How does it work?

By adding a small device onto the phone in your pocket or tablet on your desk, you can turn any mobile device into a powerful, wireless, data collecting barcode scanner and point of sale system. Please click here.

What are the advantages?

When using a cloud based ticketing system such as Ticketsolve in combination with mobile scanning:

Your POS system works seamlessly with your online boxoffice.

All ticket purchases and scans are updated centrally – nothing is held locally, giving you up to the minute details on sales, revenues, and seating.

For customers, it means quicker entry into your event and less queuing (and more time to get into the venue and relax and enjoy a drink before the show)! Tickets can be purchased and validated on one device. And because the system is mobile, staff can validate and sell tickets from virtually anywhere.

There is also a reduction of cost here, where separate barcode scanners and tills need not be purchased – everything can be done through one device.  In addition, this is one step closer to paperless ticketing reducing overall production and distribution costs.

Next time we are going to look at paperless ticketing in-depth.  What are your thoughts?  Is this where ticketing is headed?

Please click below on ‘Scanning Video’ to see our mobile scanning in operation with one of our customers

Scanning Video

The post Mobile Scanning appeared first on Ticketsolve.

Within Europe alone, mobile phone penetration is at 128% (meaning some people have more then one phone) with the EU5 (Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy) showing smartphone usage alone at 57% and rising

Clearly, mobiles are not going anywhere, and what’s more they provide some serious advantages for the those of us dealing with ticketing.  Some industry experts predict that up to 90% of all tickets will be purchased through mobile devices in the next three years. 

For venues and festivals and their customers mobile ticketing is all about convenience and speed.  Your tickets available to your customers any time and anywhere.  

But, just having our site up and tickets available to purchase is not enough for a mobile phone purchase.  The site must be optimised for use on smartphones, otherwise you risk your customer facing problems during the transaction, lack of ease of use and ultimately an abandoned shopping cart.

Ticketsolve works across multiple platforms and is optimised for all smart phone devices, as well as tablets.  Once you start using Ticketsolve for your box-office, your site is automatically optimised for mobile purchases.  So as long as a customer has a smartphone,  they can purchase tickets, upgrades, etc., from their phone.  In fact virtually any transaction they can make on your site can be done from their smartphone.  The optimisation that we do for smartphones, ensures that the ease of use and speed that customers expect from your site is maintained even on a smartphone, tablet or other device of their choosing.

Of course, the next logical step in mobile ticketing is the paperless ticket.  Next week, we will take a look at this topic and paperless ticketing’s benefits and pitfalls

The post Optimising Ticket Purchasing for Smartphones appeared first on Ticketsolve.

Before we get into that, let’s consider what our two main goals are as venues/theatres and festivals:

1.  Build long term relationships with our customers, and have them come back to us again and again.

2.  Create an overall positive and enjoyable experience for our customers from the moment they come to our website, choose their show or event, right the way through their positive transaction experience – and coming to the event itself.

Now if we look at card surcharges in this context, it is easy to see why surcharges are bad for your business.

A barrier to sales.  Do we really need a reason for a customer to abandon their online shopping cart at the last moment?  Some customers may not purchase at all, others may wait until the last moment.  Overall, creating a barrier for customers is sure way to turn them off for good.

Promotes negative feelings.  Card charges, even small legitimate fees can irk customers and leave them with a bad feeling about your business.  This can damage your overall long-term relationship with your customers.

Pushes your customers offline. Online ticket sales don’t have the same overhead as traditional box office sales (window or phone).  We need to be encouraging customers to purchase tickets online with cards.  There are many studies that show customers will actually spend more online with cards than other methods.

So what can we do?

Assess your current pricing.  Why not include the cost of processing or postage into your ticket prices?  In this way, excess surcharges can be avoided, but your actual processing costs will be covered.

Get rid of fees entirely.  If we get rid of our fees entirely we remove a big barrier to online sales and generate a lot of goodwill in the process.  Encouraging online sales over staffing heavy methods such as window sales or phone sales, means staff are freed up for other tasks.  In addition using a system like Ticketsolve means you get a fully  integrated boxoffice, capable of providing a streamlined, enjoyable purchasing experience for customers.  Features such as self seat selection, cross promotions, discounts, advanced concession sales, membership offers, etc. can all be easily viewed, and selected by customer themselves.  Using Ticketsolve’s Facebook app means your customers can even promote your event or show to their friends with a click of a link.  So all in all, we need to remove any and all barriers to online purchasing that we can!

Donations.  What if a portion of your revenue was coming from surcharges?  Here is where donations can help.  At the end of the transaction your customer is presented with a summary of their bill with the option to add a donation.   On the bill they see that there have been no additional charges.  This good will encourages them to donate.  In fact, we have found that for donations of £1-£2, around 70-80% of customers will be happy to leave a donation as part of their order, helping to generate extra income for your organisation. This has proven highly successful with some customers, who in the last 12 months, have generated over £45K of additional revenue through this feature.  Ticketsolve customers have reported that about 40% of people leave a donation.

Unique experience.  Another option to consider for boosting revenues to offset the surcharges, is in the area of affluent marketing.  There are some patrons who will be happy to pay a premium for a unique and special experience.  This might be a chance to meet performers, a VIP service of some kind, or even skipping a queue.  Is there a possibility for this type of marketing in your venue, theatre or festival that can be done at a low cost and charged at a premium?  There are many levels of these “upgrades” to consider and all can be provided as options with Ticketsolve.

The new ban on surcharges, while challenging, provides an opportunity for us to reassess our pricing and strengthen our relationship with our customers. What’s more the idea seems to be spreading.  The US recently announced that 18 states are considering a similar ban, with 10 states already having the ban in place.

What do you think?

The post Ban on Excessive Card Charges, What does it mean to you? appeared first on Ticketsolve.

We asked five questions:

Q1 How would your rate the Ticketsolve System on a scale of 1-10?
90% of customers rated Ticketsolve 7.5 out of 10 or better.

Q2 How would you rate Ticketsolve’s Support Service?
94% of customers gave the support service 7.5 out of 10, or better. With 63% of customers rating Ticketsolve support 9/10 out of 10.

Q3 How can Ticketsolve help you to get the most out of your system?
(a) Updating the help notes in a more using friendly to aid easier searching of queries.
Result: Our Mindtouch notes section has already been revamped

(b) More directed help in utilising the various features that Ticketsolve offers, so that they may improve their use of the system,
Result: Currently offering one on one consultancy with our cutomer base on how they can acheieve their goals through the system

Q4 What areas of the system would you like to know more about?
The most popular answers from customers where to find out more on reporting and the discounts module.
Result: Reporting webinar scheduled for this month

Q5 What future developments would you like to see in Ticketsolve?
The majority of answers focused on the use of Ticketsolve on mobile/tablet devices.
Result: Watch this space

In the meantime, we’d like to remind everyone that you can contact the support team at anytime, either by zendesk/the helpdesk within Ticketsolve, by emailing support@ticketsolve.zendesk.com, or by calling us on the support number +353 14100647, this is the same number for out of hours support should you require it.

At Ticketsolve, we take our support service very seriously.   It is our number one priority in ensuring we provide a high level of customer service at all times. As you may be aware, we use our helpdesk system, zendesk, to organise all support issues,  and to track and respond to all queries in a correct and timely mannner.  An audit of zendesk has shown that 99% of requests that sent are sent during office hours, are responded to within 30 minutes, and that 74% of issues and requests coming through are resolved within 1 day.    This high level of reaction helps to maintain a very strong and responsive support service to our customers.

The post Customer Survey Results appeared first on Ticketsolve.

But the numbers don’t lie.

I analysed four of Ticketsolve’s features to see exactly what kind of returns customers were getting.  The results speak for themselves I think.

Automatic Donations
What is this feature?
Automatic or auto donations allow your end user to donate money at the end of their transaction, and is a complete optional extra for the user.  The most typical amount (and the amount that tends to generate the most follow through) is between £/€1-2.

What do the numbers say?

• London based customers received £98K in voluntary auto donations in last 12 months alone.  This means that 40% of their customers are leaving a donation as part of their ticket order.
• One of our Dublin based customers, who since setting up their donations function, has generated over €1000 per month. This is 32% of their customers leaving a donation as part of their order.
• One of our midlands based customers, has seen 28% of their customers include a donation as part of their order.
• A limerick based customer, who uses inside booking charges, has seen 45% of their customers leave a donation included as part of their order.  They have also generated €26K in booking charges, and nearly €4K in donations.

Mobile Sales

What is this feature?

This is a piece of functionality that allows your customers to access your website, and purchase tickets from their mobile phone or tablet device.  This type of “on-the-go” purchasing has gained serious ground over the last number of years.

What do the number say?
Over last 12 months:

• London based venue – 10% sales were done via mobile devices or (£240K)
• Venue South Coast England – 7% sales were done via mobile devices or (£83K)
• Dublin based venue – 8% sales were done via mobile devices or (€45K)
• Limerick based – 7% sales were done via mobile devices or (€30K)

While these percentages are no more than 10% of total sales, this is a growing area and one that seems on the up trend.

Product prompts / promotions
Dublin based customer generated over €2000 in a single promotion selling pre theatre meal deals for specific shows.

Facebook App
Festival in West of Ireland – generated over €11K in revenue through facebook sales

Please make contact with me on pfadden@ticketsolve.com for more information.

The post The Numbers Don’t Lie appeared first on Ticketsolve.

Features

Facebook App – The Facebook App allows you to sell tickets for your shows directly through your own facebook pages, providing access to sell tickets through one of the largest Global mediums around helping to increase your profile and revenue from additional sales

Donation Products – You can set up an automatic donation for all orders that take place, which customers can choose to opt out of if they wish, as well as choosing to gift aid donations. We’ve found that for donations such as £1-£2, around 70-80% of customers will be happy to leave the donation as part of their order, helping to generate extra income for your organisation. This has proven highly successful with some customers, who in the last 12 months, have generated over £45K of additional revenue through this feature

QR Codes – These codes can be added to your customers orders to allow scanning and sharing through social media platforms like twitter to help increase your audience and allow your customers to share information through their smart phones.

Inside Charges – These allow you to add a hidden charge or levy to all tickets sold. This can be useful for venues looking to add a restoration or maintenance cost onto all tickets to help maintain upkeep or to generate extra revenue from ticket sales. It has proved particularly successful for some of our customers already, who have used this feature to help generate extra income for refurbishments. Click here to find out how to set these up in your own system.

Product Prompts – This feature allows you to present a separate page of specific products to customers when they book online. When a customer purchases a ticket for a show the next page in the customer journey will make some product suggestions which are controlled by your programming through the back end in Ticketsolve.

If you have any questions on any of the above features, please contact our support team who will be happy to discuss anything further with you.

In the next couple of weeks we have a very interested post on case studies from our customers detailing some real live results – Watch this space

The post Top tips to help Increase Audience Retention and Drive Revenue appeared first on Ticketsolve.

Cloud computing is a simple and inexpensive way to use any app by simply logging in via any tool you want:  computer, laptop, smart phone, tablet – whatever – without needing to load cumbersome software onto your device.  All you need is a connection to the Internet.  Apps like Salesforce, MailChimp, Skype, Evernote, Twitter and Facebook are all based on the cloud computing models.

And this is exactly what Ticketsolve delivers – all your data available at any time via any device you choose, wherever you are.  Below are some compelling reasons why cloud based computing works.

Lower costs
With cloud apps you have lower upfront costs, as there is no new hardware to purchase or software licenses to buy.

Get up and running faster
Because there is no hardware or software to install, most installs are up and running very quickly

Access your data any time and anywhere
Cloud based apps allow you to access your data via any device, 24/7.  So whether you are at your computer at home or work, or using your phone or tablet on the go you can get to your data and reports – without the need for heavy duty software. Warning: Reduces the opportunities for slackers

Automatic software updates
Updates to the software are done automatically, so there is no downtime for the system.

Collaborative
Nothing is local.  That is a good thing with cloud computing.  This means that what your staff are working from multiple venues can be coordinated easily and in real time – nothing gets lost.

Increased security
If you are dealing with multiple venues, with multiple devices, then your data is being stored locally, and security complexity increases.

With Ticketsolve, all you need to get started is a light-weight app and an Internet connection.  We take care of storing your data securely and ensuring you always have access.  The benefit is low upfront costs, which means you are up and running faster.  There is improved manageability, and overall lower IT costs.  Updates to the software are done automatically and without any downtime for you. And since there is nothing significant to install on devices - maintenance is minimal. 

• Implementation of the Ticketsolve software hosted solution is quick and less costly: on-premise ticketing applications that would have taken months to implement take just weeks or in some cases days to implement.
• Software upgrades are painless: under our delivery model upgrades occur much more frequently, giving customers continuous access to innovation. We  typically release upgrades every week which is directly driven by our customer base, we pride ourselves on working very closely with our customers resulting in the newest ticketing innovations being enjoyed by the total community.
• Ticketsolve can be accessed anywhere through an Internet browser: this makes it easier for “on-the-road” access to applications anywhere/anytime.
• Network effects: community aspect benefits everyone. With more eyes focused on the same application, new ideas are gleaned from a large pool, while problems tend to be found and fixed more quickly. Similar to the benefits found in the open-source community. Hosted solutions have successfully tackled the issues of cost, security and time, it has been able to grow robustly.
• Reliability more proven: Recent studies have proven Hosted solutions are out performing onsite solutions in terms of up time and performance.
• Reduced Costs: With our hosted model, we  take care of hosting the product and, thus, we incur the additional costs of hardware, servers, maintenance, IT professionals, etc.

The post Why Cloud Based Apps Work appeared first on Ticketsolve.

This is true of our platform, and while we are on a rich development drive we are continually tasked with the issue of educating and re-educating our audience base. Prior to any new development release detailed release notes are drafted and sent to our customer base and posted on our online forum.

Which is often the case our customers don’t have the time to read these notes and some of this new functionality goes unnoticed. It’s our job to ensure we educate our customer base to these developments through online forums, Webinars, user groups and one on one meetings.

One such developments springs to mind, our donations module has been in use for over 3 years and is only being utilised by a modest portion of our 140 + customers.  This is not the fault of our customer base, they need to be educated and brought along. What we realise now is that driving consumption of all our new functionality is a company wide responsibility not a functional or departmental task.

A key part of our current go lives is a fact finding mission to establish by department what are the top 5 goals they would like to achieve when implementing Ticketsolve, these vary by customer but it’s very important to understand these goals prior to training instead of using a scatter gun approach, which can often result in frustration and staff being overwhelmed.

It’s onwards and upwards, we are focused on developing functionality that solve major challenges – through innovation, and in turn improve productivity and deliver superior employee adoption

The post New Product Development and Ticketsolve Optimisation appeared first on Ticketsolve.

The result was the implementation of Zendesk into the Ticketsolve system.  A year on, and Zendesk has become an invaluable tool for our ability to engage with our customers.

Simply put, Zendesk sits within the Ticketsolve system.  When a customer has an issue, they can simply use the Zendesk tool to create a “customer service ticket”.  This comes directly to the customer service team who then gets cracking on solving the customers query.  Zendesk does not replace the other usual channels of telephone, email or chat, but is another avenue for customers to communicate with us.

Within just six months of implementing our new customer service protocols, 75% of queries are resolved in 5 hours or less.  More complex issues (ones that may need the development teams involvement) are resolved within 3 days or less.  For example, recently, we got 133 new requests within ZenDesk, and 120 were closed within the day.  Most questions coming through Zendesk are clarifications - e.g., I want to do xy and z, how do I do it?  And there are no automated responses – you get a real live person at Ticketsolve.  If we can’t answer the question straight away, we aim to get back to you within a half an hour.  

Webinars provide another avenue for Ticketsolve to engage with customers.  Typically, we aggregate popular issues and analyse them based on customers and the system as a whole.  Then we develop a webinar for the entire Ticketsolve customer community.  In this way, we hope the entire Ticketsolve user base benefits from this sort of remote training and shared information.  The result of this type of analysis also helps directing new releases and functionality for the software.  

The final peice of the customer service toolset are usergroups.  Usergroups, held twice a year, provide an opportunity for Ticketsolve users to gather as a community.  Usergroup discussions allow users to share tips and tricks on most effectively using Ticketsolve.  In addition it gives us a platform to introduce upcoming releases and new functionality, and get valuable feedback.

While all of these tools have proven invaluable to customer service at Ticketsolve, we are looking at continued improvement and welcome suggestions and ideas from throughout the Ticketsolve community.

The post Improving Customer Support appeared first on Ticketsolve.

We started organising User Groups in 2009 with the aim to create a community forum where our customers could interact with each other, and of course for an opportunity for us to engage with customers as a group.  This proved very successful with customers forging strong relationships right from the start.

Besides a great networking opportunity, the forum allows our clients a chance to discuss and share the optimum way to utilise Ticketsolve’s functionality set. From our perspective, the usergroups have provided an incredible medium for our own product path development validation and idea generation. We have always maintained that our customers drive 80% of our development work, with 20% coming from our own blue sky thinking. These customer interactions are crucial to our development momentum and the road ahead.

This forum is also ideal to help us understand any issues our customer base are experiencing with the system. This is a cornerstone of our Agile software development approach – get rid of the disconnect of between the customer and the development team.

Since our first user group, attendance has been growing steadily.  First our customers base is growing rapidly and second, the WOM has helped to increase their popularity.  We welcome potential customers to attend the sessions so they can get a feel for the community we have helped foster.

We plan on expanding the user group experience to include the possibility of guest speakers, covering an array of topics from yield management to audience development.

We certainly hope the user groups have proven useful to our customers.  They have certainly been a guiding light to Ticketsolve’s development and growth.

The post Why Bother With User Groups? appeared first on Ticketsolve.