A dilema for a smaller theatre

[ActingAngela]

We're in the process of trying to figure out how to handle our ticketing. We feel that we've actually missed out on sales because we don't take orders 24/7 nor is our box office open during the day. I like some of the vendors listed in the Box Office article, but has any smaller community theatres used any of them? If we make this investment, have others seen a increase in tickets sales or are we just kidding ourselves?

[JoelDorr]

Hi Angela,

I noticed your posting and thought I'd offer a suggestion. You may want to contact the Box Office Guys (www.boxofficeguys.com) for some CENSORED. They specialize in helping theatres such as your's with box office software decisions.

Good luck and keep us posted as to your progress.

[mkatheidi]

www.mktix.com provides an easy online ticketing solution for community theaters. Using this service, you can sell tickets online at your website, 24 hours a day, via credit card. The only cost for the service is the standard credit card processing fee charged by the bank (2.5% + 25 cents per transaction). For example if a patron purchases a $20 ticket online at your website, you pay 75 cents in credit card processing. There are no other charges to your organization. Your patron is charged a small fee for the convenience of the online purchase. For tickets under $25, that fee is $1.
There is no risk with this service. If no one purchases online, you pay nothing. There are no commitments. You can just try the service for one show, or use it as often as you like. For more information, email info@mkat.com. Good luck!

[Stephen Elton]

We looked long and hard at many ticketing solutions and stumbled upon a simple quick fix solution that I will CENSORED on. Pay Pal.

We have a paypal account and and have added purchasing buttons to our web site. When a patron clicks one of the buttons they are taken to a secure paypal screen where they can purchase as many tickets for that show as they want. We can even add a processing fee to cover the minimal transaction fees that paypal charges. If someone makes a transaction we get an e-mail from paypal notifying us. This email contains all the info we need to just add the patron to the reservations book and even to our mailing list. And we didn't have to do a thing!!

The money is kept in our PayPal account until we simply go on-line and transfer the money into out bank account. Oh, and the PayPAl account is free! Since we have added this feature we have seen an increase in sales because people can buy right from out site from a trusted source.

If you want to see it in action just visit: www.beowulfalley.org

any question just ask away!!

[Ian]

ActingAngela
My company has a ticketing solution, which is both flexible and cost effective for theaters of any size.

You are correct in saying about “missed out on sales”. This will however depend on the event type purchase behavior, but we find that ticket purchases for most events happen at all times of the day and night, and an increasing number outside normal business hours.

At the below mentioned theater after using EReserve Ticketing Solution the theater started having a person operate the box office about six hours each business day, and sales increased an significant amount. Just by having a person to capture the foot traffic, give event and theater information and take the sale.

The consumer side example I would point you to is http://towertheatre.org/

We offer no up-front investment, free system upgrades and we will help customize the system to your site and train your key staff. The system does allow you to utilize a merchant account so all ticket credit card purchases get deposited to the theater bank account automatically.

Our system offers sales through the web, the box office and third party sales outlets.
Features include:
- Ability to configure and theater configuration
- Full ticket bar code system
- Full product sales shopping cart
- Credit Card Swipe
- The system will except credit card cash and check

If you would like a personal tour of how flexible our system is please email me at ian@adweb-ereserve.com and I would be pleased to personally give you tour of our demo site.

[artsoz]

A resource that you may find useful regarding ticketing and box office issues for both large and small venues is http://www.ticketing.org.uk which is hosted by Roger Tomlinson.

Roger wrote a book called Boxing Clever about ticketing and its greater potential use in arts marketing back in 1993 for the Arts Council England. Roger and I have been commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts to revise the book and bring it up to date 13 years on. Stay tuned to http://www.ticketing.org.uk for publishing details later this year.