Customer Snapshot
- Number of Cities: 10
- Tickets Sold: 23,000+
Holiday Lights Trolley: The Original BYOB
BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley has been spreading holiday cheer for over a decade, growing from a single BYOB trolley tour in Chicago to a multi-city operation. As the locations expanded, so did the complexities of managing ticketing, inventory, and customer experience. Seeking a more modern and user-friendly ticketing platform, Holiday Lights Trolley made the switch from Eventbrite to TicketSignup’s calendar-based MTE Timed Entry ticketing.
Finding the Right Ticketing Partner
After ten years with Eventbrite, Holiday Lights Trolley needed a modern, scalable solution that could handle their complex inventory and multi-city operations. Managing multiple trolleys across different time slots on Eventbrite required tedious manual oversight, and they lacked key features like a calendar view, efficient ticket transfers, and complex inventory management. Pricing and support also became concerns as fees increased and customer service became less accessible. Founder Molly Shaheen said, “Eventbrite worked in 2014 or 2015 when I started doing the event, but over time it just didn’t.”
Holiday Lights Trolley discovered TicketSignup when Molly found a blog about sales tax and quickly saw the advantages of a calendar-based timed entry ticketing platform.
Success with Calendar-Based Ticketing
TicketSignup’s calendar-based MTE Timed Entry ticketing transformed how Holiday Lights Trolley managed sales and customer bookings.
- Improved Customer Experience: Guests could easily browse a calendar, select a date, the choose a time, and finally choose their number of tickets – a feature not available on other ticketing platforms that do not allow customizable purchase paths. Dynamic data showing sold out status and tickets remaining made it even faster to get to checkout, pay with Apple Pay or card, and add tickets to digital wallets.
- Calendar-Based Inventory Management: Holiday Trolley set ticket caps for each trolley, with the flexibility to seamlessly update the number of trolleys running or seats available per date. Progress bars and tickets sold vs. tickets available counts made it easy for Molly and her team to track ticket sales and remaining spots in real time.
- Flexible Pricing: “In the past, I could never find a platform for someone buying out a whole trolley. We ended up having to handle our full trolley reservations manually.” The combination of TicketSignup’s family-friendly fees and automated ticket volume discounts made it intuitive and affordable for attendees to book out a time slot for a private trolley experience.
- Real-Time Insights: Calendar-based reporting made it easy to understand overall and daily data per location. Month and day views gave overviews and targeted details. The Ticket Date Summary Report, Date of Purchase Report, and CheckIn Reports were all used regularly to track revenue and operations.
Free Email for Marketing and Event Communications
Switching to TicketSignup unlocked the power of free and unlimited Email Marketing, a game-changer compared to Eventbrite’s costly subscription-based Eventbrite Pro, which costs $1200 per year and still limits daily email sends. Holiday Lights Trolley took full advantage of TicketSignup’s free built-in email tools to:
- Upload and manage massive contact lists instantly, adding about 5,000 to 20,000 past attendees per location – over 100,000 total contacts across all locations. It’s as easy as uploading a CSV with email addresses.
- Send 50,000 – 200,000 marketing emails per location – more than 1 million total emails – without worrying about limits or extra costs.
- Automate pre-event emails with QR codes, ticket summaries, parking details, FAQs, and more, ensuring a seamless attendee experience.
- Email specific ticket holders by date, time slot, or location with ease – useful for weather delays and cancellations
- Create beautiful, branded emails that were quick to build and share across locations, reinforcing the BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley brand and driving more sales.
With zero additional costs and a powerful, easy-to-use platform, TicketSignup’s Email Marketing gave Holiday Lights Trolley the ability to sell more tickets and improve communication effortlessly.
Seamless On-Site Check-Ins with the Ticket App
Initially, Holiday Lights Trolley was hesitant to try the mobile Ticket App for check-ins after struggling with Eventbrite’s unreliable system. The Eventbrite app drained phone batteries, required WiFi to sync check-ins, and often failed, forcing staff to rely on paper rosters. TicketSignup’s Ticket App eliminated these issues and streamlined on site operations.
With 150 independent contractors, Holiday Lights Trolley needed a check-in system that was easy for everyone to use. TicketSignup’s Senior Account Manager, Elisabeth Dellarova, led a quick online training session for staff across all locations. Within minutes, they had the app downloaded and were ready to go. The intuitive design made it simple to check in attendees without extensive training. The app worked offline, so locations with weak or no WiFi had no disruptions. Staff could scan QR codes or check in guests searching by name, reducing delays and confusion.
Real-time check-in stats across all locations provided valuable insights, both on-site and in the app. “It’s so easy, it just works,” said Molly, highlighting the stark contrast between TicketSignup’s reliability and Eventbrite’s past frustrations.
Exceptional Customer Support Made the Transition Easy
This was one of the biggest drivers to find a new ticketing platform. “I had been with Eventbrite for ten years. When I first started, I had an account manager and felt like I had some support when I had questions about setting up the event, there was a person I could go to. Over time, it got to the point where if I had a question I was calling an 800 number and had no support. No one knew my event, no one could help me.” Elisabeth and Jake (Head of TicketSignup Sales) were key in getting all the locations set up, with Elisabeth providing ongoing, best-in-class support throughout the entire event. TicketSignup is a 100% US based team with 365 days a year support. Furthermore, TicketSignup is a 100% employee-owned company that is focused on the long term – not a stock price or outside investor priorities.
Favorite Features & Key Takeaways
BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley’s transition to TicketSignup resulted in a vastly improved experience for both customers and staff. Some additional standout benefits included:
- All Public & Private Tours in One System: Previously, private trolley rentals required manual tracking. With TicketSignup, they could cost-efficiently sell and manage all public and private bookings in one place.
- Easy Ticket Transfers: Customer service found it effortless to accommodate ticket changes, reducing frustration and improving retention. The ability to transfer some or all tickets in a purchase at the same time made transfers intuitive and very fast.
- Lower Fees & Higher Profit Margins: TicketSignup’s transaction-based fees and volume discounts saved money compared to Eventbrite’s increasing pre ticket costs. The additional savings of free Email Marketing and reduced customer service overhead with the switch to TicketSignup also helped margins.
- Continuous Improvement: “Even in the short time I’ve been with TicketSignup, there have been so many updates.” TicketSignup is a product-led company that does more than 2,000 software releases each year. Next year, Molly looks forward to adding Ticket Insurance, a flexible option to build consumer confidence purchasing tickets early while helping BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley bring in more revenue.
By switching to TicketSignup, BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley gained a modern, calendar-based, and cost-effective ticketing solution tailored to their unique needs. Calendar-based inventory management, seamless customer booking experience, free Email Marketing, and reliable on-site check-in process have made a significant impact to continue scaling BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley.
Want to transform your ticketing like the BYOB Holiday Lights Trolley did? Schedule a call with our team to learn more, or get started setting up your calendar-driven timed ticketing event today.