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In recent years, box office software is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with a lot more firms offering software systems, with more alternatives, more features and more price plans. So for an organisation considering adopting an online ticketing solution, it has become a lot more difficult to determine which system to choose.
For the majority of organisations, some of the most important factors are cost of the system, ease of installation and setup, ease of use, any additional hardware necessities in addition to the provision of excellent customer service. Of course every organisation will also have its own set of explicit requirements on top of these basic considerations, so you should firstly draw up a listing of requirements that you consider essential, and then proceed to judge different box office ticketing systems on these criteria. But let’s look at a number of the most typical considerations.
Cost of the System
Generally speaking, there are two alternate options – either purchase software outright, or else sign a licensing or usage contract with a firm providing a fully hosted service. In the former you would acquire the computer software outright and install it on your system. If however you are intending to sell tickets via the internet, you’d most likely be required to enroll in an additional service, given that selling tickets online calls for a dedicated server to carry out the ticket selection and payment to be available 24/7. On the other hand, with a fully hosted system, the ticketing software company maintains all the software so the ticket selection and payment processing is executed on the software provider’s servers. The venue operator is normally given a password and log in to access the system, generally through a Web interface.
The benefit of purchasing software outright of course is that it is a once only charge, even though there might be further outlay for upgrades or maintenance contracts. But for sophisticated ticketing systems, the cost of buying software is often rather high, and for most medium to smaller sized organisations who nevertheless have need of a sophisticated system, the alternative model of a hosted system may be the best option. In this case, the ticketing software company will as a rule charge for the service on a per ticket basis on the value of all tickets sold through the system.
Simplicity of setting up and implementation
Any new ticket sales software system will require a learning phase, therefore ideally the system should have an interface that’s consistent with a normal Windows or Mac interface or menu structure to make it easier for all operators. It should also be uncomplicated to install and configure. Many systems these days use a Web interface that enables an operator anyplace in the world to access the system and to sell tickets as necessary. Ideally, it should not be essential to have on-site training, however in that situation it must be possible to coach users of the system via internet chat or instructional videos.
Features & options
Most modern ticketing software will include a host of different features, a lot of which may never be required by the average venue operator. Ideally it is best if you have the ability to turn off needless features, in an effort to simplify the system for users. And it at a later stage you have use for those features, then you should have the ability to turn the features back on.
Hardware requirements
Assuming that you have a relatively modern computer and up-to-date operating system, more often than not no equipment upgrades should be necessary to operate ticketing software. However if the system is Web-based, you will need a fast Online connection. The only other indispensable hardware requisite is a way of printing tickets. Whilst thermal ticket printers are undoubtedly the most convenient choice since they can print solitary tickets on demand, they tend to be rather high-priced and may be beyond the budget of small organisations who may sell only a few thousand tickets per year or fewer. Luckily though, some ticketing software systems will permit tickets to be printed by a standard inkjet or laser printer. Bar-code scanners may also be necessary for venue operators who are selling general admission tickets and have permitted PDF tickets to be printed online, as this is the only realistic way to ensure the validity of such tickets.
Reports
You must be able to access a wide range of financial, admission, transaction and customer related reports on demand which ought to be either viewable on computer screen or printed for later analysis. You must have the ability to quickly look up any ticket that is sold, to determine who bought the ticket, the ticket vendor, the date of the transaction and the purchase price paid as a minimum requirement.
Patron Database
With a good customer database, you should have the opportunity to categorise your customers, to enter substitute addresses, to easily eliminate or merge duplicate entries, to check the transaction history of any customer and to send out e-mails or print address labels for your customers directly from your database.
Customer service and support
With any ticketing software system, you should expect swift and helpful support and customer service. Whilst such support on a 24/7 basis is possibly impractical for many ticketing companies, any service really should not be limited to e-mailed customer support tickets but you should be able to talk to skilled support personnel. You should also insist on comprehensive instruction manuals to be offered and ideally online support manuals with searchable capability.
Comparing ticketing systems
The best way to evaluate a ticketing system is to obtain a demonstration version of the software program. Ideally the software should be a full functioning version with possibly only a few features disabled. You should be able to perform some test administrative functions to grasp how the basic setting up and ticket selling process works. If you are unable to obtain a demonstration version, then at the very minimum you should be able to access screen images of the primary functions. You should not be required to sign up for any system on a long-term basis unless you’ve got a chance to cancel the contract if you find that the system isn’t meeting your needs or does not live up to its advertised claims or your expectations. It is also useful to check out other organisations who are using the system you are considering by visiting Web sites that use the system and continuing as far as possible with the test ticket purchase without actually buying the ticket. Then you will get a good idea of the ticket purchasing procedure from a patrons viewpoint.
Deciding on a new ticketing system may seem to be a rather overwhelming task, but if you limit your evaluation to the fundamental requirements mentioned above plus any specific needs, it will hopefully make the task somewhat easier.
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Tags: ticketing software
Posted in Theatre · July 21st, 2010 · Comments (0)
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Posted in Theatre · June 18th, 2010 · Comments (0)