Spotlight Studios for the Performing Arts in Fairpoint, NY offers musical theatre training to children, teens and adults. They offer live learning productions, 24 hour theatre events, volunteer opportunities, internship programs and even help students produce their own show. Apart from this, they offer private lessons in piano, voice, acting, dance and ukulele to name a few.

Their motto: Everyone deserves a chance to be in the Spotlight!

CHALLENGES

Spotlight Studios produces 20 shows a year with kindergartner to grade 12 performers. The studio used to sell tickets to their shows the manual way – through a physical box office. Ticket purchases, refunds and ticket switches would happen by hand. The paper ticket method brought about a set of common challenges. Parents of participants would often lose tickets, and some would purchase extra tickets for other family members and leave them at the box office to be picked up later. With a limited seating capacity of 110, the shows would sell out even before all the parents could buy tickets. These challenges would frequently hamper the attendee experience Spotlight Studios desired to provide.

RESULTS

Spotlight Studios came across Yapsody in 2016 and decided to give it a try. Using Yapsody, Spotlight was able to improve the event experience in the following ways:

1. Online Event Ticketing

Spotlight was able to send tickets directly to the ticket purchaser’s inbox, eliminating all paper ticket hassles. Losing tickets was never a possibility as both the ticket purchaser and Spotlight Studios always had a copy of the ticket. Parents can now simply forward the tickets they bought for other family members instead of leaving them at the box office.

2. Seamless Ticket Purchase Experience:

As the presenter started to sell tickets online, people wanting to buy tickets could do so during any time of the day, irrespective of the theme park’s working hours. As and when online ticket store visitors had queries regarding the tickets and the process of purchasing, Yapsody’s online support is available round the clock to assist ticket purchasers through the process.

3. Control Ticket Distribution Using Access Codes

The major problem of parents not being able to buy tickets was solved using Yapsody’s Access Codes. The codes allow each family to purchase a maximum of ten tickets, allowing all parents to purchase tickets to watch their kids perform on stage.

 4. Quicker Ticket Validation

Using Yapsody’s mobile app – YapScan, Diggerland was able to do away with long lines at the entry. With a quick scan of the ticket, park visitors could enter the venue in a matter of seconds.

 5. Chat Support

Whenever Sherene or the team had a question, they could get through to the customer support team at Yapsody using the chat feature on the website, who provided them the answers to their queries in an instant.

BENEFITS

Spotlight Studios never has to deal with an online sale in person! Apart from providing just the right solutions, Yapsody also simplified other event aspects.

1. Multiple Performance Creation for Each Event

As Spotlight organizes 3 performances for every show, setting up events became simple as they could easily add multiple performances to the same listing.

2. New Event Creation

Setting up new shows was also simplified – all they have to do is copy a previous production and change the dates, logo and show description, saving a whole lot of time.

3. Immediate Payment

Using Yapsody’s PayPal integration, the money goes directly into their bank account as and when a ticket sale happens.

 4. Real-time Sales Analytics using Yapsody Mobile Apps

Yapsody’s app – YapStats allows them the ability to see how many tickets have been sold or are left for any particular production, all in real time!

 5. Enhance Attendee Experience by Using YapScan

Spotlight often has more than one usher at their venue to validate tickets. The YapScan app allows the ushers to scan tickets on multiple devices at a time, making the process quicker and pleasant for the attendees.

 6. Leverage 24/7 Support for Technical Queries & Priority Resolution

Spotlight communicates with support through email and online chat and gets their queries resolved, each time. According to them, the Support is always very responsive, helpful, and cheerful.