Hello everyone,
As many organizations do, we offer vouchers for comp tickets to non-profits who request them, VIPs, marketing trades, etc. We used to print them from Tessitura in a GA house with a specified ticket design to encapsulate all the verbiage needed for redemption (which is done by selling a comp ticket, not by returning the voucher itself, as we don't know who the voucher will go to).
A couple years ago, I had a two week period wherein I had to design the voucher no less than eight times because people wanted specific availability (e.g. all except last weekend, all including last weekend, all but no Christmas Carol, Previews only, etc). I struggle with ticket design and was annoyed that I kept having to change the design and/or build new ones which might never be used again.
So I ordered some of the print-your-own business cards from Staples and Marketing whipped up a template to print on them. This allowed us to brand the vouchers, to put sponsor logos on them when needed, and to much more easily change the verbiage. It also allowed us to print a source code on them. This also reduced some confusion from the patrons, who thought that the vouchers, when printed on ticket stock, were actual tickets.
To my mind, a nearly perfect system.
However, in recent months, our Marketing Manager has said that she would prefer to have them printed on ticket stock.
I wanted to see if anyone else was doing this sort of thing and if you had found more flexibility with using the system than I had.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
Molly
Hello from just north of you in Carmel, Indiana!
We use the ticket stock method of vouchers exclusively here, redeeming them by returning them in Tessitura and pulling comp tickets in the same order (so the returned line item there also shows up as justification for why the ticket was pulled as a comp ticket should the question arise).
When you say that you had "to design the voucher no less than eight times...", do you mean creating a new ticket design for the voucher, or by creating a new voucher "performance" in Tessitura? I am assuming you meant new ticket designs (which definitely can be a hassle and a drag to do repeatedly)
We make do quite easily with maybe three or four voucher "ticket designs" total, though we do end up with with maybe 15 or 20 voucher "performances" by the end of each season. We do this by using the data elements of the ticket design allowing us to use the "Perf. Info" 1-4, the "Prod. Season Info" 1-4 as well as the "Order Notes" to allow flexibility of text on the vouchers, entering the relevant information for the specific vouchers in those places on the voucher "performances".
In terms of making sure that people know that they are not tickets we put in big font at the top of each voucher some variant of "This is Not a ticket - No Cash Value", usually also indicating "Call the Box Office to redeem" somewhere lower on the voucher.
As long as there is nothing too absurd in the request of each new voucher, there are up to 9 customizable fields (indicated above) that we can change with each new voucher, which is pretty much always enough so that we do not need to create new ticket designs.
John A. Moskal II
It sounds like we do the inverse. Instead of having a limited number of designs and building additional performances, we have a limited number of performances and had to keep changing the ticket design for the voucher (e.g. any Preview Perf in the season, any perf in Show A, any perf in Show A but not the last weekend, any perf in the first two weeks of Show A or any other perf throughout the season, etc.) This way we didn't have a bunch of 'dummy' performances.
I like the idea of returning the voucher and booking the comp in the same order. However, it frequently happens that we'll do a trade or the like and hand out 50 vouchers for 2 comps each. So we have no idea who will redeem them. We use source codes so we can see the redemption rate.
Marketing is okay with using the business card-sized vouchers but wanted to explore other options, specifically those that might use ticket stock. We too would always plaster the "This is not a ticket!" qualifier and the information on how to redeem on each voucher, but patrons would either misunderstand/ignore or book the ticket properly but then never pick it up and become frustrated and confused when they tried to attend the show.
Thanks for your input, neighbor-ino!
m
We have a different process here. When a donation is requested, a file is created for the requestor and we create a CSI on that file, using the CSI number as the 'voucher number'. We have a specific donation form created and the CSI number is manually inserted on the voucher. This is then mailed to the requestor. The CSI uses the following information:
Category: Charity Tickets
Activity Type: Charity Ticket Request
Origin: 4 options - Charity Ticket Decline (the CSI is then actioned & closed)
Charity Ticket Paper (the CSI is then actioned & closed and physical tickets are sent to the requestor for a soft selling date)
Charity Ticket Voucher (the CSI is left opened)
Charity Ticket Merchandise (the CSI is actioned with a description of what was sent and then is closed)
The person who receives the voucher at the event calls the box office and gives us the CSI number. The call rep searches for the number and confirms it has not already been redeemed and then closes the CSI. They then affiliate the individual with the charity and process the comp tickets on the individual's file using a special free price type of Charity Ticket. We periodically apply a Charity Ticket keyword on individual performances that are soft selling for the patron to choose from. We now have ways to report on the number of vouchers we're giving out each season and the number being redeemed. We only allow the vouchers to be used for the current season and all open CSI's are closed at the end of the season, effectively expiring those vouchers.
Michele
Our setup is similar to John's with a few twists
We have a few voucher performances that are set up to cover the most requested vouchers. We also have one that pulls info from the order notes field (includes all of the same disclaimer language as the other vouchers, but copies the order notes field into where we state what the voucher is good for)
We also use bar codes on our vouchers so we can record redemption rates via Nscan (we do not release the vouchers. Just pull concert tickets and scan the barcode on the voucher later).
Hi Michele, I hope you don't mind my bringing this back up four years later! I just started a new job and was tasked with moving our voucher system to Tessitura.
I really, really love how you went about this. Are you still using this method? Have there been any changes in the past few years? If I remember from my last trip to Stratford you use N-Scan to track attendance so you can also report on the actually attendance that resulted from the vouchers. Do you have any recommendations for an organization that does not use N-Scan as far as tracking attendance just for vouchers?
Hope you're well!