Importance of Feedbacks

Every time we make any decision regarding any product or service, we refer to reviews or feedback by those who have experienced it already. It’s a basic human tendency. Review, ratings, feedback, testimonials- all these parameters are directly linked to the credibility of brands. A similar phenomenon is observed in the event industry as well. When so many events are competing for the same set of audience, it becomes necessary for the organiser to keep track of how the event is perceived in the industry. 

Reviews and Ratings in the event industry 

Event-goers mainly refer to event-listing platforms to gauge the credibility of any event. The bigger the platform, the more likely it is to influence attendee behaviour. The figures on such listing platforms are generated from the response of massive traffic coming on the platform. Hence, event-goers rely on such a platform while making any decision. 

Reviews and Ratings

• Build trust among event attendees
• Help organisers in publicising the event 
• Increase the credibility of the event.

Various ways in which events get feedback 

Ratings

Ratings are the easiest ways in which event attendees give their feedback for any event. To get a better picture of the overall process, organisers need to segment their overall feedback. This helps them in recognising the strength and the weakness of the event. 

There are many stakeholders in any event. So it’s better to separate Organiser Ratings from other ratings. For the basic overview, Ratings can be classified into two categories- Feature  Rating  & Organiser Rating

Feature Rating- All the ratings that are about whatever is offered by the event 

• Quality of Participants
• Format of Event 
• Exhibitors and Vendors
• Quality of Products

Organiser Ratings- This section reflects organiser’s effectiveness

• Communication
• Registration Process 
• Staff helpfulness
• Execution Quality
• Arrangements

Based on the above ratings, the average rating of the event is defined. This rating gives the overall idea of where the event is standing on a particular scale. 

Ratings with reviews- 

There are some attendees who wish to elaborate as to why they are providing any particular rating. To do so, they combine the rating along with the review. Reviews give a more elaborated picture of attendees’ sentiments, although only a few ratings are accompanied by reviews. 

How to track feedback- 

Feedbacks can be analysed chronologically or on the basis of sentiments. 

Sorting reviews by time- 

This helps in analysing the change in the nature of reviews over a period of time. Organisers can plan their event strategy on the basis of changes (whether positive or negative) in the nature of reviews. 

Sorting reviews by sentiments

When we say the nature of reviews, it actually means the sentiment signalled by them. Accordingly, reviews can be Positive, Negative or Neutral. 

How to use and manage feedback for event promotions 

There are various ways in which organisers can manage the feedback to enhance event promotion- 

Highlighting positive reviews- 

Positive reviews invoke a feeling of trust among potential attendees. Since visitors usually scroll down on the event’s listing page, it’s a good practice to highlight positive reviews. These positives reviews get lined up at the start of the review section, leaving a positive impression right from the beginning. 

Testimonial Videos- 

As already discussed, there are few attendees who become brand advocates for the event over the editions. Organisers can ask these attendees to provide video testimonials. They can further place these videos in the content section to attract potential attendees. These days when people lack in time and don’t prefer to read much, testimonial video is a strong medium to enhance the event’s credibility.

Widgets- 

You can use customizable widgets and place them on your event website. As your event earns more reputation over the editions, the chance of getting widgets increases. 

In particular, these two widgets are really important for event promotions-

Widget to display ratings and reviews for enhanced user engagement– 

Widget to showcase the popularity of your event on your website and blogs– 

These widgets help you increase user registrations. You can easily embed them in your event website/blog with iframe codes. 

Collection of Feedback

We have discussed so far how feedbacks can be managed for successful event promotion. For effective management of feedback, it is a must to have a significant collection of feedback. Organisers can schedule the post-event feedback sessions for the purpose of collecting feedback.

Feedbacks and ratings aren’t just the response from your attendees. If used in a systematic manner, these feedbacks, ratings, reviews, testimonials etc can be developed into strong assets for event promotion. You need to list your event at the right place so that it is visible to the right audience. 10times is the world’s largest event discovery platform where you will easily find the niche audience for your event, which helps you get personalised event community. oDASH is the event management solution by 10times which helps you manage this community. The feedback and ratings collected can be utilised  for  successful event promotion.