Transitioning to digital ticketing: a parent-teacher association’s story

Transitioning into the digital world can be a scary task for many, but with a little homework, the outcome can be hugely rewarding. Cumnor House School Parent Association have said goodbye to paper tickets for their fundraising events and life has been easy-peasy ever since.

Situated in South London, Cumnor House School for Boys is an independent Preparatory school for children aged 4 – 13. Like many schools, Cumnor House has a parent association, made up of committed parents who work hand in hand with the school to arrange fun and exciting events for the school children and their families. Previous events have included a summer carnival, Christmas Party, fireworks night, regular cake sales, and most recently Cumnor's Got Talent – a spin on the popular ITV television show. All profits gained from the parent association events go straight back into the school to fund items that fall outside the school's financial remit but are of significant benefit to the children. An electronic cricket scoreboard, musical instruments, swim team outfits, and iTunes vouchers for the music department have all been new additions to the school courtesy of the funds raised by the parent association. 

“Everything is done online, so online ticketing is so much easier and cost effective.”— Kerry Norris, Cumnor House SPA

Cumnor House SPA (School Parent Association) made their digital transition several years ago when problems were becoming apparent with paper tickets and their events. "Tickets getting lost, having to physically purchase tickets at a certain time and place, time consuming and not very cost effective" explains Kerry, who manages the online operations for the Cumnor House SPA. With increasing problems arising from selling paper tickets, Cumnor House SPA began using Eventbrite to manage and sell tickets for their events. While this new approach solved a number of problems and eased the workload for Cumnor House SPA, it wasn't the A* result they were expecting. Kerry explains that with Eventbrite "there is a charge to the individual when purchasing tickets", which sat uneasy with the Cumnor House SPA because the objective is to raise money for the school, not to penalise parents and their children with additional fees for supporting the cause.

CUMNOR HOUSE SCHOOL NATIVITY PLAY. PHOTO CREDIT CUMNOR HOUSE SCHOOL

Because of the expensive fees associated with Eventbrite, two years ago, Cumnor House SPA made the switch to Ticket Tailor. The main difference with Ticket Tailor and most online ticketing platforms is Ticket Tailor does not add booking fees to tickets sold, instead, they charge a fixed rate low-cost monthly fee, with the ability to pause or cancel your subscription plan at any time. "Ticket tailor works for us based on their variation of packages depending on the amount of tickets we are selling for each event" says Kerry. Cumnor House SPA also found with the absence of mandatory booking fees from Ticket Tailor, they could sell items such as leavers hoodies and Christmas show DVDs in addition to tickets. This opened up new fundraising opportunities for the volunteer lead parent association.

“...very easy to set up, administer and gather the data for reports to use for each event. Very easy process.”— Kerry Norris, Cumnor House SPA

Cumnor House SPA take advantage of Ticket Tailor's free listing page and event page templates, which offer them a dedicated online destination for their ticket buyers to visit, purchase tickets, and discover upcoming events. "(The event pages are) very easy to set up, administer and gather the data for reports to use for each event. Very easy process." Kerry states.

CUMNOR HOUSE SPA EVENT PAGE EXAMPLE

Over the past two years, Cumnor House SPA has used Ticket Tailor to help manage 18 events and counting. They've found the ideal balance of ease and convenience at a low cost. "(Ticket Tailor) Saved us so much time from not having to sell tickets outside, losing tickets or money from ticket sales, and parents prefer it as everyone can pay for the tickets online and have the tickets instantly on their phones" Kerry explained.

Going through a digital transition has been a learning curve for Cumnor House SPA, but Kerry would urge other parent-teacher associations to do the same: "Everything is done online, so online ticketing is so much easier and cost effective."

To see how Ticket Tailor can help your organisation with online ticketing, visit tickettailor.com