NASCAR: The Beginning of the End or a Natural Progression?

We’ve all heard the pundits. We’ve all read the articles. NASCAR’s descent has begun. This every-man sport born from the southern moonshiners that pulled itself up by its bootstraps, growing into the largest spectator sport in the United States in the late 1990’s has peaked. It’s all downhill from here.

But before we send Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and the rest of the NASCAR stars back to the local dirt tracks in Greenville, South Carolina and Columbia, Tennessee, let’s take, perhaps, a more objective view of the challenges facing North America’s largest motorsports series.

The Right Team Culture

When I first came to major league baseball, an old cynic who worked at the Pittsburgh Pirates told me: “Here’s the deal. You win, you sell tickets. You lose, you don’t sell tickets. It’s as simple as that. No exceptions.” That may be true for the Pirates, but what about the Cubs? Obviously there’s more to the success equation than winning and losing. For the purpose of our discussion, let’s focus on one simple truth that may not be as obvious:

Handling Fan Complaints: Are Men from Venus and Women from Mars?

Probably everyone has heard that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep a current customer satisfied. That may just be an urban myth, but either way it’s a good idea to keep most current customers satisfied. With this in mind, companies are ramping up customer loyalty and customer service efforts in order to keep the people already spending money with them happy and coming back for more.