Today’s guest blog comes from resident hockey fan and diehard Buffalo supporter, Ralph Cipolla. It’s a great lesson in CX – and how anyone and everyone from an organization can roll up their sleeves and get involved. Let the puck drop…
First, full disclosure. This blue, gold, and white blog is a labor of love. As a Buffalo native and life-long Sabres fanatic, it gives me great pleasure to share a smart, simple, and wildly effective marketing event that took place on the streets of home.
I’ll give you the who, what, when, and where. The event timeline will give you the “how,” and you’ll have no problem appreciating the “why.” Perhaps the degree of “wow” that accompanied this deceptively simple tactic will surprise you.
WHERE: Homes and workplaces of Buffalo and suburban western New York.
WHAT: Face-to-face interaction, the element of surprise, star power, a brush-with-greatness, a “show-&-tell” payoff, and the explosive viral spread of the story via the ground-up social networking machine.
WHO: Terry Pegula, family members, and his Buffalo Sabres. Pegula (net worth: $3 billion) bought the Sabres late last season. He grew up poor in Pennsylvania, dresses like your Uncle Ray, and treats Unrestricted Free Agents, arena ushers, the press, and fans with the same degree of “Golden Rule” respect. And he’s a genuine life-long Buffalo Sabres fan who wants to see his team win the Stanley Cup.
HOW: Here’s where the timeline and snapshots tell the tale.
Wednesday 1:02pm: 17 year-old Jessie, one of Pegula’s five children, tweets that she, “The Rents” (Mr. & Mrs. Pegula), and (Team President) Ted Black are “going to deliver season tickets.”
1-3pm: Yes, the owner, his wife, two of their daughters, and Sabres’ team President hit the road, hand-delivering season tickets to local homes and workplaces. Jessie tweets the house-by-house “play-by-play,” attaching pictures of stunned and thrilled fans snapped on-site. Team owner Pegula is the guy in sneakers, long pants, and polo shirt.
Alas, not everyone got the chance to knock back a beer in his or her garage with a billionaire. Some season ticket holders had to settle for an unexpected face-to-face delivery from Buffalo Sabres players. Below Sabres Defensemen Christian Ehrhoff and Mike Weber hit the workplaces and Forwards Ville Leino and Jason Pominville covered the home front.
3 pm: Word gets around when billionaires and hockey players go door-to-door. Twitter explodes. Jessie’s tweets get retweeted and re-retweeted. CNBC picks up the story and reporter Darren Rovell retweets pictures of Pegula and crew making house calls to his 120,000 Twitter followers. The local NBC affiliate picks up the story, sends out a camera crew, tags along, and has the story on their site early that afternoon.
Why? What are the five lessons we can take away from this exercise in CX – the Customer Experience – courtesy of Terry Pegula and the Buffalo Sabres?
1. I’m just like you. Like his employees and customers, the leader – Terry Pegula – shares a true passion for the product and wears it for all to see. He’s not too big, too rich, too famous, or too good to interact directly with the fans. This also sends a message throughout the entire organization that every job, every role, and every task has value. If the owner is willing (and excited) to hand deliver tickets, you should be willing to do anything to help the club.
2. Open, honest, transparent, credible – an effective mindset in the 2.0 environment. Pegula, his family, his executives, and his players exude these qualities in a simple, clear manner that is contagious and unique to sports and business.
3. There’s a commitment to winning. Buffalo is a town that has suffered through a lot of “almosts” when it comes to sports. This is yet another indication that Pegula is willing to do “whatever it takes” to bring a winner to western New York.
4. The customer experience “rules.” The organization is more than willing to get inside the head of the customer, and even spend time with them on their turf. The Sabres realize what the fan experience is all about, and in a simple, yet effective gesture, provides an honest and buzzworthy moment that is an indelible memory to the organization’s uber P1s.
5. Good news travels fast. When an organization does something special and uses the available social tools to get the word out, the viral nature of the real-time web kicks into high gear. In this case, the owner, his family, the team’s execs, and players make news by doing something as ordinary as delivering the Buffalo News. But because of who they are, they’ve created a buzzworthy event that gets picked up by Twitter users, as well as network and local TV (and this blog!).
We can all learn from a visit to Pegulaville.
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Yes! I love it! For a Buffalo native like me, nothing could be better! Way to go Ralph. Go Sabres!
Thanks, Rich. A lot of you Buffalonians have responded positively to this post. Thanks for taking the time.
This really is just one of many examples of what he’s done to engage the community, from events, social media, investing in the product (both in Buffalo and Rochester). Many companies could learn a thing or two by watching what he’s done over the past eight months.
Thanks, Ryan. The Pegula family is doing so many things well – a great example for all of us.