PatronManager Help

November 2022 Release Notes

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November 2022 Release Notes: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1618908

We're pleased to announce PatronManager's November 2022 release! This release brings a range of improvements to the Public Ticketing Site (PTS), from accessibility updates to a plug-and-play Google Analytics 4 integration.

You'll also find an overhauled online purchase flow for Choose Your Own (CYO) subscriptions, as well as CYO compatibility with PatronManager's Pick-Your-Own-Seat (PYOS) Subscriptions feature. PYOS Subscriptions are available by request in beta today, and scheduled for full release early next year!

And it's not just about the PTS: you'll also find internal box office updates like the ability to email tickets to a patron regardless of the Order's Delivery Method, and more information to help you identify the right person when looking up a Contact.

Read on to learn all about these exciting updates:

Let's take a look!

Prefer watching to reading?

Here's a recording of the release webinar:

Public Ticketing Site improvements

We took a deep dive into the latest accessibility guidelines to make sure your PTS is serving all your patrons as smoothly as possible. You'll also find a brand new experience for patrons purchasing Choose Your Own subscriptions, a new Google Analytics 4 integration to help you easily track metrics, and more.

Accessibility

At PatronManager, we believe strongly in accessibility, consider accessibility standards in our design process, and take best practices seriously. The changes in this release may not be noticeable to many, but patrons will have a better experience if they use assistive devices like screen readers to access your Public Ticketing Site or navigate using the keyboard.

You can also now add specific Alt Text to images on your Ticketable Events (and elsewhere) to ensure patrons who aren't able to view the image don't miss out on important information or context.

Finally, clients using PatronManager's "Cinematic" dark mode theme will find a variety of contrast improvements to ensure clear visibility for all the important information you need patrons to see.

To ensure that all the contrast improvements take effect, you should republish your PTS theme if you're using Cinematic (dark mode).

Rest assured that your Public Ticketing Site is up to date with web content accessibility guidelines, including:

  • Field labels and required field markings for assistive devices like screen readers
  • Compliant visual contrast in dark mode (Cinematic theme) for required field markings, Event Category filters, and more
  • Clear and navigable error and alert messaging (e.g. invalid field inputs or seat note acknowledgment popups) for keyboard-based users and screen reader compatibility

Click here to learn more about accessibility in PatronManager.

Choose Your Own Subscriptions

We overhauled the purchase flow for Choose Your Own subscriptions to make it easier for patrons to keep track of their selections when buying online, and avoid accidentally picking multiple Instances from the same Event.

Instead of a long, long list of every possible performance they could choose, with the Allocation and Price Level listed out in detail...

They'll now see a much tidier list of options to select, grouped by Ticketable Event.

Their price updates as they choose options, and when they finish making selections, they'll add the package to their cart and complete checkout.

If your CYO Subscriptions don't look quite like this on the Public Ticketing Site after this release, be sure you've structured your packages as outlined here.

Google Analytics 4

Google is retiring the current version of Analytics (the version with the "UA-" ID value) next year, and replacing it with their new and improved Google Analytics 4. When you make the switch in Google, you can also take advantage of our new plug-and-play integration!

Just head over to PatronTicket Settings, scroll down and click on "Site Analytics", click "New", and plug in your new "G-" ID. That's all there is to it - PatronManager will start sending analytics from your PTS to your Google account right away!

Learn more and get started here!

Donations tab in PatronPortal is now conditional

Previously, patrons who logged in to PatronPortal on your PTS saw a tab for their Donations, which would show them their Donation history as well as any upcoming Pending Donations. That's still true, except now the tab only appears if the patron has Donations to display.

Would you like patrons to be able to give stand-alone Donations from Portal? Vote up this Product Idea in the Client Community to let us know!

Pick Your Own Seat Subscriptions: available now in beta

PatronManager's Pick Your Own Seat Subscriptions feature is now entering the final beta phase before full release early next year. This is the development we've been most excited to share: PYOS Subscriptions are now compatible with Choose Your Own packages!

That means your patrons can assemble the set of shows they want to see and choose the exact seats they prefer for each show, reducing stress and effort in your box office and increasing patron satisfaction. Want to start using Pick Your Own Seat Subscriptions today? Read on!

Learn more about PYOS Subscriptions

This feature lets you allow patrons to select their own seats when buying subscriptions online, and you can to toggle it on and off by subscription package at will.

Why is the feature in beta?

Quite a few clients are already using PYOS Subscriptions in beta, and you can too!

We've rolled it out in beta to ensure client feedback through the development phases, so that we can bring you the best possible completed result. The feature has been in use for Fixed subscriptions for a while, and with this release it's now also compatible with Choose Your Own subscriptions.

Primary development is complete, but we're excited to make final adjustments based on your feedback before launching the feature to all clients early next year. Want to join the beta and try it now? Keep reading!

I'm ready! Can I start using PYOS Subscriptions now?

We'd love to talk with you about it! Reach out via a support case if you think the beta might be a fit for your organization. Here are a couple things you should know first:

  1. Beta features sometimes have quirks
    • All features, including those in beta, go through our rigorous quality assurance process and are thoroughly tested for bugs and unexpected behavior. With that said, brand new features sometimes encounter real-world scenarios that are outside our testing scope, and your feedback helps us find and fix these quirks. If you were to encounter any problems, you'd temporarily disable the feature (and keep selling subscriptions as you do today), then let us know so we can sort it out.
  2. Features in beta are subject to change
    • Beta features are still in active development: that's why your feedback is so important! This feature is nearing full release, so changes are likely to be minor, but if you're uncomfortable with change, participating in a beta program may not be a good fit for you.
  3. Beta participants must be able and willing to provide feedback
    • We release features in beta to get your feedback during active development. This helps us ensure that the final result meets your needs and will be useful! To make this process successful, we only include beta participants who can use the feature regularly and who are willing to provide feedback.

Box office updates

You'll also find some great new features to help streamline operations for your box office staff. Check it out:

Email tickets regardless of Delivery Method

Have you ever set an Order to be shipped to the patron or held at Will Call, but needed to email them some of the tickets as well? Previously you had to edit the Order, change the Delivery Method to Email, send the tickets via that method, then edit again to change the Delivery Method back. My goodness.

Now it's much easier - just head to the "Print" tab on the Ticket Order, and you'll find the option to Email Tickets available, regardless of the Order's Delivery Method!

Heads up: you may wish to update the language in the "Printable Ticket Template" (or the "Printable/Virtual Ticket Template" if your organization uses Virtual Events) - here's how to find that template and update it if needed.

The new option to email tickets regardless of the Order's Delivery Method doesn't change anything for Orders where the Delivery Method is set to Email. In that case, the tickets are emailed to the patron along with their Confirmation Email, and you'll use buttons to "Email Tickets" only if you want to email tickets after the Order was submitted.

More information in the Contact Lookup

When you look up a Contact from a Ticket Order, the information is displayed more cleanly to help you find the right person more quickly and with less scrolling.

  1. Account Name
  2. Contact Name
  3. Email
  4. Phone
  5. Street Address (first line)
  6. City
Bug fix: internal Ticket Orders could sometimes default to "Online"

The August Release focused on box office improvements to speed up sales, one of which was having PatronManager Box Office remember the Origin of your last Ticket Order, so that you don't have to continually set it back to "Phone" during a phone shift or "Walk Up" during a busy hour of pre-show sales.

Unfortunately, it remembered just a tiny bit too well, and would sometimes set a new Ticket Order's Origin to "Online" if you had previously made changes to an Order that was placed via your Public Ticketing Site.

This has been fixed, so that PMBO now only "remembers" internal Origins.

That's all for this release!

Want to be part of the product development process? Log in to the Client Community to suggest and vote on Product Ideas, track suggestions your organization has given us in the past, see what's planned and in progress, and much more. Read All About Product Ideas to get started!

One last thing
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