Beverley Racecourse
Beverley Racecourse and its customers have benefited greatly from the implementation of the IRIS Web ticketing solution at the beginning of the 2007 flat racing season. Introduced in conjunction with the launch of their updated website including direct web sales, the advance ticket sales process has been radically improved offering the racecourse huge savings in resources and giving customers a much improved booking experience.
Beverley is an independent racecourse, based in the north of England with a crowd capacity of 12,000. The course only holds flat race meetings and hosts over twenty meetings between April and September with July and August being the busiest months featuring evening racing. They have three different enclosures at the racecourse – a top price Members enclosure, the mid-range Grandstand and Paddock Enclosure, and the cheapest option is the Course Enclosure. They also host various other non-racing events from concerts to the ‘Spirit of the Horse’ demonstrations.
Inefficient old ways
The team responsible for ticketing administration is a small one and they have limited IT resources. Before IRIS Web was implemented all advance ticket sales taken over the phone were manually processed with credit cards being put through a PDQ machine after the call had ended. Any card queries needed to be followed up with another call to the customer. Customers visiting the racecourse website could either download a booking form and post it with a cheque, or follow a link through to the British Horseracing Board website and purchase tickets there.
This process was very laborious and not at all customer or business friendly, with the administration team only able to keep a note of the number of tickets sold.
The need for change
Racecourse Manager Sally Iggulden explains the key points they were looking to address in a new ticketing system,
“We needed to improve our customer booking experience over the phone and to be able to offer online booking from our website, which we could control. Importantly we needed to be able to keep our customer data and credit card details secure. We also wanted to be able to use our current customer data for mid-season promotions and for sponsorship opportunities; with our old system it just wasn’t possible as the database was only updated at the end of the season when we re-input all the details manually into our database.”
As they are only a small team, they wanted to improve their efficiency and have a system that was easy to use, but without the need for complex IT support or infrastructure, a solution that would give them control over their ticketing.
Smooth implementation
Their IRIS Web ticketing solution is delivered and easily accessed through the Internet. They use the system to process their advance telephone and postal bookings and offer web sales through their website.
Sally continues,
“With IRIS Web it is easy for users to manage. We are not IT experts but we can run our own reports and checks on the system. The initial training ran smoothly and we have also had some good telephone and online training sessions with ts.com Customer Service and are now using it very well. Our advance bookings have risen, especially for the more popular meetings where there is a high demand for badges.”
Online launch
The web sales were introduced as part of their website upgrade and are branded like their new website.
“We promoted the website relaunch and online booking with PR at race meetings and in the racecards. Our online sales have really taken off, and customers seem to find it easy to use as there are very few booking sessions that terminate before a booking is completed, which is excellent feedback.” Sally explains.
A few clicks to save time
They are finding that the IRIS Web system cuts down on administration.
“It’s great not having to input all the details of customers who are making repeat bookings – we just find the person’s details on the system and add a new booking. We can easily double check the status of customer orders online, and another nice thing is having the ability to print mailing labels off the system rather than typing them manually. It only takes a few clicks to run the right report to get the data for the labels and saves a huge amount of time when we’re sending out badges. We can keep a closer eye on sales to date and repeat visits. The reporting side is very useful and will prove invaluable as we put in place our marketing plans for next year.”
Marketing success
They have also experimented with the integrated marketing functionality within the IRIS Web system, sending customers an email promoting a specific race meeting. Beverley are planning to do a mailing campaign specifically to customers who bought tickets for the evening meetings to advertise a similar event later in the season.
“Our first campaign was very basic but was a success as we did get people booking as a direct result of the email. I think we will get even better results with more preparation.” Sally confirms.
Their sponsors are also benefiting from the implementation of the IRIS Web system at the racecourse. They have been running a joint campaign with John Smiths for a ‘buy one get one free’ promotion on badges at evening meetings, with customers simply entering a promotion code online, or quoting the code when booking over the phone. The first 500 customers also receive a free Tote betting voucher. In the past they would have had to run the promotion by post with customers sending in cheques and a booking form, but the IRIS Web system makes it easy to manage and importantly allows them to give John Smiths up to date data on the up-take of the promotion.
Summing up Sally concludes,
“At the moment we are just selling our race meeting tickets through IRIS Web and finding our feet with the system. We know that there are a lot of other things we can use the system to do like selling hospitality packages and ticketing for our non-racing events. As we get used to working with it, we will use ts Web in as many ways as we can.”
Customer
Beverley Racecourse, in the north of England, hosts over 20 flat race meetings between April and September. An independent racecourse with a capacity of 12,000, the course offers customers a choice of three different enclosures.
Challenge
To provide a solution that could replace their current inefficient manual process for handling advance ticket sales, which often required double entering of data, had no live credit card processing and had only limited web sales capability through a link to the British Horseracing Board website. The solution needed to be suitable for a small multi-function team with limited in house IT resource.
Solution
IRIS Web the Internet delivered solution for advance phone and web ticket sales, with secure live credit card processing and branded sales pages on Beverley Racecourse website. IRIS Web enables the Beverley to easily capture valuable customer data from all bookings, and integrated marketing functionality allows them to run special offers and promotions using email and other media throughout the season, easily monitoring campaign success through real time online access to reports.
Result
IRIS Web has brought Beverley Racecourse time and resource savings and improved their customer booking experience. Their website was relaunched offering direct web sales. IRIS Web is easy enough for them to run joint promotions with sponsors through the use of promotion codes and send email updates to race-goers. And easy online access to sales and marketing reports benefits Beverley’s business planning by giving real time access to information on who is buying which tickets for each event.
