We were honoured to partner up with Tottenham Hotspur FC to support the development and launch of the new customer experiences at their new £900million stadium at White Hart Lane.
“Nicholas and his team helped us get to a high level of performance very quickly. Their level of professionalism across the team has been second to none. They helped us identify and address a number of critical ‘showstoppers’, with some real clarity of thought helping us think differently about our priorities. They filled a gap when we needed extra capability and an independent voice, as well as giving our people a voice.” ANDY O’SULLIVAN, VENUE DIRECTOR
We were honoured in 2020 to be awarded a joint award with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club for Best Customer & Employee Engagement Programme.
The Challenges:
“It’s going to be our home for generations, and we want it to be exceptional” Daniel Levy
Our Core Issue: How can we create/operate a truly exceptional stadium, exceptional staff, more than ‘just another’ new stadium?
We conducted research interviews/focus groups with staff, fans/customers, which highlighted certain key challenges/tracking metrics:
Customers/Fan Experience:
- Increase attendance
- Increase revenues through new hospitality experiences (fast food to Michelin star), food/beverage, merchandise, new experiences, non-matchday events
- Design, develop and implement new, extended customer journeys with digital touchpoints: ‘the most technologically advanced stadium in the world’
- Work through partners/agencies to create a modern sporting/events hospitality culture supported by robust processes across multiple digital/live touchpoints
People/Culture:
- ‘Spurs’ employed an ageing culture, many people were very much ‘stuck in their ways’ e.g. the longest serving person, or most experienced would often automatically get the job
- Being just one of 14 stadia in London Metro area, 21 in the Greater London area*, there was a real challenge to attract/retain the best local talent available, while at the same time supporting the local community with work opportunities
- How to best motivate/re-engage casual workers match to match
- How to keep employees engaged and unified through transition from old to new stadium, interim use of Wembley stadium, and subsequent repeated delays to launch date
- How to align/motivate people who may be loyal to other clubs
Value to our Community:
- *Support Section 106 agreement that >20% people working in the stadium should live locally
- Help address the high unemployment/deprivation in the Tottenham area
The Overall Project Vision:
- To create a place that delivers more than just sport – to create world class experiences through people
- To create the most digitally advanced stadium in the world
- To develop a vibrant customer-centric culture to operate the new stadium experiences
Part of the vision included a social vision. The Club wanted to attract, develop, and retain great people, with a focus on the area of Tottenham. Tottenham has a high level of deprivation and has a larger number of JSA and ESA claimants than any other borough in London. The Club’s Foundation helped recruit within the community.
How did the team overcome the challenges?
Customer Experience Design: research/design a multi-purpose sport/leisure destination capable of staging major sporting/non-sporting events, including NFL, rugby, and concerts, national/international conferences.
Employee Engagement:
Co-creation sessions: involved all stakeholders in articulating credible, authentic Spurs Way values to inform on-brand behaviour and develop a Tottenham Hotspur FC ‘soul’ (#spursway):
- Be flexible, unafraid to challenge upwards (DARE)
- Value, trust and build relationships, work well in a team (RESPECT)
- Get things done and deliver to a high standard (DRIVE)
Club motto: “To Dare is to Do”.
‘First Touch’ Assessment Centers to provide vision and purpose, with fun and exciting experiences to attract/select great local people.
Spurs Way in Action: full toolkit with trainer support for partners and agencies to use for recruiting and developing their staff.
Experiential Learning Events to bring Spurs Way values to life across all the customer/fan touchpoints and one team vision.
The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation: involving local people:
- Construction: Apprenticeships/traineeships; construction job fairs and 1-to-1 training
- Hospitality: Job fairs, skill-based programmes, customer service training programmes to placements, 1-2-1 support and internships
‘SWAG’ – Spurs Way Action Group: Match-to-match ‘Agile’ improvement initiatives and actioning customer feedback. The Venue Director acts as the groups voice at Board level, this will encourage less motivated staff to get involved.
Recognition: On-brand behaviours recognised through a bespoke App, and face-to-face through team meetings and briefings. 100 Reward Cards handed out by team leaders, Pin badges (White-Blue-Gold), footballs: the more recognition, the better the pin badge and footballs. For gold, a personal letter and recognition from the Venue Director.
Key Innovations:
For Customers:
Experience Design: Research/create a purpose-built range of 14 dining experiences to engage five generations of people of varying tastes. From fish n’ chips, burgers, pizza, fried chicken, curry up to Michelin starred cuisine. The longest bar in the UK, in-stadium microbrewery, inhouse pie factory, stepped seating in the concourse with video walls (a first), cashless payments (a UK stadium first), fast and friendly security process, experiential stadium climb (opens next month), a range of conference experiences, innovative access methods, order by App catering, local and sustainable food sourcing.
Immersive Engagement: A bespoke Virtual Reality Suite to experience the new premium lounges and dining experiences before they were built and a sensory suite for fans with autism.
Website + purpose-built App:
- Push notifications of news stories to keep fans connected to the club
- Google Map-style tool to help customers/fans get around the new stadium
Ahead of the stadium opening, a series of invitational events were held to engage key customer groups, test new features/processes.
For Employees:
An Employee Engagement App (a global stadium first): the ability to share videos, pictures, and stories about the Spurs Way training to give our casual workforce a voice. This has helped us to keep track of our applicants and update people on key information, in advance as well as on game days.
Involving People: ‘road test’ of dining experiences with staff, special evenings to sample menus and recommend improvements.
SWAG Touchpoint Maps (for all key groups) and Key Processes: designed with leaders/staff, documented, shared, and tested.
Measures of Success – Customers:
- All season tickets and premium/hospitality packages sold out…with waiting lists
- Increased stadium capacity from 36,280 to 62,303 (increase of 72%)
- Increased total gate receipts £40m to £90m
- Increased hospitality revenues £15m to £50m through new premium/dining experiences
- Highest food and beverage sales in the Premier League
- Fastest ‘walk up’ in the League – time taken from arrival to get into your stadium seat
- New customer journeys with digital touchpoints: ‘the most technologically advanced stadium in the world’
- Average customer satisfaction score since opening is 86 % across 9 customer journeys
- Kept customers and staff continually engaged throughout stadium delays with digital tools
- Educating fans to come into the stadium earlier and stay for longer to increase revenue and reduce impact on local transport network
- Entertainment in GA and Premium Experiences
- Bring premium experiences to the general admission concourses
Measures of Success – Employees:
2000 new staff recruited on Spurs Way values. 82% still employed over 2 years later (industry standard staff retention rates are circa. 65% per annum). Increase from 900 to 2750 matchday staff from old stadium.
Spurs Way Action Group (SWAG): 142 identifiable improvement initiatives delivered through 12 meetings in Season 1.
Recognition: 1450 staff members winning white ball, 420 winning blue ball, 7 winning Gold ball. 5000+ acts of recognition in first season based on the values showing on the Totem App.
New values-based recruitment process including group assessments, based around the three Spurs Way values: Dare Respect, Drive.
Spurs Way Training Days – 3-day training day for all staff. Pre and post questionnaires each day showing 98% achievement of learning outcomes and applicability.
Pre-Matchday Employee Engagement Platform: 48 hours before an event, people receive memory-joggers of the Spurs Way values. Every game there is a new focus. As the topics were easily trackable, we were able to showcase who have seen it (97) via our Employee engagement app.
Matchday Briefings/1-to-1 coaching conversations: After briefings, employees were coached in 1-to-1 conversations to check what they remembered from the briefing.
Engagement/Recognition: First online engagement tool in the Premier League. 3000 staff on the platform on a day to day basis. All staff entered in a reward scheme (Hat Trick Heroes) to drive the behaviours.
A modern international venue is a unique combination of several businesses in one. Retail, hospitality, events, leisure, dining, recreation. To harmonise these experiences to a 6-star level requires a massive and complex customer and employee engagement exercise before, during and in between events under immense pressure. It means working with employees, casual staff, agencies, and partners. Staff engagement is pivotal, against a backdrop of high staff and customer attrition in this and similar industries.
These diverse areas of the business need to combine effectively to offer all customers a seamless, frictionless, digitally enhanced experience that wows them.
The stadium has won 12 awards to date including:
- Best Stadium: mondo*dr Awards 2020
- Stadium Business: ‘Project of the Year’; ‘Interior & Fit-Out Award’ for the High Street Concourse and ‘Venue of the Year’
- Structural Steel Design Awards 2019 – Project of the Year
- The Building Awards; Design Project of the Year
- Best Inclusive Building @ LABC Awards (for Tottenham Experience)
- WIN (World Interiors News) Gold Award – for concourse design
- WIN (World Interiors News) Gold Award – for branding and wayfinding
- The Institution of Structural Engineers Award – Long Span Structures
- The Institution of Structural Engineers Award – Supreme Award for Engineering Excellence
- AJ Architecture Awards – Leisure Project of the Year
We also won the Engage Media Award for Best Customer and Engagement Programme as a joint award between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Soul Corporations.
Customer Feedback: Verbatim
Wheelchair user handheld video feedback: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPHkTIMYlKY&app=desktop
“Please can I ask you to convey mine and my family’s thanks to the incredible staff you have working at Tottenham Hotspur’s Football Club.”
“My Dad, Grandad and I could not fault anyone. From the friendly, efficient staff you have operating the shuttle bus service to and from Wood Green, to the exceptional stewarding in and around the ground, the whole experience was first class.”
“We have been fortunate to travel to a lot of different grounds over the years, but the customer service at Tottenham truly is another level. From the welcoming, to the level of dignity shown towards my Grandad, we really can’t praise and thank you enough.”
“A lot has been said of your new stadium and facilities which are innovative and refreshing, but I truly believe your biggest assets are the people within your club.”