Hi everyone,
We are in the situation where we had to go onsale with 4 digital events before knowing which platform the events would be streaming on. Since we didn't have specific access instructions at the time of sale, in the order confirmation emails we said that they would get an email before the premiere date with instructions on how to access content.
For those of you who have done this already, and are using the gated content feature, how did you communicate access instructions to your patrons? Did you put the link to the TNEW gated content page in the order confirmation email?
My concern is that if we use the gated content feature, I will have to pull a list of those patrons who have already purchased to send access instructions to, but I do not have a way to pull the specific e-mails associated with the orders, and in the case of households, I think it would be confusing to send an email to the household, but tell them to use the web login they used to make the purchase to access their tickets. Will all primary members of the household have access to the content, or only the initiator?
Any ideas or experience you've had that can help give me some ideas?
Many thanks in advance.
Charlotte
Owner and initiator have access to gated digital content, so you're good there. Whatever the scenario, you will get a lot of access issues, so have staff ready to take calls and emails and help people get in, much like you would have with a new access protocol for live performances. We have built some FAQ pages for helping patrons understand how to get their content, and we have set up pre-event videos on our digital content pages in advance of our premiere in order to give patrons a chance to try out accessing the page and playing the media so that they can work out as many issues as possible before the actual event.
We send out specific access instructions to customers shortly before the event premiere, we may also do rolling emails for new signups afterward (we have a premiere and then video-on-demand for a period afterward), not sure. We were definitely in the same boat of selling shows before our delivery method had been finalized, so initial confirmation emails did not have event access information, though they do now.
Thanks Gawain! Very helpful tips regarding having staff ready to provide guidance for patrons to get acccess. Ours will be a video-on-demand situation, so staffing customer service for that 24-7 is a little problematic. But I like the idea of an FAQ page. Will recommend that to the team.
The issue I am struggling with is for those patrons who are members of a household who purchased before we could include the access details in the confirmation email, I have to pull a list of purchasers to send the access instructions to, but there is no way to pull the list (because the order is at the household level) and output the email address of the individual member of the household who made the purchase (ie the initiator) and whose email is associated with the order. If I pull a list of customers that have the event, I can't output the email of the initiator specifically. Or maybe I missing something.
Charlotte Hussey said:Thanks Gawain! Very helpful tips regarding having staff ready to provide guidance for patrons to get acccess. Ours will be a video-on-demand situation, so staffing customer service for that 24-7 is a little problematic. But I like the idea of an FAQ page. Will recommend that to the team.
I would just be prepared to get a lot of emails, but also you will make the content available at a certain date, and will mail out information about accessing the content at certain times, and having staff available for those moments will help.