Aside from dieting, few topics generate as many gurus and as much book ink as customer service. The result: both subjects tend to make your eyes glaze over. Yet to work well, both require a fundamental mindset change.

And that’s exactly what show organizers might need to jump-start new ways of thinking about the experience exhibitors and attendees are having at their events. See them once a year, and it’s easy to lose sight of them as customers in need of pampering, attention and concern.

Making show customers feel appreciated and valued starts with ensuring that the process of registering, communicating with staff and getting space reserved is foolproof, says Lior Arussy, President of Strativity Group, a customer experience research and design company and author of “Passionate and Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail, and 10 Steps to Do Them Right!” And it ends with the feeling that their experience was good and the participation was valued.

“If what they remember is being in a high-pressure environment and competing for attendees with a used-car-salesman type in the next booth over, they won’t be thinking about next year,” Arussy says.

We know, we know. You’re building back from 2009 and customer service isn’t your highest priority. But it may be easier than you think. EXPO tapped the minds of select customer service gurus to learn what makes the best customer experience and why, and then translated those takeaways to the world of events.

THE PROBLEM: IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU
When people repeatedly do business with you, it’s tempting to assume they’ve seen the light: You really are wonderful and indispensable. That’s a cardinal mistake, Arussy says. Such thinking breeds a culture of transparently putting self-preservation above meeting customer needs.

It’s a gaffe show organizers can ill afford, especially in an age when companies have more choices and more pressure to demonstrate marketing ROI. Yet many persist with behaviors that make it look like buying a booth or attending an event is a fait accompli. Usually, notes Arussy, shows are talking up next year before the exhibit hall lights go dim.

“The whole practice of rather quickly forcing people into selecting and buying space for next year’s event, before they’ve even been able to gauge the full value of the current show, is more than presumptuous,” he says. “How many companies really know what their needs are going to be in a year?”

THE FIX: A LITTLE TLC
It may be only a cosmetic touch, but communicating your awareness that exhibitors care more about their tangible results than making your “longest-running exhibitor” list, shows where your priorities lie. Before pushing forward into the next sales cycle, spend a little extra time talking with exhibitors about the experience of this show: What could have gone better and how can you improve the experience to help them reach their goals?

THE PROBLEM: BAD SERVICE FROM THE FRONT LINES
Customers have long memories. That’s why a major tenet of customer experience management (CEM) is the delivery of not only a product or service, but also an experience that in total generates good memories.

“CEM asks the simple question of whether all the touch points a customer has with a product or service are consistently delightful and exceptional,” Arussy says.

While that may be a tall order in a product with a lot of moving parts that are hard to control, it’s one that show organizers must seek to deliver. Because many of the most memorable experiences are tied to human interactions, Arussy says one easy way organizers can move the needle is emphasizing courteousness and responsiveness by staff and all those engaged in staging the event.

“Temporary staffers who haven’t been trained well, and may be stationed in the registration area, can cause the customer to start the show journey in an unpleasant way,” he says. Long lines and confusing processes can also cause confusion. The myriad people who touch exhibitors — from union laborers to lead retrieval staff — can be landmines, too.

THE FIX: CUSTOMER SERVICE BOOT CAMP
Think hard about the people attendees and exhibitors will be interacting with at your event. These people need in-depth customer service training; including the nitty gritty on the show itself, how and when to defer questions to someone on staff and how to diffuse conflicts quickly and easily. Work with the general services contractor to learn what kind of customer service training they’re doing with the unions and how best you can supplement it at the show, if at all.

THE PROBLEM: NERVE-RADDLED CONSTITUENTS
The act of buying can be a leap of faith. When customers are asked to put their dollars on the line, even repeatedly, they want to feel they’re making the right decision. That’s why communicating an understanding of customer concerns and conveying an assurance of the ability to deliver are foundational to great customer service, says Kathy Harper, a partner in Kinesis-CEM, a customer service research and consulting firm. “Let them know how they’re going to be taken care of,” she says. “If you demonstrate that care and show that you know what you’re doing, they’ll remember. That has a big correlation to customers following through.”

THE FIX: ANTICIPATE NEEDS
On-site, this can translate to appreciating the inevitable hassles of exhibiting. By smoothing the process of exhibit set up and tear down, providing temps to cover booth breaks, providing mobile food carts, setting up supply stores and furnishing adequate audiovisual resources, organizers can show they understand what it’s like to be in the trenches, Harper says. Plus, customer service in advance of the show will go a long way toward keeping exhibitors happy on-site. Make sure that there’s a point person (whether it’s sales or otherwise) who’s tasked with dealing with requests from a set number of exhibitors leading up to the show.

Organizers also must look beyond the show floor. Working closely with host cities to address the quality of transportation, lodging and entertainment resources can help ensure that attendees have a good experience from arrival to departure, she says.

THE PROBLEM: INEXPERIENCED ATTENDEES AND EXHIBITORS
Just as not all goods are created equal, not all users are the same. The more savvy the customer, the more value they may be able to squeeze from a product or service. But it behooves sellers to do all they can to help customers achieve the highest and best use of their product or service. That means making sure everyone, especially newbies, are equipped to handle everything the show can offer.

THE FIX: SPECIALIZED ATTENTION
Susan Friedmann, who coaches companies on how to exhibit at trade shows, says organizers should not overlook the power of actively helping all attendees and exhibitors extract the most from their show experience. By showing vendors how to attract, engage and cement relations with booth visitors — and teaching attendees how to strategically work the floor — organizers make an investment in success.

“There’s a significant responsibility for the organizer to help the exhibitor as much as possible, especially the first-timer, who suffers from the Ferrari syndrome: he’s got an incredibly powerful vehicle (the show), but he can barely ride a tricycle,” she says.

First-time exhibitors should get more than the boilerplate training sessions staged on the eve of the opening, she says. Most would benefit from full-fledged seminars on how to maximize show ROI.

“Most first-timers come in wearing rose-colored glasses about what they’ll get and that sets the stage for a big customer service no-no: not meeting expectations,” she says.

THE PROBLEM: A WEAK BOND
Customers tend to form loyal, even fanatical, ties to products with which they feel a strong bond. Think Apple. Why? It’s the concept of providing a one-of-a-kind experience, and it’s a customer service cornerstone, says Ruth Stevens, a customer acquisition and retention expert and author of “Trade Show and Event Marketing: Plan, Promote, Profit.”

Think your attendees are missing that bond with your show? Think about how you can improve each element of your show to offer a more valuable experience.

THE FIX: ADD VALUE
“Adding value by co-locating affiliated events, for instance, and saying ‘Let us help you by pulling as much as we can together in one spot over one weekend’ can address growing concerns over the fundamental value of attending shows,” Stevens says. Improving the quality of other traditional show standbys — educational seminars, speakers and entertainment, for instance — and complementing them with new twists like virtual shows, puts show organizers in the all-important driver’s seat of managing the customer experience, Stevens says.