Whether your event is all-weather or is cancelled in inclement weather, all outdoor events are impacted by the weather. While TicketSignup can’t guarantee you sunshine and rainbows, we can help make your rainy days a little easier to manage.
This blog covers how to provide attendee options, communicate clearly about attendee options, and even recoup some rainy day losses.
Step 1: Provide Flexibility
Just because you’re open on rainy days doesn’t mean your attendees want to come in the rain – or that you want to force them into a subpar experience. Give your attendees maximum flexibility with self-serve ticket transfers. This allows them to move their tickets to another available day or time. You can enable ticket self-transfers from your dashboard by navigating to Tickets >> Ticket Management >> Ticket Transfers
Benefits of allowing Ticket Transfers for Rainy Days
- You control the parameters. From dates that transfers are allowed to pricing options and ticket caps, the settings for transfers are within your control.
- For free or for a fee. If ease of transfer is your priority, transfers can be completed for free. But you can also add a fee for transfers if you want to encourage people to stick out the inclement weather or recoup some of your rainy day losses.
- Control your event caps. Maintain your existing event caps and automatically prohibit transfers to sold out time slots or provide additional flexibility by allowing ticket transfers to override your caps.
- Automatically charge the additional cost for more expensive tickets. If your attendees want to change from a Tuesday General Admission to a Wednesday VIP ticket, the system can automatically charge the additional cost for the VIP ticket. Note: refunds are not given for tickets that are transferred to lower-priced tickets.
- Make attendees happy. This may be the biggest benefit of all: allowing your attendees to easily manage their own tickets ensures a positive experience and encourages them to commit to buying tickets early!
Step 2: Communicate Your Rainy Day Plan with Attendees
To limit customer service, it’s important to make the ticket transfer process intuitive. If ticket management is enabled, a “Manage Tickets” button will be included in the confirmation email, but there are a few other steps you can take to make it easier for your attendees.
- Be pre-emptive with email. Use the “Manage Tickets URL” or “Manage Tickets Button” replacement tags to include options for ticket management in pre-event communications.
- Include an FAQ on your website. Link to this “how-to” to help attendees manage their own tickets: https://help.ticketsignup.io/support/solutions/articles/17000127388-transfer-tickets
- Be prepared for a cancellation. It’s always smart to have a cancellation email drafted and saved in the event of extreme weather that forces a closure on your end, with the “Manage Tickets” Button” replacement tag. Weather cancellations can happen fast, and the faster you’re able to communicate, the fewer complaints you’ll see from attendees.
Step 3: Reduce Losses by Encouraging Rainy Day Attendance
Just because you’re open on rainy days doesn’t mean your attendees are likely to come on rainy days. To reduce losses in inclement weather, consider pricing incentives that reward the hardy visitors and turn rainy weather into a fun adventure
- Reduce the price when weather forecasts are ominous. You can change the price only for the ticket or ticket group with the rainy forecast to incentivize people to come out. Note: if people buy the discounted tickets and then transfer to a more expensive day, the system will automatically charge the difference.
- Offer free parking on rainy days – if fewer people are coming, more space is available.
- Include a simple giveaway like fun stickers that proclaim “I Survived the Storm of 2022”.
- Add a photo station to capture pictures of visitors posing and having fun in the rain (keeping the cameraman out of the rain, of course!).
- Provide creative upsells with rain gear like ponchos and umbrellas and comfort food and beverages like hot chocolate and donuts.
Summary
No one wants a rainy day, but when your event season is only so long, the best you can do is find ways to limit your losses by moving attendees to other days, bringing in revenue from transfer fees and upselling items onsite, and communicating clearly and effectively with your ticket purchasers.