I am hoping that someone in the Tessitura community will be able to assist us with some expert advice on a complicated TNEW build involving super packages across multiple venues with a mix of fixed and flex packages.
We have a fixed seat subscription package that normally consists of 3 productions in the same venue. For 2015 the package includes 2 productions in the same venue as previous years (State Theatre) and a third production in a different (smaller) venue (Playhouse). The season for the Playhouse is longer to allow for the reduced capacity.
Customers will be able to renew their seats for the State Theatre however will have a choice of dates for the Playhouse (these have not been included as a renewable seat in previous years).
We are comfortable setting this up using Super packages for new sales, and plan to have a separate super package for each combination of dates. eg
1) State Wk1 + Playhouse Wk1
2) State Wk1 + Playhouse Wk2
3) State Wk1 + Playhouse WK3 etc
It does however present us with some challenges for the renewals.
We are looking to roll over the State theatre packages into an incomplete Super package with the view to adding the rest of the sub packages as renewals are processed.
We have processed a test roll over and TNEW does not recognise the missing unseated line item when you go to process the renewal online – You are only able to see the State theatre performances.
It is possible for TNEW to recognise the third production once it is added to the order however we have rolled the packages over in the Web-Subscriptions MOS and as this MOS does not allow unpaid orders, it is not possible for the Ticketing team to add the missing sub package and re-reserve the order.
By allowing unpaid orders temporarily for the Web – Subscriptions MOS it is possible to seat all of the Playhouse performances and for these to then be recognised in the renewal on TNEW. As we will not be using this MOS for any other purpose at the time any risk is minimised however it would be a very manual and time consuming process.
Is there another way?
The beauty of our proposed setup is that the sub packages for the Playhouse performances will be sold as a fixed seat subscription so if a similar situation arises in future years we will be better set up to accommodate it…. unfortunately this doesn’t help us this year!
Any advice or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Mardi
Planning Manager, IT Services
Arts Centre Melbourne
I am very interested in this topic, too. We are not using TNEW but are going through pretty much the exact same scenario for our renewals next season. I am hoping someone has some wisdom to share!
Hi Tracey.
We have handled this situation in the past without allowing customers to purchase online and I would be more than happy to share our experiences with you if this be of any help. Our challenge this year is specifically related to TNEW which we have recently implemented to handle our subscription sales only.
We have used a couple of different approaches across a number of years to address the various different scenarios that have been presented.
Let me know if you would like me to send you the details.
Mardi.
mardi.osborn@artscentremelbourne.com.au
Hi Mardi,
What you have suggested would work - staff manually seating the Playhouse orders while the Subs MOS temporarily allows unpaid orders then switching it back.
I have manually created orders for renewal on TNEW before. Check these fields in T_ORDER for the orders in question:
cno_req_in should be 'Y'
accepting_rollovers should be 'Y'
One other way you could approach it is create one dummy performance for the Playhouse with GA seating and ask patrons to nominate their preferred performance in the free text field on the subs purchase path or in order notes at checkout. Then staff swap the dummy performance for the one that has been requested when an order is received (recored as a CSI from subs request form). Order notes might be a good idea because a) it is tied to the order and b) what is input by the customer can be output on the confirmation without making any change to your template.
Cheers,
Kevin
Thanks! We have done it last season but did not offer renewals online. This year, like you, we want the ability to offer online renewals but our purchase path for renewals doesn't allow any changes - they renew as is. This is a little tricky as we have to "guess" which show to roll over into (like you, our 2nd venue is much smaller and has many more dates to choose from) but would like the ability to allow them to then change into a different show if required.
Thanks for the reply Kevin.
Glad to hear that my thinking is on track with what you have done in the past.
We did think about creating a dummy performance as a possible solution. With this approach though we would still need to manually add this performance to the package through the client in order for it to be visible on TNEW and then manually exchange into the 'real' performance once the order has been processed online as well.
We are hoping to minimise the amount of duplicated manual work that the Ticketing team will need to do. So our thinking at the moment is to pre-select a performance for the customer based on their purchase patterns from previous seasons when the Playhouse has been used, roll them over in to the super package that matches, seat the incomplete line item through the client and then allow the customer to nominate an alternative by indicating a change request through the TNEW renewal process.
This way we might at least have some customers for which no change is required.
It sounds as though this might have to be the approach we take.
Thanks again,Mardi.