Case Study: Walsall FC

Background

At the beginning of the 2021/22 season (the season when fans returned to stadiums after the pandemic), Walsall FC did not have a good match day experience. They were rated 22nd (out of 24) in League Two of the EFL, and 66th overall (out of 72) in the latest round of assessments. I was asked to support them on their journey, and the club are now in the top ten overall, and in 2023/24 were the highest ranked club in their division. Here’s how it happened….

  • Plan (Jan 2022)

    First, we needed to be strategic. These things don’t happen by accident, so we had to tell everyone what we were doing, get them onboard and have a clear plan for the rest of the year. If it’s communicated well, it’s much easier down the line to articulate what is happening next and, most importantly, why we are doing it.

  • People (Feb 2022)

    It made sense to start with the club’s people. That’s the quickest way to make improvements at ALL of the key touchpoints in the fans’ journey. So, we began with staff training and pre-game briefings that were all very consistent with the message – ‘we want to get better, because it changes the way fans think and behave’

  • Experience (April 2022)

    It was key to have some early results that showed the fans (and everyone within the club) that things were changing. So we focussed on some key parts of the match day (including a fan zone and pre-match entertainment) that lifted the experience both outside and inside the stadium. We moved it from being distinctly average to a good one, and fans noticed.

  • Feedback (Jun 2022)

    We used the off-season to talk to the fans. A survey was sent to everyone on the database so that we could get a much better understanding of what they were thinking, and how they’d like to see the club improve. We focused on communications and the match day because they were the areas where fans are impacted the most.

  • Experience (Aug 2022)

    As the new season began, we wanted to become very good. To achieve this, a team of Here to Help volunteers were recruited and they transformed the experience in the stadium vicinity while further staff training lifted all the match day people to new levels. Fans were now getting a great welcome, help with any questions and plenty of smiles.

  • Recognition (Oct 2022)

    It was all about momentum now. Ensuring the delivery of the match day experience was key, but so was recognising all of the work that had gone in to reach this level. At this point, the attendance had increased by almost 12%, so the benefits were clear to see, and there was a solid platform to build on in the pursuit of excellence.

Benefits

What a difference a year makes. Here’s some of the benefits and also what they led to….

  • The attendances increased even though the league position didn’t change much. Over 2022, this was almost 12% but as the experience continued to get better in the following seasons, so the attendances continued to rise and the overall increase is now over 20% .

  • The experience was very good at the end of 2022, and close to being even better. Continued focus on the people, and by adding additional forms of entertainment both outside and inside the stadium (the growing impact of the mascot was a perfect example), saw the experience become officially EXCELLENT by the end of the 2022/23 season and this has been maintained since as the club have moved from 22nd to top in their league (in the EFL’s match day assessment programme).

  • The club now has feedback as a key part of how it operates. Fans are asked for their opinion on a regular basis, after games and annually at the end of the season, and the insights are used to drive further improvements and understand how the opinions and demands of fans are also constantly changing.

  • The culture has completely changed at the club. There is a clear determination to put fans first. The communication is fantastic, the match day experience continues to develop and the people who work at games know what the club is aiming to do, and execute it perfectly. In the latest assessment, the people score was a perfect 10!