In this article you will learn about Fixed Series ticket subscriptions.
Fixed Series ticket subscriptions allow you to create bundles of tickets or season ticket passes where customers can book the same seats for a selected number of different Instances, usually at a discounted price. Fixed Series subscriptions can be renewed within a specified period and usually run yearly or seasonally.
VIDEO: If you're new to Fixed Series, take a look at our Audience Loyalty concept video.
What are Subscription Models?
The term ‘subscription’ is often used to describe a variety of advance-sales ticketing models. Generally subscriptions offer the customer a benefit (most commonly a price reduction) for buying a series of tickets and paying in advance. They also benefit the venue by helping to build customer loyalty and drive revenue.
Subscription models are known by many different names including: season pass, subscription, flex pass, smart pass, multibuy offers, season tickets, etc.
While the specifics of individual schemes vary, we can broadly divide these models into two categories: fixed or flexible.
In Spektrix, we call a fixed subscription a ‘Fixed Series’ and a flexible subscription a ‘Ticket Subscription.
What are Ticket Subscriptions?
Ticket Subscriptions, often known as flexible subscriptions, flex passes or smart passes, are a prepaid set of ticket vouchers that a customer can use to purchase a range of events across a season, at their own convenience.
Events can be selected at the point of purchase or after having bought the subscription, and can range in flexibility from a fully flexible set of tickets that can be used to see any show in a season in any combination, to a seasonal pass that contains exactly one ticket to each event in a season.
For more information about Ticket Subscriptions, take a look at the following articles:
What are Fixed Series?
A Fixed Series subscription, sometimes described as a season ticket, allows customers to book the same seats across a number of different Instances, usually for a discounted price.
That booking becomes a subscription which can be renewed (usually in the following year or season), giving that customer the right to keep their seats or choose other seats available to them when purchasing their subscription for the following season.
The important thing here is that the customer retains the right to the same seats for each Instance – and this right can be rolled over for the next season or series of performances.
Why use Fixed Series?
Fixed Series subscriptions in Spektrix are designed to deepen relationships with customers, reward customer loyalty and create a better experience for frequent bookers. Fixed Series can drive increased revenue at your organization and also save time for staff and system administrators.
What can I use Fixed Series for?
There are two main examples of how Fixed Series subscriptions are used:
- To allow subscribers to book for a specific series or season of shows (productions/performances), commonly all on the same day of the week for a discounted price. For example, this might look like a bundle of tickets that contains seats A1 & A2 for every Saturday matinee across 5 different shows. Subscriptions can be renewed for the next season or next series of shows and the customer can choose to keep (or change) their specific seats.
- You have a series of one-off shows (for example, a season of classical concerts) to which customers can subscribe and save. Once the season has finished customers can renew their subscription for next year's season, ensuring the same seat is booked for every future performance in that season.
Fixed Series can only be set up on Events with reserved seating plans because they are related to specific seats.
TIP: To encourage your customers to book multiple shows in unreserved plans, you can use Multibuy offers or Ticket Subscriptions.
Fixed Series in Spektrix
Fixed Series along with Memberships and Ticket Subscriptions can be found in the Subscriptions tab in the Admin and Sales Interfaces.
In order for Fixed Series to appear in the Sales Interface, make sure the Show Fixed Series tab in Sales Interface check box has been selected.
Once this has been selected you will be able to see any active Fixed Series under the Subscriptions tab.
Selling Fixed Series
There are two ways in which Fixed Series Subscriptions can be sold - customers can either purchase the subscription straight away, or you can hold a subscription for a customer, who can then purchase it at a later date.
By holding a subscription for a customer you are giving them the rights to their seats. The customer can then purchase those same seats or opt to select different ones within their Fixed Series.
Along with the ability to purchase the same seat across multiple Events, one of the key benefits of a Fixed Series is the ability to roll a subscription over - in other words to allow a customer to retain the same seats in subsequent seasons/series.
TIP: For more information on this subject, see our article on Rolling Over a Fixed Series.
Fixed Series can be sold online and customers can purchase their held subscriptions from their user profile. When setting up a Fixed Series you can set a timeout period for how long tickets are held before they are released.
Learning About Fixed Series
For more information about setting up and selling Fixed Series on Spektrix, you can check out the following Support Centre articles:
- Selling, Holding or Returning a Fixed Series Subscription
- Setting up a Fixed Series
- Rolling Over a Fixed Series
On-Demand Training Video - Fixed Series
If you would like a guided walkthrough of the entire process, watch our Spektrix Training: On Demand video on Fixed Series. Each chapter will build upon each other. You can also select into individual chapters as needed for refreshers.
You can follow along with the corresponding articles found in the Learning About Fixed Series section of this article.
This video goes over:
- What a Fixed Series is in Spektrix
- How to Sell, Hold, Return, and Release Subscriptions
- How to plan and build a Fixed Series
- Fixed Series Pricing
- Varied Pricing in Fixed Series
- Rolling Over a Fixed Series
VIDEO TIP: With our Spektrix Training: On Demand videos- you can stop, restart or move to specific chapters. Click the CC option to turn on captions. Click into the Settings menu cog icon to control speed, captions and quality.