In this masterclass from the Ticketing Institute’s Roger Tomlinson, you will learn about the power and potential for customer relationship management tools. Presented as part of Culture Republic’s digital development programme, AmbITion Scotland, the talk gets to the heart of how the arts can develop strong relationship with their audiences by paying attention to who they are and what they do.

Roger opens with the observation that there is a danger that the people at the top of arts organisations can lose site of what audiences want from us – the venues and companies producing the work they come to see. We need to pay attention to what they want from the relationship and how they relate to us. The best way to do this is to listen to what they say and pay attention to what they do, and CRM tools are designed to help us do this.

The talk introduces models of relationship building that move on a continuum from prospects to developing loyalty to making someone a friend. The most relevant point from these models is in the tremendous value of getting people to come back. Roger shows that the purpose of a powerful CRM system is in personalising the experience of arts attenders. If used to its full potential, these systems can give us an indication of the right tone, the right time, the right message, the right channel and the right offer that will people bring back because as Roger points out – the next visit is the most important one.

The masterclass digs deep into the kinds of data that are the most useful and showcases examples of excellent practice that you can learn from. On permissions and data protection, Roger demonstrates that these can be strengths of your communication rather than obstacles because when done well it means that your communications will be anticipated, they will be personal and they will be relevant. The talk also highlights some key areas of danger that those considering tendering for a new system should keep in mind:

• CRM & ticketing systems suppliers often make their profits not on the system itself but in the setup and configuration. Make sure you know what you’re getting into.
•  Added costs are also found in additional licensing if you want particular tools or functionality.
• Make sure you can easily ask questions and get answers from your data. In the past, systems have required specialised knowledge – for instance SQL (structured query language) – to get the reports that you need.

The depth of knowledge and experience is evident in every slide of Roger’s talk. For those thinking of purchasing a new system or wanting to make better use of the one they’ve got, it’s worth the investment of time on this excellent masterclass.