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How to Choose the Best
Arts CRM & Ticketing Software

 

Imagine what the right platform could achieve for your audience experience

Choosing your organisation’s ticketing software is important to you, and it's important to us.

Booking tickets, promoting your next show, asking for donations – the software that operates behind the scenes of it all is a critical decision.

From theatres to orchestras to festivals, arts organisations like yours use CRMs like Spektrix to empower their teams, gain better data insights, and deepen relationships with their audiences. We consider ourselves your partner in reaching your goals, and that begins with helping you discover the best arts ticketing software for you – a solution that really and truly fits. 

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What Is a CRM?

How arts organisations use CRM software to unify marketing, ticketing and fundraising

CRM stands for 'customer relationship management'. This software serves as a central hub for customer data, enabling day-to-day record-keeping and communications as well as providing further-reaching insights.
 
For arts organisations, this means linking up information from your marketing, ticketing, and fundraising departments to grow deeper, longer-lasting relationships with your audiences and find effective ways to engage with them.
 
When you work with a CRM provider that truly understands the world of theatre, music, and live events, you’ll open opportunities to make improvements right across your organisation.



What does the right technology look like?

Morning

It's a busy day, but you’re going in confident

You know that you’ll be able to move through everything swiftly and efficiently, with robust capabilities at your fingertips.

Great team meeting!

Your team collaborates and tackles challenges with ease, empowered by intuitive, easy-to-use functions, unlimited users, accessible data, practical support, and training.

Doors are open, and there’s a fantastic audience coming in for the show

You’ve been able to engage audiences with powerful segmentation, sector insights, and a range of loyalty plans, from season tickets to philanthropy.

Another shining revenue report

Your numbers are steadily increasing, with donations, ticket sales, and secondary spend reliably coming in. It’s all boosted by joined-up ticketing and fundraising records, personalised content, and packaged offers.

Night

Smoother days. Integrated functions. Long-term success.

 

Yes, it's all possible...

multiple hands holding puzzle pieces at a wooden table

 

The Benefits of a Collaborative Marketing, Ticketing & Fundraising CRM

 

“If your CRM and ticketing system sits in isolation, you might know which audience members purchased tickets for a given event. By adding marketing data into the mix, you’ll learn who engaged with your emails or digital campaigns, and make it easier to target communications for other, similar events. And by layering fundraising data on top of that, you’ll learn which patrons added a donation to their ticket purchase, and might have the greatest propensity to become members, subscribers or major donors in the longer term."

 

READ THE BLOG

Review Your Fit

When and why to re-evaluate your current software

 

We highly recommend that you continually evaluate if you have the best arts ticketing software for your needs. Know when the end of your contract is coming up, and leave plenty of time to do due diligence, re-examining your current setup and looking around to see if there’s a more suitable option available. 

 

Pain points that could point to needing new software:

Hard to learn

Struggle meeting revenue goals

Clunky reporting

No efficient way to track donations

Bad online experience for your audience

Slow or limited in scope

Requires extra resources to keep functioning

Not future-proof

Do any of these pain points sound familiar?

 

Explore how your colleagues tackled similar challenges.

Understand What You Need

What opportunities exist for improvement, and what specific challenges do you need to overcome?

Start with the 'why'. Take time to think deeply and critically about what impact the best online ticketing software would make for your organisation. Consider requirements that are goal-oriented and focused on the needs of your audiences and events, such as:

 

  • Increase overall spend on tickets, subscriptions, food & drink and more
  • Boost donations and promote memberships or subscriptions
  • Help departments work together and understand overall customer behaviour
  • Encourage everyone in your organisation to measure impact and make decisions based on accurate audience data

 

Writing a simple list of functions or features that you want is tempting, but it’s not the most useful tool for evaluating potential systems. You’re more likely to get a rounded view of how a potential supplier can meet your requirements if you ask them how they'll address your business goals, not whether they have a specific feature.

Assess Your Current Position

Talk to audiences and teams to understand what they like best about your arts ticketing software, what they rely on, and what they’d love to improve.

Are you replacing one system or several?

Although usually referred to as the 'ticketing system' or 'box office system', your existing software is likely to be used by marketers, fundraisers, and operations teams.

Who are the key stakeholders who need to have a say in your process? What other systems could you consolidate into one new one?

box office sign outside of a theater ticketing office

Understand your current provider contract

Many system providers will ask you to commit to a minimum term, ranging from 12 months up to multiple years. Your contract expiry date will inform your timeline for choosing a replacement, so make sure you know yours before you start researching new providers -  and consider whether you're ready to be locked in to a multi-year contract.

people sitting in an office signing a contract

Think about your approach to buying a new system

If your organisation is a non-profit, part of local government, or an academic institution, you may be required to run a competitive bid process or make formal requests for a proposal. Determining this early will save you considerable effort later.

Suppliers should be ready to work with you based on your preferred approach, whether that's an informal exploration, structured tender, or centralised framework such as G Cloud.

hands moving multicolored sticky notes on a whiteboard in an office

Learn what is important to your customers

Are there particular annoyances that your customers raise with you about your current booking process? To understand your customers' requirements, consider consulting with regular visitors or using software to monitor online behaviours and sticking points.

a man holding a young boy in the audience at a concert

Asking the right questions

 

By focusing on your goals, you can frame your conversation to effectively evaluate which arts ticketing software will best support your box office, fundraising, and communications teams. For example:

Internal challenge:

We’re not making enough money on add on options when customers book tickets.

What you need from a new system: 

Tools that put add-on options in front of customers and encourage them to buy when making a booking.

Question to potential suppliers:

"Please demonstrate how your product can help us to drive additional purchases on advance sales, and provide examples of existing users who are successfully doing this."

Put It All Into Action

 

For more examples and exercises, download our free workbook designed to help you truly understand your needs.

 

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE WORKBOOK

Make a Comparison

Why organisations like yours are choosing Spektrix

 

Once you have a clear idea of what you need, take a look at these side-by-side comparisons of major systems. We can help you determine which ticketing software best suits the needs, values, and long-term success of your organisation.

Plan Your Timeline

Find a realistic timeline for implementation, ensuring you’ll be fully supported along the way.

 

Implementation is more than just the time to rebuild your existing systems.

It's an opportunity to reimagine

how you work across teams, how you talk to your audiences, and how you maximise the value of your investment, calling on your Project Manager’s expertise to explore ideas for improvements or efficiencies.

It's a consultative process

in which you’ll gain insight and inspiration from cultural organisations right across the country, while we build a complete picture of your team and priorities, helping us suggest the best possible outcomes for your audiences, donors and teams.

It's collaborative

and will draw together colleagues from across your organisation to reimagine what your CRM could do, supported by experts in fundraising, data, communications, web integrations and audience experience.

You could go live with Spektrix in as little as 12 weeks.

So, if you were to commit to the change in August, you’d be live in time for your crucial winter events. 

Every organisation is unique, and every implementation process starts with a kick off meeting to plan a timeline based on your specific needs.

Read more about Spektrix on our blog:

The Spektrix team is here to support you

We'd love to answer your questions, get to know your needs, and help you plan how to bring the best arts ticketing software to your organisation.

Talk to us about Spektrix