Three Strikes: Sports teams improvise fan contact strategies duringwork stoppages

Three strikes. Or one strike and two lockouts, for those keeping score. To season-ticket holders, it really didn’t matter. Three major professional sports – baseball, basketball and hockey – experienced work stoppages in recent years, creating a unique problem for teams: how to maintain their customer bases when their product is not available.

Most teams are more sophisticated at brand and image advertising than they are at customer relationship management. Many took the obvious steps of offering either an immediate refund, interest on money paid in advance (which usually exceeded that of an average bank account) or letters of apology. But only a few initiated serious customer contact strategies.

When the 1998 National Basketball Association lockout hit, the Orlando Magic had been ready to roll out a yearlong celebration in honor of its 10th anniversary. Almost all of it had to be scrapped. But the team was able to use its monthly publication, Magic Magazine, to promote other offerings at its venue, such as the Miracle, its Women’s National Basketball Association team [which was not affected by the lockout], and its health club, tennis and restaurant facilities.

Like many teams, the Magic chose not communicate with its season-ticket base in anticipation of the interruption. “We did not want to comment on something that was not a sure thing,” says Chris D’Orso, director of marketing for RDV Sports, the Magic’s parent company. “We wanted to move forward as business as usual until the league said there was a lockout.”

The Magic’s approach was typical of what NBA teams did during the lockout. Virtually no team segmented its season-subscriber file, using different strategies based on subscribers’ value to the franchise.

Individual teams had their efforts constrained by league rules: The NBA, several teams claimed, monitored what clubs said to their season-ticket holders – and to the media – throughout the lockout. The NBA also mandated events and contact programs designed to win back fans once the lockout was over. Each team was given 20,000 Valentine’s Day cards, which had to be hand-signed by players, coaches and officials and mailed out to fans.

But such an effort is reactive rather than proactive. Teams having an ongoing dialogue with fans – before a lockout or strike – would have had the smallest attrition rates, according to Craig Wood, senior vice president of customer retention management global solutions at KnowledgeBase Marketing.

On its own, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks implemented one of Wood’s suggestions: Maintain a constant stream of communication incorporating benefits during the downtime, such as discounted tickets with sponsor airlines for road games in other sports. This allowed the Hawks to keep the franchise on fans’ minds.

“I started making associations with Zoo Atlanta, [amusement park Six Flags Over Georgia, Lake Lanier Water Park,” says Dexter Santos, director of marketing for the Hawks. “We were able to give fans some family-oriented, value-added things.”

Fans were steered to the Hawks’ customer service lines staffed by season-ticket salespeople. “We prepped our sales force – they weren’t selling tickets, so they were converted to a customer service role.”

Santos feels there was more fan apathy during the basketball lockout than in the baseball strike. “We never started the season,” he says. “And we gave them a full refund. People had extra money to spend at Christmastime.”

The Hawks tried to retain every subscriber regardless of price range. “We place the same line of importance on full or partial plan holders,” says Santos. Despite the team’s efforts, the strike still cost the team around 20% of its ticket-subscriber base the following season.

Wood argues that tiering efforts based on customer value provide a better return on the retention dollar. “Do you trust the fan who has just moved to the area to come back with the same propensity as the one who has been a fan for 20 years?” he asks.

At the time of the National Hockey League lockout of 1994-’95, the San Jose Sharks franchise was only 3 years old, so relying on longtime customer loyalty was not an option. All ticket holders were contacted “by any means we had,” according to executive vice president of business operations Malcolm Bordelon. Fans calling the office received a call back, usually from the club’s president or general manager. “Our basic philosophy was to communicate as much as possible,” says Bordelon. “We couldn’t solve the strike. We felt the best way to manage the situation was to be open to listening and relaying the information we had.”

The team’s main contact efforts were geared toward its corporate sponsors, which received one fax a week updating them on the status of the lockout. Initially the letters were succinct, informative notes, but as the lockout wore on with little progress, the notes took on a lighter tone, opening the door to other possible sponsorships. “The good news is that the NHL labor negotiations are continuing,” started a Dec. 2 fax. “The bad news is that the NHL labor negotiations are continuing.” The fax then offered tickets to two events for firms that still had available advertising dollars.

In early November, the team gave a nod to fans by organizing a game between two minor-league teams. Tickets were available only to season-ticket and partial-plan holders, reflecting a promise made by Sharks COO Greg Jamison that ticket holders would have additional benefits for staying with the team.

Since the lockout, the Sharks have been more aggressive in collecting customers’ e-mail addresses. If it ever were to happen again Bordelon would step up the number of communications to fans, using the model of how the team handled its corporate sponsors.

Bordelon’s retention efforts were helped by two post-season appearances, one just prior to the lockout and one when play resumed. And while retention levels dropped slightly – from 98% before the strike to 94% the season after – Bordelon says TV ratings doubled.

Wood argues, however, that strong team performance won’t help a franchise if it’s not communicating with the fans.

The Houston Astros certainly had history: In 1994 they were preparing to celebrate the Astrodome’s 30th anniversary when baseball players went on strike. While the Astros offered refunds two weeks into the strike, uncertainty over what type of team the Astros would field in 1995 if the walkout were resolved – with replacement players or union players – caused the team to curtail further direct communications with fans.

When the strike ended in early 1995, the marketing department shifted its emphasis. About 30% of the Astros’ efforts during 1993, the year preceding the strike, was devoted to retention marketing. The remaining 70% was dedicated to prospecting, according to John Sorrentino, vice president for ticket sales. After the strike, the proportion was reversed.

“It took a lot of follow-up phone contact,” says Sorrentino. “People were just not responding. In a normal year you just send them an invoice and they send you a check. [After the strike] we had to send them an invoice and then call them three or four times.”

The Astros lost 1,800 season- ticket holders during the strike. That number would have been higher if not for the team’s “Last Pitch” campaign: In early March 1995, 200 fans holding at least four tickets received a solicitation letter offering a baseball autographed by one of four Astros stars. The response rate was around 60%.

This effort, combined with a municipal booster campaign, increased the number of season subscribers to 11,000 in 1996. Several successful on-field seasons and the promise of first choice of premium seats for season subscribers in a stadium now being constructed have raised the total to more than 15,000.

As KnowledgeBase’s Wood says, “The team that gets on top of [loyalty marketing efforts] will be the one that [has an edge in] the battle for entertainment dollars.”