Hello all!
I'm hoping that someone out there has used Tessie to help break down barriers to group sales.I get continual feedback from group leaders about the percieved difficulty of paying for a group (no one person wants to take on responsibility). Has anyone found a way to "reserve" seats for a group, then allow the individuals to access and pay for their ticket(s)? (Like making a reservation at a restaurant, then showing up at different times and paying for one's own bill.)
Pros: could increase sales by increasing ease-of-use. eliminates one person's total responsibility for group
Cons: if individuals don't pay by a particular date, group size could diminish and the discount could change
Anyone have thoughts?
Along the same lines, is anybody processing group orders online? I'd like to learn more about this.
I have been working with Group reservations online quite successfully but recently encountered a glitch that I need some help with. I provided the group discount online for 50+ people but less than 50 ended up taking advantage of the offer. Because the discounted price type was set up with the promo code on the back end the group ended up getting a much steeper discount than they were truly eligible for. Does anyone have a contract in place or recommendations on how to avoid this?
Megan JohnstonDirector of Group Services McCarter Theatre609-258-6526
Hi Megan and everyone,
I'm just stumbling onto this discussion as well. In reference to your online ordering problem, unfortunately, I don't know what to tell you. I actually changed our group policies a couple of years ago to allow for greater discounts when people pay early, that way the size of the group doesn't matter and I don't have to worry about their group being too small for the discount they're blocked in at.
Otherwise, when group members want to pay separately, I have very lo-tech ways of dealing with that, just because we're still working off of a VERY basic API. We had our web developer create a secure web server for us, and a template page-building tool that I can use to create customized payment pages. If I have a group that wants to pay online, I create a landing page with a unique URL for them and have them place their reservations that way. On the back end, this information is not automatically entered into Tess. I have to go retrieve the order and then enter it manually. I'll have a block of seats on hold for the group and siphen them off to individual accounts that I also associate with the group, when I get orders. I do the same thing when people are turning in individual order forms or calling me on their own to pay for their tickets.
It's not the perfect way of doing things, but given my medium-size volume, it works.
-Annette Grieshaber
Group Sales Manager
San Diego Symphony
(619) 236-5403
Hi all:
We just launched a new Group Sales website at the Yale Rep that allows customers to create an online group and invite friends to join. All group members have access to discount tickets.
When a customer creates an online group, we have created some custom coding to generate a promo code for the group. When the group leader invites friends to join the group, the friends log in with the promo code (we provide a group-specific link that auto-populates the promo code so the users don't have to type it in). Each group member is responsible for purchasing his or her own tickets. We are using Add This to provide easy links for the group leader to share the group using Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.
There are a few limitations:
1. We are seating the orders as they come in, so the group isn't necessarily seated together.
2. We are providing a group discount based on the promo code. We have a custom report that allows the ticketing staff to monitor the group activity so that if they don't meet their group minimum, we can contact them to upsell to the regular single ticket price.
Although the site is up and running, we really haven't announced it to the public yet, so it's not getting enough traffic for me to have any solid customer feedback. But we our marketing team is happy with it.
Hi all: We just launched a new Group Sales website at the Yale Rep that allows customers to create an online group and invite friends to join. All group members have access to discount tickets. When a customer creates an online group, we have created some custom coding to generate a promo code for the group. When the group leader invites friends to join the group, the friends log in with the promo code (we provide a group-specific link that auto-populates the promo code so the users don't have to type it in). Each group member is responsible for purchasing his or her own tickets. We are using Add This to provide easy links for the group leader to share the group using Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. There are a few limitations: 1. We are seating the orders as they come in, so the group isn't necessarily seated together. 2. We are providing a group discount based on the promo code. We have a custom report that allows the ticketing staff to monitor the group activity so that if they don't meet their group minimum, we can contact them to upsell to the regular single ticket price. Although the site is up and running, we really haven't announced it to the public yet, so it's not getting enough traffic for me to have any solid customer feedback. But we our marketing team is happy with it. From: Annette Grieshaber <bounce-annettegrieshaber6901@tessituranetwork.com>Sent: 2/3/2010 4:09:43 PM Hi Megan and everyone, I'm just stumbling onto this discussion as well. In reference to your online ordering problem, unfortunately, I don't know what to tell you. I actually changed our group policies a couple of years ago to allow for greater discounts when people pay early, that way the size of the group doesn't matter and I don't have to worry about their group being too small for the discount they're blocked in at. Otherwise, when group members want to pay separately, I have very lo-tech ways of dealing with that, just because we're still working off of a VERY basic API. We had our web developer create a secure web server for us, and a template page-building tool that I can use to create customized payment pages. If I have a group that wants to pay online, I create a landing page with a unique URL for them and have them place their reservations that way. On the back end, this information is not automatically entered into Tess. I have to go retrieve the order and then enter it manually. I'll have a block of seats on hold for the group and siphen them off to individual accounts that I also associate with the group, when I get orders. I do the same thing when people are turning in individual order forms or calling me on their own to pay for their tickets. It's not the perfect way of doing things, but given my medium-size volume, it works. -Annette Grieshaber Group Sales Manager San Diego Symphony (619) 236-5403This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Marketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Marketing 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!
From: Annette Grieshaber <bounce-annettegrieshaber6901@tessituranetwork.com>Sent: 2/3/2010 4:09:43 PM
Hi Mara,
You say in your post "if they don't meet their group minimum, we can contact them to upsell to the regular single ticket price." Can you please elaborate on how you do this? Do you make the group leader responsible for the $ difference between the discounted price and the full price because the group didn't meet the minimum to qualify for the group discount? Do they actually pay?
Do you ever require that the group leader pay for the remaining tickets in order to reach the minimum required regardless if anyone will use them (if that ends up being less than the upsell amount)? Or hold the group leader's credit card number as a guarantee if the group doesn't meet the minimum?
We're trying to figure out what (if any) insurance or penalty we can impose if we we grant a group discount via a shared source code and then the group doesn't come through with the numbers.
If anyone else has any experience with this to share, please chime in! Thanks.
Lilaia KairisNew 42nd Street/New Victory Theaterlkairis@new42.org 646-223-3009
Hello Annette, I know this post is from 12 years ago, so I'm not expecting a reply... but if you do happen to see this... I am curious how discounting by order date vs group size has worked for the San Diego Symphony? Did it incentivize folks to book earlier? Did you find that you were hitting "traditional group" minimums since there was a deadline to get the best discount? Thanks!
Katina White