The web has been around for so long that you'd be hard-pressed to find a business that doesn't have a website. The same holds true for online ticketing and box offices. Yet there are a few holdouts still using pen, paper, and desktop software to record sales over the phone. Learning why it is beneficial to sell tickets online is quick and simple. For those last venues wondering if the time is right to transition to online box office ticketing, here are 10 reasons to solidify your decision:
1. Open 24/7 with No Staffing Costs
Online ticketing websites provide customers with all-day-every-day convenience to the box office. With many small theaters relying on volunteer staff and limited box office hours, providing access to online ticket sales reduces staff needs and doesn't constrain your buyers to in-person or telephone purchases during ordinary business hours.
2. Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process websites use to be found online by people searching for your goods and services. When ThunderTix venues create their events and descriptions, they are published to the web using SEO best practices to help patrons find our venues online. Great "organic" SEO reduces advertising costs.
3. Increased Sales
We are a society of immediately gratified consumers. Patrons often decide to attend an event the moment they read your web-based description. Funneling excited patrons to the checkout page helps raise sales before something else grabs their attention and money!
4. Reduced Ticket Fraud with Barcode Ticket Scanning
Print-at-home tickets and real-time online ticket systems combine to reduce fraud with barcode ticket scanning. Real-time scanning flags you when tickets are invalid or duplicated. With one uniquely barcoded ticket per purchase, you won't have to track and calculate who attended on your will call lists.
5. Reduced Ticket Processing Costs
Online ticketing websites provide your customer with an instant email and attached print-at-home PDF ticket replacing the high costs and time required to print and mail hard tickets. Customer information is stored and organized electronically and tickets are resent with the click of a mouse.
6. Greater Event Exposure Through Social Sharing
If your ticketing company provides a method to share links via Facebook, Twitter or other social networks as ThunderTix provides, your fans will take advantage of social sharing to raise the exposure of your venue and events to their friends. Nothing motivates a ticket purchase more than the knowledge that friends will be in attendance!
7. Ticket and Sales Management through Automated Reporting
From inventory management to one-click refund processing to ticket redemption analysis, managing data without paper means less time spent tracking, tabulating, and maintaining records. Daily, automated sales reports, interactive and comprehensive overviews of sales and ticket availability are just a few of the benefits of online ticket sales.
8. Resellers Improve Your Sales Reach
Our venues can create resellers at any location who could sell tickets as if they were sitting in the box office. With all sales by associates performed in real-time on the same system with different user logins, there is no need to combine reports or guess at sales revenue. Sales by each user may be set and calculated along with payments for accurate record keeping.
9. Customer Data
Customers input their own data to both receive their ticket confirmation and to process their credit card purchases. Multiply each purchase by thousands, and you can imagine how staff time adds up in data processing. You'll also enjoy full access to that customer data for email and other campaigns to promote future events.
10. Higher Patron Satisfaction
Customers want confidence that visiting your website will provide up-to-date information, relevant links and reviews, and the ability to purchase online event tickets. By providing this type of content, your ticketing portal now becomes the customer’s primary and bookmarked resource for event information and ticket availability.
Be sure to take a look at all the features ThunderTix has to offer and sign up for a free trial today!
Thanks to Shereen Rabie for her contributions to this article.