Ticketing in the arts sector has traditionally been tied to marketing, but has implications for the whole organisation. Zuleika Beaven and Chantal Laws explain why ticketing is fundamental to venue management and finances, as well as the marketing function.
Developments in computerised box office technology over the past two decades have opened the door to previously undreamed of possibilities. The myriad of clever number-crunching options has created opportunities to build relationships with extensive customer databases and to develop soundly researched marketing strategies. Who can resist the allure of the graphs and pie-charts that user-friendly box office systems generate? But in the rush to mine the marketing benefits of ticketing systems, venues may be missing the bigger picture. In a well-run venue, an integrated ticketing system should go beyond sales and marketing to support well-oiled operations and financial management.
Supporting visitor management
The fundamental benefit that a ticketing system affords is visitor management, and this helps to support a venue?s primary function: providing audiences with a good evening out in a safe, comfortable and smoothly run setting. By determining and enforcing a maximum ticket allocation ? knowing who can come in, how many people are on site and where they are ? organisers can control capacity and promote the safety of audience and artists. In addition, limiting access to spaces or specific seats allows differential charging and supports choice. Here we move away from the paper ticket sold at the box office towards a process-centred approach that sees the ticket as a key to a service or location. The data generated by the box office becomes the basis for a multi-functional approach to supporting service quality ? providing, of course, that systems support data flow around the organisation.
So, how can a process-centred approach help? For many audience members, the show they have come to see is at the end of a process throughout which they will be on the lookout for quality, efficiency and professionalism of service. In this way, tangible and augmented aspects of attendance are important for building strong customer relationships. These will include the range of ticket-purchase methods available and booking fees (or the lack of them) combined with availability of parking, length of time spent at the bar or whether there is soap in the toilets(1). In general, advance-booking facilities may be beneficial for the customer care of groups that have specific seating requirements.
Ticketing as a management tool
Because of the nature of programmes (or audiences), advance ticket sales aren?t always achievable, but they are something approaching a panacea for the event organiser. The advance sale of tickets is often essential for supporting a healthy cash-flow; effective data tied into management accounts can realistically monitor income and keep a close hold on event finances. And, for certain venues, advance ticketing can also be a tool for collaborations with partners such as travel companies or hotels.
Using ticketing software to monitor sales in the run-up to an event permits the review of sales trends and identifies the need for marketing activity. Monitoring also supports the tailoring of capacity for seating and auxiliary services to fit sales, thus minimising risk, saving on overheads and providing a more comfortable experience for audience and for performers. Where an event has a substantial walk-up audience, attendance may be affected by events outside the organiser?s control (such as weather or transport) ? sometimes reducing capacity planning to little more than guesswork. Of course, we know all this ? which is why we may try to dissuade our audiences from leaving it to the night by offering a pound or two off the advance ticket price, and then wonder why they aren?t biting our hands off. The Burning Man Festival in Nevada, USA has gone much further, adopting an innovative yield-management strategy where festival-goers may purchase tickets in advance, with prices increasing incrementally as the event approaches. This leaves walk-up audiences paying substantially more than those purchasing when booking opens.
Integrated approaches
One of the concerns in considering box office activity from a purely marketing perspective is that the essentially reactive nature of the ticket-selling process becomes problematic. This need not be the case, and again the process-centred perspective is helpful here. What box office staff experience in the ?relentless demands of the ringing telephone? is the pressure of immediacy, or a need to concentrate on short-term tasks that occur in real time and in a customer-facing environment(2). Marketers take a longer view, focusing on strategic plans for realisation in the middle to distant future. Certainly, these require different skill sets, but are compatible if communication channels are open. However, box office staff experience similar work conditions to front of house workers, so training and professional development activities should acknowledge and incorporate this.
Process-centred management accepts the integrated nature of marketing and operations functions and promotes the need for cross-functional decision-making. Clearly, as an interface between the customer and the organisation and between front of house and back office, the box office plays a key strategic and cross-functional role. It is encouraging to see developments in information management systems enabling us to get back to one of the things that as a sector we do best: working together to put on the show.
Zuleika Beaven is a Senior Lecturer in Arts and Event Production at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, Dorset. t: 01202 363306; e: zbeaven@aib.ac.uk; w: http://www.aib.ac.uk
Chantal Laws is a Lecturer in Arts, Heritage and Events Management at the University of Greenwich, London. t: 020 8331 9892; e: c.laws@gre.ac.uk; w: http://www.gre.ac.uk/schools/business/cmarg/index.htm
References:
(1) Swarbrooke, J. (2002) The development and management of visitor attractions, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann, 2nd edn, p. 46.
(2) Johnston, R. & Clark, G. (2001) Service operations management, Harlow: Prentice Hall.