Since the beginning of the year, the new management team at
A number of initiatives including the Supporters' Consultative Group have already seen the Club focus its activities around the needs of the fans. Providing a better, more professional and caring service is absolutely critical to the Club's success and its intention to re-join football's elite in the Premiership.
In order to achieve this, the Club believes that technology must play a role in both understanding customers' needs and delivering a higher level of service. The S.M.A.R.T Project has been established to achieve this very purpose.
The Supporter Management And Rapid Ticketing project will see the Club introduce new technology to improve ticketing, access to the stadium and regular communication with supporters. The introduction of new ticketing software and access control systems will allow the Sky Blues to offer new services such as ‘Print at Home' tickets and Smart Card entry, which will reduce queues and improve safety by knowing exactly who is in the stadium and who is not.
The introduction of SMART Cards provides the Club with a platform to introduce other innovations such as a cashless stadium environment and car parking facilities.
In order to keep supporters more informed of activities at the Club, we also plan to offer a free of charge subscription e-newsletter. The personalised e-newsletter will be a regular information feed delivered exclusively by email to supporters of the Club. It will reflect the needs of the supporters, will include exclusive content not available anywhere else from the manager and players, and will also provide a feedback facility so that supporters can tell us what they think.
The interactive e-newsletter will provide links to the initiatives the Club is running and will also allow supporters to keep their own profile up to date so that the Club can send relevant information to the right people. Customer preferences and “tell a friend” will be standard facilities within the e-newsletter.
Finally, the Club plans to establish an exclusive website around Operation Premiership. The site, which will be managed directly by the Club, will provide updates on the various initiatives and will provide a facility for supporters to register their email details.
The cornerstone of all of these new services will be a database that stores the preferences of supporters. Held for the exclusive use of club staff, both supporters and corporate customers' data will be used to deliver a better level of service to customers, whether speaking on the phone, by email or face to face.
The SMART project began on May 30 and will follow a complex timetable of implementation with the principle deadline of having everything ready for the start of the 06/07 season.