Blog

Customer Service:
How to Prepare Your Staff for the Frontlines

Today’s guest blog post is written by Hatsumi Yoshida, Assistant Bookkeeper, Patron Technology. 

Prior to making the jump into the arts sector with my role here at PatronManager, I held two different positions in customer service. One as a sales associate/cashier at a famous Times Square retailer, the other as a lead teller at one of the world’s largest commercial banks. My time in these positions really taught me how personalizing your service to the customer you are helping, can make all the difference.

When I began as a sales associate, connecting to customers was an exasperating experience. The clothing store I worked for had over one hundred employees and a high turnover rate, so they put very little time/money into properly training us. Consequently, I had a difficult time conversing with customers and ended up leaving my position after a year.Read the Article

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Is Your Customer Service “Activated?”

Today’s guest blog post is written by Alyssa Jean, Client Cultivation Specialist, Patron Technology. 

Why is it that art has such a profound effect on its viewers almost instantaneously? Museums, cinemas, and theatres all act as catalysts eager to activate patrons in their own unique way. From my time working in professional theatre, I have seen the significant role artists serve as powerful communicators. But one of the most critical lessons I’ve learned is that the effectiveness of that communication does not begin at showtime, but rather with the early implementation of “activated” customer service.

Often times when it comes to training customer service representatives, we focus too much on the “supply-side” of communication (i.e. relaying correct information, appropriate responses, box office policies etc…) and not enough on the “receiving-side,” specifically, listening. It’s obviously crucial for your staff to be knowledgeable and to be able to answer any basic questions that your patrons may have. But what if a more complicated situation arises in which a protocol isn’t already in place? Is your staff equipped to tactfully listen to a patron’s problem and help suggest a creative solution?Read the Article

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The Benefit of An Internal E-mail Newsletter

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In all the years I’ve been writing about email marketing, I’ve always focused on how your organization can target, and engage your audience. I never really paid much attention to the idea of an internal newsletter. That is until I read this post titled, The Benefits of Creating Newsletters for Internal Purposes (and How to Make It Happen).

The article caused me to pause and think about what we do here at PatronManager to keep our employees updated and motivated towards our goals. First, we use Chatter a ton, obsessively in fact. For those who don’t know, Chatter is an internal communication tool built right into PatronManager/Salesforce that mimics Facebook style conversations.

We have over 15 Chatter groups including departmental groups, a full company group, and even one dedicated to our “cheese club.” In some ways, our “full company” Chatter group serves the purpose of a newsletter when we have big announcements to make. We also have a monthly live “all hands” call where we present an update for the whole staff. So it didn’t occur to me to do an actual newsletter, which I think is a pretty interesting idea.  Read the Article

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Executive Directors:
Here’s Your Pre-Season Checklist

Today’s guest blog post is written by Kevin Patterson, Senior Account Executive, PatronManager. 

With Labor Day now behind us and summer winding down the fall arts season is about to begin. Hopefully, you have had an opportunity to pry yourself away from your desk for a much-needed vacation. Now that you are back in the office do you and your team have a plan in place to have a great season? If you are behind or just feel like it, you need to move quickly. Here are some very important things you can do to strike out on the right foot.

As an executive, one of your most important tasks is to clearly set and manage expectations. Internally, your board of directors and your team need a stable leader. You, in turn, need a board and team that you can rely on to be responsible for the key metrics of your organization and exercise the authority to achieve them.Read the Article

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How Important Is Customer Data?
The Case of Amazon vs. Ticketmaster

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Last month, the rest of the world learned through news reports what many of us in the ticketing industry had been aware of for a while — that Amazon.com has designs on selling tickets. Tickets are the ultimate digital product because you don’t need a warehouse to provide the product, which makes it an ideal target for Amazon. The entrenched commercial ticketing industry is led by Ticketmaster, which last year earned almost $2 billion selling tickets largely on behalf of commercial venues and promoters.

My thesis for the past decade has been that today, ticketing companies can’t just provide technology for venues to sell tickets. That gets you in the game, but it doesn’t win the game. Ticketing companies now must provide ways for the sellers of tickets to amass a rich, robust database of buyers from which they can build relationships. That’s the essence of CRM and what has guided us to build PatronManager for the arts community. Read the Article

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Oops! — Recovering From An Email Mishap

Today’s guest blog post is written by Samantha Colbert, Senior Client Administrator, Patron Technology. 

So, you just sent a marketing email, great! And it’s already in your inbox, perfect! You open it up to admire your work… and there it is. That error that somehow all your drafts and checks and “could-you-give-this-a-once-overs” missed. This time it’s only a typo — you can breathe a sigh of relief that most people won’t catch it, you can roll your eyes at yourself, swear next time to run that spell checker, and move on with your day.

But what if the problem isn’t a simple typo? What if there’s a wrong date? What if the link to the ticket order page goes to adorable pictures of kittens? What if you credited the wrong person, and only find out when your Executive Director comes into your office, furious? Mistakes in emails are something that everyone makes, whether it’s forgetting to add an attachment, or something much bigger, and much worse. But, once they happen, what can be done? Read the Article

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