I think this is a great idea, unless they limit those being surveyed to very narrow questions like, "On a scale of 1-5, how are you enjoying yourself?" That really doesn't say very much unless you're able to add your own comments.
This appears to be a great innitiative, and I applaud MLS for being so proactive in their approach to fan satisfaction. Given the opportunity I will definetly provide feedback.
I think this is a good idea for MLS. I work for the Boston Bruins, and we just started the FanTrak program also. The Bruins have three different surveys in rotation with specific questions about the club, like "Which jersey do you prefer for the home jersey?" and color photos of the options to go with it. Very few fans have turned down the chance to give their opinions... and they love the final question of the survey, which is just for them to leave whatever comments they want. It's hard keeping up while typing on a Palm Pilot. Anyway, I hope MLS uses this resource wisely.
So is this something where you sit down for 10 minutes and fill in or are the usually rather short? I don't want to be waiting around Crew Stadium for an extra 10 minutes to be lost in the sea of cars trying to get out. But I probably will a few times.
They take about 3-5 minutes, depending on the survey, and the person giving it asks the questions and puts them into the palm pilot. There's no writing involved, so it can go pretty quickly if the survey taker doesn't go off on a tangent.
There aren't any specific ones, but the last question is open for any additional comments, and the person giving the survey just types it in with the keypad. Most of those are complaints about management and beer prices.
man this proves the mls people r dumbasses. theyre wasting their money on fnacy survey equipment when all they g2 do is get some guys to surf these boards
Overall I think that it's a good idea. But I hope that they will take a holistic view of their customer base. One of the big trends in Corp. America is to take more of a customer view on how your organization is running. The big buzz phrase is Customer Experience Management. This usually involves identifying all of the touch points that a customer has with your company i.e. in person, phone, email, and snail mail. The review what you do today and look for gaps or ways to improve the process. Usually when you start out you survey your customers to get a base line on how you are doing. This way you have something to gauge how any changes has effected the customer experience. And most companies have realized that regular customer surveys are an important part in understanding what your customer's needs are. This is also a good process for vendors, partners and employees. Also, in the article they gave kind of a simplistic view about what CRM is. It's not just to track when customer's buy tickets. It's to manage you customer information and get an understanding of not only what they buy, but also why and when they buy. This way you can conduct more pinpoint marketing or sales campaigns where you get a high percentage of sales. This is usually done by developing a predictive sales model based on past sales data or customer data. Say for example you have a fan in Chicago that is a season ticket holder, but has indicated in previous surveys that they are a DC United fan. If the league were having a sale of jersey's, they would want to send the fan an offer for a DC jersey. I think they have a real chance to use both types of technologies to improve the overall customer experience. The NBA recently implemented a CRM program and it has been successful.
Not if the CRM (customer relationship management) software can filter out any mention of 'relegation'.