Why Companies Don’t Use All Their Tickets

By Matt Huff

I’ve seen many reasons why companies don’t use all of their tickets. Sometimes they simply lack awareness of just how many tickets they own and just how many go unused each year. Other times tickets lie dormant because employees have to embark upon a complicated, frustrating process just to get them. 43 percent of tickets go to waste each year— that translates into billions of dollars of squandered opportunities in which companies failed to connect with their customers and prospects. At TicketManager we believe that by making the process for getting tickets easy, companies can increase utilization and drive more business results.

In general we follow the 90-80-70 rule: our best in class customers use over 90 percent of their tickets each year. Across all our customers the usage rate is 80 percent. And if you are using less than 70 percent you’re going to be receiving a phone call from us to see what’s going on!

We often hear from companies that they want to use 100 percent of their tickets each year. While that may sound like an admirable goal, it’s actually not a good idea. Consider a real-world example.

When a CEO wants to entertain her company’s top clients by inviting them to her company’s suite this may only amount to 10-12 tickets. The suite may have a total capacity of 20. Based on the ratio of assets used this may seem like an unjustifiable waste. But in the larger context of why she made this investment in the first place it is effective waste.There is simply no reason to fill that suite up with eight more people just to check the box and claim full asset utilization. The potential business those top clients can bring to her company more than compensate for the cost and the extra space her guests will enjoy by having a large suite to themselves will result in a more comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. Her clients will also appreciate having this extra space all to themselves and enjoying a sense of exclusivity.

Insisting on full asset utilization can be downright detrimental to your business. We have several customers that have very large suites capable of holding up to 90 people. When these suite are full, it creates a crowded environment that is not conducive to business. And unless you have a solid tracking system and company policy these large suites will often get filled with friends and family, not your business opportunities.

We encourage companies to pursue high utilization rates as long as they drive revenue and foster deeper relationships with their clients. In practice this means that some tickets may go unused but as long as they’re going unused for the right reasons it still makes sense for your company.