Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: How do you do box office???

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dreamer
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Walk-On

Joined: 8/17/07
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0

Posted: 8/17/07 at 10:05pm

We use Ticket Turtle and they are fabulous. They have a very comprehensive system and it's completely customizable. http://www.ticketturtle.com is the URL to their website. Customer support is great and very reasonable rates. Fast and easy, which is what I was looking for since several different people would need to use it. I agree with previous poster, you should look around and consider all your options, what works for one person may not work for you.

One difference between Ticket Turtle and Vendini I noticed is that it appears that Vendini does not have an integrated donor management and donation system and also it looks like Vendini doesn't allow customers to choose specific seats but rather they can keep asking the system to choose different seats until they land upon the ones they want. But I would have to say the big thing that sold us on Ticket Turtle is that they provide so many more tools all in one place than any other competitor for the same or lower price. So if it costs the same to get a ticket sales and marketing program as it costs to get ticket sales, donor and patron management, marketing, and many other customizable options, it really doesn't cost the same because with one you get a lot more than the other.

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boxofficebull
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Joined: 8/20/07
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0

Posted: 8/20/07 at 2:19pm

I have to agree with bones123 also. Ticket Turtle's application felt like I was using a fancy Excel spreadsheet - lots of fields and links but not a sense of flow, consistency, or intuitive feedback. It came across as amateur. I agree, there are lots of features, but using them efficiently was a different story.

Simply put, we were sold on Vendini's software design. The product felt mature - you could tell they took their time to do it right. I really don't see these two solutions as comparable. Ticket Turtle appears to be great for very small venues on a shoestring budget - where cost is the big concern. Other good options for these types of venues would be eTix and Brown Paper Tickets - I've used them in the past. For a larger, more professional operation such as ours, we had 3 solutions on our short list after an exhaustive search/evaluation (Tickets.com, Tessitura, and Vendini). We decided on Vendini and haven't looked back.

And, to respond to "Dreamer," Vendini does offer an integrated Membership & Donation management system. It is offered under a Beta program (similar to how Google does it). It is comprehensive and is working great for us.

One feature we love with the system is that we can print out 10,000+ custom targeted mailing labels with a few clicks. It looks like Vendini has partnered with Avery and Adobe to make this happen. Our marketing department is very happy to say the least.

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EddyZ
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Joined: 8/21/06
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 60

Posted: 8/20/07 at 4:38pm

(You wouldn't have to partner with Avery and Adobe to do that. Avery's template specs can be found just about anywhere, and the PDF spec is mostly open and available. It's probably about 10 lines of ASP.NET coding to print out those labels. :) )

EddyZ
http://webpages.atlanticbb.net/~ezahurak/
www.nailsouptheatre.com/

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Gaafa
Celebrity

Joined: 3/21/04
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1181

Posted: 8/29/07 at 2:22am

This might be of interest to James from 'ticketjunior';-

http://www.theatre.asn.au/green_room_gossip/ticket_sales_0

Which may be of interest, it is on the 'theatre australia' website.

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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ticketjunior
Walk-On
Walk-On

Joined: 6/23/07
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 0

Posted: 8/29/07 at 1:13pm

Joe,

Thanks for thinking about me. Yes, that was definitely a very good post concerning why Community Theatre groups are opting to use 3rd party companies to handle ticket sales. It not only helps reduce the overhead and headache of selling tickets but helps maximize the opportunity to sell tickets.

Selling tickets is about marketing. If people don't know about the show they sure aren't going to buy tickets.

http://www.theatre.asn.au also looks like another very good resource for community theaters.

Thanks again for letting me know about the site and that particular post.

-James P. Walters
Phone: 404-272-4778
www.ticketjunior.com

"We're the little guy in the ticketing business."

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Gaafa
Celebrity

Joined: 3/21/04
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1181

Posted: 8/29/07 at 8:01pm

She's aright mate!
We have used BOCS since our theatre started up a few years ago.
There was the usual oposition to using the bocs, but that vanished fairly early.
the main hiccup is they stop taking bookings for the show 48 hours prior to end of the season, which is logical.
So the group have to get that message across by word of mouth or in thier promotional material.
However the returns make it worth while & they will furnish all the relevant demographics & information collected about the season. Also the show is included in Bocs monthly promotional newletter, they send to all those who book with them, as a bonus,
The agency is run by the State government department for the arts & culture. seems to the only gov run thing that actualy works.
We opted to pay all charges & fees atracted by the purchase of tickets, such as credit card fees & Goods & Services Tax of 10% which we absorb, rather than pass it on to the punters. which we consider as just a promotional show cost. The only fees we don't cover are the extra charge at piont of sale, for using the various local walk in Agency Branches for Bocs, who charge it directly to the punters choosing to buy from the shops in various regional areas.
All in all it works well for us & our situation, although there is still a lot of groups who resist changing from thier old system of box office, which has been in play for more than forty five years! Run by some dear old dragon lady who still makes the same blues of over selling & messing up seat alocations - Believing they loose too much adding to the ticket price. but that's the way it is!
We handle our own comps as this can become a bunch of knitting with bocs handling it, only if they recieve block bookins, where by we authorise them to give 1 free for every !0 purchased;-http://www.bocsticketing.com.au/
There are other central ticket agencies of course, but these are national orginisations & are possibly better geared for Oz wide larger events.

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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landon2006
Star
Star

Joined: 3/10/08
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 55

Posted: 3/10/08 at 3:46pm

The Theater we rent for our Production's has it's own Box Office w/ Online and Phone abilities thats included with the rental fee.

If this option is not available, I would suggest using a software like Vendini (www.vendini.com).

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Running Your Theater
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Theater Administration :Running Your Theater

Topic: How do you do box office???( Topic Closed)
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Author	Message
dreamer Walk-On Joined: 8/17/07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 8/17/07 at 10:05pm
	We use Ticket Turtle and they are fabulous. They have a very comprehensive system and it's completely customizable. http://www.ticketturtle.com is the URL to their website. Customer support is great and very reasonable rates. Fast and easy, which is what I was looking for since several different people would need to use it. I agree with previous poster, you should look around and consider all your options, what works for one person may not work for you. One difference between Ticket Turtle and Vendini I noticed is that it appears that Vendini does not have an integrated donor management and donation system and also it looks like Vendini doesn't allow customers to choose specific seats but rather they can keep asking the system to choose different seats until they land upon the ones they want. But I would have to say the big thing that sold us on Ticket Turtle is that they provide so many more tools all in one place than any other competitor for the same or lower price. So if it costs the same to get a ticket sales and marketing program as it costs to get ticket sales, donor and patron management, marketing, and many other customizable options, it really doesn't cost the same because with one you get a lot more than the other.
	IP Logged

boxofficebull Walk-On Joined: 8/20/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 8/20/07 at 2:19pm
	I have to agree with bones123 also. Ticket Turtle's application felt like I was using a fancy Excel spreadsheet - lots of fields and links but not a sense of flow, consistency, or intuitive feedback. It came across as amateur. I agree, there are lots of features, but using them efficiently was a different story. Simply put, we were sold on Vendini's software design. The product felt mature - you could tell they took their time to do it right. I really don't see these two solutions as comparable. Ticket Turtle appears to be great for very small venues on a shoestring budget - where cost is the big concern. Other good options for these types of venues would be eTix and Brown Paper Tickets - I've used them in the past. For a larger, more professional operation such as ours, we had 3 solutions on our short list after an exhaustive search/evaluation (Tickets.com, Tessitura, and Vendini). We decided on Vendini and haven't looked back. And, to respond to "Dreamer," Vendini does offer an integrated Membership & Donation management system. It is offered under a Beta program (similar to how Google does it). It is comprehensive and is working great for us. One feature we love with the system is that we can print out 10,000+ custom targeted mailing labels with a few clicks. It looks like Vendini has partnered with Avery and Adobe to make this happen. Our marketing department is very happy to say the least.
	IP Logged

EddyZ Star Joined: 8/21/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 60	Posted: 8/20/07 at 4:38pm
	(You wouldn't have to partner with Avery and Adobe to do that. Avery's template specs can be found just about anywhere, and the PDF spec is mostly open and available. It's probably about 10 lines of ASP.NET coding to print out those labels. :) )
	EddyZ http://webpages.atlanticbb.net/~ezahurak/ www.nailsouptheatre.com/
	IP Logged

Gaafa Celebrity Joined: 3/21/04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 1181	Posted: 8/29/07 at 2:22am
	This might be of interest to James from 'ticketjunior';- http://www.theatre.asn.au/green_room_gossip/ticket_sales_0 Which may be of interest, it is on the 'theatre australia' website.
	Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house}
	IP Logged

ticketjunior Walk-On Joined: 6/23/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 8/29/07 at 1:13pm
	Joe, Thanks for thinking about me. Yes, that was definitely a very good post concerning why Community Theatre groups are opting to use 3rd party companies to handle ticket sales. It not only helps reduce the overhead and headache of selling tickets but helps maximize the opportunity to sell tickets. Selling tickets is about marketing. If people don't know about the show they sure aren't going to buy tickets. http://www.theatre.asn.au also looks like another very good resource for community theaters. Thanks again for letting me know about the site and that particular post.
	-James P. Walters Phone: 404-272-4778 www.ticketjunior.com "We're the little guy in the ticketing business."
	IP Logged

Gaafa Celebrity Joined: 3/21/04 Location: Australia Online Status: Offline Posts: 1181	Posted: 8/29/07 at 8:01pm
	She's aright mate! We have used BOCS since our theatre started up a few years ago. There was the usual oposition to using the bocs, but that vanished fairly early. the main hiccup is they stop taking bookings for the show 48 hours prior to end of the season, which is logical. So the group have to get that message across by word of mouth or in thier promotional material. However the returns make it worth while & they will furnish all the relevant demographics & information collected about the season. Also the show is included in Bocs monthly promotional newletter, they send to all those who book with them, as a bonus, The agency is run by the State government department for the arts & culture. seems to the only gov run thing that actualy works. We opted to pay all charges & fees atracted by the purchase of tickets, such as credit card fees & Goods & Services Tax of 10% which we absorb, rather than pass it on to the punters. which we consider as just a promotional show cost. The only fees we don't cover are the extra charge at piont of sale, for using the various local walk in Agency Branches for Bocs, who charge it directly to the punters choosing to buy from the shops in various regional areas. All in all it works well for us & our situation, although there is still a lot of groups who resist changing from thier old system of box office, which has been in play for more than forty five years! Run by some dear old dragon lady who still makes the same blues of over selling & messing up seat alocations - Believing they loose too much adding to the ticket price. but that's the way it is! We handle our own comps as this can become a bunch of knitting with bocs handling it, only if they recieve block bookins, where by we authorise them to give 1 free for every !0 purchased;-http://www.bocsticketing.com.au/ There are other central ticket agencies of course, but these are national orginisations & are possibly better geared for Oz wide larger events.
	Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house}
	IP Logged

landon2006 Star Joined: 3/10/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 55	Posted: 3/10/08 at 3:46pm
	The Theater we rent for our Production's has it's own Box Office w/ Online and Phone abilities thats included with the rental fee. If this option is not available, I would suggest using a software like Vendini (www.vendini.com).
	IP Logged