Everton Football Club score with all-in-one ticketing and CRM system

Everton have gone live with the ticketing, sales and marketing system, TALENT Sport. Developed by IRIS's Software4Sport division, the system is helping the club to speed up time-consuming ticket office processes, revamp their online ticket sales service and drive their sales and marketing opportunities.

The system, which went live in October 2007, is now being used behind the scenes by Everton staff to manage their ticketing, sales and marketing processes, as well as powering the club’s online ticket sales.

Developed by the Software4Sport division of UK-based software company, IRIS, TALENT Sport is an all-in-one system designed for sports clubs and venues, which covers the management of ticketing and memberships, online and automated telephone sales, marketing and customer services, corporate sales and merchandising, accounts, smartcard integration and more. The system is used by Everton’s fellow Premier League clubs Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester City, Reading and Sunderland, as well as a host of other football, rugby, cricket clubs and racecourses in the UK and overseas.

Robert Elstone, Deputy Chief Executive for Everton Football Club, says, “We selected TALENT Sport after a comprehensive review of our business needs and rigorous appraisal of all our options for delivery. Above all, we were keen to work with a partner who understood our business. IRIS Software4Sport demonstrated a willingness to work with us throughout the selection process, an excellent track record in a demanding business sector and a strong commitment to deliver on time for Everton Football Club. The system is helping us offer a better service to our supporters, increase sales and secure operational efficiencies.”

Andy Ward is Head of Ticketing for the club, “It was quite a challenge moving to a new ticketing system mid season, plus we had just six weeks to get it implemented, which is pretty tight for any project of this scale. The day after go-live was pretty testing too, as one of our biggest Premier League games of the season against Liverpool went on sale, so it was non-stop all day, with staff using a new system that they were just getting to grips with. However, it all went smoothly, and we are now reaping the benefits.”

The newly revamped web store, powered by TALENT Sport, is proving to be a success. Andy Ward continued: “During October we saw a huge increase in the amount of online ticket sales. We put this down to the service being so much more user-friendly. For example, supporters now have more choice over which seats they can buy, and it is a simple and clear step-by-step process. We have had some really positive feedback from our supporters as a result.”

As well as being more customer friendly, the system is also making life easier for the ticket office: The club’s policy is to prioritise tickets for its most popular fixtures to their most loyal supporters first. Previously, tickets could only be bought via postal applications or at the Box Office. However, the TALENT Sport-powered web store ‘knows’ who it is selling to. “We now have the ability to control the correct qualifying criteria for online sales by applying mandatory pre-requisites to games, and this ensures tickets are allocated to the right supporters at the right time,” added Ward.

Using the TALENT Sport system has also helped the club to automate time-consuming ticket office procedures. The club runs a pre-payment ‘auto cup scheme’ in which supporters sign up in advance for tickets for cup competitions. Andy Ward says, “Before, it used to take us up to four days to process sales for each cup game. Now, with TALENT Sport, it is much quicker - we can do it all in less than one day.”

Everton’s gates are fitted with SkiData turnstiles: supporters enter the grounds using a smartcard or a smart-ticket. Previously, season ticket card holders buying a ticket for a non-season match had to be sent a new match ticket – the system was not able to top up their season card to allow them in to the non-season matches. With TALENT Sport, this is now possible. At the recent UEFA Cup game against Greek side AE Larissa, when season ticket card holders purchased their own seat, TALENT Sport simply activated their smartcard. This not only saved the Club time, but also saved the cost of printing and postage.

At a Premier League Club, there are tens of thousands of fans pouring through the gates every month and it becomes a real challenge to identify people who would be interested in the latest products and services on offer. TALENT Sport's key advantage is that it includes an in-built customer relationship management (CRM) suite.

Everton will be using TALENT Sport to store information about their customers and to underpin their marketing campaigns to supporters and corporate customers.

Glenn Jackson, Managing Director of IRIS Software4Sport, says “Many clubs have multiple systems in place – one to manage ticketing, one for CRM, another for corporate sales, another in the club shop. This can mean you have an incomplete view of your customers and it can be a very labour intensive trying to keep all the systems up to date. With TALENT Sport, it covers ticketing, CRM, marketing, memberships, web sales, merchandise, corporate sales and more, all in one package. It can also be integrated to external systems such as smartcard, accounts or retail systems. This means you have one fully complete view of your customers - you can analyse their demographics, attendance, merchandise purchases, ticket purchases, loyalty, whether they prefer to buy online or in the shop... As a result, you can be more targeted in your marketing.”

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.