Does your org ask for email addresses from walk-up ticket purchasers at the front gate or box office?
Do you ask "how did you hear about us?" or "what prompted your visit today?" (or similar) and use source codes to track general marketing efforts? (not asking about direct marketing efforts with discounts or promo codes, but rather general brand advertising or press for guests buying at full price?)
If your org does either of these--or have tried in the past, but didn't find it successful--we'd love to hear your advice! Tips for collecting useful data without annoying the customer too much or slowing down the transaction time too much.
thanks!
Tiffany Zarem
Marketing Director
California Academy of Sciences
We do not ask for email addresses from walk-up ticket purchases at this time, as we're concerned about the burden it may create for our box office during busy times (and for the likely unfavorable response from visitors). However, it is something we're still considering doing, for the purpose of building our database and expanding our email marketing reach. I'd be interested to know if any other org is doing this, and how guests have reacted.
We do use source codes to get a sense of where people hear about us. We have a guide printed out with all the outside source codes as a sort of "cheat sheet" for box office users, so they can simply type the code at checkout. It's useful data, and doesn't slow down the box office.
Mike Dorsey
CRM Specialist
National WWI Museum and Memorial
Thanks Mike. Would you be willing to share that "cheat sheet" with me, so I can get a sense of the level of detail? Also, how is your staff asking guests the question? Is it "how did you hear about us?" or something else? I'm at tzarem@calacademy.org if you'd like to reply directly.
Re: asking for email addresses, while we're not on Tessitura yet (launching in May--yay!), we are currently asking all ticket purchasers at the front gate if they'd like to join our email list. We started doing this about 6 months ago (replacing our former practice of asking for zip code, because we decided the email addresses were more valuable to us), and I need to double-check the latest data, but I believe that about 1 in every 10 customers agrees to provide their address---which has added up to a very significant amount of new addresses for us. I haven't heard of any significant customer pushback--if guests don't want to give their email, I think most just say "no thank you." But it has required some training with our front gate staff so they don't feel demoralized if they hear "no" 9 out of 10 times. We have used prizes/incentives for those who capture the most email addresses, and trained staff to consider 10% "yes" a big success, by sharing with them the revenue value for the organization for every email address in our system, and reminding our staff that capturing guest email addresses allows us to engage them in our mission for longer than one visit. It's an ongoing effort that we're still figuring out and trying to optimize. Right now, the email addresses we capture are not tied to the transaction, and we're not creating constituent records. But when we move to Tessitura, we hope to create constituent records for those who agree to provide their email. Still working out the details.
I just sent you an email. Best of luck on your impending launch! We went live in May last year. If there's anything else I can help with, feel free to reach out!
Thanks Mike!