Interviews
In order to accurately represent the market, customer interviews were conducted with tour and attraction operators who met the criteria for annual revenue, market vertical, operational components such as offering food & beverage options on site, selling retail items, memberships, hosting events and their role in the company:
Composite Organization
To conduct the ROI analysis the business statistics and quantitative interview results of the sample market segment of customers has been aggregated into a representative composite organization.
Characteristics of the Composite Organization:
- Average Annual Revenue: $12,851,871
- Average # FT Employees: 153
- Average Annual Visitors: 232,029
- Annual Ticket Revenue: $9,185,933
- Annual Retail Revenue: $1,781,163.46
- Annual Food and Beverage Revenue: $3,121,895.82
- Annual Memberships Revenue: $529,076
- Average Ticket Price: $34.21
- Average # of SKUs: 10,057
- Average Retail Item Price: $39.71
- Average Online Conversion Rate (Tickets): 0.3% Industry Standard
Channel Mix:
This composite organization accurately represents the makeup of a customer that could receive the expected benefits from switching to the RocketRez all-in-one ticketing and operations platform.
“If we can create an ecosystem where everything is connected in real time, this is the next generation as far as I’m concerned.”
Note: The actual results may vary widely depending on the operational practices of a tour or attraction prior to switching to RocketRez and whether or not they are already employing some of the strategies documented in this study. As well, factors such as market conditions, geography, customer demographics, and adherence to best practices may all factor in to the results of revenue management tactics.
Key Challenges Addressed
Before switching to an all-in-one cloud solution, interviewees reported the following problems based on the characteristics of their legacy technology stack:
A Disparate Set of On-Premises Functions or Non-Connected SaaS Point Solutions
- No shared inventory across different product and distribution channels resulting in underselling
- No simplified visibility/reporting on performance across different products and channels
- Poor experience purchasing online and effectively increasing conversions through digital channels
- Difficulty building brand awareness
A Need to Customize Software Functionality Based on Business Vertical
- Limited flexibility in pricing & promotions features leading to dropped conversions and smaller product margins
- Unable to meaningfully reduce manual work with current software system
- Difficult to scale up or down based on seasonality or macro trends
Time and Attention Drain of Manual Work
- Manual data entry for forms, surveys, and waivers
- Routine customer service tasks and consolidating disparate reports
- Difficult to train seasonal or part-time employees without a software background
Best-in-class operators recognize that delivering a modern and seamless customer experience requires more than ticketing and operations software. It requires a true implementation of vertical market software, that has the capability to implement core functional modules, and add-on modules as the business requires.
“We wanted to invest in self-serve kiosks for low traffic times. Our goal is to be open 24-7, 365, and it is mutually advantageous to not need a ticket agent on staff at midnight on a weekday.”
Vertical Market Software
Definition: Vertical market software is aimed at addressing the needs of a business within a discernible vertical market (specific industry or market). This contrasts with horizontal market software, which can be useful to a wide array of industries (such as word processors or spreadsheet programs). Vertical market software is developed for and customized to a specific industry’s needs.
Many problems that operators report fall under the category of purchasing a ticketing and operations solution, or cobbling together a handful of point solutions that were not built specifically for their vertical – nor were they built to scale to the appropriate level.
The tell-tale signs you’ve chosen a mismatched solution include a cumbersome onboarding and implementation process, an inability to automate functions you expected you could, and poor adoption or frustration from employees.
Driving operator ROI therefore begins in the discovery phase, where RocketRez carefully selects companies within their four key verticals to ensure benefits will be unlocked, implementation will be smooth, and minimal custom development work will be required – setting the stage for a strong return on investment with the platform.