REPORTING FROM NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — Changing an organization’s attitude can be one of the greatest challenges for executives. For Adina Erwin at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, the challenge was heightened by the fact that it didn’t appear the organization needed to change.
The 82-year-old icon was one of the top grossing theaters in the United States, its social media team was one of the highest ranked on Venues Today’s Social Media Power 100 Chart, and the community was still very much enamored with the downtown cultural treasure.
“The organization has a rich history steeped in excellence and authenticity and people have bought into that from a passion perspective,” Erwin said, noting that when her board began a process of restructuring, it also opted to look at new ticketing solutions.
“It was important for us to find a technology partner that aligned with our organization. As we like to say, “Do they speak Fox? It’s a quick gut check, and you know right away because either they do or they don’t.”
But Erwin, an assistant GM at the Fox since 2005, knew that if the Fox was going to flourish for another 82 years, it was going to have to get more entrepreneurial about the way it viewed business.
“A passive ticketing approach pervaded through the organization,” said Erwin during the panel Managing Change: Optimizing Your Organizational Structure at PACnet ’13. Erwin, whose team at the Fox was given the 2013 Rookie of the Year Award, ultimately switched over to Paciolan in 2012. She was joined on the panel by representatives from two other new Paciolan signees — the Smith Center in Las Vegas and the University of Denver.
“We were able to make the change and it do it nimbly, especially for an organization that hadn’t made a lot of changes,” said Erwin, who credited much of the transition to Paciolan’s VP of Customer Services and Consulting, Linda Reimer — the woman she jokingly referred to as “The Woman in Black.”
“I have to admit, we were a bit intimidated at first,” joked Erwin, who said Reimer provided a third party conduit to “look at ourselves and our organization and ask the easy questions and the tough questions.”
Paciolan helped the Fox set up a local call center with a distinctly Atlanta-feel, where operators could recommend a good place for cocktails or a late night slice of peach pie. Working with regional firm TicketAlternative, they opened ticketing outlets at local Whole Foods Grocers and began to build their own database of customers.
“When we changed our ticketing system and ticketing model, it had a ripple effect throughout the organization,” she said, noting the restoration department has launched its own enterprise operation.
“They had never thought about bringing in new revenue in the past, but we have this entrepreneurial vibe going through our organization prompted by ticketing,” she said.
A 360-VIEW OF THE CUSTOMER
After nearly a year in operation, Tony Jilek with the Smith Center said he’s begun to revamp his business plan as he learns more about CRM and business intelligence “and the things I’ve already learned in the first day of PACnet. I tore up parts of my plan after the first day of panels, and will take back what I’ve learned here and rewrite it,” he said.
His advice to those looking to help introduce their organizations to new technology — “believe in the agenda you are pushing and be prepared to make that change from the top of the organizational chart to the bottom. The executive team and board must know your recommendations are based on best practices and proven experience — they most know you are prepared.”
Jilek is a believer in due diligence as a mitigation of risk, implementing the SWOT analysis to evaluate business decisions. SWOT analysis looks at short and long term strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
“You use the SWOT analysis to drive home the need for change, followed by the business plan to execute the change,” Jilek said.
At the Smith Center, Jilek said he wanted to create a painstakingly accurate portrait of each consumer, where every interaction with an usher or bartender was recorded and later analyzed. It’s an approach casinos have used for over a decade, where digital loyalty clubs record everything from gambling strategy to meal schedule.
“We wanted to create a true, 360-degree holistic view of this customer relationship,” said Jilek, who created a form using Paciolan’s CRM application that set permissions for the organizations various layers of staff to record positive and negative feedback from donors, subscribers and ticket buyers. That level of record keeping can require an incredible amount of detail and some were doubtful the project was worth the time required.
“Many of my colleagues have suggested it is a waste of time to enter into the system a case that has been dealt with on the spot,” he said. “But to have a complete true picture, we need to record every touch with a patron. How wonderful would it be to walk up to a donor who had a issue with their ticket or a wonderful interaction with a customer and have that information at your fingertips?”
INNOVATION THROUGH UNIFICATION
When the University of Denver signed on with Paciolan in early 2011, the school’s athletic and performing arts box offices were brought under the same umbrella for the first time.
The Performing Arts department sold far fewer tickets, representing only about 20 percent of transactions, and were concerned they were going to be dominated by sports.
“But what they got from Paciolan compared to another provider that would typically operate at their level was exponential,” said Dan Vanackeren, senior associate athletic director and CFO at the school. More importantly, the switch streamlined all box offices into a single entity that was more customer-friendly.
“Customers have so many options today, and a first impression is so important. If we have someone coming up to our sports box office, and we had to tell them that to get their tickets, they actually have to walk across campus for an arts ticket, they would have a bad experience and they probably wouldn’t come back.”
Combining the ticketing systems also created a shared portal for fundraising. In the past, athletics, development and the arts all used separate databases for soliciting donations, which resulted in multiple phone calls to alumni, who sometimes joked about the randomness of the calls. Vanackeren said combining the databases onto a single CRM system allowed fundraising to not only see which alumni had been recently contacted, but also develop a picture of their past ticket histories with sports and the arts.
“Our two biggest revenue potentials are in ticketing and giving,” he said. “We can now look at our data and prioritize.”
Interviewed for this story: Adina Erwin, (404) 881-2116; Tony Jilek, (702) 749-2012; Dan Vanackeren, (303) 871-2000