Project Detail

Description

I run a community theater, and I need your help. I need a COMPLETE list of companies in the USA that could provide ticketing services for my community theater. Therefore, using Google research all of the ticketing companies that match our needs (below). Then, using each ticket company's website and email, find the following information. Put this info in an excel spreadsheet.

DELIVERABLE:

Basic Info For The Ticketing Company
- Name of the ticketing company
- Their website
- Their phone number
- Where the company is located (if multiple locations, include all)
- How many clients does the ticketing company claim to have? Are these venues? Theaters? Sports teams? Rock bands?
- Who does this ticketing company FOCUS on? Theater? Rock bands? Sports? List their primary customers.
- Can I search this ticketing company's website for local events they promote on their website? are their clients listed there?

The Ticketing Company's Services
- Will the ticketing company let us accept ticket orders on our theater's website?
- Will the ticketing company accept orders for our theater on their website?
-- If so, can patrons search for our event using a search feature?
- Will they accept ticket orders over the phone for us? If so, what is the phone number?
- Will the ticketing company accept credit cards for our theater?
-- If so, what is the credit card rate?
- Will the ticketing company print blank tickets for our event?
- Will the ticketing company print and mail our tickets for us as orders are placed?
-- If so, what does postage and mailing of each ticket cost? Do they bill the patron or our theater for this?
-- If the ticketing company doesn't print tickets, do they suggest we print them ourselves? How? On our own printer?
-- Does the ticketing company sell empty ticket paper for us to print any ticket we want on?
- Is there a way for our theater's members to easily sell tickets to their family and friends? Is there a "referral" system?
- Does the ticketing company require some tickets pay a surcharge?
-- How much is the surcharge?
-- When do customers pay the surcharge? For having tickets mailed? For ordering tickets on the phone? List all that apply, please.
-- Can we control the surcharge (add money or subtract money)?

If Our Theater Switches To This Ticketing Company
- How much will it cost me to set up my theater with this ticketing company?
-- What ordinary equipment do I need to use this solution? Computer? Internet access? A printer?
-- Is special equipment do they want me to buy? Ticket printer? Barcode scanner?
- Will someone from the ticketing company come to my theater and help us set up their product? If so, does it cost? If so, how much?
- Once we are set up and have the necessary equipment, how much will this ticketing company cost us?
-- Do they charge by the ticket?
-- Do they charge by the order?
-- Do we pay them a flat fee per month / per year?
-- What other fees are charged?

In Closing, Review This Ticking Company
- What do you see that is different here from the other ticketing companies?
- Does the ticketing company have a written summary of their "philosophy" or "method", explaining why their system will WORK?
- Tell me: are YOU sold on this company? Would YOU use them?

END DELIVERABLE

There are a lot of ticketing companies, so I want you to know what WE need. Here's some information about our theater to help you decide if a ticketing company would work for us:

- We are community-focused: our actors, stage crew, lighting and sound, and directors all come from local towns and cities
- We do musicals and plays, and we perform in an auditorium that holds 700 people.
- We only perform in this theater, we rehearse in a different building.
- We only have access to the theater during the week of our show.
- We are kind of tight on money, but we want a good ticketing solution.
- We do about 4 shows a year.
- We bring in about $28,000 on each show (convert this to your local currency if you need)

Remember, we don't need to know about companies that wouldn't work for our theater. Some ticketing companies only help really large theaters, and some only help sports teams. We don't need to list these companies in our excel spreadsheet.

Google Queries To Help You Get Started:
"box office software"
"sell tickets online"
"ticket software"
"community theater tickets"

Some Ticking Companies I Know To Help You Get Started (not all of these are right for our theater):
- Tix.com
- Mission Tix
- Vendini

Notes
- This project will begin with a quick instant messanger (Google Chat, AOL IM -- your choice) to make sure you understand all of the details.
- You will then start this project by doing 3 companies that I will proofread. If you perform acceptable work, you will be hired to find the rest. We'll use this opportunity to review your excel spreadsheet format, too.
- You should find about 50 of these ticketing companies. There might be quite a few more; 50 is only a rough estimate. I expect you to dig deep in Google's results and other sites on the web to find every possible company. We don't want one of our competing theaters to find a better ticketing company.
- If you can't find the answer to one or more of the questions above, email the company and ask the question in a short, well worded email. Save these emails as part of your market research and submit. You should open a gmail or yahoo account and pretend to be a real theater when asking these questions.
- We're not interested in ticket resellers. A ticket reseller is a company or website that lets you sell existing tickets. An example is stubhub.com. IF, however, the company could help our theater AND they also offer ticket resale, please include them in the list.
- The excel spreadsheet should be easy to understand and printable on 8.5" x 11" paper. Take a few minutes to consider the spreadsheet and lay it out in a nice way.