Using the Critical Incident Technique to Understand Critical Aspects of the Minor League Spectator's Experience

Customer complaints and comments provide managers with an important source of information, and an analysis of these critical incidents provides additional insight into which aspects of the spectator experience customers identify as being vital. Using the critical incidents technique (CIT), data on 1,111 positive and negative aspects of the spectator experience were collected from 831 customers at two different minor league sporting events. Incidents were categorized to identify aspects both favorably and unfavorably influencing customers. Findings identify which aspects of the spectator experience are most relevant to spectators at minor league sporting events, distinguish aspects that satisfy customers from those that dissatisfy customers, and suggest critical aspects are not the same for customers of different sports or for different demographic groups. Further, this study illustrates the use of CIT to assess customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction in spectator sports.