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All About Pick Your Own Seat (PYOS) Subscriptions: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1140634
When your patrons purchase a subscription online on your Public Ticketing Site (PTS), wouldn't it be great if they could also choose where they sit?
Now, with Pick Your Own Seat (PYOS) Subscriptions, your patrons can do just that! PYOS Subscriptions alleviate some of the fulfillment work your box office previously did, giving your patrons more agency in selecting their seats and freeing up your time.
In this article, we'll cover:
- How to set up subscriptions with PYOS capabilities
- What your patrons experience when they purchase a PYOS subscription online
- How PYOS subscriptions work in PatronManager Box Office
- FAQs
PYOS Subscriptions online, now available for you and your patrons!
How can I set up subscriptions to use PYOS functionality?
To allow subscribers to select their own seats when buying a subscription, the subscription package needs to meet certain criteria. We'll go over the steps you need to go through to use PYOS Subscriptions.
1. First things first, the subscription type must be Fixed or Choose Your Own
Because of the way PYOS Subscriptions work, PYOS Subscriptions are only available for use with Fixed subscriptions or Choose Your Own subscriptions.
Patrons can't pick their own seat for Pick Later subscriptions, since they haven't chosen their performances yet.
2. Check the "Enable online seat selection" box on the subscription Event Instance
This box enables patrons to select their own seats for this subscription package when purchasing online.
For single-venue Fixed subscriptions, it also allows your box office staff to (optionally) select seats up front when selling the package internally.
3. Map your allocations consistently by venue
If any of your venues have multiple Allocations that can be sold as part of subscription packages, it's important that those retail Allocations map 1:1 to subscription Allocations for each venue.
In other words, each subscription Allocation must only map to a single Allocation on each venue used for the retail PYOS Event Instances that make up the subscription package.
The same rule applies in the other direction -- each retail Event Instance Allocation should map back to a subscription Price Level exactly once.
This is most relevant for Choose Your Own subscriptions if you have multiple Price Levels (like Adult Subscriber vs Student Subscriber). If that's the case, your subscription package would need separate Price Levels for Adult vs Student subscription, and you'd map those prices 1:1 as well.
As long as you follow our setup guide for Choose Your Own packages or our setup guide for Fixed packages, you should be all set.
You bet! Here's an example of correct Price Level mapping for a Fixed subscription that takes place in two different venues. Each subscription Allocation maps to a single retail Allocation for each venue.
The "Tier 1" subscription Allocation prices map to retail prices in the "Orchestra" Allocation for Venue A and the "Section 1" Allocation for Venue B, while the "Tier 2" subscription Allocation prices map to retail prices in the "Balcony" Allocation for Venue A and the "Section 2" Allocation for Venue B:
What will my patrons see when they purchase a PYOS subscription online?
In this section, we'll show you what the subscription seat selection process looks like for your patrons online. It varies depending on the type of subscription package - select the option you'd like to see:
Fixed subscriptions where all the reserved seating Event Instances take place in the same venue work like this:
1. Patrons will go through the online subscription purchasing path as normal
2. After they click the button to purchase, they'll land on the section selection page
3. Once they choose their section, they can select their subscription seats and click "Next"
The seats they choose will apply to all the performances within the subscription. If you have multiple subscription Price Levels, they can also adjust their Price Levels here.
4. They'll complete the order as normal
5. The order will still need to be qualified, but the subscription will already be fulfilled
Less manual work for the box office!
You can learn more about qualification here!
Fixed subscriptions where the reserved seating Event Instances take place in multiple separate venues work like this. The first two steps are the same for non-PYOS Fixed subscriptions; things change at step 3.
1. The patron will choose their subscription Allocation and click "Next"
If there is only one subscription Allocation, the system will automatically select it for them and skip this step.
2. The patron will enter the number of subscription packages they'd like per Price Level and click "Next"
3. The patron will see a subscription summary page, and click "Select Seats" to continue
The retail Event Instances that make up the subscription package are organized by Venue, with an indication for any that are general admission vs reserved seating.
4. The patron selects their seats for the first venue and clicks "Confirm Seats"
They will only be able to choose seats associated with their subscription package, and must select the full number of seats to continue.
5. The patron selects seats in the next venue, and clicks "Confirm Seats"
This will repeat for each reserved seating venue in the subscription package.
6. They'll check out as normal
They can choose to "show details" on their subscription package and edit seat selections if they wish, and will be required to select all subscription seats in order to check out.
7. The Order will still need to be qualified, but all subscription seats will be fulfilled
If the subscription package contained general admission Event Instances, you'll need to mark the subscription as filled, but the tickets will be assigned automatically as long as there is sufficient inventory.
You can find a list of all subscriptions that need to be fulfilled from the PatronTicket Orders tab with these steps.
You can learn more about qualification here!
Choose Your Own subscriptions work like this. The first few steps are the same for non-PYOS Choose Your Own subscriptions; things change at step 5.
1. The patron will choose their subscription Allocation and click "Next"
If there is only one subscription Allocation, the system will automatically select it for them and skip this step.
2. The patron will enter the number of subscription packages they'd like per Price Level and click "Next"
As long as your Price Levels map to the same underlying Events, Instances, and Allocations, the patron can mix and match.
3. The patron chooses their Event Instances from a list of options
Event Instances are organized by Ticketable Event, with the option to expand all, or click to expand the ones they're most interested in.
Reserved seating Event Instances include the option to "Preview Seat Map" for patrons who need that information to make a decision. Clicking that link opens a preview of currently available seats for their subscription package.
This isn't how they'll choose seats - they need to confirm their subscription package first. This is informational, to help them choose dates.
4. Once they've made all their selections, the patron clicks to confirm their choices
The price updates as they make their choices, and they can't click "Select Seats" until they've made all their choices.
5. The patron selects their seats for their first Event Instance and clicks "Confirm Seats"
They will only be able to choose seats associated with their subscription package, and must select the full number of seats to continue.
6. The patron selects seats for their next Event Instance, and clicks "Confirm Seats"
This will repeat for each reserved seating performance in the subscription package.
7. They'll check out as normal
They can choose to "show details" on their subscription package and edit seat selections if they wish, and will be required to select all subscription seats in order to check out.
8. The Order will still need to be qualified, but all subscription seats will be fulfilled!
If the subscription package contained general admission Event Instances, you'll need to mark the subscription as filled, but the tickets will be assigned automatically as long as there is sufficient inventory.
You can find a list of all subscriptions that need to be fulfilled from the PatronTicket Orders tab with these steps.
You can learn more about qualification here!
What about selling PYOS Subscriptions in the box office?
The process of selling and fulfilling a Choose Your Own subscription or a Fixed subscription that takes place in multiple PYOS venues remains unchanged - you'll add the subscription package(s) to the cart, adjust pricing if needed, then fulfill the subscription (assign seats) as normal. You can fulfill the subscription prior to completing the Order if you'd like.
When you're selling a Fixed subscription that takes place in a single venue, the sales process is a bit different. Click below to see that process:
When you're selling a Fixed subscription that takes place in a single venue, you have the option to select seats up front if you'd like. Here's how it looks:
1. You'll select the subscription package as normal
2. After selecting the package, you'll choose the section from the section map
If you don't want to choose seats up front, you can click the button at the bottom right to "Fulfill Seats Later".
3. Select seats for the patron, then click "Next"
4. Adjust Price Levels if needed, add discounts if applicable, and click "Next"
If you have multiple subscription Price Levels, you can select the appropriate option for each package here.
5. Complete the order as normal
The subscription is already fulfilled!
Frequently Asked Questions
Make sure you've completed the setup steps outlined here, and double-check that your subscription packages are mapped per our instructions.
Patrons selecting seats for Fixed subscriptions online will only be able to choose seats that are available for all the performances within a given venue. If availability is uneven across performances (typically more common later in the season after single tickets have been sold, or if many exchanges have taken place), seats may not be available for online selection.
In this situation, you may need to disable online seat selection and fulfill subscriptions in the box office. That way you can assign the patron different seats for different shows in a more granular way.
To do this, navigate to the subscription Event Instance, edit, clear the "Enable Online Seat Selection" checkbox, and save.
For Fixed subscriptions that take place in multiple venues and for Choose Your Own subscriptions, no. You'll still sell and fulfill the subscription internally the same way you have in the past.
For Fixed subscriptions that take place in a single venue, yes! You'll be able to select seats up front when selling the subscription package via PatronManager Box Office as well - see above.
If you'd prefer not to select seats right away, you can choose the option to "Fulfill Seats Later". This will let you sell the subscription package without choosing seats, and come back and fulfill it later on.
You can enable your subscription for online seat selection as long as there is at least one PYOS Event Instance in the subscription and it meets the other criteria listed above.
For example, if your subscription contains two performances in the same PYOS venue along with two general admission performances, your patrons will be able to select subscription seats online. Their GA tickets will be assigned automatically.
Absolutely! Just make sure the package meets the criteria for online PYOS subscriptions.
Yep, no problem! Just head over to the subscription Event Instance, edit, clear the "Enable Online Seat Selection" checkbox, and save. You can toggle the option on or off whenever you need to.
With PYOS Subscriptions being a new feature, we're still exploring this ourselves! Because of this, we encourage you to discuss this topic with your peers in the Client Community.
Thus far, we've noticed a few things you may wish to consider:
- If you process subscription renewals, you may prefer to handle all your renewals first (or at least get all the seating assignments set if you use the renewal tool) before enabling online seat selection for new subscribers. This gives you maximum flexibility to assign priority seating to your renewing patrons.
- After single tickets go onsale and as inventory becomes more scarce, you may wish to disable online seat selection for Fixed subscriptions to avoid frustration, as there may be few seats available for them to select that match across all performances. This isn't a concern for Choose Your Own subscriptions, since those patrons select seats separately for each of their shows.
At this time, PatronPortal Users with Pending Renewal subscriptions are not able to change their seats themselves, even if you've turned on PYOS subscriptions.
If renewing Portal subscribers would like to change their seats, the best bet right now is still for them to contact your team to get their seats changed.
While this functionality is not currently available in PatronPortal, it's a great idea! Suggest a Product Idea in the Client Community if this is something you'd want in PatronManager.