Tom Wilson, CEO of Palace Sports and Entertainment, spoke about “The Palace Way” at a local networking event last week. Palace Sports & Entertainment operates The Palace, DTE Energy Music Theater, The Detroit Pistons, The Detroit Shock and Meadow Brook Music Festival. “The Palace Way” is about winning and striving for excellence but it is also about taking care of your two most important assets – your customers and your employees.
The Palace has been voted Arena of the Year eight times by Performance magazine, twice by Pollstar magazine and is listed annually among North America’s top-grossing arenas. Voted “Best Outdoor Concert Venue” in Pollstar’s 2000 Readers’ Poll, DTE Energy Music Theatre has been listed as the nation’s most attended amphitheater by Amusement Business/Billboard each of the 17 years of PS&E ownership. – Reuters
Striving for Excellence
Obviously winning is important to professional teams, but also is important to any team. The Palace showed their employees (not just their atheletes) that they were consistently doing ok, but not excellent. They put it to their employees to be part of the solution and to strive for excellence in everything – sales, marketing, maintenance, customer relations – everything. This has created an environment which helps the atheletes perform and a place where customers want to be.
Listening to customers
The Palace is always asking their customers what they like and don’t like. Most people will say everything is ok, but even with 1/10 giving you places to improve, it will help improve the experience and environment for everyone. Customers talk to each other and every customer who has a great experience will share that experience with their friends and coworkers.
It’s a Team Effort
Along with the accolades listed above, The Palace has been listed as one of the best places to work in metro-Detroit and about half of the employees have been there for 10 years or more. Employees are treated as team members with a part to play in the overall goals of the organization. They are encouraged to come up with ideas and, more importantly, given the opportunity to fail. By failing, employees learn valuable lessons to improve their overall performance and care about the company’s future. You may have noticed that all of the awards and accolades have been won by groups of people based on the opinions of their customers. It takes a team working together to provide customer service so excellent that the customers are willing to give positive ratings in a award survey.
Don’t be Afraid to Take Risks & Think Outside the Box
When The Palace was being built, the architect and engineer involved had never built a sports facility of this magnitude. They didn’t know when to say no, so they were willing to take risks. The Palace was the first facility to put corporate boxes so close to the floor. This allowed them to provide an amazing experience for their corporate customers while keeping ticket prices low for general admission. The result was a unique and rewarding game experience that both corporate and regular customers wanted to be a part of, which, incidentally, creates an excellent game situation for the atheletes.
Do What’s Right
It’s important to make decisions that are moral and ethical and are right for the long term. Sometimes it is hard to make the right decision for the long run, but it is important to “stick to your guns” and make your case heard. Mr. Wilson spoke about the period in Piston’s history known as “the teal era”. The team wasn’t winning and ticket sales were hurting. The right thing to do was to lower general admission prices so that more people could attend the games. While this cost the company money in the short term, it allowed them to create a winning atmosphere that paid off in the long run – both for winning games and making revenue.
Summary
Often businesses get caught up in making “business decisions” without taking into account their most important assets – employees and customers. Sometimes “business decisions” should also be “people decisions” to further the long term health of the company. No one said doing business is easy or fun, but making the right decisions for the future can be very rewarding.
(photo by laffy4k)