Appalachian Fair Association, Inc. case study

Appalachian Fair Association minimizes their reservation errors and maximizes ticket sales with online event software

"We still sell a lot of tickets in person, but most of our phone sales have shifted to the online system. This cuts down on staff personnel that we had to keep for manning the phone lines."

Reducing phone orders and increasing online sales

The Appalachian Fair is the regional fair in Eastern, TN! It’s a multi-day destination event for tourists, locals, agricultural contestants and concert nuts during the summer.

With a 7k+ guests list, they needed all hands on deck. They turned to Purplepass after deciding they were tired of receiving overwhelming phone orders and having backed up ticket lines come event day.

Challenge

Zero ticket sales online (only in person or phone)
Frequent reservation mistakes, errors and miscommunication
High demand for personnel to manage sales

Solution

Using a complete event management software; personalized event page, advanced ticket sales, phone support and a mobile box office, via Purplepass

After starting with Purplepass, they cut their phone sales in half due to the shift to an online system. When they did receive phone calls, most of them were directed to the Purplepass support team as a free service to the promoter. With ticket sales online, the Appalachian staff could finally breathe. They also saw a spike in sales and attendance overall because people were purchasing tickets in advance.

Results

Tickets are now 100% available online resulting in:

Minimized phone sales because of a shift to online ticket purchases (less staff required)
Event management is done through the mobile box office (minimizing minor errors, spelling issues, etc.)

"Overall things have been a lot smoother as far as the selling goes; very few errors come up. Now we can organize our lines with a ticket entry for in person purchases and an entry for reserved seating and/or purchases made online. "

No more room for spelling errors!

Humans make mistakes; especially with high volume calls and over the phone communication. The Appalachian ticketing team was seeing a consistent pattern of spelling errors and miscommunication when taking reservations over the phone.

Orders in person, phone, email were causing major headaches and challenges for the organization. They needed a more optimized system that minimized errors they didn't have room for.

An online event management system is crucial not just for processing purchases, but organizing the information. Purplepass’ mobile box office makes it easy to look up orders, see who's checked-in, scan order history, run reports, all while giving promoters the peace of mind that they are receiving accurate information.

This also saved the fair’s staff the time of making sales over the phone. Although it doesn’t require a lot of information, it takes time going back and forth, reviewing an order over the phone.

Free support, training and onboarding for the entire team

A lot of ticket sales equals a lot of guests checking in at the gate. Translation, the admittance process requires staff!

The fairgrounds coordinator in charge of registration took advantage of Purplepass' support and on-boarding orientations for volunteers and staff working the gate. After the fair was assigned their client-care representative, they had access to 24/7/365 direct support to answer questions, set up the event, place equipment orders, etc. As for their team, Purplepass walked them through everything they needed to know.

Training is geared to cover all aspects of the service while answering questions that arise. This included remote-support sessions, on-site training if requested, and hardware setup sessions. For promoters that have their own hardware or are renting, Purplepass will remotely connect all of their computers to install and configure the equipment so they are ready to go with no stress!

Partner access for multiple users

Another feature the Appalachian Fair Association was looking for was a platform that supported multiple users. Purplepass had exactly what they needed. With the Partner Access feature they can now grant account access to as many users as they wish.

The main account holder will still have full control over exactly what the users can see and do, from setting view-only access to certain parts of the event to full view/edit privileges for every aspect of the event.

This is a great tool for teams, where the promoter can delegate various tasks or tools to monitor activity while still maintaining full authority.

The Appalachian Fairground Concerts

Guests join the fair each year, not just for the good food, but for their main stage entertainment. Each year has 6+ popular artists performing throughout the weekend.

With assigned seating, guests not only get the seats they want, but the fair can create different pricing packages depending on the section.

Visit www.purplepass.com/learn to learn more about Purplepass and how you can improve the customer experience at your next event.

Ticketing for Fairs and Festivals

Learn more about an event management system fully
optimized for multi-day festivals, regional fairs and mass gatherings.

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"The stats which were available any time for the asking were invaluable during the event and planning for our next one. This was our 2nd year with Purplepass ... The software, the touch screens and scanner were all better than last year. They keep getting better and better. I would not hesitate to recommend their system and especially the staff that supports it."

- Arman Freeman, La Jolla Festival of the Arts

"We have had all of the big companies like Flavorus & TicketFly come through our venue asking to sign up with us but in the end it comes down to the fact that the ease of use with Purplepass & the customer service aspect is 5-star in every way. The Box Office POS system they provide us with is HEADS & SHOULDERS above that of any other ticketing platform we have had experience with – it is by far the easy user interface that makes editing our events and selling tickets at the door a complete breeze."

-Amber Frye, Director of Operations at Somewhere Loud Event Center

"The support team will walk me through the steps so I know what to do every time. They also have walked me through all of the details for Purplepass and spent many afternoons providing training sessions with me while I learned the software. Purplepass has been a huge help!"

- Kelson Henwood, Coordinator for The Lancaster Festival

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Appalachian Fair Association minimizes their reservation errors and maximizes ticket sales with online event software

"We still sell a lot of tickets in person, but most of our phone sales have shifted to the online​ system. This cuts down on staff personnel that we had to keep for manning the phone lines.​​"

Ticketing for Fairs and Festivals

"We still sell a lot of tickets in person, but most of our phone sales have shifted to the online system. This cuts down on staff personnel that we had to keep for manning the phone lines."