Matchday chat concierge for anonymous and first-time attendees
Problem
On any matchday, a meaningful share of the people inside the venue are not in any system at all: a season member's guest, a walk-up buyer, someone using a colleague's spare seat. Their whole experience runs through the concourse screens, the PA system and whichever steward they can flag down. A question with nobody nearby to ask it goes unanswered, and because the fan record only starts when someone logs into the app or checks out through ticketing, this occasional segment leaves no trace: no email address, no visit logged, nothing for the CRM manager to build a return campaign against. The organisation spends on acquisition and has no way of knowing how much of its matchday audience it never captured at all.
Product idea
A chat concierge reachable by scanning a code at gates, on seat backs and on concourse screens, with no app download and no login. It answers the ordinary matchday questions (gate times, nearest catering, accessible routes, lost property, merchandise) from a maintained knowledge base. When the phone number or chat handle is not already in the fan record, it offers a single plain opt-in line before asking for a name and email, and logs the exchange as a new lead with consent, channel and timestamp attached. When the handle is recognised, it can greet the supporter by name and route to their own details. It does not attempt to handle anything safety-related or physical: those queries are handed straight to a steward, not answered conversationally.
Who it is for
Supporter services staff who currently field these questions in person, the CRM manager who wants the leads it produces, and the head of fan engagement who would sponsor it as the way anonymous attendees start becoming known ones.
Possible first version
A single chat channel, either a messaging app number or a web chat widget, reached by QR code at a fixed set of gate and concourse locations. A FAQ knowledge base built from the existing matchday guide, a one-line opt-in flow with a confirmation step, and a daily digest of new leads (name, email, consent flag, channel, timestamp) emailed to the CRM manager. Version one does not look up ticket holders, does not write into the CRM directly, and does not offer live wayfinding or maps: leads are exported for someone to import, and the knowledge base is edited by hand, not pulled from any other system.
- Build classification
- Workflow application
- Rough effort
- 3-5 week first release
- Roles involved
- Supporter services lead, CRM manager, Head of fan engagement
- Relevant to
- Professional club, Venue & stadium operator, Women's league, League office
- Systems in play
- CRM platforms, Mobile apps, Email and messaging platforms, Ticketing systems
- Product framing
- Voice or chat interface
Questions we get asked
What do we need ready before this can go live?
Knowledge base content built from the existing matchday guide, a plan for where the QR codes go across gates and concourse points, and a clear owner for the daily digest of consent-flagged leads. No integration with the CRM or ticketing system is needed to start; that only becomes worth doing once lead volume justifies the engineering effort.
We already have a matchday app. Does this replace it?
No. The app is for supporters who already downloaded it and are willing to log in; this is for everyone else, the guest, the walk-up, the plus one who will never install anything for a single visit. It sits alongside the app as the entry point for people the app was never going to reach, not a substitute for what the app already does well.
Will anyone actually type into a chat bot instead of just asking a steward?
Some will not, and a steward remains available for anyone who prefers a person. The value sits in the gap a steward cannot cover: quiet points between staffed positions, and questions asked when nobody is nearby to ask. Whether uptake justifies the build is best tested on a single gate over a couple of matchdays before committing to a wider rollout.
What happens when it's asked something outside the FAQ, or during a packed concourse before kickoff?
It says plainly that it does not know, and for anything safety related it hands off to a steward rather than guessing. It does not manage queues or crowd flow, and a spike in messages before kickoff does not change that: the knowledge base is fixed content, not a live operations feed, so it behaves the same under load as it does at a quiet moment.
Is this your workflow?
Tell us one sports workflow that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, WhatsApp or an outdated system. We will map it and show you what a simpler product looks like.
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