10 BEST PRACTICES

ebook

For deploying a ticketing system in sports, culture and live entertainment

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. DEFINE CLEAR PROJECT SCOPE AND TIMING 04

2. SECURE SPONSORSHIP AT ALL LEVELS 06

3. BUILD A TEAM WITH THE RIGHT SET OF SKILLS 07

4. REVISIT EXISTING SALES AND MARKETING PROCESSES 09

5. IMPROVE DATA QUALITY PRIOR TO MIGRATION 10

6. ADDRESS BRANDING 11

7. MANAGE CHANGE AND USER ADOPTION 12

8. PROMOTE THE NEW SOLUTION 13

9. TEST, TEST, TEST 14

10. PLAN FUTURE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ENHANCEMENTS 15

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INTRODUCTION

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Implementing a ticketing system – whether in sports, culture or live events - can be challenging. It’s not only about the selection of the technology platform and the business partner you’ll work with, but it involves multiple stakeholders and disciplines within your company, such as sales, marketing, operations and IT. A ticketing system affects existing business processes and impacts the way people work. It requires the cooperation and adoption by end users, and can also affect how you work with external partners and distributors.

This e-book accumulates best practices accumulated from dozens of ticketing project implementations across multiple industries, including sports clubs, museums, theaters. It provides you with practical tips on how

to avoid various planning and implementation pitfalls so that you minimise your risks and ensure a successful ticketing system deployment.

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1. DEFINE CLEAR PROJECT SCOPE AND TIMING

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Quite often, companies jump into implementation, skipping the critical step of evaluating objectives against time and resource constraints in order to set realistic project goals. This includes several aspects :

Identify high-level objectivesWhat are the specific goals you would like to achieve with the new ticketing solution - Increase the volume of online sales ? Improve customer loyalty ? Develop specific audience segments ? Enrich your product catalog with new services ? Define KPIs against each objective to ensure measurement (e.g. Increase online sales to 50% of total sales).

Define a ‘go to market’ planSome typical questions you should be able to answer include :• What do you want to sell (simple tickets, season ticket, membership cards, services, packages, merchandising etc.) ? • Which sales channels will be used ? (ticket sales portal, box office, call centre, mobile app, third parties, ticket vending machines etc.)• Who will you be selling to ? Define your target audience - B2C individuals, B2C

groups, B2B groups - and prioritise them by importance. • What are your revenue expectations (sales volumes by channel ? …)

• What are the critical 3rd party systemsthat must be integrated, such as an accounting system, access control software or other apps (like 3D seat maps) ?

Assess time and resource constraintsReview any rigid deadlines that cannot be changed, such as the opening of a new sales season, a blockbuster exhibition, or the date of a first major event of the season, for which the new ticketing system must be ready.Evaluate your team’s availability by involving relevant staff members and validating their ability to dedicate time to the project, beyond daily operations. Carefully consider your ability to reach target dates and make necessary adjustments.

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Typically, you’ll find yourself implementing one of three different project types :

Rapid deployment In this type of implementation, planning and implementation are done super quickly with a focus on the highest priority domain (such as an online ticket shop). This approach requires that you are able to quickly prioritise your business goals and that your internal resources can dedicate sufficient time to the new system.For example, Evian golf championship deployed their online sales channel live within two months.

Big Bang/All-in-one projectIn this type of project, all domains (marketing, sales) are deployed in a single go, as opposed to a gradual, phased implementation. For example, the Centre Pompidou ticketing project lasted eight months, covering a wide functional scope including ticketing, access control, CRM/Marketing and new hardware (TVMs, cash desks).

An ‘all in one’ approach requires that you have sufficient time for planning, implementation, and dry-runs prior to the deadline of a new season or event.

You should also have a designated user for each department to coach operational staff following go-live, as well as a well-documented transition plan with clear milestones and responsibilities.

Staged approach In this approach you gradually implement the ticketing system in phases, based on your criteria and priorities:

• By channel : Phase 1 may include online sales for the general public; phase 2 would include box-office/call centre functionality; and phase 3, online B2B sales. • By functional domain : The project would start with ticketing on core channels, and then followed by access control, marketing, and integrations with 3rd party systems.• By functional depth : The first phase would be a light integration between the corporate web site and the ticketing sales portal. Stage 2 would add more sophisticated functionality such as single sign-on, real-time seat availability, etc.

Which deployment approach are you most l ikely to use ?

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2. SECURE SPONSORSHIP AT ALL LEVELS

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Without full commitment and support from key stakeholders, your ticketing project has reduced chances of success.

Try to secure support and sponsorship at all levels: Not only at the executive level but also with middle management across functional domains - ticketing, audience development, IT, accounting etc.

Involve key personnel at the earliest stages so that they can contribute valuable inputs and help you correctly define the project scope and constraints. These key members will also facilitate communication with operational teams to enable wide user adoption.

Make sure all stakeholders understand the driving factors behind the new

ticketing system. Clearly communicate issues, operational and business benefits, explain the objectives and how the new ticketing system will fit into the overall company strategy and goals.

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A ticketing system impacts multiple operational areas such as sales, business processes, data management, security and information technology (IT). Build a team with corresponding skills and backgrounds to cover all areas. Although your ticketing partner may assist you with specific skills, try to include the widest set of skills within your own team.

Look for members that can assist with:• IT considerations like data migration, network configuration, web site integration, and interfaces to other systems. • Marketing data about customers, sales history, and campaign set-up (newsletters, promotional campaigns etc.). • Ticketing set-up tasks like product catalogue configuration, definition of rates and sales channels.• Accounting topics like invoicing, financial reporting, integration of sales data in your accounting system, etc.

Plan to appoint a project manager that will coordinate all tasks and issues across functional areas, will have an overall vision of the project and new system, and will gradually become a super user.

If your available resources are limited and you cannot secure multiple personas to handle each function, then still try to assign a project manager, an IT person and a person to overlook ticketing. The same person can have multiple roles (e.g., function as a project manager and be in charge of ticketing).

Make sure that your vendor has appointed a single project or account manager to coordinate all tasks and check progress, so that when gaps are identified, you can decide together which compromises or adjustments should be made.

3. BUILD A TEAM WITH THE RIGHT SET OF SKILLS

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Obviously, there’s more than a single way to split responsibilities between your team and your vendor. This will depend on multiple parameters such as available skills, the type of project and deadlines, etc.

Regardless of how you split work, remember that a ticketing project implementation is a joint effort and requires a close collaboration and ongoing communication.

HOW SHOULD YOU SPLIT WORK BETWEEN YOUR INTERNAL TEAM AND YOUR TICKETING PROVIDER ?

Here’s how we at SecuTix typically divide work with our clients across the different stages of a project.

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A new ticketing system is an opportunity to improve operational efficiency and automate time-consuming processes.

Start by identifying which processes consume too much of your resources. This can be best identified by involving operational users.

Note that end users often feel threatened by new processes (“what will happen to my job if some of my tasks are automated?”) and may resist a new system (“Excel spreadsheets have been working fine for years, so why bother learning a new tool ?”).

Involving end users in the assessment of processes will reduce negativity and resistance to change. Articulate how the new system will make life easier and communicate how it will enable new skills to be developed or more rewarding tasks to be performed.

A good candidate for automation is selling season tickets. At the Philharmonie de Paris, a classical music hall, selling subscriptions online reduced back office tasks and eliminated endless waiting lines at the box office at each new season opening.

Here are few more examples of dematerialised processes:

• Sending confirmations for group visits at Centre Pompidou was turned into a 100% digital process instead of printed letters.

• Le Havre Football Club (HAC) automated the distribution of e-birthdays cards for their season ticket holders, instead of having to manually do this on a daily basis.

• Stade de France introduced a 100% e-ticket for their B2B customers (enterprises) instead of a thermal ticket.

4. REVISIT EXISTING SALES AND MARKETING PROCESSES

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Data quality is important in any information system. Before migrating existing data into your new system, invest time to clean, complete and deduplicate both your contact data records and sales history.If done correctly, then this will not only improve the functionality of the new system, but will also accelerate data migration. For example, SecuTix managed the migration of Centre Pompidou’s 500,000 contacts and 3-years of sales history in under 24 hours.

Here are a few tips on data cleansing:

Be selectiveWhile it is tempting to import your entire sales history and customer file, it can be harmful too, particularly if you have a large legacy. There is little value in migrating outdated contact records (inactive for years), incomplete contacts (missing email addresses), or sales history that goes too far into the past.

By putting aside data records associated with inactive customers, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris reduced the volume of data to be imported by 50%.

Refresh dataDo not hesitate to reach out to your customers, asking them to check their personal records. It is also a good opportunity to give them a heads up about the upcoming change of ticketing system. Ask them to check the accuracy of their records, to update and complete missing data or preferences.

Enrich dataA change of ticketing system is a good opportunity to comply with regulatory requirements related to data privacy, opt-in policies or other legal obligation. For example, Centre Pompidou added additional SIRET company numbers to their B2B customer records, which are now obligatory on customer invoices in France.

5. IMPROVE DATA QUALITY PRIOR TO MIGRATION

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Your ticketing system is not only a set of features, but part of your marketing and positioning. As such, it should support and strengthen your organisational brand.

Spend time planning and designing the look and feel of your new online ticket shop and mobile app. For example, how will the ticket shop integrate with your existing web site and social media accounts? Depending on your goals, you can consider different levels of integration - a simple link from the corporate web site to the ticket shop, a more sophisticated single sign-on, or a dynamic display of seat availability on the web site.

Consider which elements of your brand (and if relevant, your sponsors’ brand) should be featured - colors, look & feel, logo position, graphical elements. For example, at Saracens, the UK rugby club, seat maps

have been customised with the team’s sponsor logos inside the 3D map. Branding considerations also apply to other elements such as your tickets, and the appearance of the seat map or stadium.

6. ADDRESS BRANDING

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A new ticketing system involves more than getting used to a technology change, since it impacts how people work.

To ensure that the new system is perceived as an opportunity and to facilitate a smooth transition between old and new, make sure you plan a range of activities for each phase of the project (preparation, deployment, go-live). Focus on three core aspects: acceptance, ownership and coaching.

AcceptanceDuring the preparation phase, clearly communicate goals. Possibly, also provide a thematic demonstration of the new solution to the future end users. For example, Centre Pompidou organised several demo sessions, focusing each demo on a specific theme/ user population such as access control, box office, team in charge of memberships etc, which helped reduce fears and ease adoption.

OwnershipDuring the deployment phase, provide training on system configuration. Run frequent user feedback sessions, and facilitate early immersion in the solution using training and user acceptance tests.

CoachingAt the final go-live stage, deliver onsite coaching while getting the assistance of your vendor.

Théâtre du Châtelet had a self-service training desktop running the SecuTix system, which allowed operators to familiarise themselves with the system. This was supplemented by a super user, who was available several times per week to answer questions and run personal sessions, in addition to formal trainings and workshops.

7. MANAGE CHANGE AND USER ADOPTION

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At the end of the day, your audience are the most important the most important users of the new ticketing system.

Don’t hesitate to make the change of ticketing system a milestone and broadly communicate it to your audience. Inform customers about new features or capabilities and explain how the new system simplifies their purchasing journey. You can also use this chance to market your product catalogue and online sales portal.

Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, for example, made a “live” new season presentation with a full demonstration of the new ticketing solution and its numerous advantages.

Radio France produced video tutorials for their student audience on how to use the new platform.

8. PROMOTE THE NEW SOLUTION

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Your only way to ensure that critical functionalities are fully operational at go-live is through intensive, on-going testing.

Test the overall consistency of your core processes before opening to the general public and make the necessary adjustments in case configuration errors are detected.

A good testing approach is to simulate the purchasing journey or a typical task, while checking the integrity and consistency of the end to end process.

For example, test the entire workflow as if you were a new customer navigating the ticket shop. Start by creating a user profile, check that the correct rates are displayed upon ticket selection, that the selected delivery mode (m-ticket, print@home) is properly activated, the completion of the transaction payment, the ticket scan at access control, and any post-purchase changes such as refunds or exchanges.

For marketing, create and send a marketing newsletter while testing elements such as target creation, use of multiple criteria, email template, personalisation and campaign measurement.

9. TEST, TEST, TEST

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Even if you have just implemented the most advanced, feature-rich ticketing system – it will still evolve and change. The reason is that your system should always mirror the evolution of your audience’s needs and purchasing habits.

Consequently, always consider how you can enhance the customer journey, simplify purchasing and offer a great “fan experience” that begins at the ticket purchasing moment. Here are a few examples of future enhancements that can improve an audience journey:

• Deploy a mobile application to offer a simple, one-step route to your catalog. For example, Maison de la Danse allows spectators to reserve seats in just a few clicks using a mobile app on their smartphone.

• Offer 3D seat mapping in the ticketing sales portal to facilitate seat selection. The web site of European Rugby Champions Cup winners Saracens now features a 3D virtual stadium, giving fans a high-quality panoramic view of Allianz Park and a precise picture of the view expected from each individual seat. 

• Provide users with more freedom by providing an ‘option’ service. For example, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris allows spectators to place options on seats for shows and confirm later.

• Allow customers to contribute to a charity during order confirmation. For example, Opéra National de Paris embedded microdonations in their ticket sales.

10 . PLAN FUTURE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ENHANCEMENTS

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GET A FREE DEMO

SecuTix provides everything you need to expand tickets sales on the internet, manage ticket distribution, and create effective marketing campaigns.

You’ll be able to:

• Open a smart online ticket shop

• Sell season tickets online

• Optimise ticket sales across all channels

• Run targeted email campaigns

• Reduce the workflow of ticket operators

GET A FREE DEMO

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