Use this link to share with your colleagues:
How to Set Up and Manage Grouped Seating: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1386820
The situation: a local company (e.g. Microsoft) wants all their employees to be able to go to one of your performances together. Specifically:
- Each employee needs to purchase their own seats; the company isn't buying all the seats at once and then distributing them
- The tickets should be discounted
- All the employees should sit near each other
The solution: grouped seating. Below, we'll show you how to set this kind of special access up in PatronManager using Passcodes and Access Codes. We'll cover the whole process, including:
- How to group these seats together for a private sale using Access Codes
- How to link these seats to a Passcode, so the employees can enter the code on the website to gain access
- What to communicate to the company you're working with
- How to release these seats to the public on a certain date (optional, but recommended)
In the example below, we'll be setting up grouped seating for the employees over at Microsoft.
1. How to group seats together and set it up for private sale
First thing we need to do is take seats from another allocation, group them together, and close off those seats so they can't be purchased without a special code. That's a lot! Don't worry, we'll take you through step-by-step.
1. Using the App Launcher, go to Access Codes
2. Click New Access Code
3. Fill out the form
- Name: you'll use this throughout this process and need to remember it, so name it something descriptive
- Description: the best place to remind yourself later what this was for
- Click Save
4. Remember that Name? OK, head to the PatronTicket Hub
5. Scroll down and click Create/Edit Events
6. Find the show you're offering grouped seating for and click it
7. Scroll down to the bottom and click the specific performance you're offering grouped seating for
8. Scroll down and click New Allocation
9. Fill out the details for the Allocation
- Allocation Name: how the name will appear to your staff and on the Public Ticketing Site (PTS)
- Sale Status: set this to Private
- Color: enter the hex code of the color you want this to be; we recommend something very different from the rest of your seat map, as this will make it easy to call out later
- Sort Order: choose a number either very low (0) or very high (100) - this will make the allocation easy to find
- Access Code: enter the exact name of the Access Code you created
- Click Save and Create Level
10. Now click Create Price Level
11. Fill out the details for the Price Level
- Name: your staff and whoever purchases these tickets will see this, so make it something clear
- Price: the price of the ticket; probably discounted from how much these seats would usually cost
-
Fee: if these folks should be charged a special fee, enter that here
- If you've already set up fees using the Fee Wizard and don't need to charge special fees, just enter 0 here
- Visibility: set to Public
- Sort Order: enter 1
- Click Save
12. Time to move seats into this grouping - click Reallocate Seats
13. Choose which seats you want to use for this group directly on the seat map (with lasso or click-by-click)
Helpfully, you can see the whole seat map and what the standard prices are. This makes it easy to figure out which Allocations you want to take from, and make sure your pricing makes sense.
You can choose seats from multiple other Allocations to move to your grouping, so don't feel restricted!
14. With your seats selected, choose the target Allocation - it's the one you just created
Below, we've taken seats from the Premium Mezzanine and Mezzanine Allocations and we're moving them to our Microsoft Summer Jamz Allocation.
15. Click Next - Reallocate Seats
16. Your seats are all set, time for the next step
2. How to link these seats to a Passcode
Alright, the seats are grouped and ready to sell! Now we need to grant these employees access to them on our PTS. We'll create a Passcode, then link the Access Code we just made to it.
2.1. Using the App Launcher, go to Passcodes
2.2. Click New
2.3. Fill out the pop-up
- Passcode Name: this is just for you and your staff - name it something descriptive
- Passcode: this is the code employees/patrons will enter on the PTS to gain access to the grouped seats - make it something memorable and easy
- Click Save
2.4. Now head back to the PatronTicket Hub
2.5. Click Create/Edit Events
2.6. Find your show and click on it
2.7. Scroll down and click the Event Instance you've been working on
2.8. Scroll down to the bottom and click New Member/Passcode Access
2.9. Fill out the form
- Benefit Level: leave this blank
- Passcode: choose the Passcode you created
-
Start Date: if your target audience should be able to buy these seats before the tickets go on sale to the general public, choose that date
- If you don't want to offer them early access, set this to the same date/time as the Event Instance's Sale Start Date
-
End Date: set this to whenever you plan to release these seats to the general public and stop selling these grouped seats
- If you don't plan to release these seats ever, leave this blank
- Click Save
2.10. All done!
Your grouped seats are ready for action; time to give the company you're working with the good news!
3. What to communicate to the company you're working with
Now that you did all that work, it's time for those employees to start buying tickets, right? In our example, we'd email our contact at Microsoft with the following key pieces of information:
- The presale start date: you set this date when you attached the Access Code to the Passcode
- The presale end date: you set this date when you attached the Access Code to the Passcode; be sure to let them know this is the day you'll release the seats to the general public
- A link to your PTS where they can enter the Passcode: to maximize sales, it's best to minimize clicks - make it easy for these folks to complete their purchase
-
Some easy instructions: give your contact some easy instructions for their employees, such as:
- "Click this link, then enter the passcode MICROSOFTSUMMER. Click buy, then click into the green Mezzanine section. When you do, you'll see some pink seats show up on the seat map - those are your special, discounted seats."
4. How to release these seats to the public on a certain date (optional, but recommended)
You'll just need to reallocate any unsold seats out of the special allocation you created back into their original allocation. Essentially, you're reversing what you did above.