Summary Essay on Chapter 12: Sport Facility and Event Management

The book Sports Facility and Event Management focus on the major components of both the facility as well as the management of the sports and this entails financing, marketing, implementation as well as the evaluation. In chapter 12, the author focuses on the customer service activities that can enhance effective marketing of the sporting products and services. In a broader note, the section reviews various aspects involved with the customer service in the sports marketplace. Additionally, the author describes the significance of the customer services to the sporting managers and why such services are essential for the maintenance of a competitive edge within an already saturated marketplace. The author, Cattani, recognizes the lucrativeness associated with the sports industry as many funds attend numerous sporting events every year. However, the two significant factors, the competition, and the resistance from the customer as a result of the rising in the cost and increased expectations for better performance and event quality have acted as significant challenges facing the industry. It results in a massive stagnation of the revenue and the difficulty in the establishment of other new income sources. In this way, the sports manager must, therefore, must come up with ways to enhance and maintain their position in the marketplace while at the same time ensuring that they grow despite the challenges they face.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

In the chapter, Cattani revisits various marketing literature on marketing within the sports industry. Cattani mentions that the provision of high-quality service is vital in improving the level of satisfaction among the customers. It is based on the fact that the service quality has received a tremendous attention from various scholars, thereby making it one of the most important issues within the sport and recreation landscape. In the view of Cattani, the most efficient mechanism to learn if one's organization is meeting or exceeding its expectations is through involving the customers and asking them about their view and perceptions regarding the quality of the products offered. The effective customer service, therefore, involves various qualities that include patience, attentiveness, product knowledge, positive language, acting and time management skills, goal oriented, the ability to read customers as well as the calming practice. Besides, the ability to handle surprises, persuasion skills, and the closing ability also formed vital qualities for effective customer service. As Cattani mentions, the combination several of these skills with the personalities of the employees within an organization is the beginning point of promoting the relationship both the current and potential customers. Such relationship is important in creating a marketing endeavor that helps in the creation, maintenance, and the commercialization of the customer relationships with the aim of achieving the objectives of the parties involved. The process of building this relationship is not a one-time thing, but an ongoing process that occurs throughout contact between both the customers and the service providers. Establishment of a proper relationship with the customers requires a good understanding of the things or the customers need and the reasons for attending our events and facilities.

Cattani recognizes various researchers who played the integral role in examining some of the factors and customer motives for attending the events, programs, and facilities organized by the organization. Some of the reasons of customers' participation include the desire for achievement, knowledge acquisition, the aesthetic purposes, the recreational purposes, and the escape from the daily routine and have a new experience of something different. According to Cattani, being familiar with the alternative ways of measuring service quality does not separate the organization from the competition. However, the move is vital in saving the organization the valuable resources in aiming at the other external companies that provide services for your organization. The modification of the five dimension SERVIQUAL (reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and the responsiveness). The assessment of the quality of services among the spectators is also crucial.

Lastly, Cattani mentions that having an understanding of the customer service and its importance to sports promotes organizational support. The outcomes of effective customer service include various satisfaction, which can be shown through the reliability, the responsiveness, the assurance, empathy, and the willingness to get receive more services from the company. While these elements are still considered relevant today, the attendance of these concepts within every service contributes to the starting point of moving towards the viability. The customer loyalty involves the combination of the service and experience of satisfaction. It is the individual's level of contentment after the consumption of a given product or service. Overall, understanding the significant outcomes of high-quality service tremendously help acquire the proper knowledge of keeping both the current as well as the prospective customers. In this sense, therefore, building an exceptional customer service skills is a pivot for success for an organization within a sports industry as the combination several of these skills with the personalities of the employees within an organization is the beginning point of promoting the relationship both the current and potential customers.

References

Aicher, T. J., Paule-Koba, A. L., & Newland, B. (2015). Sport Facility and Event Management. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.