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Academy Resource Center: Redesigned and rebranded, 2016

Staff training: These dos and don'ts used to be presented as a boring list. I increased staff's interest and attention by turning them into an interactive, entertaining exercise.

ARC Customer Satisfaction Ratings.jpg

Customer satisfaction ratings increased between 13 and 40 percent after I revamped staff training with interactive exercises.

TRADE SHOWS

AAO RESOURCE CENTER:

​BOOTH MARKETING AND STAFF TRAINING

 

BACKGROUND

The Resource Center is the American Academy of Ophthalmology's booth at their annual meeting. This 110' x 110' booth comprises 18 kiosks where most divisions of the Academy are represented, including Member Services, the Foundation, Advocacy, Practice Management, Clinical Education, and Patient Education.

 

I was in charge of marketing operations from 2011 to 2022. I developed the strategy and oversaw the implementation of tactical marketing plans to drive attendance and meet sales goals. That included pre-, during-, and post-show communications, in-booth events, staff training, signage, demo stations and displays, sample inventory, and freight.

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CHALLENGES

  • To position the Resource Center as attendees' one-stop-shop for everything Academy

  • To increase in-booth sales despite customers' increasing tendency to purchase products online.

  • To increase customer satisfaction levels​

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SOLUTIONS

  • We previously had minimal Resource Center marketing collateral and each piece had disparate looks that didn't relate to each other or to the annual meeting. I introduced more marketing channels along with consistent designs that tied all collateral together with one cohesive, clean look, and drafted text with stronger calls to action. 

  • By making multiple events a regular part of our days, I created more reasons for attendees to visit the booth. These included product launch parties, guest speakers, headshots, raffles, etc.

  • Though we already gave a 10% show discount, I created coupons to hand to visitors, reinforcing the deal and allowing them an extra week after the meeting to order online (which counted as booth sales). We also offered free shipping to encourage attendees to order on site.

  • I increased the efficacy of staff training by increasing attention through humor, games, and flashcards and splitting into general info and product sessions. 

 

RESULTS

  • Before I was on the job, customer satisfaction ratings had been consistently between 60% and 83% for the four criteria we measured. I led our 80+ staff to increase those ratings steadily every year; by 2017, we scored between 90% and 95% in all four areas.

  • Despite attendees' spending only 2 hours on the show floor, and purchasing more often online, our onsite sales hung on and we continued to exceed our sales goals by up to 29%.​

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