The Importance of Customer Loyalty for Music Festivals.

Many music festivals consistently sell out their maximum capacity which unfortunately can lead to organisers having an ambivalent attitude towards their ticket buying customers. With the popularity of music festivals increasing over time the competition will likely increase making it more important to provide the best possible experience for ticket buyers.    

Attending a music festival is not cheap with some VIP packages costing several thousand pounds and even the cheapest tickets going for two or three hundred pounds. In 2021 many music festivals have had to time shift their events from early summer into the July – September months and this is leading to festival congestion over popular weekends. Festival organisers are lucky this year because events that sold out in 2020 have managed to transfer ticket holders to 2021 and so most remain sold out. In 2022 this may change and event goers are going to have a much wider choice of festivals to attend where they can spend their hard earned cash.

This increase in competition and potential festival congestion over a possible shortened festival season make it even more important to retain loyal event goers to a festival. What steps can music festival organisers take to increase their customer loyalty? The creation of a customer loyalty programme is certainly a good start but first organisers need to get their teams and staff committed to such a programme. The objective of any programme is to create excellent customer service and to provide rewards to customer that demonstrate loyalty. 

Every music festival collects customer data and this can be used to recruit ticket buyers to any loyalty scheme, they can also sign up on-site at the event. By signing up to a loyalty scheme customers can get benefits like early bird ticket offers, reduced rates and rewards like merch when recruiting new members (member get member) for example. Ticket Ambassador schemes can also be combined with any loyalty programme initiatives. The festival organiser needs to assign a team member to be responsible for and to run any loyalty scheme to ensure that regular communications and offers to customers is maintained. Working with partners and sponsors can also help to obtain access to discounted products and services that can be offered to any customers in a loyalty scheme.  

When creating a customer loyalty programme for a music festival it can be challenging to accurately measure success but the intangible effects are well documented. Loyal customers become willing advocates for the festival brand by sharing positive content on social media and encouraging friends and family to become customers too. What can be measured is increased sales and revenue that can be linked directly back to an existing customer in any loyalty programme. Before embarking on a customer loyalty programme ensure that a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is in place and that all GDPR requirements are being met. 

For any event organiser planning their music festival using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage customers and every aspect of their festival logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors guestlists and ticketing.

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