Dan Eastmond describes how the Monad ticketing system has resulted in a smoother service for customers and more marketing data for the staff.
The Firestation Centre for Arts & Culture is a contemporary arts venue right in the heart of Windsor, providing an extensive programme of music, comedy, theatre, dance, film and artworks. We have had a computerised box office since 2008, but a desire to get more from our system drove us to Monad Ticketing earlier this year for a change in ticketing software.
An efficient online booking system is central to maximising the proportion of transactions completed online and enabling our customers to ‘self-serve’. Customers can log into their profile to view their purchase history and change their addresses, phone numbers and marketing preferences.
The system will calculate all offers, discounts and membership benefits automatically for them
Customers no longer have to phone the box office when purchasing complicated products where previously they required a human interaction to complete the sale. Neither do they have to call the venue to purchase special offers as the system will calculate all offers, discounts and membership benefits automatically for them. In addition, we never have any selling downtime − when the box office is closed, our website is always open.
Besides online sales, the new ticketing system helps us with the following:
- Customer profiling: The software automatically records standard and bespoke information for each of our customers which is then easily searchable.
- Packaging bundles: The software automates our 2-for-1 offers, family tickets, bundles of different items and suggested offers based on items in our customers basket.
- Tailored marketing lists: The software records all our customer marketing preferences. These are available in live lists which can be combined with other criteria to perform advanced segmentation of our data.
As well as selling, the system works as a good content management system, allowing us to keep our website alive with up-to-the minute additions and news. One example of this automation is our members’ priority booking period. We are now able to release tickets directly to our members before they go on general sale. This has added value to our membership scheme and many members do start buying tickets as soon as they go on sale. Every stage in this process is automated by the ticketing software.
In consultation with Monad Ticketing, I see the future of this ticketing system as core to our current and future business. The same system will power every aspect of our business, enabling us to understand better how our customers behave so that we can build great, responsive offers for them. In our current booking period we have seen a 30% increase in advance sales on this time last year. Much of this is down to our progressive programme, but we can attribute part of this success to the efficiency of the ticketing software.
Dan Eastmond is Managing Director of the Firestation Centre for Arts & Culture, Windsor.
www.firestationartscentre.com
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