Retail Event Debrief:
and the importance of scheduling one in advance
How do you evaluate the success of your store events? Perhaps it’s total sales. Perhaps it′s sales plus the number of email addresses collected. Perhaps it’s the number of brand new customers due to a “bring a friend” promotion.
Regardless of your goals, the best way to analyze the overall performance of an event is to round up your stakeholders for an event debrief meeting. Do the event debrief as soon as possible following your event.
A post-event debrief helps you and your team reflect on how the event went and how to improve in the future. Plan the debrief and get it on the calendar, as they seldom occur if not scheduled in advance. This also enables and reminds stakeholders to pay attention to details of the event for input after the fact.
Here are some tips to getting the most out of an event debrief session.
Make your debrief a safe space where participants feel like they can be honest about their observations and ideas for improvement. Begin with: What worked well? Then ask about what didn’t work?
Have someone compile all data to review; number of attendees, amount of sales, average sale, number of email addresses collected, expenses of the event, etc. If possible, have numbers and data from previous events on hand to reference, too.
Review the original event objectives.
Discuss whether you stayed within the event budget. If you went over, was it necessary and worth it? Did you underspend in an area?
Read on for the next six tips and to learn about who your should include in a debrief.