How FIXR helped Exeter College Ball deliver a sell-out event

As allocations changed, whether from refunds being fulfilled, shifting proportions of tickets between different categories, or alterations to the capacity of the event, Anna and her team could use the FIXR Organiser platform to effortlessly edit and amend allocations and ticket types to reflect these changes.

On FIXR, event organisers can choose whether or not they want to offer the option for customers to request refunds on their tickets, which they can then issue within the platform.

For the committee, it was important that these could be easily handled themselves with an absolute minimum of fuss for either themselves or the ticket buyers.

For this year’s event, the organisers wanted to offer lower priced ‘Access Tickets’ to certain attendees with accessibility requirements.

Having already ascertained who these would be, the committee sought to find the easiest way to ensure these ball-goers could purchase a ticket, without the need to create an entirely new ticket type to put on sale.

"People didn't have to buy an access ticket necessarily, they were just buying college ticket at a cheaper price."

By using the promo code functionality in the FIXR Organiser, they could easily provide bespoke promo codes to ensure only those intended customers could secure the tickets at this price.

The team also used FIXR’s promo code functionality creatively to fundraise, using a specially-generated code to give ticket buyers the option to add £1 to the price of their ticket which would act as a donation to the college charity.

"It was a really nice option to help contribute to our college."

As already highlighted, accessibility was an important consideration to the organising committee and they wanted to ensure that the requirements of all ball-goers could be met; from accessibility needs, to allergies and dietary requirements, and more.

“It was really helpful to know months before the ball that we had at least one wheelchair user attending, for example.”

By using FIXR’s ability to customise question fields in the customer’s ticket-purchasing journey, the organisers were able to obtain information that was important to them, and which helped them improve their event for all attendees.

Gathering customisable information about ticket purchasers also enabled the organisers to accurately verify that people had purchased the correct ticket type.

“The additional question option was really good for the process of verifying that people had bought the right ticket.”

Collecting preferred names in addition to those on students’ email addresses meant any individuals who had purchased the incorrect ticket type could easily be cross-referenced and contacted to resolve any potential issues long before the day of the event.

The fact that FIXR allows event organisers to own their data also came in handy for communicating key information about the event to ticket buyers.

“We were able to send out mass emails and information about wristband collection.”

The committee used the email addresses gathered at point of purchase to send their own updates directly, ensuring every stage of the event ran smoothly.

For this event, ticket buyers were required to collect wristbands ahead of the ball, primarily as a means to speed up entry and reduce queueing on the night.

This meant that over the course of several days, committee members were using the FIXR Entry Manager App to scan the QR codes on the mobile tickets that had been purchased, and distribute the wristbands accordingly.

By easily generating and using access tokens, all of the ticket-scanning team were easily able to log in to the FIXR Entry Manager App - seeing the attendee list and ticket types - without getting direct access to the Organiser account and all of the information and data therein.

“Everyone just downloaded the app and put the code in.. that made it really easy.”

With the FIXR Entry Manager App, real-time data was synced seamlessly across multiple devices, with multiple people able to assist in the quick and efficient ticket-scanning process.

In instances where individuals were unsure if their ticket had been scanned, the team could easily search names in the FIXR Entry Manager App to check.

Anna explained how the communicative and supportive relationship with the FIXR team made the entire experience as straightforward as possible.

"I didn't feel at all awkward or stressed to ask about things like advance payments if I did need them.”

Someone from FIXR was always on hand to assist with any issue or queries that the organising committee faced, adapting to their needs and ensuring a consistently high standard of support.

With an open line of communication in place, the organising committee were able to request advance payments during the event lifecycle in order to pay invoices to their suppliers and performers ahead of the event.

Post-event, FIXR was able to make the full payment in just a matter of days to ensuring there were no unwanted delays for the organisers.

“Just a few days after our ball you'd already sent through the full payment, which was amazing because we could quickly pay off those final invoices.”