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Managing sponsors' complementary tickets

Martin Havn
$organization

Hi all,

as pretty recent alumens of the Tessitura Network, we're currently working on moving our sponsor-handling from an external, separate CRM-system into Tessitura, specifically the Plans module.

One issue that's come up is how to best handle the pool of complementary tickets we promise sponsors as part of their deal with us.

The way it works is, we promise the sponsor 100 tickets (for instance) that they can use at their leisure throughout the season. Typically, the coordinator in charge at the sponsor calls a few days in advance and asks for 4 tickets to a specific performance.

Would appreciate any suggestions as to how we can record this pool of 100 tickets to start with, and then write them down as they're spent throughout the season. 

They aren't held or allocated in any specific performance in advance.

I've been thinking about using a ranking and value or attribute and value, or maybe there's a smart way to use CSI's or Plans?

Thanks in advance, and all the best from Denmark :-)

Martin

  • $organization

    Hi Martin,

    I am about to start planning ways to do this too, so will follow this thread with interest

    My thinking at the moment is to have  the ticket number display in the constituent header, maybe from an attribute (I haven't really tested, and this might be to flexible/editable) and have it count down (or up) based on the number of tickets (with a specific price type, so they could buy tickets in the same account and not have them count towards their allocation) they had used, so there was a visual display of what they had used. e.g. 14/100

    My thinking was that this should work as a simple view only way if the tickets were only allowed to be requested via phone and via the Sponsorship department. If we wanted to do this on line, then I think it would have to become a bit more sophisticated. so people didn't go over their limit.

    Looking forward to hearing what others are doing as I am sure there are some more sophisticated ways to do this.


    Caryl

  • $organization in reply to Caryl Jones

    Hello Caryl,

    Thank you for joining the discussion - happy to hear your working on this issue too.

    I like the idea of showing the ticket count in the header, making it quite fast and easy to find it .As you say, it should be linked to something like a specific price type, to be able to separate it from other types of sponsor tickets or regular tickets. Maybe a price rule could work.

    Not sure how I feel about using "merely" an attribute to store allocation value, it sounds too simple :-) But if I understand you correctly, the attribute value is only to show the maximum number of tickets, right? So no one would have to adjust it throughout the season, except if the allocation changes, like due to a new agreement?

    Cheers

    Martin

  • $organization in reply to Martin Havn

    Yes, that's what I was thinking, an attribute just to indicate the max tickets.

    Maybe it's a local system table with a row for each Sponsor, that shows their designated allowance each year (but can be updated if the agreement changes). That way there's an audit trail of changes etc.

    Caryl 

  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization in reply to Martin Havn

    We put the ticket count in the header 

    Flags:  CORP38

    38 means the Constituent, who originally had 90 tickets at the beginning of the season, now has 38 remaining tickets for the season because they've used 52 tickets.  It's under the attributes tab

  • $organization

    A CSI is a great idea. You might also look into premiums.

     

    You may also be able to make use of Steps within the Plans. Your step could be “Issue Tickets” and then the note could be the number of tickets and the performance name.

     

    Marie

     

    ---

    Marie Kocher | Development Assistant

    Kansas City Ballet | Todd Bolender Center for Dance & Creativity

    500 W. Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108

    816.216.5582 (D) | 816.931.2232 x1382 (O) | 816.931.1172 (fax)

    kcballet.org

     

    From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Martin Havn
    Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 5:06 AM
    To: Marie Kocher <mkocher@kcballet.org>
    Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Managing sponsors' complementary tickets

     

    Hi all,

    as pretty recent alumens of the Tessitura Network, we're currently working on moving our sponsor-handling from an external, separate CRM-system into Tessitura, specifically the Plans module.

    One issue that's come up is how to best handle the pool of complementary tickets we promise sponsors as part of their deal with us.

    The way it works is, we promise the sponsor 100 tickets (for instance) that they can use at their leisure throughout the season. Typically, the coordinator in charge at the sponsor calls a few days in advance and asks for 4 tickets to a specific performance.

    Would appreciate any suggestions as to how we can record this pool of 100 tickets to start with, and then write them down as they're spent throughout the season. 

    They aren't held or allocated in any specific performance in advance.

    I've been thinking about using a ranking and value or attribute and value, or maybe there's a smart way to use CSI's or Plans?

    Thanks in advance, and all the best from Denmark :-)

    Martin




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!

  • $organization
    We have a couple ways that we manage complimentary tickets at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

    We manage staff comps through attributes; at the beginning of the fiscal year, we use the Update Attributes utility to load 20 comps in each staff record. When a staff member uses a comp, the cashier sells the ticket and then manually decrements the value on the attribute. Simple and effective - we've done this for the entire 8 years that we've been on the system.

    For some of our higher-level members, we wanted them to be able to redeem their comps online. For this purpose we made a local table to house the data. When a ticket is sold with the applicable price type, etc, it decrements from the table. The number of tickets available on each account shows in the header, so staff can easily keep track of that. These benefits are more complicated - things like "X number of free films per day" and "X number of free special exhibits per exhibit." I think the complicated list of benefits plus the desire to redeem online is why we did this one with a custom table. It's not without its dangers, however; we've had a lot of issues with it over the years, mainly when there is a change in special exhibit or when there's a software upgrade. So, as with all customizations, really think it through before you go this route.

    Beth Varro
    Membership Director
    Science Museum of Minnesota


  • $organization in reply to Beth Varro

    Wow, some great suggestions, thank you all for chiming in. As often with Tessitura, there really are a lot of different ways to a useful solution. I'll do some more experimentation, as we need to find a way that's convenient enough to use, and also allows for some aggregate reporting.

    Eventually, we'll want to develop a self-service solutions that'll allow sponsors to get their tickets online, so there's something to keep in mind too. 

    Beth, even though the custom table solution has not been flawless, do you find it's been worth you trouble?

    Thanks

    Martin

  • $organization
    Hi Martin,

    My department isn't the one that really uses what that custom table does...but it must be worth the trouble to the departments that use it, or they would have removed it by now. :) It is very helpful for the ticketing staff to administer member benefits without having to guess about whether someone has already used their tickets. And of course the online redemption option is a big deal. I can't swear to this, but I suspect some of the challenges with this may be due to staff turnover and loss of institutional knowledge. Just think it through carefully and document how the process needs to be managed so that staff departures don't leave you in the lurch, and you'll probably be fine.

    Beth




    Elizabeth Varro
    Director of Membership
    (651) 265-9829

    They made a remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction and sang their way into our hearts. See Humpback Whales on the William L. McKnight-3M Omnitheater's giant screen—the best place in the world to witness their story. Watch a trailer and buy tickets today: www.smm.org/whales.


    From: "Martin Havn" <bounce-martinhavn4532@tessituranetwork.com>
    To: evarro@smm.org
    Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 3:31:47 AM
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Development Forum] Managing sponsors' complementary tickets

    Wow, some great suggestions, thank you all for chiming in. As often with Tessitura, there really are a lot of different ways to a useful solution. I'll do some more experimentation, as we need to find a way that's convenient enough to use, and also allows for some aggregate reporting.

    Eventually, we'll want to develop a self-service solutions that'll allow sponsors to get their tickets online, so there's something to keep in mind too. 

    Beth, even though the custom table solution has not been flawless, do you find it's been worth you trouble?

    Thanks

    Martin

    From: Beth Varro <bounce-elizabethvarro6946@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 2/23/2016 3:39:03 PM

    We have a couple ways that we manage complimentary tickets at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

    We manage staff comps through attributes; at the beginning of the fiscal year, we use the Update Attributes utility to load 20 comps in each staff record. When a staff member uses a comp, the cashier sells the ticket and then manually decrements the value on the attribute. Simple and effective - we've done this for the entire 8 years that we've been on the system.

    For some of our higher-level members, we wanted them to be able to redeem their comps online. For this purpose we made a local table to house the data. When a ticket is sold with the applicable price type, etc, it decrements from the table. The number of tickets available on each account shows in the header, so staff can easily keep track of that. These benefits are more complicated - things like "X number of free films per day" and "X number of free special exhibits per exhibit." I think the complicated list of benefits plus the desire to redeem online is why we did this one with a custom table. It's not without its dangers, however; we've had a lot of issues with it over the years, mainly when there is a change in special exhibit or when there's a software upgrade. So, as with all customizations, really think it through before you go this route.

    Beth Varro
    Membership Director
    Science Museum of Minnesota





    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!