subject: Ticketing Alternatives For Non Profit Organizations [print this page] For most community and non-profit organisations who sell tickets to events they organize, the job of selling, printing and mailing tickets, plus dealing with phone calls and correspondence typically becomes the responsibility of just a handful of dedicated individuals. And particularly if the organisation sells reserved tickets or season packages, this job can occupy a significant amount of their time.
So there can be many benefits in either subscribing to or purchasing a box office ticketing system that can automatically record ticket sales and issue tickets. Ideally this should also have the capability of selling tickets online. But many organisations may believe that the cost in setting up or purchasing such a system, and the ongoing costs of maintaining the system, may be outside their budget. But With the various options that are now available, it is unlikely that even the smallest organisation would not be able to adopt an alternative means of handling their ticketing operations. Let's take a look at the main alternatives that are currently available.
Perhaps the most well-established method of handling ticket sales is to use the services of a ticketing service company who typically handles ticket sales on behalf of many different organisations, and lists these events on their website together with the events of all the other organisations who they are working with. The customer selects and pays for their tickets online and the tickets are either mailed directly to the customer by the organisation, printed directly by the customer as a PDF or emailed as a voucher to be exchanged at the venue's box-office. In some cases the ticketing company may offer facilities for customers to make phone bookings, but in other cases, the organisation would still need to look after phone and mail order bookings themselves. But the main drawback of a ticket service company is probably the cost of the service, since the fees charged by such companies can often be out of all proportion to the cost of the tickets being sold, especially for community organisations who generally sell tickets at more modest prices. In addition, such organisations don't generally have the ability to handle season subscriptions and in most cases, the ticket income is not forwarded until after the event has been held. Also there may be no opportunity to amend the service charge that is levied on the ticket purchaser.
Another perhaps more suitable option is to work with a box office ticketing company that enables the organisation to post its events directly online, provides a link to the organisation's website, and handles all the online ticketing and credit card payments. Because such systems are normally completely Web-based, they may also allow the organisation to set up a virtual box office anywhere they have an Internet connection, so ticket administrators can conveniently process both phone and mail orders. Such systems may however not have the ability to handle season subscriptions and generally will not have added features such as issuing gift cards, discount cards, FlexPasses etc. It may also be somewhat more difficult to issue refunds, exchanges etc through such systems. There are quite a large number of alternatives for this type of system - some systems advertise that you can list your events for "free", although in such cases, there is normally a charge applied to the ticket purchaser. Other companies, whilst offering the ability to enter all the details of your events online, may not have the same ability to set up a virtual box office but will only permit the selling of tickets completely online. And in many cases, all the events will be listed on the ticketing service company's website and not that of the organisation's website.
A third alternative is to purchase box office ticketing software outright. Of course the main disadvantage of this option is the initial cost which may be a stumbling block for most small community and non-profit organisations. However once the software is purchased, there generally will not be any ongoing per ticket charges or monthly charges. Some ticketing software suppliers who supply software at the lower end of the scale my however charge a monthly service fee or request you to subscribe to a support plan. The other possible downside of this alternative (apart from the cost which can often exceed many thousands of dollars), is that the software may eventually become out of date and you may be obliged to pay additional fees to upgrade to new or updated software that is developed.
A fourth alternative is to use the services of event ticketing organisations where all the main software is located on the ticketing company's servers, but where you have complete access to the administration and ticket sales side of the system via a Web interface. With this type of system, you maintain control over all of the operational aspects of the system including setting up events, season subscriptions, discount cards, season passes, etc. With such systems, once again there are many alternatives offered, whereby for example the cost of the system may either based as a percentage of the transaction value or as a fixed dollar amount for each ticket sold through the system or a combination of both. In some cases, the ticketing organisation may offer a call centre and/or a mail out service for the tickets. Generally speaking with such systems, as well as the box office interface, the system will offer the capability for any number of ticket resellers or distributors to sell tickets through the system. Such systems may also offer the ability for any authorized person to sell tickets online through the system wherever they have an Internet connection.
Whichever box office ticketing system you choose, the best idea is to initially draw up a list of features which you believe would be essential to your organisation. For example, you may prefer all ticket income to be credited immediately to your account whenever there is a sale rather than only being transferred after the event has been held. If you are selling reserved tickets, you may like to have the ability for your box office personnel and your online customers to choose their tickets from an interactive seating chart. And you may want the ability to set up a variety of season subscriptions, and have the ability to roll over these subscriptions from year to year with patrons retaining their same seats. Or you may wish to have the ability to accept donations online at the same time as a ticket purchase is being made. And you may want to have the choice of whether to apply a service charge or transaction fee for your online customers rather than it being a fixed charge applied by the ticketing organisation which cannot be amended or removed.
In any case, these days there are many choices for small community and non-profit organisations to benefit from the services available from ticketing service organisations or ticket sales software suppliers at a cost which would be affordable for most organisations. And the cost would surely be outweighed in the vast majority of situations by making it much easier for volunteers and other personnel to manage the time-consuming requirements of a booking office and at the same time offering patrons the convenience of an online booking facility.
by: Malcolm Kay
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