Ticketing costs and issues

Facilitated by Jeremy Randerson, his notes below.

This session was attended by a total of approximately 12 people, about half of which would have been present throughout, with the reminder attending in part. All were directly involved in the performing arts as administrators, directors, performers, producers, governance or a mixture of these roles.

Initially people introduced themselves and mentioned their interest in the topic. Some had particular concerns and others were present to follow the discussion and over their expertise and experience.

First issues of concern mentioned were as follows:

-          Frustrations in dealing with some ticketing outlets – not always customer focussed (for both the production and the audience)

-          Very high ticketing charges for lower priced tickets: ticketing charge sometimes 20% of ticket cost, Excluding fee to customer

-          “Outside” charge to customer (fee from ticketing agency to purchaser); felt to be an obstacle to gaining an audience

-          Multiple ticketing vendors a confusion for customers; also felt to be an obstacle to customers

-          Wish to have larger numbers of tickets bought in advance of performances

-          Although different sites exist, a desire to have a single recognised “Go-To” website for performances and links to ticketing sites and information for these shows. Strong feeling that something like this would greatly facilitate audience numbers and crossover between shows. Suggestion, generally supported, that this would be a not-for-profit web-site

Particular issues for venues and productions:

-          Often very high ticket price/cost ratio, particularly for shows wishing to be low priced and widely accessible or for tickets sold at heavily discounted rates

-          Costs often too high for productions. Diverts scarce money away from wages and production.

-          Difficulty in accessing staff able or authorised to help with some operators, particularly during weekends. Frustration and time drain, for an often expensive service

-          Technical issues or interrupted internet access has prevented tickets from being sold at key times, sometimes causing very significant drops in ticket sales

-          Data ownership – productions and venues often unable to access or asked to pay for information about their audiences

-          Many of the issues listed above seem to make it difficult to develop new audiences with those unfamiliar with ticketing systems and charges – from customer feed-back

-          “Ownership” of customers/audience. Lack of direct connection and control of customer relationships mean venues and productions often cannot be as flexible as they’d wish, problem solve or respond to specific customer needs

-          Limited accountability from ticketing agencies or responsibility taken for lost income caused by ticketing systems errors

Benefits of automated, on-line ticketing systems discussed and agreed:

-          Round the clock sales via internet purchases

-          Potential for better data collection

-          Automated delivery - ease of use, saves staff hours

Other Comments:

-          Suggestion of booking fees being charged as a percentage of the ticket price, to prevent very high percentages of ticketing costs on lower priced tickets

-          In general, a very clear desire to see as much money from tickets prices returned to productions as possible, to support the industry and its practitioners