Take the Stress Out of Your Major Onsales

There’s nothing quite like a big onsale in the box office. The joy on your patrons’ faces when they get their tickets, the excitement of watching the numbers roll in, the satisfaction of seeing all your hard work pay off. But while it all can be thrilling, it can also be stressful, especially if you feel like you can’t count on your systems. The right technology can empower you, your customers, and your partners to have the most successful onsale possible. As you think about your onsales processes, consider system reliability, efficient web journeys, and other key components. System Reliability and Server Capacity Let’s talk about the nightmare scenario: your website or ticketing system slowing down or crashing on onsale day. Increased traffic can, unfortunately, be a stress test of your technology. So, what does it take for your system to reliably handle major onsales? It’s all about your server capacity. This may ultimately come down to your choice in ticketing provider. Many organizations still rely on technology partners with traditional ring-fenced capacity managed by an onsite team or old-fashioned servers running from a closet in the box office. At Spektrix we use a unique, cloud-based approach that scales server capacity with your needs. Rather than maintaining our own servers, we use Microsoft’s serverless Azure database, which provides infinite capacity, allowing us to adjust our usage in seconds. This gives us all the computing power we need when things get busy, without paying for it when it’s not required. In other words, with access to more server capacity on big onsale days, you don’t have to worry about your system getting overwhelmed by the increased demand. Efficient Customer Journeys On any day of the year, you want to move customers through your checkout as swiftly and comfortably as possible. This is especially true on onsale day, when customers are eager to get their tickets before they run out and smoother transactions add up to shorter queues. The fewer calls to the box office, the better. “You only have one chance to make a big, eye-catching (and wallet-opening) announcement. When you make it complex, you are losing ticket sales.” - Chelsea Turner, Marketing Director, Joshua M. Freeman Foundation Think about: Friction points in your purchase pathway. Try buying a ticket yourself during your next onsale and mark down the points where you get stalled or confused. Member, donor and VIP experiences. How do your biggest supporters engage with your onsales? For many, early onsale access comes as a benefit of their loyalty. Ideally, your ticketing system should provide a seamless way to give them this access and apply any associated discounts. The experience should help them feel appreciated and celebrated, not saddled with extra steps. Virtual queues. The right virtual queuing technology can prevent churn, speed up transactions and even create buzz. Look for a queuing agent that’s integrated in your ticketing system, gives customers live updates and moves them swiftly from queue to purchase pathway. Seat selection. Unfortunately, reliability issues sometimes force organizations to limit customers to “best available” seating during major onsales. But giving your customers the power to select their own seats significantly improves their experience and their relationship with your organization. Transparent pricing. Advertise your pricing openly and upfront, ensuring customers aren’t hit with unanticipated add-ons at the end of the purchase path. This may already be mandated by your local legislation , and it’s always a best practice. Speedier payments with Apple Pay and Google Pay . Today’s customers are increasingly using modern payment and delivery methods for quick checkouts. Accessibility best practices. Customers with disabilities should be able to purchase their tickets from your website with ease. Ensure that your site meets web accessibility standards throughout the customer journey. Your seat maps should make it easy to understand the location and availability of wheelchair spaces, companion seats, closed captioning, and other accessibility offerings. Plus, you can proactively invite customers to register their accommodation needs in advance (so that they don’t have to do it more than once) using automated tags in your ticketing software or integrated international solutions like the Nimbus Access Card . Messaging and marketing. The most effective messaging is clear and simple. You don’t want to get bogged down by having to explain a complex onsale process. This can ultimately frustrate your customers, discourage sales and disrupt your revenue stream. Security and Trust It’s best for everybody if customers purchase tickets through your organization directly. Throughout our industry, fraud has become a growing concern, particularly when it comes to major events. Meanwhile, big, centralized ticket agencies are viewed with increasing suspicion, as stories swirl about price gouging, software failure, data breaches and resale scams. Keeping audiences on your own site throughout the ticket purchase builds their confidence in the process. Your customers can be certain that the tickets they are buying from you are real and legit. You can also have more control over their experience and more visibility on potentially fraudulent activity. Impact on Your Team It’s not just about the customer. The experience your team has with your major onsales matters. Anything you can do to lessen the workload on the box office makes a difference. “It was weird just sitting waiting for the phone to ring and nothing happened. Which was a good thing.” - Saratoga Performing Arts Center Think about: Responsive support. You shouldn’t feel alone in preparing for a big onsale. What does the troubleshooting process currently look like at your organization? Does your current ticketing provider have staff available to assist you when there’s an issue? Efficient setup. How long does it take to set up a seated event with multiple price tiers and a VIP onsale? If the idea of setting up the onsale makes everyone on your team groan, you may need to find a more user-friendly solution. Look for a ticketing system that allows you to use a layered approach to set-up and make any necessary changes in bulk. Flexible allocations. If part of your inventory is allocated to high-profile agents like Ticketmaster, See, or TodayTix, set up your ticketing system so that you can sell directly from a shared seating plan. This maximizes sales while maintaining visibility and control over your inventory. Making the Most of Your Onsale One of the benefits of big-name acts coming to your organization is that they bring their audiences to you. Strategize on how to leverage this moment to nurture relationships with new and returning customers alike. Think about: Donation asks. Putting a donation ask in your purchase pathway is a simple and impactful way to encourage donations while customers are really excited about your organization. The right suggested amount can yield more donation income, so we recommend automating the suggestion based on your customer data. Upselling memberships and VIP experiences. This is a great time to showcase all the benefits of being a member at your organization, especially early access to future onsales. Ensure that your system will instantly enable premium benefits when customers add them on so they can receive the value right away. Selling multiple shows concurrently. We’ve seen organizations have great success by putting up multiple shows at a time, enabling their patrons to explore the entire season and book all the shows they’re interested in at once. Maybe someone has come to your onsale for a particular show, and then is delighted to see what else you have to offer — don’t risk losing out on the sale by making them wait to buy. Smoother Onsales Are in Sight At Spektrix, we’ve worked with countless organizations like yours to develop onsales processes that feel great for box office teams and their customers. For a closer look, dive into the work that we did with the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation, who made such a turnaround on their onsales that their customers were cheering all over social media. This article was sponsored by Spektrix