Timed Ticketing on Re-Opening?

John Ryan · September 2020

Thanks...So simple, can't believe I missed it. Of course, it wasn't an issue until this past Sunday...

Scot Sedley · October 2020

Hi everyone,

There is a lot of information in this thread. Thanks to everyone for sharing your expertise and experience.

The region around our Connecticut museum was slower to open during this Covid pandemic, but we are looking to start with timed ticketing in mid-November.

I'm in the process of building out a few options and it seems the best way to do this is to create a scheduled program event with set capacity and just copying that event out and possibly adjusting capacity as needed. When looking at timed ticketing with set capacity there really is no way that it makes sense to build it out as a daily general admission program and have this as pre-registered. Is that correct?

Sorry if this has already been covered. My head is spinning as we are looking at 100 different options and programs at once when discussing re-opening!

J Kiku Langford McDonald · October 2020

Hi Scot!

We also have not yet re-opened to the public, but we are open to students, faculty and staff on campus right now. I believe some organizations have chosen to use a pre-registered program for timed tickets but we chose not to go that route and instead rely on the person purchasing the tickets for contact tracing. The main reason I would not want to use pre-registered programs is that the price types come out in completely random order on the web forms and I would not want to have to re-order them for every single timeslot. But if you are talking about only having one program event per day, it might be manageable. I'd be happy to talk though what you're thinking over the phone or zoom sometime!

Hope you're well,

Kiku

Scot Sedley · October 2020

Hi Kiku,

Thanks for reaching out! I'll probably be contacting you for that call and to talk through this a bit more!

Tamara Christensen · October 2020

Hi Scott,

We have been open since mid-August and we are not using pre-registered programs either mostly for the reason that Kiku mentioned. We have a lot of price types and rely on the honor system and it is working well. If you have dates or times where you need to have different capacities or price types, you can edit just those events or make custom webforms for them. We wanted to use pre-registered so we could have visitors agree to our waiver first but there is just no way we can edit each event. We do have links all over for people to pre-print the waiver and bring it signed, but no one really does.

- Tamara

Debbie McKenzie · October 2020

In case anyone finds it helpful, here is the text from our ticket page:

Bill's Backyard Admission Ticket Terms and Conditions

To ensure the safety of our visitors and staff, Children’s Discovery Museum requires anyone entering the facility be free of the following symptoms related to the COVID-19 virus; fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, muscle aches, sore throat, and new loss of sense of smell and taste. By purchasing tickets, you confirm that your family is not currently experiencing these symptoms and that you will reschedule your visit should any symptoms present themselves before entry. Refunds will be provided.

Children’s Discovery Museum is committed to providing a healthy and safe environment, but we need your help! We ask our visitors to partner with us in our COVID-19 wellness efforts. When visiting, you are agreeing to follow our Code of Conduct, which includes proper social distancing from others not in your group, following directional signage, washing hands and using hand sanitizer, and wearing your mask so that it covers your mouth and nose. Masks are required for all individuals age 2 and up.

An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. We appreciate your support in helping us keep our visitors and staff healthy and safe.

Dianne Crosby · October 2020

Scott,

I'm not sure if you are aware of this - so I thought I'd mention it just in case you are not!

When adding a scheduled program, there is an optional checkbox labeled "Requires Registration" which makes a big difference in how the program works.

We decided to require registration. With this option you or the customer can list the name of everyone on the order. Or, they can skip this step, and everyone on the order will be listed as "Guest of Customer's Name". What we like about this option is when the customer arrives the cashier just has to check their name off the list. (Go to Sales, Pre-Registered Program Check-In.) What we don't like about this option is there isn't a way to globally change the settings for this program. Any changes you want to make to the settings have to be done for every single time slot, one at a time. It's very monotonous and time-consuming.

I'm not aware of the pros/cons of not requiring registration. I believe it involves scanning barcoded tickets instead of checking names off a roster. Maybe someone else can chime in on this?

Olivia Harding · February 2021

Dianne Crosby:

Libby Clark:

I wish I had asked this in the web forms webinar I took weeks ago, but if we sell daily admission tickets online, is there always an option for the calendar view? I saw that on some of the examples others provided, but I haven't been able to figure that out. When we sold timed tickets for a program in December, we had individual links for each day and time, which was a lot. I think having a calendar where a visitor can choose a day and then a drop down to choose the time would be much more efficient-- I am just unclear if Altru has that capacity or if it is an overlaying website design/code. Thank you!

If you go to Web/Manage Event Registration Forms you will see a "Parent" for each program with all the dates underneath. Click the double green arrows to the left of the "Parent" program and it will show you the URL for all the dates.

When you go to this URL you will have the option to select "Other dates..." or "Other times:"

Has anyone done this on their website and is actively selling timed tickets? Do you mind sharing your links to your webpages? My organization is just now planning our reopening and I would love to see what others have done with their webforms and ticket time options!

Olivia Harding · February 2021

Andrea, you have to ensure that your webpages are "'Responsive" to allow you to turn this feature on. First, go to Web>Configuration>Page Designer and ensure that the layout you have selected is "Responsive."

Then, you should be able to go to your Web>Manage Donation Forms page and click on Additional Donation Options and it should be enabled there.

Christina DelGaizo · February 2021

Here is our link for timed admission tickets: https://www.lifeandscience.org/tickets

We have a separate admissions program for member tickets that are free up to their level (e.g. an Explorer 4 membership level gets 4 of their tickets reduced to $0 at checkout and they pay for any tickets over their limit). One problem that I've found in Altru since we've moved to timed admissions is that some members have figured out how to get around the free admission level limits by creating multiple sales orders online and I have not found a solution to this yet.

John Ryan · February 2021

The inability of Altru to limit member tickets other than by transaction is one we noticed, too. While you can limit member benefit by transaction, there's no way to limit them by day. We're having to watch daily reservations for any member who has figured this out. So far we've been lucky One member seems to have done so but didn't show up at all on the day in question) but it could become an issue as it has for you.

Regina Holten · February 2021

I have noticed this too and usually it is because the member ... forgets s/he already order the tickets or goofs on the day. I get frustrated though honestly is does not happen too many times. I just wish I could figure out a really quick clean up query...via order search or...even event attendance where I can see a member, their level and order of tickets for that day....I could probably figure this out but am only catching these goofs by running the event attendance and scrolling down and of course having a duplicate window open. ha!

John Ryan · February 2021

I've set up queries to tabulate reservations for each day/week/month that helps in planning for traffic and let's you pull up ticket numbers for those guests who don't have them readily available. It also let's us see right up front if any have made multiple reservations (membership level is an output). I attached a screen shot of the query parameters.

Mary Sommer · June 2022

Hi,

We have basically reverted to Daily Admission, away from Timed Tickets. Our Marketing Department (person) would like to have the Timed Ticket option available for out of town visitors to pre-purchase tickets. Not certain when we will put this in place. I'm also not certain how easy it will be fro ease of admission reporting. Most likely, looked at multiple reports for this information.

Timed Ticketing on Re-Opening?

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