 49ers or Cowboys. I would like to see one really frickin good team in the MLS (probably DCU in the coming years) (go Quakes) and see the other teams try to catch up. That can generate a lot of interest.
What type of surveys are you doing with the Bruins? By this what type of questions are you asking and the number of questions? Also how are you planning to use the results? Will you do more indepth research with your customer ie via mail, in person or phone. Also not to get picky, but I work in CRM and if all it does is take survey information then it's not CRM. If they told you that you were buying a CRM application then you got ripped off. There is a ton more functionality in a CRM application. The main aspects that make up CRM are customer data, customer preference and purchases and some typ analytics to be able to segment your customers and also be able to do forcasting on future purchases or behavior. From what I've read Fan Trak is used to take surveys and rapidly compile the results. Since you work with it. What other functionality does it have? Also here's a link to the companies web site where you can read more information about their products and services. http://www.turnkeysports.com/
But what is done with the feedback that's left at the end? I work in market research and I'm not aware of any way to turn open-ended responses into compiled, meaningful data "instantly" as the blurb on MLSnet says.
More info here. This is a Buffalo, NY based startup who has built the application with domain knowledge from Turnkey Sports. http://www.inquery.com/ and: http://www.inquery.com/pdf_documents/inquery_overview.pdf This is more about the technology rather than the specific application details you're asking. Kate could fill out the specific application level details.
I just give the surveys... but I am sure the Bruins know what they're doing with the information they collect. I know the President and VPs receive emails after each game charting the progress from the woman in charge of the program. Also, some of the management have spoken with me about people's opinions and reactions. I guess it all depends on how a team handles it.
I've worked with PeopleSoft on their launch of Mobile CRM so I know quite a lot about it. Basically there are different levels of complexity that a CRM system can have - MLS probably using a very basic system. Microsoft for example in the last several years introduced a stripped down CRM software suite for small businesses. Its the ability to input customer information and do something with that data is what makes it CRM. As for the mobile aspect, when a salesperson (survey taker in this case) enters in data on a PDA or a laptop, it can be nearly instantaneously synchronized with data on the rest of the system. What confuses me is why MLS would need a system that would process information so rapidly. I mean once they receive info that people don't like stadium music during a game, are teams just going to stop playing music at halftime?
im sure uncle phill is getting us a discount. he probably uses this type of system for his movie theatres (which need help) and his other enterprises.
Bump. Has anyone encountered these at any of the MLS matches so far? There was nothing like this at the Quakes only home match to date. I'll keep an eye out for this for tomorrow's DC United match. Basically I'm curious to know what sort of questions they'll ask, or if it just some program to check off as "DONE" on someone's marketing list.