Ticketsolve Tips: It's time to assess your operations!

With 2022 well underway, it's time to review your processes! This week we're sharing our top 3 tips for keeping your team and organisation running smoothly as we head into the Summer season. We're taking everything we have learned from 2020/2021 and looking at how through the use of your ticketing partner, you can ensure operations run bright and breezy (hopefully like the weather). 

As we hopefully begin to head into a new post-pandemic era, we wanted to take a moment and reflect on some of the changes that have taken place in the way that arts and culture organisations operate. Aside from the obvious, like wondering how we ever lived without hand sanitiser (just how dirty were our hands?!) 2022 has got us thinking about how organisations in our sector have adapted and developed as a result of the pandemic. Whilst we’ll be glad to say adiós for good to many pandemic-related changes, there are also some valuable examples of learning and evolution that deserve a permanent place in the strategy and operations of arts and culture organisations in 2022 and beyond. 

Let’s get digital…with e-tickets & scanning!

The number of people shopping online using mobile devices has been increasing for several years and this trend shows no signs of stopping, with mobile commerce sales in the UK forecast to double 2019’s figure by 2024. Whilst the growth of mobile commerce over recent years had already triggered the implementation of e-ticketing and scanning as an option for many events and attractions, Covid-19 thrust e-ticketing into the limelight, providing venues with a more Covid-secure way to fulfil their customers’ ticket orders. Furthermore, although historically many patrons would opt to still print out their e-tickets to have a physical copy for scanning, the last few years have seen a shift in venues and audiences opting to go fully digital with their tickets and scanning e-tickets directly from the customers’ mobile phone screen.

Whilst the pandemic-related reasons for digital tickets may be fading away, going totally paper-free for tickets is a strategy worth considering for venues looking to future-proof their business. Demonstrating how your organisation or event is positively contributing to economic, environmental and social sustainability is becoming increasingly essential (and for good reason). Firstly, switching to digital tickets reduces the litter and waste generated by your event. Secondly, once paper tickets are fully phased-out, funds that would have been spent on ticket stock and printing equipment can be reallocated and used to make a more sustainable contribution to your venue’s operations. 

To implement digital ticketing, Ticketsolve offers a fully customisable e-ticket template both across the account and on individual events, allowing venues to include specific content such as sponsor logos, restaurant partners and travel information, as well as feeding into an upselling strategy by placing discount offers on interval drinks and future shows on the e-ticket design. E-tickets also include both a barcode and a QR code option for scanning. Ticketsolve offers its customers a browser-based scanning app, meaning that event staff can log into it anywhere and on any device. The scanning app enables venues to pick the scanning method that works best for them, whether it is scanning directly on a mobile or tablet using the device camera, attaching a scanner as a bolt-on to a mobile device, or a fully stand-alone scanner.

Keep your customers in the loop

So, you’ve organised the event, implemented your marketing strategy, and people have purchased tickets. But there’s one thing still to do - make sure ticket-buyers *actually* turn up. Sending a pre-event reminder email out to all ticket bookers is an important, but sometimes overlooked, step in every event marketing strategy. 

With the pandemic causing many events to be rescheduled, upcoming event reminder emails quickly became essential in ensuring customers made it to their event on the right day and at the right time. Although we hope to be seeing a significant reduction in the number of events now being rescheduled, continuing to send pre-event reminder emails out to ticket bookers is a great way to enhance the customer journey (as well as making sure that they turn up). 

As well as including essential information about the event such as the time, date, location and travel information, upcoming event reminder emails are a great opportunity for venues to engage with their customers and let them know they are excited to be seeing them soon. They are also another valuable method of upselling on the event day. Including a mention of your pre-event dining options, or a 10% discount on interval drinks, in the upcoming event reminder email are beneficial to both the customer experience and your sales figures. 

Offer reassurance with refund protection

As the events industry began to re-emerge from the pandemic, we noticed an increase in the number of venues in the Ticketsolve community looking to offer their customers a refund protection service. Refund protection is an add-on provided by a third party, such as Booking Protect, that customers can purchase for an additional charge on top of their ticket price. What this means is that, if your customers can no longer attend an event due to certain unforeseen circumstances, they can apply for a refund on their ticket.

Refund protection can help to build confidence in customers to return to events, especially those who may be a little more tentative. At a time when the cost of living is at an all-time high, offering your customers peace of mind is an option definitely worth considering. Plus, as well as enhancing your organisation’s reputation with customers, refund protection also opens up a new revenue stream with a percentage of the refund protection purchased going directly back to your organisation. 

Venues and organisations using Ticketsolve have the option of implementing refund protection in two different ways - either as a separate product or by offering a ticket price which includes the cost of refund protection.