What do orchestras do the year after?
Many orchestras have used a half-price subscription offer to obtain new first-time subscribers. After the first season concludes, the immediate goal becomes retention. Many orchestras are using various methods to keep those subscribers returning year after year. Personal contact is the fundamental link, whether through unscripted phone calls or invitations to parties or gifts left on seats. New subscribers are being welcomed by executive directors, musicians, or board members.
"Our ticket sales committee has agreed to make customer service phone calls to each new 2006-07 season subscriber. The calls will evaluate the subscribers' overall experience, and give them a chance to express any concerns or suggestions."
—Yvette Wardlaw, Marketing Director
"I call each of our first-year subscribers after they attend their first concert. I don’t use a script, and it is just an informal call to say hello and welcome and to ask how they enjoyed their first concert, ask if they are happy with their seats, and so on. Then we invite them to a first-year-subscribers-only reception at their second concert, at which they get to socialize with staff, board members, and orchestra musicians. At another concert later in the season, we give our first-year subscribers a pair of tickets to invite a friend. We shower them with kindness during that first year."
—Joseph Kelly, Marketing & Public Relations Specialist
"We leave a card on our first-time subscribers’ seats on opening night welcoming them and telling them to contact us with any problems, questions, or suggestions. It’s personally signed by our music director, executive director, and board chairman. It has been well received and in some cases has helped people move to better seats when they’ve had problems."
—Allen Wagner, Director of Marketing
"We leave a welcome packet on each new subscriber’s seat at their first concert with stickers that we ask them to wear so they can be welcomed by board and renewed subscribers. We send out a postcard to those renewed subscribers telling them to watch out for folks wearing the stickers and mention it during the stage welcome. I got this idea at a League conference; we’ve done it for two years now. It’s cheap and easy and really helps us enforce the concept of a family of subscribers. We used to have a new-subs-only party but it was never all that well attended, so now we just have an opening night post-concert party that’s open to everyone.
We also have a volunteer phonathon in November (after all the first concerts of each series have passed) thanking new subscribers for joining the family and asking if they have any questions. We strongly encourage board and musicians to participate, and many do. It’s an easy call to make since 99.9 percent of the people you talk to are happy and grateful for the call so it’s a lot of positive feedback."
—Alice Kornhauser, Director of Marketing and Communications
"...When we reached the midway point in the season, I contacted each new subscriber myself. Those who couldn’t be reached by phone received a handwritten note or e-mail. The response was overwhelming. So many of them thanked me for calling. Those who received e-mails sent back replies. I didn’t use a script. I talk to our patrons like they are friends or family. I kept notes in each newcomer’s files from the conversations... For the first time, we put a carnation and personally signed note on each new subscriber’s seat on opening night. And for the first time, we’re hosting a post-concert reception for them in April."
—Reneé Beasley Jones, Marketing Director
"We've been offering a 50% off introductory new subscriber discount for 8 seasons. We hold new subscriber welcome receptions in November, where they can meet the Music Director and the guest artist, as well as board members and staff. We also send each subscriber a Welcome Kit with a Subscriber Handbook. We feel it's important to reward renewing subscribers with their own exclusive perk, an "early bird" renewal incentive, which in recent seasons has included a CD, a chance to win a trip or a refund on their subscription, and exclusive discounts on gala performances."
—Sherri Prentiss, Marketing Director
For original innovation review describing the introductory half-price subscription offer click here.