Topics Covered:
[0:25] - Demo Seating Charts
[1:05] - The Seating Chart Layout
[1:32] - The Seating Chart Key
[2:17] - Order Details Shortcut
[2:26] - Blocking seats from purchase
[3:28] - Automated Social Distancing
[4:11] - Single Seat Settings
[4:29] - Modifying prices for different seating sections and days
[5:27] - Purchasing specific seats
Reserved Seating Software Video Transcription:
Hello and welcome! Today I am going to walk you through how to manage an event that has been created with a seating chart through ThunderTix. We will be covering lots of important points such as seating chart display, seat blocking, and setting ticket prices. We’ll even cover our social distancing feature that creates buffer seats between households -- automatically!
First, create your event and select the seating chart option of your choice. If you do not have a seating chart, you can easily install a demo version for test purposes which we have available here as you create your event. Our seating charts are displayed in mobile-friendly, responsive designs. We can create theatre seating, black box seating in a variety of configurations, cabaret style seating, and table seating. We can even create sports arenas for tennis matches, team sports and more.
To create your custom design, simply submit your request to our team. Once your chart is installed for your event, you’ll see it here in your Events listing. Let’s get started on how we sell, reserve, or block seats for reserved seating events. First, click Manage for your desired Event. Here in the Dates and Times page for your event, click "Sell" for any date.
Let’s cover the seating chart layout itself. When creating your custom chart, we’ll assign seats to a section as indicated by you. We use color-coding to denote those sections as seen here. Sometimes, those sections might be priced differently, and the color-code makes the price differences more obvious to your buyers. If you have obstructed view seats or wheelchair and companion seating, we can mark those too, as seen here. Buyers will be alerted when selecting accessible seating so that they can switch seats as needed.
Note the seating chart key. You can see that sold seats are shown in red while reserved seats awaiting payment are in blue. We use yellow to show seats that are pending purchase. Gray seats represent blocked seats. The gray seat with the small “x” denotes a social distance seat which we’ll cover in more detail later. Finally, we have a special icon that only displays on the day of the event. This black “checkmark” indicates the tickets have been scanned, meaning the attendees are already seated. This gives you the option of selling no-show seats at the last moment. One more thing about this display page. If you hover over any sold or reserved seat, we’ll display the purchaser’s name, and Clicking the seat will bring up the order details page.
Now, let’s cover how to block seats from being eligible for purchase. You might need to do this for obstructed view seats, set-asides for family, or various other reasons. You can right click any seat to bring up a menu of blocking options. Let’s say your theatre’s set design causes a row of seats to have obstructed views. When right clicking on any seat in the row, you can then left click the option to “Block full row in all performances” here to quickly prevent any of those seats from being purchased across the entire run of performances.
If you are setting aside a row of seats for the house for a single date, choose the “Block full row” to block only the seats for a specific performance. Let's say we received an email request to block two seats for family members. To block any seat, again, right click on the desired seat and then left click on a blocking option here. Perhaps we don't receive the check by the deadline, so now we want to unblock the seats. Simply right click again and select the appropriate unblocking option by row or seat. It's that easy.
We also offer an especially important option to provide automated social distancing between patrons from different households. To take advantage of this automation, find the Seating and Social Distancing option and set the desired number of buffer seats you’d like to block around seat purchases. For example, if you need six feet of distance, and your seats take up 3 feet each, then enter “2” here. Then, when a customer buys tickets for seats in any row, we’ll automatically block two seats on each side of those purchased seats.
Sometimes it makes sense to block every other row. You can do that quickly by following a similar process as we covered in standard row blocking. Again, you can unblock a row with a click just as easily. Let’s cover one last option: Some patrons may prefer to skip a seat to give themselves a little extra elbow room. This can leave orphan seats that are difficult to sell. You can prevent this in your Seating chart settings where you can optionally prevent seat purchases like this that leave a single seat empty in the middle of a row.
Okay, before we complete a purchase for one of our available seats, let’s cover how to create different pricing tiers. Click Manage for any event which brings us a list of Dates & Times. Hover over any date and click on Modify Prices For This Date to show the tickets we created. We can modify them directly here, or even manage ticket prices by specific seating chart sections here. Just click on the section for which you would like to modify the ticket price and Fill in your desired prices for this section. If at any time you want to apply your prices to this same section for all performances, check this box down here.
Don't forget to select Apply Ticket Prices here at the bottom once you finish! You can continue on to manage any other section here. Once complete, return to the Dates and Times page. Let’s cover one last scenario for pricing. If your event has a matinee showing, that might mean we need separate pricing. Just select the matinee, and alter the prices accordingly. Once you're done, return to the Dates and Times page.
To wrap up, let’s make a purchase. To buy any seat, simply select them by clicking on each seat desired, then select your ticket types, and finally, proceed to the checkout page. Select the payment type, enter your details, and you're on your way to selling out for your event! If you’d like more information on payment options, a quick and easy auto-fill for customer information and more, see our videos for box office processing.
Alright, that's it for now. If you have any questions, we have lots of documentation in our how-to guides or you can take a look at our other tutorial videos! Thank you so much for watching!