Ticketing technology: How can we reduce barriers for renewals?

by Chris Faulkner – April 2013

As technology rapidly moves forward and clients become more savvy using social media and mobile technology, we need to adapt the way we conduct our ticketing business. 

Premium seating, in particular, deals with ample amounts of data from proposals from salespeople, accounts, data, contracts, and paperwork.  With all of the fancy mobile devices, apps, and tablet technology, how can we start to simplify processes to get better results, more sales and more renewals?

Tuning into the right channel

At the Denver Broncos we turned to Channel 1 Media and their e-brochure technology platform.  The e-signature technology was key in order to create fewer hurdles to doing business and simplify our internal processes.

This past season we had 2,691 seats up for renewal in our United Club, giving our small service staff a huge task in getting all accounts renewed and more importantly making a large piece of our total revenue pie at risk.  The e-renewal piece would capitalize on the excitement of the season, but more significantly allow our clients to sign their renewal electronically in a couple of simple steps.

In years past we created a printed brochure, including personal mail merged contract information specific to each account, mail out, and follow up with a phone campaign to chase down renewals.  Our clients would then have to sign the renewal contract, mail or scan back to us, we would countersign and email or mail back to the client: a painfully slow and dated process.

Rescuing at-risk renewals

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At the Denver Broncos we strive to be on the forefront of ticketing technology as it evolves into the future. Our goal is to create efficiencies for our staff and allow more frequent and easier interaction with our most valued clients. [/dropshadowbox]The e-renewal piece also allowed us to capture the specific renewal data in real time and target specific “at risk” accounts over the course of the 4 -week renewal period.  We had 883 unique Personal URLs (PURLS) created for our 2,691 expiring seats.  After emailing out we could see immediately who clicked on their links, what pages they were viewing, how long they were on the site, and ultimately when they signed the renewal.

Once signed, an email notification was sent directly to the service rep on the account for follow up.  Over 85% of the links were clicked through multiple times. We were able to renew at our highest percentage since the building opened.  We targeted accounts not opening the link along with those that opened but had not e-signed the renewal yet.  We also converted the same piece to an iPad application for service reps to take to present the offer on face-to-face appointments in-game and outside the office.

Looking forward

As a sales manger, reporting real time data and understanding the behavior of clients helps the organization as we make pricing and renewal incentive decisions moving forward.  The ultimate focus, creating less hurdles for the customer, in turn, resulted in a higher renewal rate.   By embracing the growing technological developments, ticketing and client service operations become more efficient while providing an overall exceptional experience for the client.