Technology has permeated all aspects of our lives, and the ticketing world is no different. As it helps to streamline and improve so many avenues of our personal and professional experience, schools and theatres have begun to adapt to the mobile-first, paperless world of ticketing. Beginning with the urgent need for contactless transactions during the height of the pandemic, technology rapidly evolved to accommodate paperless and heavy self-service/digital sales, and remained in the years that followed.
Why should schools and theatres move to digital ticketing?
Mobile-first has taken over traditional paper ticketing for many, and this opportunity to modernize and transition to the newest technology comes with a variety of benefits and advantages, from both the administrative and customer-side of ticketing. Implementing mobile ticketing and QR codes can be done quickly and easily for your school or theatre. Let’s explore how mobile-first, paperless ticketing, with the inclusion of QR codes, has fast become the standard in ticketing, and how this can benefit your organization.
Convenience at your fingertips (literally – on your mobile phone!)
What’s more convenient than purchasing from your phone?
One of the most beneficial aspects of mobile-first, paperless ticketing is convenience. No computer at home? Everybody has a smart phone these days, and you can purchase directly from your mobile device. You receive an email with your ticket, you can save it to your device, and you don’t have to keep track of a paper printout or ticket that you might lose before you even make it to the event!
Your tickets are instantly delivered via email or text, immediately after your purchase. No need to wait to collect them, have them mailed to you, or hang out in a long line at will-call the day of the event. You can also easily share a ticket with other family members or friends with a simple share!
Both Customer and Organization are Saving Time and Reducing Cost
For a customer, the transaction is quick and easy: you’ve just purchased your ticket, you have it on your device, now all you need to do is show up to the event! Customers won’t need to wait in long lines for will-call or to purchase physical tickets for the game at the gate, and QR codes on mobile tickets make it easy to simply show your ticket, get scanned, and walk into the event and enjoy!
For the school or theatre presenting the event, you won’t just save time at the box office, you’ll save money too! Gone are the long lines to purchase paper ticket, and scanning a QR code is faster than checking paper tickets or scanning and ripping stubs to collect and count later. Cost savings add up when you aren’t spending money on printers, ticket stock, and extra staff to sell tickets in person at the box office.
While you’re saving time and money, you’re saving the environment too!
Reducing the need to customers to print their tickets on paper at home, and also reducing the burden of printing and providing physical paper tickets in person at the event, you’re reducing your impact on the environment. If you have sustainability in mind at your organization, you’re eliminating so much paper waste at your event. If you go digital with your programs and playbills, you’re on your way to being top-tier in your paperless goals, while saving money in the process!
Security & Tracking is easier and more reliable
Gone are the days of customers making paper copies of their printed tickets. Each ticket now has a unique QR code, making potential fraud far less likely. Mobile tickets are scanned in real time, so you can see who is attending your event and track authorized purchases. You’ll be able to see right in your dashboard how many tickets were sold and who attended. Not just for accountability and security, these metrics are useful for for any event manager tracking capacity management, and planning for future shows and events.
Communicating with Customers is Key
With a push in online/paperless ticketing, you’re able to collect more data on your customers too. Aside from boosting your ability to market and sell future events to customers base on a multitude of different data, you can now communicate quickly with the attendees of your event. Need to cancel or reschedule? Send a quick email to all ticket purchasers to let them know ahead of time. Last minute addition or notice for your audience? Anyone who purchase a mobile ticket can get a quick update from your team, instead of waiting until they arrive at the event.
Controlling Access & Scanning Tickets is Easier than Ever
Whether you’ve got a large box office staff, or a bunch of volunteers helping at the door, digital ticketing and mobile-first tickets with QR codes make their lives easier. As an added bonus, the head of the box office or general event manager can more easily control who is accessing what areas of their system and can track who is scanning what and when. In a system like BookTix, you have the option to give access privileges based on the role and access level of the staff or volunteer. Need your staff to have access to POS and make event changes? Just double check their admin access level is correct. Have a handful of volunteers that you just need to access the scanning app to scan QR codes at the door? That’s a quick setup with access to just the scanning tool in your account. Maintain accountability easily with a digital footprint of who had access to what and when.
Sometimes technology can move so fast that it can be scary, but in the digital ticketing world, it can work to both the organization and the customer’s benefit. The best mobile ticketing platforms for schools and theatres have all adopted a paperless and mobile-first ticketing solution.
