This is the story of entrepreneur Andrew Berlin, as told to Inc. editor-at-large Leigh Buchanan.
When I bought the South Bend Silver Hawks--a Single-A team affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks--they had been losing money for years. I knew I had to create the best-ever ballpark to turn the team around.
At Berlin Packaging, we are big fans of the Net Promoter Score, which measures customer loyalty. You raise your NPS by looking at all the touch points in a customer relationship--are they positive or negative, and how can you improve them?
When I took over the Silver Hawks, we did a survey and determined that our NPS was just 13--a dismal score. We got to work.
We looked at everything. As you walk from your car to the turnstile, what do you see? Is there someone there to help you? What is the attitude of the person who takes your ticket? Is he or she friendly? What do you smell when you walk into my stadium? Are the best-smelling foods right at the entrance? As you travel down the concourse, what do you see on the video monitors? We identified 36 touch points from the moment you arrive at the game to the moment you leave.