Salesforce changes the game for fans of The Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators (The Senators) are one of most exciting teams in the National Hockey League, serving passionate fans in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. Since their return to the NHL in 1992, the Senators have provided a sports experience that keeps fans coming back — with more than 750,000 patrons attending home games at the Canadian Tire Centre annually. The Senators continue to work hard to create an amazing fan experience. The landscape of fan engagement has changed dramatically in the last few years, which means connecting with them goes beyond the stadium. Looking to reinvent the fan experience and connect with their customers in entirely new and unique ways, the Senators turned to salesforce.com in 2013 and haven’t looked back.

The first step towards enhancing their customer journey was delivering a highly personalized experience for valued season ticket Members. Prior to Salesforce, complex ticket packages and lack-of customer-profile information made it difficult to go beyond a single interaction. By deploying Salesforce Sales Cloud and integrating it with their ticketing system using the Salesforce Platform, customer account information is now automatically updated in real-time for their entire sales team. This puts all customer information in one central location, creating a seamless and personalized experience while increasing speed of service delivery. It also lets sales staff easily identify the best ticket package option for a potential customer and use the same information for proactive service campaigns.

The Salesforce Service Cloud has also increased efficiency and transparency within the company. The Senators listen closely to their fans using multiple websites to gather customer ideas, feedback, suggestions and more. Now, everything is automatically funnelled into one internal case management system that connects everyone on their service teams allowing sales reps to spend more time doing their job and less time sorting through emails.

Using Salesforce1, all sales reps have access to important customer information from their mobile devices putting everything they need at their fingertips. This gives them a more holistic view of their clients and access to customer cases from anywhere, anytime.

“With the help of Salesforce, we now know our customers and fans better than ever,” said Chris Atack, Director of Season Seat Membership and Group Ticket Sales. “By combining mobile technology and a 360-degree view of each customer, we are delivering memorable moments that keep fans coming back for a stadium experience unmatched by any other team in the league.”

More recently the Senators started using Data.com which keeps them up-to-speed with the latest information on potential customers. Now sales reps always have the right data, can instantly access top-quality contacts and have leads updated in real-time. This has ultimately increased sales rep productivity by 25 per cent.

With Salesforce as their partner, the Senators plan to launch #SensVision25 leading up to their 25th anniversary. This is a five-year journey that involves further transforming the fan experience by providing mobile access that gives consumers the ability to do things like upgrade their tickets mid-game, watch instant replays, view stats and order food from their seats.

The Senators will also launch Salesforce Community Cloud for season ticket holders, which will provide a platform for them to interact with each other and the team. This online community will let users access information on players, games and local events as well as share their on-site food preferences, parking suggestions and overall ideas for the club. Eventually, they plan to extend this online community beyond just season ticket holders.

The Ottawa Senators Hockey Club is changing the way hockey fans interact with Canada’s favourite sport by re-inventing the traditional hockey game experience.