40x staff for 2,000 delegates at customer success software event
Client: Customer success and product experience software provider
Staffing Types: Temp roles – Directionals, Room Monitors, Hosts and Registration Staff
Geographical Coverage: UK and USA
Number of employees: 1,200+
Company Overview: A global customer success and product experience software provider offering self-serve customer management products. Based in the US, this client has over 20,000 customers using their products today.
The client held a 2-day Customer Service event aimed at sharing their expertise on customer success management with over 2,000 clients and prospective clients. The event offered an important opportunity for new client acquisition and developing existing client relationships. During the 2-day event, the client’s 2,000 guests received access to fifteen exhibition, speaker and activity zones.
The Challenge
In November 2022, Tate was asked to supply 40 event staff to represent the client’s brand as extended hosts to their 2,000 delegates across the 2-day, London event which coincided with a major tube strike.
The event staff would need to give attendees a high-quality customer service experience that complemented the clients’ own customer success ethos and standards. The event was held at the Tobacco Dock area of Central London and required a variety of staff with a range of responsibilities from directing attendees around the venue, supporting speakers in break-out rooms, event hosting, supervising and registering attendees. Staff were required to work long 12-hour shifts over both days.
Tate was chosen to recruit on the client’s behalf, for its proven ability to find good quality staff and deliver an efficient screening and hiring service. The client needed an agency they could trust to hire on their behalf, so they were able to focus on organising the event.
“We’ve been staffing large-scale and high-profile corporate events for 10 years for clients across London. We have a reliable and experienced pool of suitable candidates ready for these types of events so even with a tube strike, we knew we could deliver what the client needed.”
Adam Weir, Tate Operations Director
The Solution
The Tate team worked closely with the client to advertise roles through online job boards, Facebook and the Tate website.
All applicants were taken through a fast and thorough candidate registration process, which included screening for legal compliance with Right to Work in the UK. Additional screening for customer service skills included a telephone interview, followed by a video interview. The video interview allowed people to demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that would be essential for dealing with members of the corporate public.
Candidates with a retail background were favourable for their experience of building rapport quickly and for their stamina in a highly visible role at a fixed location for long periods of time.
Successful candidates were provided with full details of the event dates, location, start and end times plus supporting information to assist familiarisation with the venue layout. The Tate team also spent time working through travel options with every candidate, ensuring everyone was comfortable with alternative travel arrangements during the strike disruption.
An Associate Director and Operations Director from Tate attended the exhibition on both days to check-in staff as they arrived and spent 30 minutes providing staff with uniforms and familiarising them with the venue layout, facilities, and agenda and briefing them on their roles throughout each day.
A reserve team of event staff were placed on standby in case there were any last-minute backfill requirements during the event. Thankfully 100% attendance was achieved by the first team recruited.
“Our team were on site for the full event ensuring staff had a point of contact if any issues arose, again relieving the client from having to deal with managing the staff, letting them focus on delivering an outstanding event.”
Adam Weir, Operations Director
The Results
Tate was successful in delivering 100% fulfilment and staff attendance throughout the event. The client was extremely happy with the quality of the staff supplied and would like to work with Tate again in the future.
