Blogs

In the theme park and attractions industry, there are few things as important as the happiness of our guests. The question we should always be asking ourselves is “how can we ensure a positive guest experience that results in repeat visitation?” Based on this year’s IAAPA Expo Europe conversations, this is a question that many of you are asking. From the educational sessions to our discussions at the booth, there was a heightened focus on understanding and transforming the guest experience. Read on to discover our most valuable insights from the show and see how you can apply them to help you exceed guest expectations at your park.

Now that we have settled back in from a fun-filled week of learning and networking at our 2019 accesso Client Seminar in beautiful downtown Denver, we’re excited to share the highlights with you! From the feedback we have already received, this was one for the record books! This year’s Client Seminar housed over 250 attendees from 95 client sites for in-depth software training, collaborative roundtable discussions, festive fall evening events and an exciting new “Answers Portal” unveiling!

Based on my conversations at this year’s NSAA Conference, the need to attract and retain quality workers is still top of mind for ski area operators, and with the industry predicted to grow in the next five years, this need will become even more pressing. Is your resort ready to handle this additional demand? Read on to discover best practices for staffing your ski resort, from recruitment to retention and beyond.

Today’s consumers have a wide variety of entertainment options and outlets vying for their attention. For theatres and performing arts centers with limited budgets and staff time, it can be challenging to develop marketing campaigns that engage patrons enough to close the sale. Luckily, there are ways to optimize your marketing communications and ticketing operations in order to drive sales and pack the house! Read on to discover five cost-effective and easy ideas for marketing to single ticket buyers.

The idea of leveraging data to tailor customer experiences is not a new one, but in the wake of recent high-profile data usage scandals, it is certainly understandable that both consumers and businesses are wary of the practice. However, though four out of five consumers are concerned about data privacy, recent studies have found that the majority of consumers are willing to share personal data in order to be provided with marketing communications more uniquely suited to them. In fact, 72% of consumers will only engage with personalized marketing messages!

I hear it all the time in my travels visiting large and small venues across North America: from sports arenas to non-profit theatres, venues just do not have enough time and labor resources to provide the customer service they wish they could. Budgets are tight and labor costs continue to rise, resulting in leaner box office operations and often, stressed out staff. The solution in the past has been to either reduce box office hours or cut back on staff, but there’s a third option: to extend your ticketing operations with a white label call center. Read on to discover three ways that partnering with a white label call center can benefit your venue.

A client seminar is a great opportunity to learn from industry experts. Attendees have the chance to participate in sessions that focus on specific educational topics, ask questions and share ideas with other attendees. Most client seminars act as an intensive training camp that usually take place over the course of several days. From interactive time with a new product to open discussions, multiple speakers and teachers take the time to share their perspectives and helpful hints related to the topics at hand. Attending a client seminar provides many benefits, including improving communication skills, gaining expert knowledge, and renewing motivation and confidence.

Scarcity is a powerful driver in purchasing behavior. Consumers tend to place additional value on items they believe are in limited supply or difficult to acquire, making them more inclined to purchase. If you’re not leveraging the principle of scarcity to sell tickets and promote events at your venue, you are missing out on a great opportunity! (See what we did there?). Read on to discover new ideas for using scarcity in your marketing promotions so you can sell more tickets, increase revenue and reach new audiences.

One of the biggest opportunities for revenue growth in institutions of all sizes is third party ticket sales, but this can be easily offset by the labor burden of reconciling vouchers. Luckily, there’s a fix for the old-school voucher process with Ingresso, our real-time distribution platform that utilizes a single digital connection to allow venues to sell live inventory directly from their museum admissions software. With a digital reinvention of your third-party live ticket sales, you might wonder what you’ll do with your new-found time when your institution stops selling ticket vouchers. Below are some ideas. 

From international conglomerates to single-location attractions, ski resorts to live entertainment venues, popular historical sites and more, every business relies on a chain of suppliers to keep day-to-day operations running smoothly. And, regardless of market segment, scope of operations or number of employees, every business can benefit from taking a closer look at how to make the most of each link in their chain.

Our 2019 accesso Client Seminar is an opportunity to receive hands-on software training, meet new people and explore the exciting city of Denver. Learn more about the tracks we’re offering this year and explore what’s new in our blog!

Let’s start with two simple questions. Are members important to your institution? Is time important to our members? If we can answer affirmatively to both, then why do we often unintentionally create hurdles to their experience interacting with our institutions? Whether due to lack of time or resources, we often miss opportunities to increase, serve and retain our members better. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Ryan Burtram shares five insights into how you can better attract, retain, and engage members.

Last week, the accesso team traveled to sunny San Diego for the 2019 National Ski Areas Association Tradeshow and Conference to meet with some of the greatest minds in the industry. We left the event feeling inspired and excited about the future of the ski industry! Read on to hear why.

It’s the end of snow season and season pass sales are well underway. Are you focused on the right areas to ensure a strong sale? Read on to discover our top seven tips for increasing ski season pass sales. 

A ticket is one of a venue’s most prized possessions. Every single ticket represents an opportunity to provide a memorable experience to a consumer, and every ticket sale gets you one step further to a sold-out show. Working with distributors and promoters can be an amazing way to push that last bit of ticket inventory over the threshold and reach new audiences, but if you’re using ticket vouchers or bulk tickets, have you considered all of the risks? Read on to discover seven reasons why you should stop selling ticket vouchers, and how you can do so without disrupting your valuable partnerships.

It’s that time again! Season renewal time can be both exhilarating and stressful for a venue. There are so many exciting possibilities of getting patrons officially signed on for another wonderful year of programming, yet so many pieces and parts to juggle – from decisions on pricing structures to season mailers, advertising and more. Are you focusing on the right areas to ensure a smooth transition for your loyal customers and new subscribers? Read on to discover our top seven tips for a successful renewal season!  

Ticket spoofing is a major problem facing the ticketing industry. Every day, our accesso ShoWare ticketing call center receives at least one phone call from an upset patron who has fallen victim to one of these schemes, convinced that an unscrupulous vendor was actually the primary ticketing source for an event. These stories can be heartbreaking, and unfortunately, there is very little that can be done once the tickets have been purchased. Once the patron realizes they purchased from a broker, it can be challenging to help them understand it was actually their error. Read on to discover the latest tactics used by these vendors and our best advice for tackling this issue.

In October, we kicked off the “People of accesso” blog series with the goal of highlighting some of the incredible and passionate professionals that make up the accesso team. Beginning with CEO Paul Noland and on to EMEA Director of Ticketing Operations Robin Goodchild, we’ve returned to the states to share some insight from one of the leaders of our office in Lake Mary, Florida – accesso Product Owner of Ticketing Research and Development Valerie Wierenga – to take a closer look at the accesso company culture, the importance of investing in others and what it’s like to be a woman in technology.

As a member of the QA team at accesso, I spend most of my time testing enhancements and fixes that are requested or suggested by our clients for our accesso Siriusware POS software. It‘s rewarding to help our clients with these specific requests, and often, the resulting improvement is something that all clients can utilize. Here’s a glimpse into client-driven development and three recent features that have come about as a result of requests from our customers.

In the fast-paced entertainment and leisure industries, change is the ultimate constant. In order to stay on top of these changes and remain competitive in the marketplace, business leaders are embracing continuous learning programs as a way to nurture their most valuable assets – their people. Read on to discover what is driving the need for continuous learning and to explore options that make sense for your organization, whether you are a theme park, museum or ski area!

At accesso, many of our team members come from backgrounds working within the industries we serve. We pride ourselves on being experienced operators who run a technology company serving the attractions space, versus a technology company that happens to serve the market. 

accesso EMEA Director of Ticketing Operations Robin Goodchild is a shining example of this, having spent 16 years in amusement and attractions management before joining the accesso family. His passion for people first attracted him to the industry in 2000 and has served as the driving force of his career ever since. So, we sat down with Robin to learn more about his time in the industry, his change of course to the supplier side and what he sees as the greatest priorities for our European clients.  

Every business wants to create an amazing app experience, something that increases conversions and has lovable and useful features all wrapped up in an engaging user interface. Implementing effective marketing copy within your app is equally important, yet is often understated. It’s easy to think that engaging website copy will translate into similarly engaging app copy, but that isn’t necessarily the case. We’ve come up with these 5 tips to remove that learning curve and give your in-app marketing a boost to grow user satisfaction, increase app store ratings and drive conversions for your brand. 

Welcome to “People of accesso,” where we introduce you to our talented team members from all around the globe! Our hope is that this series will give you a small sample of the faces and personalities that make our company unique. For our first piece, we thought, what better person to begin with than our new CEO, Paul Noland? Paul is relatively new to the accesso family, and while many of us have had the pleasure of working with him directly, few know the full extent of the serendipitous and winding journey that brought him here.

It’s the stereotypical tribulation of visiting a theme park: standing in line for seemingly hours on end, sweating in the hot summer heat, packed into stalls like cattle with hordes of impatient and screaming children. Oh, if only one could avoid all that! As many operators know, that’s quite possible.

It’s that time again! Season renewal time can be both exhilarating and stressful for a venue. There are so many exciting possibilities of getting patrons officially signed on for another wonderful year of programming, yet so many pieces and parts to juggle – from decisions on pricing structures to season mailers, advertising and more. Are you focusing on the right areas to ensure a smooth transition for your loyal customers and new subscribers? Read on to discover our top seven tips for a successful renewal season!  

In the theatre world, connecting with new audiences is extremely rewarding. Yes, opening night performances and sold-out houses are both exciting and gratifying, but at the end of the day, there’s nothing quite as special as knowing that you helped an audience member discover a performance, an idea or story for the very first time. Our Ingresso solution is designed to fuel experiences just like that by connecting events to new audiences from all around the world. We are pleased to be partnering with the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End to introduce audiences to the Tony Award-nominated hit musical Waitress this year. It’s common to hear of shows that promise something for everyone, but Waitress has so many different layers and messages, and carries an incredible backstory of empowerment that can inspire many people in different ways.

The world today is more connected than ever, and we realize our business not only impacts our clients and employees but the global community as well. That’s why we provide volunteer time each year for our team members to give back to a charitable organization of their choice.

We are less than a week away from one of the attraction industry’s largest trade shows of the year. The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) will soon be bringing attractions, suppliers and vendors together for a week of education and collaboration in Orlando, Florida for the 100^th anniversary Expo! Several trade shows come and go throughout the year, but are you taking advantage of all the great opportunities they can provide to you and your company? Whether you are thinking about attending a trade show for the first time or going to your 50th show, make sure you are benefiting from everything they have to offer!

We’ve just returned from a week of learning, networking and fun at our 2018 accesso Client Seminar in sunny San Diego, and based on the feedback we’ve received, this has been one of the best years yet! It was so much fun to catch up with familiar faces and to meet some of our new clients. This year, we were pleased to welcome over 225 attendees from 106 venues for intensive software training, collaborative roundtable sessions, breezy beachside breakfasts and tropical-themed evening events. Read on to discover more highlights from our week in paradise.

A hot topic in and around museums is the visitor journey. Not just reserved for the museum community but in many experiential leisure industries, the guest journey has become central to conversations around road mapping, planning, exhibition preparation and engagement in general. If your venue has not yet begun this exploration, you may be asking what is a journey map and why is it important to my organization? Read on to discover why journey mapping is important and what it can do for your cultural institution.

Turning a guest’s initial visit to your eCommerce site into a sale is the goal of every business but as we all know, interruptions often get in the way. Many visitors are simply browsing, with no intent to purchase. Others may be in the process of researching and comparing options; still more may simply just get distracted. Recent research suggests that there are over 1.6 billion websites in the world, so how do you ensure that yours is primed for success? As a follow-up to our blog on maximizing eCommerce sales, we’ve got three more eCommerce site feature tips that can help you close the sale!

Historically, museums and cultural institutions have relied heavily on large annual gifts from generous philanthropists to ensure upkeep and operation. However, while aging baby boomers currently play a high-profile role in charitable giving, they will soon make way for the next generation of donors. Gen X and millennial philanthropists are likely to change the landscape for donations, and operators in the cultural market must adapt to meet future fundraising goals.

It’s hard to believe that in less than 3 months, we will be packing our bags and heading to sunny San Diego for a week of learning and relaxation in paradise! In our last blog, we covered how an individual can justify a trip to accesso Client Seminar for themselves, but what if you’re still not convinced it’s right for your team? Maybe you’ve attended a few times in the past and are questioning the value of returning. Allow us to present 3 compelling reasons why you (or someone from your business) should attend our accesso Client Seminar.

As technology professionals with backgrounds in the theme park, cultural and attractions industries, we know that gaining new customers is vital to the continued success of any venue. However, it’s important to remember that a ticket sale is only the starting point. Once a guest has purchased a ticket, what’s next? Ideally, the answer is: an experience that drives more sales. Whether you’re in the attractions industry, a retail environment or B2B service, upselling is a critical component in driving revenue. While most industry professionals understand the ins and outs of upselling, it’s important that the practice of upselling not get lost in the ever-present drive to attract new guests. 

Working in the leisure and entertainment industries can be exciting and exhilarating. Whether you manage ski resort ticketing or a performing arts center box office, you are part of the privileged few who often enjoy behind-the-scenes access to everything your venue has to offer. At the same time, it takes quite a lot of passion and dedication (and sometimes, a few extra cups of coffee) to balance all of the unique aspects that come with managing venues. Do you need a fresh dose of inspiration, insight and some R&R, too?  What if you could get all of that in a tropical setting and transform your career during the same week? Well, you can! Pack your laptop, sunscreen and flip flops, and get ready to join us in sunny San Diego, CA from September 16^th-21^st for accesso Client Seminar 2018!  

It’s lunchtime at your theme park and the lines are wrapped all the way around the pizza shop next to your newest thrill ride. Your guests are getting impatient, the staff is feeling slammed and it’s only 12pm. If only you could direct your guests to the pizza shop in the kids’ area that has virtually no lines. Now, you can!

A location-based experience management platform is a tool that allows venues to send real-time, interactive content to visitors before they arrive, during their visit and after they leave. Organizations from theme parks to hotels, quick-service restaurants to hospitals are leveraging this tool to create better experiences for their guests that pay off in a multitude of ways.

Managing a single venue can be challenging and complex, so when your business grows to include multiple locations, it can be difficult to find ways to accommodate that growth without seeing exponential increases in cost – and gray hairs! Luckily, new advances in technology have made it easier than ever to manage operations across multiple venues. Making sure you have a clear plan for managing your ticketing and point-of-sale implementation can do wonders for reducing stress, streamlining operations and helping you scale your business in a way that benefits your bottom line.

As with many in our industry, my journey has taken me from operations to support, from front line to leadership, and from Orlando to around the world.  The one constant that I can always count on in any role or any culture is that world class guest service is always paramount.

With the abundance of customer touch-points available today, ensuring that each interaction with your fans is as efficient, seamless and meaningful as possible is critical to acquiring and maintaining loyalty. And, as the customer experience begins long before they step foot onsite, nowhere is this more important than with the purchase of a ticket.

Congratulations! Your company has decided on a new software solution to better fit the needs of your company and the clients you service. Now what?

According to research conducted by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), the industry has faced two primary challenges in recent seasons: the aging out of its core target demographic, as baby boomers begin to move away from athletically-driven vacations and activities, and expense. However, with the help of impactful technology, you can seize the opportunity to craft meaningful experiences that your skiers want and deliver them in valuable ways that break down the price barrier.

There is an overwhelming amount of pressure these days on tech companies to create a millennial-minded workplace. A place with personality and culture. Somewhere its people can go to have breakfast, play games, hang out with their friends, and make a solid cappuccino with the perfect amount of froth. A place with good bones and thoughtful leaders who are supportive, inclusive and flexible; who aren’t afraid to shower their teams with the recognition they deserve for a job well-done. Mostly – and, importantly – they’re seeking a great place to work; to collaborate and innovate on challenging new ideas; to learn and to grow professionally and, perhaps, personally (if they’re lucky).

Whether your skiers choose the high-tech route or a less-connected approach, they all benefit from the incredible amount of technological investment that has been made across the ski industry over the past decade. Let’s take a look at where this investment has been in the past, where it is currently and where we see this headed in the future.

As we enter the new year, we want to take the time to reflect on 2017, celebrating the innovations and acquisitions that have propelled accesso even further as a leading international technology solutions provider, and to take a look at what 2018 has in store for the markets and industries we are so proud to serve.

As 2018 quickly approaches, it’s time for organizations to give serious thought to how they will address the customer experience in the coming year. In recent years, companies in all industries have recognized that it’s no longer safe to compete on product and price alone, and have prioritized customer experience (CX) efforts accordingly. Increasingly, marketers are taking a data-driven approach to CX that allows them to deliver highly-personalized, immersive experiences that make customers feel special and want to return to their brand again and again. As a result, we anticipate that 2018 will bring the highest expectations for a valuable and memorable experience from customers yet, as well as the highest risk of losing these customers to the competitors who can beat you to it.

User Testing is the practice of connecting with real users to observe them interacting with your product and to understand the goals they want to achieve while using it. It often surfaces pain points in the digital experience that may be a barrier to achieving these goals. This insight is indispensable to building a product that users really want, will continue to use, and will ultimately recommend to others. Simply put, User Testing can be an effective way to predict your Theme Park app’s success and profitability.

Millennials make up the largest generation to date, representing more than one quarter of the United States’ population and possessing more than $600 billion in buying power each year. By 2020, millennials are expected to account for 30 percent of retail sales in the United States.

Education, networking, collaboration and some pretty stellar musical performances – where can you find all of these things in one place? At our accesso Siriusware client seminar!

There will always be consumers who wish to deal in cash or swipe their actual credit card. But for those wanting to refrain from more traditional forms of payment and settle the score in other ways, there are a variety of new cashless payment options to save the day.

September has a tendency to sneak up on us in the theme park industry. With the beginning of the school year upon us, and the carefree summer days behind us, it’s now time to focus on continuing the momentum into the fall. For many of our Clients, this means celebrating the next exciting holiday, Halloween! Beyond the spooky decorations and costumed staff members, what can we do to help make these promotions a success? After a sensational summer, how can we drive sales and revenue? You may be surprised to find that making a few simple changes to your eCommerce site can help fulfill both of these objectives. Here are a few tips that can help.

Have you ever experienced credit or debit card theft? If so, you know the complicated series of emotions that follow: concern, fear, anger, and inevitably a lot of frustration as you deal with closing your card and opening a new one. It can be exhausting, and when it’s all said and done, not an experience that you want to repeat. Sometimes it’s tempting to play detective and figure out where the theft occurred in the first place. When a store has lost your trust in this way, do you think you would be inclined to return?

Running a major entertainment venue isn’t all fun and games. Guests come to relax and enjoy themselves, but operators know that behind the scenes, it can be a challenging business. Quite a lot of hard work and innovation go into producing that experience for the visitors. Savvy operators are constantly on the lookout for how they can improve that experience, while reducing overall costs and streamline their operation.

We’ve been working hard to release many new features and enhancements in our accesso ShoWare solution. In fact, so many features have been coming out that we created a messaging system to alert our clients to new enhancements every time they log into the site.

Katie Reilly introduces us to our accesso ShoWare solution’s new enhanced checkout and how it can help increase conversions in your eCommerce store.

Wendi Yanez presents creative uses for patron account credits, a feature of our accesso ShoWare solution which allows a balance to be held on a customer’s account for future use. 

Drew Belmont discusses how our accesso ShoWare solution’s integration with GoodData provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.