Living Social or Groupons?

We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

Thanks,

Janna Ellis

  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara



    [edited by: Kara Whittington at 1:21 PM (GMT -6) on 29 Mar 2011]
  • Hi,
     
    We've done a couple of Groupon offers (the most recent for 800 tickets over 2 shows), and have used an "Invoice" payment method to complete the orders.  Once the check comes in from Groupon, I use that to pay off the invoices.
     
    Also, I got tired of explaining that "the price on your ticket is what we actually receive from Groupon", so this time around I created a new ticket design with no price on it.  It was lovely.  : )
     
    Lesley
     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Kara Whittington
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:25 PM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara

    From: Janna Ellis <bounce-jannaellis6942@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 10/12/2010 11:39:34 AM

    We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

    Thanks,

    Janna Ellis




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!
  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization
    Hi,
    We are just getting started with Groupon so thanks for all of your great feedback.  I was planning to do a custom design too so appreciate the reinforcement.
    Jeri

    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Lesley Chaney
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 4:51 PM
    To: Jeri Henderson
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi,
     
    We've done a couple of Groupon offers (the most recent for 800 tickets over 2 shows), and have used an "Invoice" payment method to complete the orders.  Once the check comes in from Groupon, I use that to pay off the invoices.
     
    Also, I got tired of explaining that "the price on your ticket is what we actually receive from Groupon", so this time around I created a new ticket design with no price on it.  It was lovely.  : )
     
    Lesley
     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Kara Whittington
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:25 PM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara

    From: Janna Ellis <bounce-jannaellis6942@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 10/12/2010 11:39:34 AM

    We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

    Thanks,

    Janna Ellis




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!


    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!
  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization in reply to Lesley Chaney

    Do you put Groupon purchases into one account or are individual accounts created?  My initial thought was to create accounts for each purchaser to track long-term success for the organization.  But that creates more processing time if invoice is used for payment.

    Thanks again for your feedback.

    Jeri

  • Hi Jeri,

     

    We sell the Groupon orders onto individual accounts and we also use a specific A/R payment method that we have created to complete the orders. We have a ‘Groupon’ payment method, as well as a ‘Living Social’ payment method.

     

    I would have to recommend Travelzoo.com as another good option. The best part of Travelzoo is that they redirect patrons from their website to your website so they can access the offer using a promo code that you’ve set up just like any other offer you would be doing yourselves. Then the patron’s information and money comes directly to you and into your database since they are purchasing through your website instead of a third party. They prefer to have the lowest discount available at the time the offer goes out, so we usually do a Travelzoo offer first, and then follow up with Living Social and/or Groupon depending on where we are with sales.

     

    Maryke VanBeuzekom

     

     

    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jeri Henderson
    Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 6:52 AM
    To: Maryke VanBeuzekom
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

     

    Do you put Groupon purchases into one account or are individual accounts created?  My initial thought was to create accounts for each purchaser to track long-term success for the organization.  But that creates more processing time if invoice is used for payment.

    Thanks again for your feedback.

    Jeri

    From: Lesley Chaney <bounce-lesleychaney1063@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 11/3/2010 3:47:53 PM

    Hi,

     

    We've done a couple of Groupon offers (the most recent for 800 tickets over 2 shows), and have used an "Invoice" payment method to complete the orders.  Once the check comes in from Groupon, I use that to pay off the invoices.

     

    Also, I got tired of explaining that "the price on your ticket is what we actually receive from Groupon", so this time around I created a new ticket design with no price on it.  It was lovely.  : )

     

    Lesley

     

     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Kara Whittington
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:25 PM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara

    From: Janna Ellis <bounce-jannaellis6942@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 10/12/2010 11:39:34 AM

    We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

    Thanks,

    Janna Ellis




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!

  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization
    Hi Maryke,
    Thanks for this great information which is really appreciated and timely too!
    Jeri

    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Maryke Van Beuzekom
    Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 6:45 PM
    To: Jeri Henderson
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Jeri,

     

    We sell the Groupon orders onto individual accounts and we also use a specific A/R payment method that we have created to complete the orders. We have a ‘Groupon’ payment method, as well as a ‘Living Social’ payment method.

     

    I would have to recommend Travelzoo.com as another good option. The best part of Travelzoo is that they redirect patrons from their website to your website so they can access the offer using a promo code that you’ve set up just like any other offer you would be doing yourselves. Then the patron’s information and money comes directly to you and into your database since they are purchasing through your website instead of a third party. They prefer to have the lowest discount available at the time the offer goes out, so we usually do a Travelzoo offer first, and then follow up with Living Social and/or Groupon depending on where we are with sales.

     

    Maryke VanBeuzekom

     

     

    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jeri Henderson
    Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 6:52 AM
    To: Maryke VanBeuzekom
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

     

    Do you put Groupon purchases into one account or are individual accounts created?  My initial thought was to create accounts for each purchaser to track long-term success for the organization.  But that creates more processing time if invoice is used for payment.

    Thanks again for your feedback.

    Jeri

    From: Lesley Chaney <bounce-lesleychaney1063@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 11/3/2010 3:47:53 PM

    Hi,

     

    We've done a couple of Groupon offers (the most recent for 800 tickets over 2 shows), and have used an "Invoice" payment method to complete the orders.  Once the check comes in from Groupon, I use that to pay off the invoices.

     

    Also, I got tired of explaining that "the price on your ticket is what we actually receive from Groupon", so this time around I created a new ticket design with no price on it.  It was lovely.  : )

     

    Lesley

     

     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Kara Whittington
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:25 PM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara

    From: Janna Ellis <bounce-jannaellis6942@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 10/12/2010 11:39:34 AM

    We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

    Thanks,

    Janna Ellis




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!
  • Sorry for the delay.  "We" chose to process orders the hard way by creating an account with the patron's name (and street address of Groupon) for each order because we felt that the possibility of getting real address/phone/email info from these patrons was worth the time it takes to create individual orders and then pay off each individual order. 
     
    And you are correct - it takes A LOT more time than processing the entire order in a Groupon account and then paying off the one order when you receive the payment from Groupon.
     
    Good luck!
     
    Lesley
     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jeri Henderson
    Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 8:52 AM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Do you put Groupon purchases into one account or are individual accounts created?  My initial thought was to create accounts for each purchaser to track long-term success for the organization.  But that creates more processing time if invoice is used for payment.

    Thanks again for your feedback.

    Jeri

    From: Lesley Chaney <bounce-lesleychaney1063@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 11/3/2010 3:47:53 PM

    Hi,
     
    We've done a couple of Groupon offers (the most recent for 800 tickets over 2 shows), and have used an "Invoice" payment method to complete the orders.  Once the check comes in from Groupon, I use that to pay off the invoices.
     
    Also, I got tired of explaining that "the price on your ticket is what we actually receive from Groupon", so this time around I created a new ticket design with no price on it.  It was lovely.  : )
     
    Lesley
     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Kara Whittington
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:25 PM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara

    From: Janna Ellis <bounce-jannaellis6942@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 10/12/2010 11:39:34 AM

    We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

    Thanks,

    Janna Ellis




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!



    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!
  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization
    Hi Lesley, no need to apologize since feedback is ALWAYS appreciated.  Many thanks for sharing your experience.

    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Lesley Chaney
    Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 3:51 PM
    To: Jeri Henderson
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Sorry for the delay.  "We" chose to process orders the hard way by creating an account with the patron's name (and street address of Groupon) for each order because we felt that the possibility of getting real address/phone/email info from these patrons was worth the time it takes to create individual orders and then pay off each individual order. 
     
    And you are correct - it takes A LOT more time than processing the entire order in a Groupon account and then paying off the one order when you receive the payment from Groupon.
     
    Good luck!
     
    Lesley
     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Jeri Henderson
    Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 8:52 AM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: RE: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Do you put Groupon purchases into one account or are individual accounts created?  My initial thought was to create accounts for each purchaser to track long-term success for the organization.  But that creates more processing time if invoice is used for payment.

    Thanks again for your feedback.

    Jeri

    From: Lesley Chaney <bounce-lesleychaney1063@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 11/3/2010 3:47:53 PM

    Hi,
     
    We've done a couple of Groupon offers (the most recent for 800 tickets over 2 shows), and have used an "Invoice" payment method to complete the orders.  Once the check comes in from Groupon, I use that to pay off the invoices.
     
    Also, I got tired of explaining that "the price on your ticket is what we actually receive from Groupon", so this time around I created a new ticket design with no price on it.  It was lovely.  : )
     
    Lesley
     


    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Kara Whittington
    Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 1:25 PM
    To: Lesley Chaney
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Living Social or Groupons?

    Hi Janna,

    We've used Living Social and booked the tickets on account. It is a bit complicated, and we found (after working with Groupon in particular) that we needed to be very explicit with communication of the offer- particularly in that the price price printed on the ticket will vary from that of the consumer's payment.

    Kara

    From: Janna Ellis <bounce-jannaellis6942@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 10/12/2010 11:39:34 AM

    We are looking into working with Living Social in our area.  My understanding is that it is alot like Groupons.  My questions is how are you booking the tickets when you get the money so much later.  Are you using a payment method that you reconcile later?  If so, how does that work with your business office when you are closing the books on a show but you may or may not have the money yet?

    Thanks,

    Janna Ellis




    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!



    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!


    This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Ticketing Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Ticketing 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!
  • Former Member
    Former Member $organization in reply to Former Member

    Jeri- we did it as one account. For anyone that redeemed the voucher, we included a "join our discount ticket buyers club" which we call "eclub" so that we could capture their information for future solicitations through our own discount channel.


    Kara

  • Hi Lesley.  I am really late to the game here and I apologize for my ignorance of the inner workings of Groupon.  We have only had a few offers with them now, the last being a flex package and I'm trying to figure out the end game.  Does Groupon give you a list of the patrons who purchase your offers with them?  In turn you then create accounts with their names and Groupon's address until they call in and give you their address?

    Thank you for any help!

    Heather

     

     



    [edited by: Heather Fails at 12:02 PM (GMT -6) on 26 Apr 2011]