Posts filed under ‘Online’
Ticketmaster May Not Be What Arthur C. Clarke Had In Mind?
Interesting post and question raised by Drew McManus in is blog Adaptistration. In this interview from the ABC in 1974, Arthur C. Clarke was certainly prescient, albeit an unabashed enthusiast.
He does describe a more democratic business model and adds a then utopian dream of SOHO or satellite working. Some of it does not seem so far fetched 37 years on?
Like Drew, I am sure that monopolies/duopolies and intermediaries imposing legal barriers that restrain trade were not part of Arthur C. Clarke’s vision.
Wouldn’t you just have loved to pull an iPhone out of your pocket and see the look on his face?!
18 April, 2012 at 12:05 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Does Social Media have a role in CRM?
I don’t know, what do you think?
I was asked by a client the other day whether Social Media should have been documented more in a CRM specification. I said that I had presumed so, but when I tried to define tasks or information requirements that overlapped CRM to Social Media a short paragraph seemed to do the job.
I am not diminishing the value of Social Media. But Social Media is about a conversation and the extension of Customer Relationship Management is not Customer Conversation Management.
Listening is more important than talking, preaching or promoting. The latter does not encourage or enhance engagement, listening does.
So back to CRM. I guess you could record a customer’s FB page, twitter account, Linked in page and so-on. But that is just like recording phone numbers, it does not mean you are or will listen to them or learn from them what interests them, excites them, annoys them, even what they think about you and what you do.
I think the missing link is legwork. Sorry for the mixed analogies, but the legwork of listening is essential, whether automated or manual. Listening to Social Media channels may result in learning and provide the trigger for activity. That trigger may be a complaint, compliment, indication of a prospect or a warning of a defector (maybe lapsing subscriber is less inflamatory). Various Social media channels need to be monitored for triggers and when a trigger is identified, a CRM may then assist in managing the customer incident, communication, activity, induction, loyalty, upgrade, re-attraction and other stages of an ongoing, developing and evolving relationship.
Therein lies the challenge, identifying triggers by the action of listening to the multitude of conversations. A CRM can record Social Media identifiers, integration will eventually enable the monitoring of the social media channels for individuals. However, intelligence will be required to be added to that listening to accurately identify triggers for the proactive (even just reactive) management of the relationship.
Then we get to the issue of privacy … oh boy – let’s leave that for another day.
3 April, 2012 at 1:12 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 3 comments
Does this indicate that people prefer to book at the source? Hotels provide some clues.
I always find it valuable to watch other industries for clues to trends and innovations.
The hotel industry may hold some clues regarding the changing role of intermediaries. Yes, it is a different industry, as is airlines. But that does not mean that there may be enough similarities to provide valuable insight. After all entertainment, hotels and airlines all sell or licence the right for a person to occupy a specific location for a specified time period. Agreed, there may be some differences in where the booking takes you physically and metaphorically. But there is one overriding similarity – it is a perishable inventory. Once the curtain goes up or the planes takes off, that seat is gone forever and has no value.
“room nights booked through hotel websites last year grew consistently in each quarter, growing 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the same time in 2010.“
Consumers are increasingly buying direct from the hotel, rather than travel agents or online travel agencies.
“Overall in the transient segment, the OTAs (Online Travel Agencies like Expedia and Hotels.com) accounted for 11.4 percent of all hotel rooms booked for the fourth quarter; GDS (Global Disctribution Systems used by Travel agencies) accounted for 19.3 percent; hotel websites (e.g. hilton.com) accounted for 26.5 percent; direct bookings accounted for 25.0 percent; and voice, or 1-800 numbers, accounted for 16.7 percent.“
“Hotel companies have been focusing on educating customers about the value and benefits of booking direct on their websites. These companies have been investing in improving their websites and web value proposition to ensure hotels and customers understand and believe in the value of booking direct with them online.“
That sounds like a good strategy for entertainment as well, the event owner selling directly to consumers without the need for intermediaries. At the very least, the benefits of control over the service ‘promise’ made, the service delivered and the reduction of additional service fees and commissions all makes sense. As suggested, it is important to educate and inform customers and for the not for profit entertainment sector a major, related issue is transparency.
“… consumers are spending an increasing amount of time shopping and comparing hotel options online, often visiting between 8-15 different websites to make an informed decision.” Consumers are getting cleverer at comparing options and they are more and more skilled at accessing AND sharing information on options.
“While a hotel’s website continues to drive more and more bookings for hotels, it is important to recognise that different channels cater to different types of customers, and having an appropriately diversified and optimal mix will drive improved revenue and profit outcomes,”
Different strokes for different folks at different times and different situations.
Selling directly to customers is not the only option, but it looks like it increasingly must be one option and an important one at that.
22 March, 2012 at 1:19 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
What do you reckon about the likely impact of these Marketing Trends on CRM in 2012?
Here are some more predictions of marketing trends that will impact CRM in 2012 according to Judith Aquino of CRM.COM in 5 Hot Marketing Trends (not surprisingly, mobile is at the top):
- Mobile Marketing
- QR Codes
- Voice Of Customer (VOC) Monitoring
- Social Media Marketing
- Video
Finally, she suggests an additional trend with the ‘news’ that Groupon and Daily Deals sites have fallen to earth and are no longer seen as the ‘answer’. Surely, you would have to suggest that they were only ever good for pissing of existing and loyal customers with unfocussed discounts in the guise of prospecting for new customers – BUT without gaining any personal details with which to build an ongoing relationship with those new prospects?
2 January, 2012 at 5:47 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
More transparency added to unfair ADD ON FEES
Fee Transparency = “a compromise to freedom of speech“
Oh pullease … my ass
Add on fees for “convenience” et al are just that .. convenient ways to squeeze more out of the consumer.
Here is a good comparison of airlines and concert tickets. They are both interested in yield management and revenue maximisation, but responsible behaviour comes down to one thing: … TRANSPARENCY
The High Price of Add-on Online Fees
28 December, 2011 at 12:32 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Isn’t it time you looked at integrating ticketing on Facebook?
Rob Martin, Digital Marketing Manager at The Lowry, Salford explains the implementation of Facebook ticketing at their venue as reported on the AMA COMMONS. Of note is the fact that at a cost of just £500 to integrate the new service, it paid for itself in the first month!
According to Rob “On average we sell around 50% of our tickets online, with the percentages rising for music and comedy.” Google Analytics revealed how important their Facebook page was for referring traffic, so logically they explored the option of selling tickets directly from Facebook.
“Live performances and ticket inventory taken from the Box office system into the … CMS now allows the website to share that information with Facebook users. The Facebook Events Page is a web application that … retrieves the current event information from the website via an exposed web service.“
Read more about the solution that paid for itself in a month: Lowry’s portrait of a Facebook ticketing operation
29 November, 2011 at 9:38 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 4 comments
Who are the Big 3 in the War in the cloud?
A quick primer to the main providers of CRM in the cloud and currently battling it out:
1. Microsoft Dynamics CRM
“If you are an Outlook shop, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a no brainer. The application’s core offering is your standard fare CRM feature set, but it is adding social media functionality as fast as it can.“
2. Oracle Public Cloud
“brings its formidable database and business application bona fides — of which CRM is just one part — to the cloud.“
3. Salesforce.com
Just need someone to solve that issue of integrating external ticketing software/service transactions for those stuck in venues with exclsuive ticketing contracts …
17 November, 2011 at 12:04 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Do you know of any other successful integrations of CRM with ticketing solutions?
I was contacted by Lauren Carlson a CRM Analyst with Software Advice.
Lauren introduced me to a review she wrote on five CRM alternatives to consider other than Salesforce, namely:
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM
- NetSuite OneWorld CRM
- Oracle CRM On Demand
- Sage SalesLogix
- SugarCRM
The review is Salesforce Alternatives | 5 Cloud CRM Systems to Consider
I recommend having a browse, not because I have a problem with Salesforce. However, I do think that comparison is always useful, as is competition. I would also suggest that the needs of entertainment wrt CRM are specific and the major requirement that is not addressed by any of these is integration with transaction capability, such as ticketing, memberships or donations.
There is are only two such integrations I know of currently:
- Patron Manager is built on a Salesforce platform and incorporates a variety of transaction types (including: Ticketing, Subscriptions and Donations) within the web-based service developed by Patron technology in New York.
- Event2CRM is an integration of Microsoft Dynamics and Eventbrite online ticketing developed by CRM Innovation in Kansas.
Do you know of any other integrations of CRM with ticketing solutions? Let us know by all means by adding a comment to this blog.
There is a short common sense summary available from Software Advice: Ten Steps to Selecting the Right CRM Software that you can download after registering.
14 November, 2011 at 5:38 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 6 comments
Will you be stumbling around with Yumbling as your Entertainment Concierge?
I am not so sure about the name Yumbling, but it is an interesting development nonetheless.
“a free mobile app that recommends local entertainment options based on the user’s current location and preferences.“
This appears to be more than other apps like Urbanspoon which is more like a location based directory and in their words a “provider of time-critical dining data“. This covers a growing selection of entertainment options. They fine tune (or increase relevance of) recommendations by using what they call a “social DNA” algorithm.
“it factors in not only the user’s location, but also what it has learned of their tastes, and reportedly even contextual factors such as the time of day. Users who download the app … begin by creating a basic profile that includes some of their personal likes and dislikes. Yumbling logs this information, but also refines its understanding of the user over time based on their use of the app.“
It is device agnostic, available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia devices.
7 November, 2011 at 1:47 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Crowd Sourcing Meets Audience Sourcing, or is it just Audience Choice?
Some interesting trends for the future in Brazilian viewers choose what gets screened in local cinemas.
Mobz, a cinema chain in Brazil, hopes to make use of digital cinema to broadcast of live events, concerts, movies and more.
There is no programmer or “central decision-maker (who) chooses what gets shown, however; rather, local consumers are invited to vote on the site for the shows or films they want to see. When enough people vote for a particular screening, Mobz negotiates the details with the content owners and theaters, and viewers can then buy their tickets through the site. Mobz promotes the screening over social networks, and provided a minimum number of tickets are sold, the event or film is then aired. If the quota is not met, then those who had bought tickets are fully refunded.“
This is a similar model to that successfully applied by the filmakers of Four Eyed Monsters to build audiences for their film outside the traditional distributor model. Social networks are used to spread the word and, in effect, consumer advocacy drives the audience development.
While this is unlikely to have immediate applicability to whole live performances, maybe we will see more audience sourced content like that on a recent tour by Rufus Wainwright (for the Baby Boomer challenged, yes the son of Loudon III). The audience could vote in advance for the choice of songs that Rufus sang on an evening.
You will note that I have not, however, suggested cast selection reminiscent of Big Brother!
24 October, 2011 at 7:53 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
