Why Local Ticketing Platforms Are Better
You opened a theatre a few months ago; that’s awesome! In that humble beginning, you decided to have a simple ‘tickets at the door’ policy where people could only get in with cold, hard cash at the box office upon entry. Now that your theatre is gaining popularity, there have been an increasing number of patrons asking about online tickets. They’re begging you to set something up so they can reserve a seat for their favorite shows. What do you do? There are a plethora of ticketing platforms to choose from, so what are the criteria important to you? We’ll likely agree that customer satisfaction is your number one concern, as that’s the leading metric that drives most businesses. It’s a fact that switching companies due to poor service costs U.S. companies a total of $1.6 trillion. Your ticket vendor is arguably the lifeblood of your theatre and should be chosen very carefully. If you're in the US, you're better off sticking with a US-based ticketing platform. Why, you ask? Well, let's get into it.
First, US-based platforms are designed with the American audience in mind, meaning they're more likely to have native English systems and native English-speaking staff. The platform’s business hours will be more in line with your own since they’ll likely be in the same or in a very close time zone. It is even better if the platform headquarters is in the state or city you operate in since scheduling a venue visit or mutual company outing will be much more convenient. Not to mention that a US local platform will work with the US dollar as its primary currency and will be subject to all of the federal and state legal standards put in place to assure honest business dealings. Should something go wrong, you can point to a brick-and-mortar building with people inside whom you can visit and hold responsible.
On the other hand, using a ticketing platform based in another country can be like trying to order a hot dog in Paris - it's just not their specialty. These platforms may not have native support for the US dollar or use English-speaking locales, relying on service charges and workarounds to satisfy US customers. God forbid they outsource customer support, something Fourth Wall Tickets is strongly against. If you run into any issues, overseas customer service might be asleep or severely understaffed when you're awake - challenges you shouldn’t have to endure. There are also more tax complexities when working across country borders. Depending on the country, and the deal struck with the company, you may have to consult professional international tax advisors. Besides tax complexities, there are also data privacy and security regulations to consider. The EU enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which may limit how much and how fast a company overseas can help a US venue.
Aside from the more obvious points we’ve just mentioned, choosing to go overseas also brings up important ethical and economic considerations. You may want to be healthy, but find that organic foods come at a significant premium. Some people would rather pay more for healthier food now than pay for medical issues down the road from consuming non-organic foods all their lives. Besides the health benefits, this type of spending is essentially voting with dollars. Business always follows the money, and if there’s consistent and significant demand for organic foods, companies in that space will have plenty of opportunities to grow. In the same vein, choosing a ticketing platform that aligns with your ethical principles is important. You may believe that stimulating a local economy is much more valuable to the community and greater economy than outsourcing to a business overseas to save a few dollars. Despite a premium on most US-based goods and services, those with a greater vision for their community often happily pay the difference to work with homegrown business partners. This is why choosing a ticketing platform that aligns with your ethical principles is important. When the decision is made prudently, and the service is chosen carefully, the dividends from this decision often make up for any possible savings from overseas many times over. Fourth Wall Tickets combines the benefits of investing in your local community’s economy with competitive pricing. This means you benefit from investing in a domestic ticketing platform at global industry-leading pricing.
While it’s obvious that these dividends will come from the earlier-mentioned points of avoiding problems with time zones, language barriers, taxes, and privacy implications, the business culture is likely the most pronounced. At Fourth Wall Tickets, we take feedback for new features very seriously and consistently push out what’s been most requested by our theatre network. We take great pride in this work, and catering to clubs and theatres this way is likely the main reason we’ve retained over 90% of new users. We’ve dedicated all our resources towards development for multiple years, and we maintain a sense of urgency in meeting our theatre partners’ needs. This means we’ve grown organically through word of mouth and a consistent commitment to excellence. That’s right; we’re the organic fruit that’s good for your business health.
We’ve had multiple clubs and theatres switch over to us from some of our competitors, often for the same reasons: that their previous ticket platform over-promised features and under-delivered. What was delivered was, unfortunately, buggy and unreliable. And yet other theatres noted cultural and time zone frictions with teams overseas. Some also wanted to avoid having contractual obligations that took up large portion of ticket revenue. It’s important to note that Fourth Wall Tickets has absolutely no contracts in place and no intention of introducing them any time soon. Every club using FWT is free to make as many or as few shows as they like, as frequently as they like, and to use competitors at will. It’s our opinion that allowing theatres and clubs the freedom to use multiple platforms or switch on the fly is indispensable in such a fast-moving industry as performance theatre and comedy. When theatres drive, everyone thrives, and that sentiment can’t be understated. Performance arts foster some of the most impactful productions and community engagement, while simultaneously stimulating local and larger economies.
It may not come to mind immediately, but to partner with companies in other countries, you’ll have to consider the political climate and monitor geopolitical relationships. For example, if your ticket platform partner is in a country that has political instability or constant regime changes, they may have internet connectivity fluctuations or lack personnel at times, falling short of your agreed quality standards. This means your business is not only at the mercy of US federal and state laws, but also at the mercy of your vendor’s country and state laws. Unless you’re prepared to follow geopolitics and study relevant law initiatives in both your home country and your ticket vendor country, you’ll likely avoid many headaches and save time by working close to home. At the very least, you should have a contingency plan in case unexpected challenges arise. Ideally, you would have one or more local business partners as either primary or secondary ticket platforms.
Patrons tell an average of nine people about a positive experience with a brand or venue, but they tell 16 people about a negative experience. This raises the importance of reputation risk by outsourcing for the cheapest support option globally available. We all know when we try to reach a company and find out it's using call centers overseas. Oftentimes, these agents are extremely limited in what they can help your patrons with. Typically outsourced agents work off of a script and dare not to deviate from it. These agents may be trained to take calls, but they won’t have the same brand awareness as people you have working in-house or at least in your home country. They may not be familiar with all of the nuances your organizationoffers, and the hard truth is that call centers are more concerned with lowering their queue times than providing quality customer care. While outsourcing will probably reduce costs, the friction it can cause will likely discourage some patrons from doing further business with your club. One simple way to help reduce this friction while still saving costs is again to outsource to a more local ticketing platform. Imagine using a platform operating in the same state or city as your club. The majority of cultural and business norms in your area will probably be consistent between you and your local ticketing vendors, and they’ll be more familiar with the local terrain and adjacent businesses, saving you time and energy on relaying the most basic expectations. These small nuances like being able to provide patrons insight about upcoming events or customs in the general area end up making a big difference. In fact, American consumers will, on average, pay 17% more to purchase from a company with a reputation for great service and will spend 140% more after a positive experience than a negative one. Companies that facilitate emotional connections through their customer service outperform the sales growth of their competitors by 85%.
Unless your shows and venue are head and shoulders above your competition, you probably can’t afford to risk turning away patrons by using client-facing services from overseas. While Fourth Wall Tickets is based in Chicago, we service satisfied theatres and clubs from all over the United States. Our clients speak highly of our attention to detail and flexible service offerings. We’re always pleased to schedule a short demo to get you started in the right direction, and we’ve worked hard to keep costs low to theatres. It’s worth noting that the Fourth Wall Tickets platform is simply a conduit for any purchases your patrons make on our site, and the funds are funneled directly to your accounts on purchases, making the money available to you instantly. This makes us an excellent choice for smaller theatres that run on a tight budget and larger theatres that benefit from having more direct control over their revenue. While most ticket platforms charge 1% or more of the ticket price, we’ve stuck to charging one dollar per transaction (meaning a 20-ticket purchase is still only charged one dollar), making us the one of the most affordable US-operated options in the space. And again we’ll likely never switch to a contract model, as we strongly believe in supporting a club’s freedom to grow and remain nimble rather than trying to stifle or strap it down.
As we gaze into the future, Fourth Wall Tickets is expecting to continue an amazing growth curve and retention rate. If there’s any metric to check with a potential platform for your tickets, it’s retention and growth rates. As our team keeps growing, we’re happy to pass along the fruits of our success to the clubs and theatres that use our services. These benefits come in the form of more features and faster turnaround times for new feature requests. We’re happy to see the theatre space returning from the pandemic, and we’re truly honored to be at the frontlines, helping theatres get people in their doors. We encourage all theatres not to overlook quality customer service. After all, loyal patrons are five times more likely to buy again and four times more likely to refer a friend. If you or your staff can think of anything that would ultimately win you over to the Fourth Wall Tickets tribe in the realm of customer service or application features, we’re all ears and can likely deliver on your ask. We hope that these articles have helped venues make more informed decisions when it comes to managing their tickets, and we intend to continue making this blog a repository of useful information about all things theatre and tickets.
https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/127520/retail-new-normal.aspx
https://experiencematters.blog/category/roi-of-customer-experience/