Most of us take bookings for our choirs, concerts and workshops on a first come, first served basis.
But is that the fairest and most effective system? Let’s look in more detail.
When you start a new choir, you’ll probably let singers join as and when they apply. When (and if!) your choir gets full, you’ll start a waiting list. When a vacancy next arises, you’ll contact people in the order you put them on the list.
This makes sense, and is a “first come, first served” system.
But when it comes to concerts and workshops, it might not be the fairest way.
If you have an event that’s very popular, it’s likely to sell out quickly (see last week’s post A nice problem to have – what to do if your choir or event is over-subscribed?).
On a large scale, this can be problematic. The Glastonbury Festival has recently set up a new process for ticket buyers. In the past, people would frantically refresh the festival’s online ticket sales page in the hope of being one of the lucky ones to get through to the option of purchasing.
This is very stressful and prioritises those who can be on their computer at the right time, who have time to sit there constantly refreshing the page, and who perhaps have some technical know-how.
For those of us who run smaller events, it can be a similar problem.
Those who have access to the ticketing system when the tickets go on sale (whether online or in person – at choir or at a ticket office) have an advantage. Those who have poor computer skills will be shut out of online ticketing.
If you happen to be busy when tickets go on sale, you are penalised.
If your event is a recurring one (e.g. Christmas concert, monthly workshop), regular attendees will probably be prepared when tickets next go on sale. That means you will end up with a bunch of regular customers, which is great. However, it may rule out newcomers who didn’t find out in time.
If you don’t want the usual suspects to always grab the tickets, you might want to think of a different system.
Here are a few possibilities.
- set asides – you could set aside a fixed number of tickets for newcomers or for specific under-represented groups of singers at workshops (e.g. basses, people of colour, young people!).
- pre-booking process – the booking process opens and runs for, say, a few weeks. People apply for the chance to buy tickets. You gather names, then analyse that list. You can prioritise newcomers, under-represented singers and de-prioritise those who attend every event.
- random allocation – this is what the Glastonbury Festival has effectively done. At the end of the pre-booking period you randomly shuffle the applicants and then offer tickets in that new order, rather than the order in which they first applied.
The downside of prioritising newcomers over regular attendees is that regulars are the lifeblood of any event. They are your core set of customers. On the other hand, it’s important to allow newcomers in or your events will eventually stagnate. A delicate balance to achieve!
How do you handle your booking process to keep everyone happy? I’d love to hear from you.
Chris Rowbury
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