Hi all,
I'd like to get an idea of how other organizations use Modes of Sale, and if they have as many as we do! I just counted 40 MOS, which include default ones such as Web and Web Subscription (we're on TNEW), and the handful of MOS that are used by Patron Services reps when processing purchases in Tessitura (such as Phone, Counter and Subscription purchases). There are others that we use for specific purposes such as student concert, groups and rush sales. Then there are about 13 different MOS that we rotate for various special offers, such as special pricing, pricing rules, advance sales, sales through allocations, and the list goes on... As organizational needs change, and other departments are looking to utilize TNEW for various purposes, I'm finding that I usually have to build a new MOS to facilitate those needs, rather than re-purpose an existing one. We're also starting to introduce more Subscription offers, which will require yet more MOS.
Is anyone willing to share how they utilize their modes of sales, and how they keep them all organized? And do you feel like you have too many, or not enough?
Anastassia,
I am curious as to what types of offers, promos and special pricing you are doing that requires so many Web MOSes.
We used to have a custom website which was unable to use the Offers functionality, so we have a total of 65 MOSes, 44 of which were specific to Web Sales, and believe me, we hated it. Every new discount or promo required the use of a different MOS so that they did not overlap, and it was mightily irritating.
However, since we switched over to TNEW, we have basically just used the primary Web MOS as our default as well as for the majority of all discounts, pricing rules and promos. Only when we need special seat allocations or pre-sales do we dip into the 6 or 7 remaining Web MOS variants that we have set aside for those purposes. We have just straight inactivated the remaining 30+ Web MOSes and have not had to reactivate even one for a new discount/promo/etc...
So to directly answer your last questions, I think we now have them organized well, but we DEFINITELY had too many because of our previous website.
John
Thanks, John! The 13 or so MOS that we rotate for special offers/promos are to basically restrict which concerts are visible once the promo code is entered, and which concerts can be added on at Regular price. Some offers require allocations, which means we need to use a different MOS. Many of our MOS have several offers, depending on which concerts they're valid for, or if they have any special service/order charges. Other MOS are built for very specific reasons - such as a special mode of delivery, or a PAH template, or when only one or two concerts should be available in it at a time (ie. Rush).
Well, as Chris says below, sometimes you need more and sometimes less. There is never going to a be right number for all organizations. We are actually a consortium, but one where ALL ticket sales for all 6 of our resident companies (and our own events) go through OUR website and Box Office, which is hard in a lot of ways, but easy in others.
It is interesting that you have promos where you want to limit the number of performances available for sale, because we pretty much can never do that. We will use promos/offers for sure to give discounts to specific performances, but part of the goal, in order to include our resident companies, was to make sure that anyone who wants to purchase anything to any other event at full price still can do so regardless of what promo code they are using, because A) you cannot count on a patron to "reset" the promo code, and B) even if you could, an MOS flip would prohibit the sale of performances which are not in that MOS. As such we cannot use too many MOS shifts without adding all those MOSes to our resident company performances at the same time otherwise their performances disappear as options to purchase from the website, which gets really complicated really fast in terms of available price types and fees. Thus the majority of our offers and promos have to be constructed carefully around what we can do and trying not to make our Box Office staff have to do hours and hours of work for what is otherwise a pretty small promo.
One of the benefits for us is that all patrons on campus go through the same Box Office which streamlines their ticket buying experience as well as making sure everyone has equal treatment and makes identifying issues easier. However, that does not help you. Also, regarding PAH ticket design, we are lucky enough to be able to have a standard ticket design which works for 95% of all tickets we sell and so is basically a non-issue. Mind you, it is a crazy-packed ticket design with a number of custom elements in order to accomplish everything, but it was easier to have all that stuff set and done than to have to worry about 10+ different ticket designs on a regular basis.
If I were you (and I had some time), and maybe you have done this already, I would put together a list of all the promos you have done in the 6 months, or year, whatever makes sense. Then categorize them into which ones can be done with just an Offer or Pricing rule alone in your regular Web MOS and which ones need and MOS flip for availability, which ones need a flip for allocations and which ones need a flip for ticket design issues (or if there could possibly be a way to consolidate ticket designs?). That might help you list out the number of total MOSes you need concurrently.
You may have a good number now, or you may need more. Ultimately I feel like I have not been extremely helpful here, so best of luck!