Member Article

Essex County Cricket Club celebrates record online sales

New ticketing platform from Advanced helps increase online ticketing sales

Essex County Cricket Club (Essex CCC) is looking forward to the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast after achieving a record number of online sales. This has been supported by its ecommerce ticketing and CRM platform, TALENT Sport, from Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced).

Since implementing the solution in November 2014, the club has seen a steady rise in online sales reaching an average of 66% by the end of the 2015 season. With tickets now available for the 2016 competition, sales for Club Members in the first week of priority were up by nearly 50% on 2015 and the first day of sales for ‘Over & Out!’ e-news subscribers saw an increase of £23,000 on the previous year. In total, online sales are up a staggering 250% on 2015.

The move to online has shown a significant improvement to last years’ ticket sales performance which saw the club’s telephone system crash under the weight of calls from fans wanting to purchase tickets. Over a year on from implementing the solution, Essex CCC has also seen improved customer service response times as the swing to online purchasing has reduced telephone demand.

Derek Bowden, Chief Executive of Essex County Cricket Club, said, “We have made great strides in developing our online service. Our fans are now able to purchase tickets reliably from any device at any time and the feedback has been excellent. The figures we have achieved so far indicates the success of the online fan experience in meeting the demand for tickets at these incredibly popular matches.”

Rowan Bangs, Membership and Ticketing Manager at Essex County Cricket Club, added, “TALENT Sport is a reliable, efficient solution which is now fulfilling its potential. The sales this year so far have proved our decision to drive supporters online was the right one despite scepticism that perhaps cricket fans were not ready to embrace this move. Fans are enjoying the intuitive online experience and the time efficiencies gained for the ticket office has had a positive effect of improving our in person or telephone response rates by at least 50%. We have an excellent relationship with the team at Advanced and the changes we have implemented have proved hugely successful.”

Mark Dewell, Managing Director of Advanced Business Solutions (Ticketing) commented, “The T20 Blast matches have stimulated fresh interest in the sport of cricket and clubs are having to adapt to meet the needs of the omni-channel fan, who want to get tickets early and expect a great online experience whilst purchasing. Essex CCC’s online ticketing success shows how they are responding to the demands of the connected fan and improving every way to engage with their supporters, whilst maximising the commercial opportunities of each and every fan.

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