Nader Abbassi conducts the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in Bizet's Carmen in concert.
At my new employer, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, we’ve managed paper tickets with Excel spreadsheets, an outsourced box office and hard labor. We have no customer database with a ticket purchase history. And we have no ticketing software or hardware. A clean slate!
I’m well acquainted with Tessitura; we don’t need that wonderful yet complex solution. I’ve read Laura Quinn’s excellent blogpost for Idealware on the subject. And Technology in the Arts has made a survey available on arts organization satisfaction with ticket systems.
What do you recommend? What has been your experience, good or bad? Leave a comment below, please.
Responses from Roger Tomlinson–and this is an excellent resource that I’m using:
- Tweet from @BrandinYourHand: Answers on http://bit.ly/dYyzzb
- Tweet from @TicketingInst: Send people to www.TheTicketingInstitute.com. It is a free resource with the answers
We’ve just purchased this:
http://www.easy-ware.com/
We are in the process of installing it now, but from what I’ve seen of it so far it is pretty capable software for a heck of a lot less than Tessitura.
Stages Theater in Houston has been using it for a few years and I think they’ve been pleased.
Hi Bruce,
Seatadvisor provide a really comprehensive ticketing solution with an integrated CRM and digital marketing module to enable better customer engagement and audience development.
Check us out at http://rhcentre.ca/
Hi! I’ve been reading up on all this attractive ticketing software. I’m wondering if it makes sense for our orchestra: we have about 160 subscribers (many in the same family/group, so about 90 unique subscribers), we’re targeting 300. We have 5 Gala Concerts a year in 600-seater auditorium. And about 20 patrons who make additional donations..
Would you say these kind of numbers warrant an integrated ticketing system? Currently we do things piece-meal on Excel and Word. Most audience members pick up tickets at the venue front desk.
Thanks, and great site.
Thank you for your comment–and thank you for the compliment.
I absolutely think it makes sense, and not only as a labor-saving means. Integrating a customer database with transaction data is essential to marketing performing arts. Congratulations for your achievements to date with only Word and Excel.
Roger Tomlinson’s site, ticketinginstitute.com, is a terrific resource.
We’re looking at PatronManager, at patronmanager.com, for our needs at the Qatar Philharmonic. I’m impressed by its capabilities–and the cost is all per-ticket. That could be recaptured through a handling fee.