Huddersfield Town

The Club has been awarded the Family Excellence Award for 2013 and ranked very highly on the League’s benchmarking report.

Clubs were awarded marks between one and five for their efforts in all areas pertaining to families on match days.

Town was awarded the highest mark – category one – in three of the six categories in the Family Excellence Awards; first impressions, journey to the match and inside vicinity.

The first impressions category ranked how easy it is for newcomers to the Club to find out relevant information about Town’s match days. The Terriers ranked highly thanks to the information on offer to these fans, such as the ‘New Fan Guide’ and advice for families on the website. 

The Club’s proactive approach on social media – with Twitter (@htafcdotcom) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/htafcdotcom) being mentioned – were also positives in this category, as well as the friendly Ticket Office staff that made all the payment options clear.

The strength of the Club’s communication on access also led to the first category being awarded in the ‘journey to the match’ category, with helpful information on local travel, parking, access to the Stadium and signage around the ground being readily available to supporters.

The Club’s match day experience around the vicinity of the Stadium in advance of kick-off also drew high praise, with particular mention of the ‘Town Family’, Terry the Terrier’s availability for kids and the special kids pull-out in the Club’s Match Day Magazine, ‘Give Us An H’.

Town were put in category 2 for the in-stadium experience thanks to the activity around the Family Stand and the pre and half-time entertainment. 

The range of products and availability of merchandise in Town’s retail outlets, as well as the ease of access, led to Town’s retail offering being awarded category 2 status too.

The lowest benchmarking result came on the refreshments category, which was awarded level 3 of 5.

Huddersfield Town’s Supporter Partnerships Manager Robyn Deegan commented:

“The Club realises how important it is to attract the ‘fans of tomorrow’ to its matches and that is why such a big focus is put on our offering to families and first-time visitors. That isn’t solely on match days either; activities such as Tuesday’s Open Day, which attracted around 2,000 fans to the Club, was a superb way of doing this.

“It’s fantastic to see that we compare well to other Football League clubs around the country; it’s testament to the hard work that is put in all year round.

“However, we are not resting on our laurels. We are constantly benchmarking against other industry leaders – not just in football, but across other sports and all other forms of entertainment. We want to make sure that a first visit to Huddersfield Town leaves a lasting, positive impression and that people go away from our matches wanting more.

“During the 2013/14 season we hope that our new initiatives, both on match days and away from games, get more and more fans coming back time and again to enjoy a day at Huddersfield Town. That isn’t focussed solely on new supporters, but on existing, long-term Town fans as well.”