Being both a venue and a ticketing operator the successful way forward was taking control of the event ticketing with a modern and versatile software.
Kalmarsalen
Sweden
About Kalmarsalen
The historical building where Kalmarsalen operates was from the beginning a flour mill with origins from the 19th century, successfully operated until 1957 when it was abandoned. In the late 1980s the city of Kalmar bought the building and decided that it should be transformed into a concert house and on the 8th of March 1990 Kalmarsalen was born.
Throughout the 30+ years that Kalmarsalen now have been operating it has gone from being a pure concert hall to a modern meeting and event facility that also administers ticket sales for external organisers and event promoters around Sweden.
The main stage “Kvarnen” is a flexible hall which can be arranged with 915 numbered seats or up to 1300 using an unnumbered section for stands. The venue has hosted concerts for some of the biggest acts in Sweden and Europe such as Mando Diao, W.A.S.P and Thåström.
The Challenge
Kalmarsalen wanted to Own Their Complete Ticketing Process
Kalmarsalen had been using the same system for many years, a system with a model that did not allow for 100% ownership. It became clear that in order to take control of the process they needed a system that allowed them to own the customer data and the event ticket sales, not only in their own Box Office but also online. Kalmarsalen saw that instead of paying high fees to the ticketing company they could save a lot of money by using a self-service-software.
Kalmarsalen serves a lot of promoters and venues throughout Sweden and one big challenge was to convince them to stay even though they were losing the marketplace they were featured on and offer the same amount of value that they previously had done.
The Results
Increased Revenue and Higher Customer Satisfaction
The switch to Tixly made it possible for Kalmarsalen to strengthen their own brand and be promoted in every aspect towards the ticket buyer. They got complete ownership of their customers and have experienced a higher customer satisfaction rate since the change. Being able to incorporate a inhouse FAQ and chat system in the buying flow Kalmarsalen was also able to support the ticket buyers throughout the whole purchase process seeing a clear rise in conversion.
In addition, Tixly’s business model made it possible to keep a larger part of the ticket price resulting in higher revenue, money that could be used to strengthen the internal organisation and the product that Kalmarsalen offers.
In the end, the worry of losing promoters to competitors due to the swap of systems was never confirmed. With the new customer oriented ticket service that Tixly made possible, Kalmarsalen received several new customers alongside previous promoters who could see the added value thanks to the swap.
Catrin Stighammar
Operations Manager at Kalmarsalen