The Executive Huddle enables critical calls on game day to improve the stadium experience
Twenty-first-century sports, from neighborhood little leagues to iconic franchises, are driven by data. Another side to the sports universe that is being radically reinvited with data is the game day fan experience.
What to do about an endless line, a clogged sink, and soggy French fries? Typically, sports fans are out of luck. Best case scenario: usually, they are left to fill out a post-game day customer experience survey and hope for better luck next time.
For the legendary
San Francisco 49ers hoping for better luck next time wasn't good enough for their 70,000+ loyal fans that arrive at their stadium for ten home games a season. The 49ers wanted to translate the data gathered throughout Levi's Stadium into meaningful, measurable, real-time improvements to the fan experience.
An Epic View From the 50-Yard Line
Not willing to wait days for customer feedback and then weeks to implement changes, the 49ers were looking for a real-time solution that would collect customer data from all over the stadium—from the parking lot to concession stands to retail shops and restrooms—and leverage it for immediate, actionable insights. Enter
SAP Business Technology Platform, including SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP HANA Cloud, reimagined for the 49ers as the Executive Huddle.
Now the 49ers' Business Intelligence team suits up for home games, which they survey from their ultramodern skybox control room, perched high above the 50-yard Line. While guests enjoy the game in the front of the suite, the BI team is focused on the Executive Huddle in the back, where dashboards provide visualized, real-time data and analytics from concessions, retail, entry gates, and parking, along with fan feedback from 100 HappyOrNot terminals. Long line at the concession stand 115? The customer service team sends in reinforcements to open another register. Clogged sink in the men's restroom in section 110? A maintenance crew is on the way.
With the Executive Huddle, customer data is deployed on game day to maximum effect, ensuring a seamless experience for the 49ers' legions of fans, and the difference is measurable.
The San Francisco 49ers' implementation of Executive Huddle has resulted in the following:
- Fan satisfaction increases by up to 30 index points
- Optimization of the fan experience from parking lots to security gates
- New opportunity areas in retail and concessions
- Improved customer service leading to maximized revenues
- Identification and resolution of game day issues before they become widespread or public
- Centralized fan feedback for rapid issue triage and resolution
- Rapid notification of VIP arrivals via ticket scans
- Retail sales data to identify what's selling and what's not
- Ability to compare data in real-time across multiple sources
- Enhanced staff productivity, from executives to janitors, by pinpointing where problems arise
Tune In
In this episode of Better Together: Customer Conversations, we sit down with
Noele Crooks, Director, Business Intelligence & CRM, San Francisco 49ers, to explore why the
49ers leverage SAP BTP technologies to optimize their fans' game day experience.
- Thought Leadership Podcast: Tamara McCleary, CEO of Thulium, talks with Noele Crooks about why the 49ers are using technology to make a real-time difference for fans.
- Practitioners' Video: Dan Lahl, Global Vice President of SAP Marketing and Solutions, sits down with Noele to explore the technology behind the Executive Huddle and consider other applications for this powerful tool—both for the 49ers and for other organizations.
Interested in more stories about using data insights to improve customer experiences? Check out:
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