Curious if anyone has had success with subscription payment plans that go beyond a short timeframe (ie before tickets are printed and mailed to subscribers) but rather allow purchasers to spread the payments over the whole season? Aside from the accounting implications, I'm curious about managing expirations, delinquency, and the timing of printing tickets.
We currently allow subscribers to pay in 3 installments, but require them to be all paid off before printing their tickets. We'd really like to make it more of a true monthly payment plan, like Netflix, but with the ability to hold folks accountable for the full amount (more like buying a sofa with a payment plan). Very curious to talk to anyone who has ventured into this realm.
Thanks in advance for any insights!
We allow patrons to pay off their subscriptions in 4 installments. We only mail 1/2 of their tickets to them, and then the other 1/2 after they are paid in full. This works well for us, because if someone is delinquent in payment we remind them that they will not receive the remainder of their tickets until they are paid in full. With only 4 payments, we do get most of the orders paid off about mid-season. This isn't a Netflix model, but maybe helpful?
Our monthly payment plan allows guests up to 12 payments (if they order early enough in the renewal season) and we mail tickets before they are paid off. Feel free to email me and I can give you a full rundown. Thanks!
Brooke
brookeb@dmpa.org
We allow 4 payments. 25% at the time of booking with the remainder spread across fixed dates that we choose I.e we don’t offer much flexibility but we do see an uptake from new subscribers using this service. We also charge a small fee for it ,$12. Credit card details for patrons using the service are stored on account.
There is a defined cut off period for the service it’s only available until a fixed point - the aim is to drive early conversion.
Having the payments due on set days and the service having a cut off date makes it easier to Administer and schedule the invoice billing utility in advance.
We pay the order off in full, using an invoice payment type and mail the tickets. We also offer this service online. One of my predecessors did a magic trick in sql.
Payment dates are set to make sure that we cover costs for what they would likely have seen by that point in time to mitigate potential losses if we have to write off the invoice.
We use wordfly email to remind patrons of payment dates, dynamic content pulls out the last 4 digits of the card used for the first 25% payment that is linked to the invoice to remind them to update the card we have on file if it’s changed and then we have an SMS follow up for late payments (outside of Tess). We try one more charge for the late payers at a time notified Via an SMS and then tag the account with a CSI for staff to follow up if they fail to pay again.
If the patron defaults the tickets are cancelled. We have Nscan at our venues so they can no longer be used.
We have about 1200 - 2000 patrons using this option depending on the season and about 100-200 late payers each payment date.
Only 2 patrons have defaulted so far. We launched this in 2015.
The admin charge goes someway to covering staffing costs for follow up etc but there is a lot of work involved - having set dates makes it easier to manage and plan for.
Overall we have seen an increase in new subscribers using the service and returning the following year.
Email me if you would like any info on set up etc.
Thanks - I'd love to learn more and will email you shortly!
This is so helpful! I will definitely reach out with some follow up questions. Thank you!
A lot of the process is similar to Louise's post.
We have a 50% now, 50% later (no fee and it is usually Oct 15, but it depends on programming and campaign timelines) and a 6 payment plan option on the 15th of every month ($14 payment plan fee applies). We ask that the credit card they provide has an expiration date that is past their final payment and all of our communication say there is a $10 decline fee that applies for each month that a payment does not go through. The 6 payment plan option is only offered until the end of July as I want to make sure all payments are done by December so none of the payments go into the next season's campaign and we avoid any overlap. I arbitrarily chose the 15th of the month. I try to run payments before anyone else is in the system and preferred to only go in super early once (I'm not a morning person). This also allows us to make sure that everyone knows when to expect payments and that the payments are always in separate billing cycles. I also considered that most personal monetary obligations (rent, mortgage) occur at the end of the month, so I hoped to make the payments easier that way. I remote in from home to do the payments on the 15th, but you can always define it as the 15th or the next business day.
All payment options are available in all our avenues for season ticket orders, in-person, mail/fax and online. Orders are paid in full via invoice type so we can mail the tickets. By the time we mail the first half of their tickets, half or most of their payments have been made. We have email reminders that go out on the 9th/10th of the month to remind them to expect a charge or to contact us if they need to change their payment information.
We mail the the 1/2 of their tickets, plus any bonus options and pre-paid parking vouchers. The remaining tickets gets sent out after their final payment has been made. Generally we'll have smaller mailings starting July (our subscription campaign starts around Feb) as some subscriptions pay off and a bigger mailing after the Oct 15 50/50 payments are run.
We used to have big percentage decline, but this has gone down since we instituted the decline fee. If we encounter payment issues (multiple declined, usually 3-4, and they don't return calls), we give them a deadline to contact us by otherwise we cancel their subscription and refund any payments paid as a refund check. Any printed tickets will be invalidated at this point. If this happens multiple seasons (2-3) for one person (we currently have 2 on our list), we let them know that due to historical payment issues we are not able to offer them payment plans. Within a day or two, we email anyone that has declined for that month and send out a post card telling them to contact us due to an issue/question with their order. And then we work through the list with calls.
I'd be happy to go over further info if you are interested.
This is so great - thanks!