Digital Ticketing: Benefi ts Beyond Hygiene

Capitol Theatre Tamworth.

Digital Ticketing:

Benefi ts Beyond Hygiene

Gwen Luscombe explores how facilities and organisations implementing contactless ticketing are not just creating a safer, more hygienic environment, but also improving effi ciency and profi tability

While some industry operators might have been considering contactless technology for their future wish-lists, technology disruptors like TicketSearch (formerly Seat Advisor) are already offering next-generation software specifically to empower venues with an efficient and affordable way to streamline customer service and build stronger relationships.

The TicketSearch solution was launched in November 2019, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic forced venues to close their doors. Though the company might have looked like the ‘new kid on the block’, the ticketing platform was built over seven years, with input from hundreds of venue managers and box office staff across three continents.

What did years of surveying patrons, customers, and venue managers reveal? The true event experience begins with the excitement of purchasing the ticket, but can fade quickly when customers log onto clunky, outdated ticket platforms to buy their ticket from their phone. Fumbling with printed tickets, wasting time waiting in lines, and disconnected merchandise sales tracking left gaping opportunities for engagement untapped. And, in a post-COVID world, those gaps in the customer journey would leave many patrons concerned for their health and safety.

Having challenged developers to build a mobile-first platform to streamline the customer experience, TicketSearch founder and President, Dennis Doulgeridis advises “we knew that patrons were craving a more interactive and simple system, but we didn’t know how fast it would be utilised by leisure venues to restore operations and a sense of safety.”

Over the course of the pandemic, TicketSearch has adapted its technologies to support varying social-distancing requirements across different municipalities, contact tracing, and integrated hybrid events. The company has onboarded

Capitol Theatre Tamworth.

over 1,000 venues in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, the USA and across Asia.

With its North American team having just confirmed a contract with Del Mar Race Track, an 11,000 seat venue in California, Doulgeridis notes “savvy venue managers, marketers and fundraising staff are taking this opportunity to upgrade technologies so they can connect with their customers. While the pandemic has brought many challenges, it has placed a spotlight on the importance of relationships and truly knowing your customers.”

Recent studies from leading data and analytics company GlobalData, have confirmed this technology surge specifically in the live events and hospitality industry with mobile apps and contactless check-in, ticketing and payments being just a few technologies that emerged as venues required contact-free technologies to improve health and safety.

Organisations such as Tamworth Regional Council’s Entertainment Venues division, - which operates the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre, Capitol Theatre and Tamworth Town Hall - found a silver lining in the storm. Although they had planned to move to the TicketSearch platform ahead of the pandemic, the shutdown provided the perfect opportunity to clean its database and prepare for reopening. Venue staff reviewed customer profiles, added marketing tags and built out membership profiles. The team drafted automated marketing emails and customised tickets for both email and SMS delivery, simultaneously launching a new user-friendly website to sell merchandise.

The technology has already become so integrated and brought unexpected benefits that venues are operating on the assumption that contactless is here to stay.

Although the thought of changing customer relationship management (CRM) and ticketing platforms can be daunting, advances in technology have become more appealing. Of course, the pressure of reduced revenues has pushed venue managers to be more innovative in maximising revenues by increasing engagement with patrons and reducing costs.

With the option of contactless ticketing systems like TicketSearch, venue managers are able to follow every point of the customer journey – from initial engagement through loyal membership. Organisations can make smarter decisions with real-time data, that shows which marketing efforts are most effective and which shows are more likely to attract an audience. Taking marketing one-step further, TicketSearch’s automated upsells can be added to digital ticket reminders to keep patrons coming back again and again.

Before any in-person events, Entertainment Venue used TicketSearch’s integration with Zoom to sell virtual tickets to events. As they approached their date for reopening, they used the bubble seating added to their seating maps for social distancing and contactless tickets with SMS delivery. Contactless payment and ticket delivery became the preferred options as tickets were sold and delivered as e-tickets or by SMS.

Entertainment Venues Manager, Peter Ross advised “by going contactless, we have been able to capture valuable datapoints along the customer journey. We are able to engage and communicate with our patrons on a more meaningful level.”

With a freshly updated database and new marketing emails, the Entertainment Venues staff used TicketSearch to communicate with their members and keep in touch with customers. Pre-performance automated emails were sent via TicketSearch and Ross’s team also used the platform to create customised emails for various events, so they were communicating with audiences every step of the way. Emails to patrons introduced TicketSearch, so when it came time to attend in-person events, customers were familiar with the new system. Re-issued tickets sent via email also included announcements about upcoming shows.

Ross added “by focusing on more frequent communication through digital technologies, we’ve been able to restore trust with our customers.

“We’re communicating more frequently, at a lower overall cost. It’s so efficient.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by a variety of venues and organisations, who also implemented contactless technology not just to boost COVID safety but to create a better overall customer experience and reduce on administration time and costs.

Last year, both Queensland’s Suncorp Stadium and NSW’s Central Coast Stadium successfully moved to implement a contactless ticketing system in partnership with Ticketek.

INTIX Chief Executive, Alex Grant and (below) INTIX’s digital ticketing in use by AFL Victoria. Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, NSW.

Guests could access their contactless tickets via their smartphone and simply hold it up to the turnstile’s reader for convenient and fast access.

TEG’s Chief Operating Officer and Head of Ticketing, Cameron Hoy, said the contactless tickets “provide fans with an enhanced and frictionless event day experience with the additional security and anti-scalping benefits of our SecureTix digital tickets.”

And it’s not just large venues utilising the technology, with Australian-owned boutique ticketing company INTIX believing that smaller local sporting can also reap the benefits of a contactless system.

INTIX Chief Executive, Alex Grant says COVID-19 has dramatically changed the landscape of the sporting and event industry, affording many smaller-scale events and venues such as sports clubs the opportunity to upgrade their technology where it was previously out of reach. Smaller sports clubs, he says are largely run by volunteers and revenue is low when events are typically free to attend. Additionally, there’s been no urgency or incentive for the upgrade. Grant explains “in the past year we have seen sports and events as some of the hardest-hit industries, due to the gathering restrictions and lack of ability to manage COVID risk. Now that these events are slowly recommencing, there are important new requirements to ensure they are managed in a COVIDSafe way.

“Even before COVID came along and made it essential for these clubs to move into the digital space, there were already many reasons to do so.

“I have been playing local footy in Melbourne for 25 years and one of my bugbears was having to stop at the petrol station on the way to the game to withdraw cash to pay for entry. There is also no ability to track which members have arrived at the event. Most clubs have a little membership card for the member to show at the gate, risking the potential for the card to be passed through the fence allowing others in free of charge.

“Now in most cases, we are talking about small clubs that rely on game day fees and fundraising to cover basic costs. The last thing they need is people gaining free entry and losing out on part of their revenue, particularly after the year we have just had.”

Digital ticketing goes a long way to solving the issue.

In the museums sector, in late 2020, Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in NSW installed a contactless donation tap point, giving art lovers a safe means to contribute donations to the gallery’s exhibition program.

The terminal, produced by Quest Payment Systems, is a contactless and cashless solution for tax-deductible donations so that patrons can make their donation safely and continue their support of the gallery’s art programs.

Explaining the innovation, Shoalhaven Mayor, Amanda Findley stated “providing a contactless donation option is especially important during COVID-19, to protect everyone’s health.”

With the technology successfully implemented at a variety of galleries and arts programs across Australia, another sector hit particularly hard during the pandemic, Mayor Findlay added “free entry to the Gallery for visitors is so important for all members of the Shoalhaven community to have access to exhibitions and events. Providing a cashless donation option will hopefully ensure this can continue.”

As the Gallery is a significant creative space for the Shoalhaven region, incoming donations ensure its vibrant exhibition and events program continues to contribute to Shoalhaven’s artistic hub.

The installation has also made a difference in the number of donations and amount collected as few patrons carry cash these days, which has seen a significant drop off in the amount donated over the last few years. The tap system has made it significantly easier for visitors to contribute and support the arts in the region. Gwen Luscombe is Director of the Ideas Library and a regular contributor to Australasian Leisure Management. With thanks to Cyndee Woolley.

Benefits Beyond Compliance

Outside of increased hygiene and COVID-compliance, integrating contactless technology has brought bigger benefits to businesses including: Reduced litter and debris: With thousands of tickets not being printed - they will never find their way to the garbage can. Increased security: As less cash changes hands, it reduces the risk of employee error and theft. Increased productivity and better admin: Contactless ticketing saves administration time as there’s no need to reconcile payments with attendee lists. Improved crowd management: Digital ticketing and contactless entry system ease queues, allow for managing patron density, and a smoother entry process for guests.