Xavier College

Xavier College used TryBooking to power their first sell-out performance, increase revenue and transform the way parents bought tickets.

Background

Ticketing for school performances is a time consuming task that takes precious hours away from busy music and drama coordinators. 

"I attended a meeting at our school about TryBooking late last year and I immediately saw that it was a good opportunity to lose the headaches of managing the tickets and cash for performances. Ticketing is always a bit messy, so I put my hand up to give TryBooking a go," explained Peter Roberts, Performance Coordinator at Xavier College, Melbourne.

The change

With TryBooking, Xavier's Drama Department noticed a change in the way parents bought tickets. 

"We saw bigger transactions as people bought larger multiples of tickets. Parents don't like to send huge amounts of cash or large cheques to school with their children, so buying online with their credit card made life easier for everyone," said Peter.

Peter found other ways that TryBooking made life easier, "On performance nights we used to be very busy selling and sorting out lost tickets.

But this year when someone didn't have their ticket, we just checked the door list that we had printed off from the TryBooking Reports and we could instantly tell which seat someone had.

"There are no extra charges or contracts. I can see what I'm doing, I can do it myself and the rates are very low."

The results

Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience, Xavier's joint production with Genzzano FCJ College, was a huge success. Running over four nights, seating 430 per performance, it was their first sell-out production.

"Our accountants were very impressed. Generating the revenue reports on TryBooking was a dream!"

"I believe TryBooking contributed significantly to the sell-out. It was so easy for people to buy tickets." 

Peter used the time he saved to increase the event's overall revenue. "We had a lot more energy to put into expanding our snack kiosk. We sold a lot more on the nights and now we're considering a bar for our winter play. We could never even think about all that when we had to manage the ticket sales manually," enthused Peter.

"Our accountants were very impressed. We have never been so organised and they immediately had everything they needed to give to the auditor. Generating the revenue reports on TryBooking was a dream!

"I feel like I've seen the light and I will be helping my colleagues set up their ticketing with TryBooking. It works so well and I really like the upfront and transparent way the company operates."

Peter Roberts
Xavier College
Melbourne