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If you weren’t living under a rock today, you probably heard that Google released a new web browser called Chrome. Initial reviews of the web browser have been extremely positive: here’s what TechCrunch and Scoble had to say. We’ve been doing some testing at The Biscuit and TicketBiscuit seems to run extra fast in Chrome.
Give it a try and let us know what you think. Post your comments here or send us feedback at support@ticketbiscuit.com. As always, thanks for using The Biscuit!
How much money do you make per customer? If you can’t answer this question, stop what you’re doing and go figure it out. You can’t run your business without this key metric.
There’s a lot of talk these days about the secondary market (ticket reselling). The only reason the secondary market exists is because tickets aren’t price correctly in the primary market. Our industry seems to be the last to adopt modern economic principles surrounding revenue and yield management (I like the term profit management as it doesn’t matter how much money you bring in if you’re not making a profit). The airlines were the first to leverage revenue management back in the early 80’s. They learned to manage perishable inventory (e.g. the revenue from an empty seat can’t be recovered in the future).
So why hasn’t the ticketing industry caught on to this concept? This question has baffled me for many years. The only conclusion I’ve come to is that the supply chain remains disjointed and is filled with mistrust. Unfortunately, the lack of transparency over the years has allowed everyone in the supply chain to take advantage of each other: ticketing vendors charge fans exorbitant fees and lock ticket sellers into long-term contracts; promoters earn additional profit with hidden fees using cost plus contracts; artists require price caps on tickets and then resell their own tickets in the secondary market; venues allow fans without tickets into the venue to earn profit on food and beverages; ticket brokers grab the best seats before real fans have a chance to buy tickets, the stories go on and on…
This is all going to change soon as dynamic pricing becomes commonplace, the primary and secondary markets merge, and tools from companies like TicketBiscuit provide transparency in the marketplace.
What should you do? Understanding your profit per customer metric is the first step. I’m not just talking about ticketing. How much profit (not revenue) do you make on ticketing, food and beverages, merchandise, etc. per customer. With this information, you can then determine how to price tickets, how much to pay for talent, how much marketing you need to do, etc. Don’t let the history of this industry dictate how we approach the future. Just because it’s always been done this way doesn’t mean it will continue to be done the same way in the future. The Times They Are A-Changin’…
This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Seinfeld live (my apologies for the lousy picture as it was the best I could snap without being caught). How did I get front row center seats at face value? Piece of cake – as long as the ticketing vendor uses ticket outlets. Simply show up at the outlet 10 minutes before tickets go on sale (it takes 10 minutes to get someone at the store to come over to the ticket register, dust off the keyboard, remember how to place an order, etc.) – don’t worry, nobody else will be in line as no one else buys tickets at outlets. Two minutes after the tickets go on sale you’ll walk out with the best seats in the house.
Perhaps this post will reunite the pre-Internet ticket outlet fervor of the ’80s and ’90s, but I doubt it. Why?
The use of ticket outlets is bad economics for EVERYONE!
- Ticket buyers pay the same fees at outlets as they pay for buying tickets over the phone and web. Here’s what I paid: $75 per tix plus a $10.80 per tix convenience charge – that’s 14.4% in convenience fees for buying at the outlet!
- Establishing and maintaining ticket outlets cost ticket sellers a lot of money, time, and resources.
- The outlet (i.e. grocery store chains, etc.) sell so few tickets that it can’t be worth the time and energy to train their staff on how to place orders.
- When was the last time you were in the check out line with your box of Ho Ho’s and said “let me walk over to the unmanned ticket counter, wait 10 minutes for someone to show up, and grab some tix to an event?” How inconvenient! Why not call and buy the tix using your cell phone on the way home?
- Has anyone seen any hard data that shows that ticket outlets increase profitability for anyone? Your doctored sales report from your ticketing vendor doesn’t count.
- Cross sale? I think not. Does anyone ever go to a store to buy their groceries because they can also buy tickets to an event?
Why do old school ticketing companies still use/promote brick-and-mortar ticket outlets?
- Sunk costs – they’ve invested heavily in ticket outlets and try to justify their past investment decisions.
- It seems logical that the more places tix are on sale, the more tix you’ll sell. WRONG! It’s about overall profit, not top line revenue. It’s about getting the message to the people that’ll most likely purchase tickets and buy a bunch of stuff while at the event. Why not send a targeted email to likely buyers FOR FREE with a couple of clicks of the mouse or use viral event promotion tools like Promotozoa – one of our newest product offerings (check out some of our beta clients: Comedy Club Stardome, Exit/In, The BottleTree)?
- But I’ll lose the customers that’ll only pay with cash? You think you actually make any money off the tightwad that only uses cash? The 0.0001% of the population that only uses cash is not your ideal customer – trust me.
At TicketBiscuit, we’d rather invest in building better tools that are proven to sell more tickets and increase everyone’s bottom line. Call us old fashion, but we like having a profitable business model that is flexibile, low cost, and high value to all parties in the supply chain.
TicketAlert – Ticketmaster Keeps Order Processing Fees on Cancelled Events!
October 19, 2008 in Commentary, Musings, ticketing news | Tags: Frank Caliendo, Order Processing Fees, ticketmaster | by jburdett | 2 comments
Ticketmaster never ceases to amaze me. I bought tix to Frank Caliendo’s show in Birmingham and it was cancelled. On Friday, I received this email from Ticketmaster:
Hello, this is Ticketmaster Customer Service with an important alert for your upcoming event. Frank Caliendo, scheduled at BJCC Concert Hall on Friday, October 24, 2008, at 8:00PM, has been cancelled.
Your credit card will automatically be credited the ticket price and convenience charges, and should post to your account within 7 to 10 business days. Please note, the $3.20 per order processing fee and any ticketFast or UPS delivery charges are non-refundable.
If you have any questions, please contact us online at:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/h/asktm.html
Thank you for using Ticketmaster. We appreciate your business!
I love the last line: We appreciate your business! What service did they provide me? In my opinion, they just stole $3.20 from me and provided no service at all. Glad to see I’ll get my money back so quickly as well (note the sarcasm).
I know this isn’t news to many of you and I’m sorry you have to put up with it. There is something you can do about it. Stop going to events where Ticketmaster is the ticketing vendor and encourage your favorite venues, promoters, and artists to sign up with the Biscuit.