"Your patron's event experience does not start when they walk in the front gate of your event. Their event experience starts the moment they use their hard-earned money to buy a ticket to your event. In some cases, months before your event begins."
For almost twenty years, I've been on a quest to find a truly excellent event ticketing company. The adventure has left me with a litany of lessons learned and chronic disappointment.
There was even a time when I thought all I had to do was form my own ticketing company. That didn't work out well, but I did learn a lot.
Here's one of the biggest lessons learned about selecting a superior event ticketing company. It applies to every event organizer on planet Earth.
Ironically, my strong recommendation has nothing to do with technological bells and whistles. It even ignores seemingly essential items like how much you pay in ticket fees.
(As an aside: Ticketmaster is the largest ticketing company in the world. Ask any event organizer or ticket buyer and they'll probably say, "Ticketmaster's fees are absolutely ridiculous!" Yet, Ticketmaster is the biggest ticketing company in the world.)
If the ticketing company can provide you with the following "X" factor, make them your ticket company! That "X" factor is proving extraordinary customer service to your ticket buyers (and you!), from start to finish.
Here are some key factors ...
Great ticketing companies make it easy to buy a ticket on desktop or mobile. After a person purchases a ticket, their personal and financial information are stored in a safe secure spot.
If an event attendee loses their ticket, that ticket can be easily retrieved, by the attendee. The ticketing company should provide telephone support with employees who truly understand customer service.
If you're paying ticket service fees, you and your team should not have to provide ticketing customer support.
When onsite, the ticketing scanning and entry should work near flawlessly.
Again, you'll notice that most of the items above have little to do with technology and everything to do with great customer service.
When people buy a ticket to your event they don't see the ticketing company, they see you or your organization. The same goes for when there are issues with ticketing, they only see you.
Choose your ticketing company wisely!
Want to get more event ticketing advice? Check out the articles below:
- Event Marketing Idea: Blocking Your Tickets
- Smart Advance Ticket Strategies
- Event Promotion: The Psychology of Ticket Prices
- Leveraging Huge Ticket Discounts to Drive Advance Tickets Sales
- How to Sell Even More Tickets to Your Event
- When to Start Selling Tickets for Your Event
- Charging a Premium Event Ticket Price
- Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early