Does anyone offer single ticket buyers a complimentary (or low cost) seat upgrade to single events? For example: If a patron purchased a seat in one of the upper levels, as the concert approached, would you allow them to upgrade to a lower (more expensive) seat at little to no cost? I've heard of some organizations doing this as a way to have patrons "try out" the better seats, in hopes that they will then purchase the more expensive seats for future events.
For those that do this, how did you set it up in Tessitura?
Hi Melissa -
This is the first year of our pilot program to offer this to members of our Club 20/30 program which is a program for theater-goers in their 20s and 30s.
We do this day of show, if availability allows. A report is automatically generated and emailed to our patron service office daily of Club 20/30 members who are coming to the show. The patron services manager then will look at the list and at the inventory and see if there are any seats that could use an upgrade.
If there are seats that could use a bump, they will pull those new seats, put in an NScan CSI for the ushers to know to direct the patron to the box office for an upgrade. If there's time, they also try to have our patron service reps call the people to let them know of the upgrade. I wouldn't want to try this without some sort of access control to catch patrons at the door because we don't always reach the patron.
We've been fairly conservative this year in doing this, and have often kept the people's original seats on hold in case there is an issue - with SYOS people are selecting their seats specifically and we don't always know why. We don't move people off an aisle for example, and we've only run into one instance where the people have not wanted the upgrade due to picking the seats to be seated next to friends.
It's a little labor intensive and we've only been doing this for a few shows so far - but the response has been positive. Whether it builds the loyalty and return visits that we are hoping for, we'll have to see!
- Heather