Mark Adams attended the Meetings Quest tradeshow in Atlanta on October 5. The conference was attended by local Atlanta meeting planners representing both associations and corporations.

CVB sales division members made visits to Atlanta, Gainesville, and Augusta to meet with potential future customers.

September, by the numbers: The CVB booked 2,580 future room nights in September.  The CVB added 138 accounts, held 165 in-person meetings, and booked 20,874 delegate days. 

 
Coming up:  In November, the CVB sales division will hold three focus groups of Atlanta meeting planners to receive input on The Classic Center expansion.

Who markets better, and better meets customer expectations, than Disney?  Georgia Tourism Conference keynote speaker Dennis Snow, a former Disney executive, presented three principles we can all learn from:

1. Look at everything through the lens of the customer. Incorporate "service mapping" for each type of common customer interaction to identify areas customers may identify as poor or mediocre.
2. Pay attention to details. "Everything speaks," so keep staff issues backstage, not on stage.
3. Create moments of Wow.  Little moments add up. Your customers don't give you extra credit for accuracy and availability. They expect that and will be upset if you don't provide it for them. To create Wow and separate yourselves from the rest, you need to be a partner and source of advice to your customers. Give your employees the tools to be heroes.

Learn more about Dennis' customer service philosophy in this YouTube excerpt.