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There is a suspicion that many people in the events industry don't fully understand the significant role NPS plays in running successful exhibitions. It's often viewed as just another metric to measure and one that many teams are now incentivized to improve, however, if you were to ask an honest question to the entire market about what NPS means and what it does, many likely wouldn't know. "Is the question 'how likely are you to recommend us on a scale from 0 to 10' really driving change? Do people really understand what it means and how to use it?" — Richard Kensett, VP Enterprise Partnerships, Explori While tracking and comprehending NPS is significant, it is only one aspect to consider among several others that should be evaluated to gain a comprehensive understanding of exhibition performance. NPS may be turning 20, but does it really help us understand customer experiences? The answer is this: NPS is not an end in itself. It should be used as part of a broader measurement effort, combining qualitative and quantitative information to help event planners drive positive experiences. NPS has gained a lot of traction as a metric for gauging the success of exhibitions, and whilst it is still very relevant on its 20th birthday (link to other post / article?), the actual measurements of successful visitor or exhibitor engagement are deeper than a rating of 1-10. The way NPS is calculated makes it a little complicated for exhibitions. To put this into context, look at your dinner last night. Out of ten, how would you rate it? Maybe a 6? So it was pretty good, but it could be a bit better? You didn't throw it in the bin, but would you tell a mate about it? Maybe. In NPS ratings, this score would be considered a detractor and be subtracted from your promoter's scores (and most certainly be binned!). So, when asking someone about their thoughts on the latest trade show they attended, they may tend to give a simplistic answer as, generally, people prefer to take a moderate stance and avoid extreme opinions. It's also important to remember that even a small minority with strong opinions can greatly impact your overall NPS score - positively or negatively. How good an NPS can you achieve? Gaining popularity in the events industry with the arrival of private equity firms, NPS remains a valuable tool for supporting business decisions, as typically, a high NPS indicates positive revenue growth momentum and fosters positive interactions between visitors, exhibitors and the event organiser. However, to achieve a 9-10 rating on the NPS scale for an exhibition or event, there needs to be an exceptional level of satisfaction from visitors in terms of the quality of products and services offered, value for money, the overall event experience as well as the customer service. It's a big ask. If you want to understand your audience and your event performance, you should consider a blend of metrics instead. Measure your overall event score NPS has its place in event measurement, but what you should do instead is combine various metrics such as loyalty, advocacy, and the importance of attending your event and then compare how your overall event score performs against previous years or industry benchmarks. In so doing, you will get a much better indicative view of how your audience perceived your event, how likely they are to return and the value your event offered. At Explori, we believe in considering the entire audience experience to provide a rounded view of customer sentiment and accurate insight into how well your event is performing. Together with surveys, this data can help you develop strategies for improving engagement, increasing loyalty and ultimately creating an exceptional experience for participant’s next time. The importance of understanding your audience Events with high customer experience scores are easier to run, more profitable, and faster-growing, which everyone wants from their event. Once you know what's driving your NPS and overall event scores, you can adapt and tweak your strategy to improve it for the following year. In Explori, customers can click on a report, select their NPS and instantly see their detractors. This report will tell you everything you need to know about that audience profile, such as what products they are interested in, what were there objectives of the event, and who they were. Once you understand your personas, you can build profiles with these detractors and focus on areas that could improve from a 4/5/6 to a 7/8 or even a 9/10. Don't forget your promoters It's easy to focus on increasing your detractors and ensuring you have a highly-positive NPS score, however, don't forget to focus on your promoters too. Promoters are the people who drive growth in your organisation and increase word-of-mouth referrals, so focus on initiatives that reward them for their loyalty. Think beyond unique links - today, advocates are more than likely to know the worth of their audience to you, so offer them VIP experiences beyond a unique referral code - your VIPs want to feel valued - to ensure they are engaged with your events as much as possible. In summary NPS remains a valuable metric in the industry after 20 years, but it should not be used as an end-all measurement of success. It should instead form part of a broader evaluation initiative that combines qualitative and quantitative information to help event planners understand what can be done to drive positive experiences for their audience. By gathering insights into their personas, focusing on detractors and promoters, and offering VIP experiences to their most valued customers, exhibition organisers can create an exceptional customer experience that will leave a lasting impression on their audiences. With the right combination of metrics and tools, you can optimise your exhibition performance for an improved overall customer experience. Take a quick tour of Explori website. 👇 Explori is powering the events industry with the right data and insights. See how Explori works right away!

In 2003, Bain & Company partner Fred Reichheld introduced a groundbreaking method of assessing how well an organization treats individuals whose lives it affects — its capacity to foster enduring and loyal relationships. This assessment, known as the Net Promoter Score or NPS, has since been shared so anyone could apply it to their business. NPS has since been widely used amongst businesses to measure success and while it is mainly used for gauging customer satisfaction and loyalty, it has also been employed for measuring the effectiveness of corporate events. However, this one form of measurement is not enough when analyzing the success or impact of corporate events. In this article, we will look at the relevance of NPS in corporate events and why it's time to change how we measure success. NPS as a stand-alone measurement is not enough There is a common misconception about Net Promoter Scores in corporate events. Many believe that NPS combines factors such as customer satisfaction, advocacy value, behavior perception, and brand awareness. However, this is not entirely accurate. The truth is that NPS solely measures advocacy and only provides a small part of the overall picture. So while it is an excellent metric to measure to an extent, it is almost worthless when used in isolation for measuring the overall success of your corporate event program. NPS doesn't tell you how you can change the hearts and minds of your attendees to move them all to become promoters of your next event or increase their propensity to buy from your next customer-facing event. It also doesn't tell you which events worked for your business and for what reason. For your event measurement to mean anything, it is critical to understand how those who attended your event felt and how their brand perception has changed from pre-event to post-event. Only by knowing this, can you then understand the event's role in changing brand perceptions and, ultimately, increasing business revenue. "Our clients are already familiar with NPS as a tool to gauge brand advocacy. While it should absolutely be used to measure event success, it shouldn't be the only metric utilized. Incorporating NPS into a blended metric will provide valuable insights into attendee satisfaction and overall customer experience." — Chloe Richardson, VP Senior Corporate Relations, Explori Measurement beyond customer satisfaction To improve the effectiveness of your events program, you should consider analyzing brand perception and impact scores, including sentiment and behavior analysis, which helps you better understand how your attendees and customers feel about your event and how they behave towards your brand, such as, what is their propensity to purchase. By blending these metrics, you can build an overall event score and form a more complete picture of your event's success and effectiveness in strengthening customer relationships, enabling you to measure year-on-year and event-on-event performance better. To ensure that NPS can be utilized to its fullest potential in business events, you should set clear objectives and prioritize achieving strategic outcomes rather than simply collecting data. Evaluating customer sentiment, behavior, satisfaction, and brand perception are all important factors to consider when assessing your event's impact. Additionally, creating feedback mechanisms to encourage attendees to provide input at every stage of your event cycle, is vital for establishing an effective understanding and analysis of how to improve your event or increase your number of event promoters, a result of which you can measure through net promoter scores. The benefits of measuring overall event scores By measuring overall event scores, you gain valuable insights into the health of your entire customer event program. This robust blended analysis helps you pinpoint your top-performing events and identify areas for improvement. You'll begin to build a better picture of how, even small, lower-invested events can deliver exceptional results with proper strategic measures in place, where they previously were considered lower-tier, underinvested events. Measuring your events' performance with an overall event score allows you to track the progress of your entire event program and have a clear line of sight on what works, what doesn’t, and how you can improve. By taking a strategic approach to your events, you can reap maximum benefits from it. How do you measure impact scores? / Where do you start to better measure your corporate events To improve the overall effectiveness of your events, it's essential to align the objectives of your event with those of your business as a whole as this will ensure you capture relevant data and insight to help positively impact your events business unit. To ensure comprehensive analysis, it is advisable to review three distinct categories of data: demographic data, engagement data, and sentiment data. Demographic data provides information on attendees, while engagement data offers insights on their actions such as dwell time, session scans, and clicks. On the other hand, sentiment data provides a deeper understanding of how attendees think and feel. To obtain this information, analyzing customer sentiment and behavior through surveys, interviews, or focus groups is an effective way to gather additional data that can help measure impact scores. With this information collated and analyzed, you can then create strategies to enhance your events program and develop greater opportunities to positively impact not only your events score, but your entire business bottom line. Cheers to 20 great years, NPS! 🎉 Whilst we couldn't be happier to celebrate the year of NPS turning 20, and the positive impact it has had on our industry alongside many others, event planners and managers should focus on a more comprehensive approach to measure and evaluate event performance. This is the problem we set out to solve at Explori! We enable event professionals across the world to better understand their overall event score beyond NPS — bringing together customer satisfaction data with brand perception and impact scores — to provide a better view into how they can drive success in their events program. Take a quick tour of Explori website. 👇 Explori is powering the events industry with the right data and insights. See how Explori works right away!

See you at IMEX Vegas 2023! Heading to the glittering desert of Las Vegas this October, Explori is gearing up for IMEX Vegas 2023! At booth C4753, we're all set to meet with our fellow meetings and events professionals. Our mission? To ensure that every IMEX Vegas visitor leaves the event with the invaluable tools required to: Quantify Event Impact: Gain the ability to precisely measure the impact of your event and exhibit programs. Align with Business Goals: Showcase how your event and exhibit programs contribute to achieving your organization's broader business objectives. Data-Driven Decisions: Empower yourself to make informed, speedy decisions, fueled by data. Don't miss out on securing your appointment slot from September 18 onwards. Be sure to schedule a meeting with Chloe, David, and Alex – our seasoned event experts who will guide you through the transformative journey of event measurement. You’ll leave the Explori booth with all the arsenal needed to stay ahead in the art of measuring the impact of your meeting and event programs. We promise, after our interaction, you'll find event measurement to be a piece of cake! See you in Las Vegas! 🎉

On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this article to a friend or colleague? Don’t answer that question – not before you’ve had a chance to read the article, anyway. To most of you, the format of the question above will be familiar in some way, either because you’ve seen something like it in a feedback survey or because you’ve made use of the Net Promotor Score (NPS) metric in a professional context. This year, the venerable NPS turns 20. Created (and trademarked) by management consultancy guru Fred Reichheld in 2003, NPS is a simple metric used in industries of all kinds to evaluate the performance of products and services. At Explori, we use NPS to measure the performance of corporate events, such as trade shows or conferences. In essence, it is designed to measure how likely a given product or service is to be recommended by its users, on a scale of 0-10. Those giving a score of 9 or 10 are classified as Promoters, who are extremely likely to recommend the product in question, while those giving a score of 0-6 are Detractors. The in-betweens are known as Passives. NPS is calculated by subtracting the proportion of Detractors from the proportion of Promoters, to give a score that can fall anywhere between +100 and -100. Source: checkmarket.com The enduring popularity of the NPS metric likely lies in its simplicity and versatility; it is applicable to all kinds of things, from events to tech products, and the data is easy to obtain through customer surveys and straightforward for respondents to provide. Consider how often recommendation plays a role in the decision to try – or not try – something new: a friend’s enthusiastic review of a film they just saw; a sub-4-star Trip Advisor rating for a restaurant; a colleague telling you that a particular trade show is not to be missed. Recommendations are crucial for growth, and this is exactly what the NPS seeks to measure. It’s worth keeping an eye on the detail behind the consolidated NPS figure, however. A range of different outcomes can produce the same score; for example, an NPS of 20 for an event could comprise all three of the following scenarios: The example above illustrates why NPS should not be considered in isolation from other metrics. To truly understand an event’s performance, additional data points are required. At Explori, we collect data from post-event surveys to create four key metrics for our clients: NPS, overall satisfaction, event loyalty (i.e. likelihood of return), and event importance. Used in conjunction with NPS, these three additional metrics provide event professionals with a deeper understanding of how participants really feel about an event. Did attendees get everything they wanted out of the event, overall? Will the Passives return next year, even if they are unlikely to convert colleagues into attendees? Is it the industry event – or just one good option among many? These event metrics are indicators of not only how an event has performed on specific occasions, but how resilient the event is. Unlike metrics such as attendance and revenue, lagging indicators which tell us only about an event’s past performance, these four metrics are leading indicators, telling us something about how the event is likely to perform in the future, and alerting the organiser to potential red flags – or, in the best-case scenario, telling them to keep doing what they’re doing, because it’s working! All four metrics are combined by Explori into a single event measurement score, which provides a simple way for senior leadership to check in on the performance of their organisation’s events. For those more invested in the specifics, the four metrics that make up the event score are presented alongside plenty of other data points and feedback from event participants, helping event professionals to set the direction for future events and further growth. In a vacuum, however, the data from a specific event doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. You received an NPS of 30: is that good news? Well, it all depends on the context. You’ll want to know how the score compares: To previous iterations of the event To similar events organized by your company To similar events organized by other companies At Explori, we have surveyed participants at thousands of trade shows, amassing a wealth of event data. Crucially, each of these surveys collects the data required to create a score for each of the four metrics outlined earlier in the article, including NPS. This means we are able to supply our clients with the relevant context in the form of event, company, and industry benchmarks for their event data, enabling them to holistically evaluate the performance of their event in relation to the wider industry. By now, it should be clear that NPS is a crucial part of the picture – thank you, Fred Reichheld! – but it’s not the whole picture. So, as this article wraps up, we’d like to ask you: On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this article to a friend or colleague? Additionally: How satisfied are you with this article? How likely are you to read another article on this blog? How important is this article to your business? Here’s to 20 more years of the NPS! Explori is powering the events industry with the right data and insights.

What exactly does event success mean? At first glance, event success might seem straightforward. One can easily categorise a profitable event as a successful one. Or where the sales team have a lot of hot leads to go home with, we can be quick to term this exhibit activation as very successful. Some event planners simply stick with NPS and CSAT scores. However, these metrics only begin to scratch the surface of what an event brings to a business or industry. Success can also be measured by the impact an event has among its attendees, the connections forged, and the impact it has on the industry ecosystem. Success can be determined within the context of where the particular event stands when compared with previous events that has been held within the organization, within businesses in your portfolio, and ultimately within the entire industry. Benchmarking: The Ultimate Measure of Event Success To truly understand the success of an event, we need benchmarks. Benchmarks are like guideposts that allow event organizers to compare event's performance against established standards, whether they are within their organization or across the broader industry landscape. They provide context, which helps to make informed judgments about the effectiveness of event strategies and the real significance of the achievements. Chloe Richardson, VP Senior Corporate Relations, Explori There are three major types of benchmarking within the events industry: Historical Benchmarks These benchmarks offer a retrospective view, which allows you to look back on past events. By comparing current data with past iterations of the same event, you can quickly gain insights into trends, whether towards growth or a decline. This insight is very valuable towards identifying patterns to make informed decisions on how the event is performing over time. Organizational Benchmarks Individual events are parts of a portfolio within a larger organization; they all come together to achieve a set objective within a business. Comparing the performance of an event to others within the same portfolio helps to easily reveal whether that event is contributing effectively or not. This data influences strategic decisions about the business value of an event. Industry Benchmarks Beyond comparing your events within your business, imagine the level of insights you can get by comparing it to similar options available within your entire industry? This makes you fully aware of its value, where it stands against others in terms of NPS and CSAT and the overall indispensability of your event. Gaining a Competitive Edge with Explori's Industry Benchmarks The true value of benchmarking lies in contextualization. It's not just about knowing your event's performance, but also understanding how it compares to past iterations and its peers within the industry. By placing your event's data within the larger context of industry benchmarks, you gain a clearer perspective on what constitutes success. However, a major challenge in benchmarking events lies in acquiring accurate and representative data. Most events don't readily share data like customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Scores (NPS), making it difficult to create robust benchmarks. However, the solution lies in the hands of dedicated event industry suppliers who have access to extensive historical event data. And this is where Explori comes in! Explori is a supplier of choice to over 7,000 events and conferences around the world, amassing a wealth of data that forms the basis of performance analysis for benchmarking solutions. Explori's industry takes your important metrics of isolation and measures it in context, leveraging its robust database of historical data to offer reliable insights needed to understand the full ROI and impact of the experiences your events are delivering. "Any metric in isolation only paints a small portion of the bigger picture that an organization needs to assess how well their events are performing. To understand whether you're on the path to growth and future success, you need to view event performance in context." - The Explori Guide to Benchmarking INDUSTRY guide The Explori Guide to Benchmarking A detailed insight into using benchmarks to understand the ROI and impact of your corporate events program Download Guide As event organizers seek to understand the impact of their efforts, event benchmarks emerge as indispensable tools. These benchmarks offer the much-needed context to interpret event data accurately. By comparing an event's performance historically, within an organization's portfolio, and against industry standards, organizers can make strategic decisions that ensure success not just in isolation, but in the grander scheme of the events landscape. Check out Explori's Benchmarking solutions tailored for you. Get started with Explori, let us set you up with benchmarks that provide insights to guide your event measurement and innovation to increase your ROI. Book a demo with our events specialist today.

Originally created for M&IT There is an undercurrent of fear in the meetings and events world – rarely verbalised, even behind closed doors - of robustly measuring the performance of our events. A fear of collecting data that might put a spotlight on the flaws we didn’t even know existed. We’re scared that these insights might make our function more vulnerable to business criticism - or that knowing what’s not working is worse than knowing nothing at all. But in a world where corporate events teams are being cut and senior event leaders are facing redundancy, now is the time to combat those fears to leverage event performance data properly. How can we turn our insights from being the monster under the bed to a tool that secures the future of corporate event programmes? Turbulence We are living in a time of corporate event turbulence. And the instability comes from not having the right insights to truly evidence our business impact and value. The fear of measurement is holding us back. Absolutely, measuring performance effectively may show us that certain events are falling short. But it’s far from scary – it’s incredibly useful and empowering. As event leaders, data is the only tool that puts us firmly in the strategic driving seat. Understanding where individual events aren’t hitting business KPIs is the first step to doing something about it and, by contrast, allows us to leverage those highly performing events that change attendee perception and behaviours. But you don’t know what you don’t know, and running from the data is much more dangerous than using it to strategically to make the right decisions. So the question is – what should every corporate event leader apply to rid themselves of dataphobia forever? Collect the right data Gone are the days of using attendee numbers or revenue generated as rational event performance metrics. Not only are these purely reactive metrics (by the time attendee numbers have started to drop or we’re losing revenue, it’s too late to make strategic changes to our event design), they don’t tell us the most important longer term insights that really count – how attendees perceive us/our events, how their behaviour is changing because of them and what the longer term impact will be to the business. As we move away from measuring these more reactive metrics, we can start to be proactive in strategising and evolving our event programmes accordingly. There is no fear of the unknown if you know exactly what data you should be collecting. Communicate findings effectively You could have collected the best data in the world, but if this is poorly relayed to the event’s stakeholder group, then the effort risks being wasted. Communicating findings effectively to the business will not only arm you with control and confidence to alleviate your fear, but enables you to demonstrate your strategic position to your non-event peers. Like with many things, you have to consider what that end presentation might look like from the very beginning. It’s critical to understand before you even start collecting your event data what success looks like for a given event or portfolio, and what data points are central to measuring performance against this success criteria. Deliberately consider who are the different stakeholders, how should the findings be communicated back to them, and what you want them to do about it? Use your insights as a strategic planning asset Once you’ve collected the right data and communicated findings effectively, it’s then imperative that you actually use your insights strategically – closing the loop. If, during steps one and two, you’ve established that an event isn’t performing as the business would like, rather than being fearful of how this reflects on the events function, use this knowledge to strategically review the future of that particular event or portfolio. Closing this loop allows you to redistribute budgets, consolidate assets, make justified decisions and strategically redesign the future of your events programme. For a long time, there has been a fear of robustly measuring the performance of our events. Yet if we let dataphobia reign supreme, we will never have the right tools to defend our functions, our roles and our teams. The real scary thing is not being able to demonstrate crucial event value in a period of corporate event instability. Explori is powering the events industry with the right data and insights.