This article is about selling accessible seats online. We’ll guide you through the methods you can use to identify customers with access needs on your system and how to set up Lock Types against accessible seats.
Before you read this article, make sure you’re familiar with:
What are accessible seats?
Accessible seats are designed to be purchased by customers with access needs. Some examples of accessible seats include:
- Extra room to accommodate a wheelchair and companion
- Seats located in a quieter area within the Seating Plan
- Step-free access
- Seats close to a BSL (British Sign Language) or ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter
- Seats within range of a loop or assistive listening device
- Seats with the best view of captions during a captioned performance
Can anyone buy an Accessible Seat online?
Generally speaking, anyone can book an accessible seat. However, this may reduce the availability of accessible seats for customers who need them.
To only sell accessible seats online to customers with access needs, you can Lock seats away from general sale. You can then add criteria to the Lock which means it can only be purchased by customers who meet the criteria you set.
Selling seats online to customers with access needs means they don’t have to call your box office to make a purchase. This can give customers with access needs the same booking experience as other customers and means customers can self-serve.
How can I identify customers with Access needs?
You can use Normal Tags to capture a customer’s access needs which will be displayed in their Customer Record in the Sales Interface. For example, you may have a ‘Wheelchair’ Tag to identify wheelchair users.
You can use these Tags as eligibility criteria for Lock Types, meaning only customers with the relevant Tag will be able to purchase the accessible Seat.
TIP: If you have an Event which is in demand, you might want to use Locks to make sure accessible seats are available for customers who need them the most.
You can also make Tags available online, which means customers with accessibility needs can self-identify without having to contact you.
VIDEO: If you're new to Tags, take a look at our Contact Preferences, Tags and Customer Attributes concept video.
Normal Tags
Normal Tags can be added when:
- You create or update a Customer Record in the Sales Interface
- Customers create an account online
- Customers update the MyAccount section of their online account.
When setting up access Tags, create a Tag Group that’s available On web. Give your Tag Group a meaningful name and description that will make sense online:
Once you’ve created your Tag Group, you can add Tags and then apply them to your customers. Read Normal Tags and Auto Tags for more information.
Making Accessible Seats available online
If you want to ensure only customers with access needs can book your accessible seats, you'll need to Lock these seats. This ensures that the seats can only be sold to Customers who are eligible to purchase them.
When assigning a Lock Type, you can use Tags to set eligibility criteria against the Lock. Customers who meet the criteria will be able to purchase the seat.
For example, you could add a wheelchair Lock Type to a Seat then set criteria against the Lock to enable only customers with a wheelchair Tag purchase this seat.
TIP: When an eligible Customer purchases a Locked Seat online, they’ll see the Seat with a Lock icon. A customer needs to be logged into their online account to access any eligible seats.
In this example the seats in Row J are wheelchair-accessible seats and only available to Customers who meet the eligibility requirements:
If a Customer isn’t eligible to buy a Locked Seat, the seats will appear greyed out and unavailable for sale. In this example, the seats in Row J are wheelchair seats:
Adding a Lock Type to an accessible seat
Consider the following when setting up a Lock Type to an accessible Seat.
Basic Details
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Available for website users: Check this box to let Customers purchase seats with this Lock Type online.
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Seating Plan Icon: Select the icon you would like the Lock to display as.
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Display icon online if available for website users: Check this box. If a seat is available online, the icon you select will be displayed. If you leave this box unchecked, a star icon will be displayed if the seat is available to a Customer:
TIP: You can use the star icon to indicate seats are available but have been held for a specific reason. You might find this more useful than having greyed out seats where customers might think they have been sold.
Transaction Limits
You might want to set a Transaction Limit to the number of Locked seats that can be sold in each transaction:
TIP: If you set a Limit against the Lock, this is a per transaction Limit. This means Customers can purchase additional Locked seats in subsequent Orders.
Eligibility Criteria
You can set rules to specify which Customers can unlock Seats to purchase them online.
Select Tags to power the Lock’s eligibility. If you have more than one access Tag , make sure you add all of them using OR logic. This means Customers with any specified Tags will match any of the eligibility criteria.
In the image below, we’re using a ‘manual wheelchair’ Tag OR ‘motorised wheelchair’ Tag. This means a Customer with either of these Tags will be eligible to purchase the Seat:
Read our article on Customer Eligibility for more information.
Seat Locks and Multi-Area Unreserved Seating Plans
If you don’t use Reserved Seating Plans, you might want to use a Multi-Area Unreserved Seating Plan to indicate that accessible Tickets are available.
In this type of Seating Plan you can specify an area for accessible seating. For example, a raised platform for wheelchair users:
TIP: In Unreserved areas, sell accessible seats to eligible customers first.
To request a Multi-Area Unreserved Seating Plan, complete a Seating Plan Request Form.
Further Reading
This article should give you the information you need to be able to sell accessible seats online. To learn more, visit the Seating Plans section of the Support Centre.