Editor’s note: Tom Logue is a project manager at Message Factors, Inc., a Memphis, Tenn., research firm.

It’s a CEO’s dream: Every time the office doors open, customers by the thousands show up to greet arriving employees with wild cheers of support. Many are long-time customers while others have just discovered the company, but all proudly display its logo on everything from hats and key chains to t-shirts and bumper stickers. When the newest employee walks in, these avid patrons know not only his name, but his record of professional achievement too. “Hey, that’s John Wilkinson from Tulsa,” they say. “He’s going to do great things for this organization!” Their enthusiasm can’t be contained. It spills all over town as customers tell everyone how the company is beating the competition senseless.

Welcome to the world of baseball, an industry that instills rabid loyalty in its customers. A loyalty that is passed from generation to generation, that makes friends out of strangers and enemies out of friends. However, for people in the sports business, it poses difficult questions. What should we do with this loyalty? How do we keep it, grow it and take advantage of it without compromising it?

These were the questions posed by the West Michigan Whitecaps, a minor league baseball team in Grand Rapids that asked Message Factors, a Memphis, Tenn., research firm, to help them determine how to effectively maintain fan loyalty on a limited budget. They had gleaned a few ideas from fan complaints - like the possibility of undertaking a major construction project to ease parking-lot congestion - but otherwise lacked clear direction in their approach to fan loyalty.

Message Factors developed a study for the Whitecaps using its proprietary Value Analysis technique, which examines the relationship between overall perceived value and specific satisfaction attributes to determine loyalty drivers. Value Analysis goes beyond the numbers to tell a company “The Four Things Your Customers Want To Tell You.” They are:

  • The Basics - what customers expect of the company.
  • Value Issue - what customers value about the company.
  • Irritations - what customers don’t like about the company.
  • Unimportants - what customers don’t care about.

Which to test?

The first and most crucial step in finding out what fans wanted to tell the Whitecaps was determining which issues to test. Through detailed one-on-one interviews with team staff and fans, and selections from our own database of industry-specific issues, we identified every point of contact between the Whitecaps and their fans. We designed a questionnaire that incorporated these 71 attributes, as well as general demographics and additional questions needed for our proprietary analysis, and distributed surveys to fans at a Whitecaps game. They were asked to rate the Whitecaps on each attribute, and were also asked to rate another familiar sporting event.

From the 1,010 questionnaires that were returned, we determined which attributes were Basics, Value Issues, and Irritations (there were no issues considered Unimportant in the study). The Basics included attributes such as stadium safety, restroom cleanliness, and variety of food items.

For the Whitecaps, meeting customers’ basic expectations only guarantees that they will not be removed from consideration among available attractions. Exceeding basic expectations would yield no extra benefit, but underperforming in this area would cost them customers.

To build loyalty among their fans, the Whitecaps needed to focus on Value Issues. These included attributes such as helpful box office personnel, convenience of purchasing tickets and opportunities for autographs. These attributes had the highest contribution to overall value perception, and therefore also the highest contribution to loyalty.

When customer Irritations were identified, it was not surprising that many involved souvenirs, including price, quality, variety and shop hours. Although fans aren’t very satisfied with these attributes, they don’t expect to be satisfied. They know that anyone who goes to a sporting event hoping for quality souvenirs at a fair price is bound to return home disappointed. In general, if innovation cannot redefine how customers think of an Irritation and add value to the concept, these attributes can be ignored without harming loyalty.

The next step was Theme Analysis, which examines the interrelationships among issues to identify overarching patterns and concepts. This step is usually the most helpful for our clients because it provides two unique benefits. First, it defines a clear message that can be communicated more directly - both inside the organization and when marketing externally - than a network of specific attributes. Second, it determines areas where performance increases on one attribute can lead to perceptions of progress on other attributes, increasing the impact of each dollar spent on improvements.

Key themes

For the Whitecaps, several key themes emerged. The most notable theme was personnel, which consisted almost entirely of Value Issues. Almost every point of contact with fans - including the box office staff, vendors, concessionaires, even the P.A. announcer - was a high contributor to value perception. Both the Whitecaps and their competition scored about average on personnel issues, giving the Whitecaps an opportunity to differentiate themselves from other competitive sports by becoming even more fan-friendly.

Finally, a segmentation analysis was performed on several groups, including heavy users (those who attended five games or more per season) and lawn seating patrons. Each of these segmentations gave insights into the unique loyalty drivers for each group. For example, heavy users value convenience of purchasing tickets more than the general population, while fans seated on the lawn were more concerned about clarity of the sound system.

Based on these findings, the Whitecaps were able to follow a specific course of action. Since they performed well on the Basics, they were able to shift their focus to improving and communicating Value Issues. The Theme Analysis provided broad, easily-grasped concepts to target in internal planning and external marketing efforts. Value Analysis transformed fan loyalty from a vague, intangible phenomenon into a clearly defined cause-and-effect relationship.

In addition to gaining long-term strategic advantages, the Whitecaps also enjoyed an immediate and dramatic financial windfall. They learned that the post-game parking-lot congestion they were planning to address was only an Irritation to fans. Yes, they were complaining, but the crowded exits weren’t keeping anyone away from the games. Thus the Whitecaps not only avoided the headaches of a major construction project, but saved nearly a half-million dollars as well.

And what about the Whitecaps fan loyalty? The following season, the team raised its season ticket prices 25 percent - and got a 100-percent renewal!