Have you ever been to an event and found yourself stuck in a never-ending line, wishing you could just teleport to the front?
We've all been there. And if you organise events, you'll be just as sick of lines. They reduce your income, stress out your staff, and cause safety concerns for everyone involved.
Queues and overcrowding don't have to be an accepted part of event management, though. Enter timed ticketing systems - the secret weapon for event organisers and venue owners to manage capacity and ensure a smooth guest experience.
This type of ticketing opens up new ways of managing the flow of people through your event.
Timed ticketing is a must-have for businesses looking to stay competitive in the events industry. We’ll go through the ways it can increase your revenue, improve the guest experience, and massively optimise your event’s efficiency.
Traditionally, when selling tickets online or through a box office, you might only offer a few ticket types. General admission tickets, premium entry, and maybe some specific offers.
But these aren’t ideal for some experiences, such as:
Exhibitions that are open through the day, like art galleries
Activities that take a limited time to complete, like mini golf or escape rooms
Guided tours around a certain attraction
With attractions like these, you can’t have the majority of your attendees turn up at the same time. It’ll cause chaos and overcrowding, and you might have to turn away customers that are a crucial source of revenue.
So a timed ticketing solution is the answer. It’ll help you create time slots throughout the day and provide a steady, manageable flow of visitors.
Some ticketing platforms and box office software have this capability built-in, but many don’t. Here are some of the features to look out for in a timed entry system:
Set time slots and capacity in advance. You can organise your tickets into different categories and specific time slots for entry. This means you can easily set capacity limits for each time slot in advance, helping you avoid overcrowding.
Flexible pricing options. You’ll have the freedom to set different prices for different time slots. You can even set lower prices for weekdays or off-peak hours, encouraging more people to attend during those times.
Real-time availability tracking. Timed ticketing systems provide real-time metrics on how many tickets have been sold for each time slot. This helps you stay organised and plan ahead, making sure you’ve got enough staff and resources to handle the flow of guests. You can easily monitor the status of your event and make any necessary adjustments on the fly.
Efficient time slot management. You should be able to edit and schedule lots of time slots in one go. If you’re running repeat events, or events that span multiple days, it’s going to make for a potentially complicated setup. But a decent ticketing platform should let you bulk edit and duplicate things – great if your event is super popular and you need to add more dates!
Here’s what happens to your events business when you introduce timed ticket purchases.
Timed ticketing software allows you to plan for the future by knowing how many tickets have been sold and at what times, which can help you make better financial decisions around the whole event. Having a clear understanding of your customer demand means you can adjust your pricing, marketing, and staffing strategies to optimise your revenue.
And by managing capacity and reducing wait times, it’ll spread out your visitors throughout the day, helping you maximise sales from secondary spending opportunities. This will provide more opportunities to spend money on merchandise, food, and drinks.
Guests love a hassle-free check-in and checkout experience, and that's precisely what timed ticketing offers. Long lines and overcrowding can put a damper on anyone's day, but when it’s managed properly, guests can focus on what they came to see.
When they can view real-time slot availability during booking, guests can choose the timeslots that work best for them, and won’t miss out due to overbooking. They can relax knowing they won’t be turned away at the door if the venue is full.
Timed entry ticketing is also a great way to run covid-safe events, as you can minimise crowd numbers and increase people’s ability for social distancing. If you stagger the onsite entry times for guests, offering a limited number of tickets for each slot, you’ve got a better chance of keeping things spaced out. And your covid-conscious guests will appreciate the chance to book themselves in at quieter times.
Timed ticket slot functionality just makes things work better. There are a number of ways it can streamline the business side of your event.
Firstly, timed entry events can help you manage your inventory more effectively. By allowing you to monitor and predict demand for different time slots, you can better anticipate which merchandise items are likely to sell out. You can then make sure to have enough inventory on hand to meet demand. This can reduce the risk of overstocking or understocking, which can be costly – especially when it comes to food and drink.
Analytical insights are another advantage of an integrated system. By collecting data about ticket buyers’ timing preferences, you can optimise your operations to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.
Getting a lot of ticket sales for Thursdays between 11am and midday? It’s a chance to look into why that might be. There could be a hidden opportunity to target a group you’ve not spotted before.
It can even help you optimise other resources like parking and travel. If you’ve got up-to-date figures on the number of guests expected at each time slot, you can make sure you’ve got enough spaces available. You could also offer travel advice based on busy times like rush hour. It all adds up to a smoother event experience.
Whether you're running a museum, a theme park or a concert venue, implementing a timed ticketing system can really help you stay ahead of the crowd.
Nutickets is a modern software platform for selling tickets online. It’s a scalable system that’s perfect for single gatherings or recurring, multi-day events. And it’s massively customisable too, letting you easily create individual sales pages for your events, perfectly integrated with your brand design.
It’s an integrated system, meaning you can sell through your website, in person, through a pop-up kiosk – however you like. And with our timed ticketing system, you can schedule thousands of timeslots in one go, set different prices for different times, and even edit all of them in one go.
So why not give it a try and see how it can help you take your event planning to the next level? Visit our contact page to book a free demo today.