Why CRM Integration is a Critical Factor When Choosing a POS Solution

If you operate an entertainment venue or manage an arts and culture organization, chances are you’re already familiar with Tessitura, the widely-used, industry-specific customer relationship management (CRM) platform. But if your point of sale (POS) solution isn’t integrated with your CRM program, you’re missing valuable benefits. Here’s why CRM integration is a must-have when you’re choosing a POS solution.

1. View customer purchase history in one place.

When your CRM and POS System are working together, all of your customer information is available in a single, consolidated database rather than two separate ones that require extra work to coordinate. The unification saves you time by eliminating the need to manually enter data from one source into the other, and it provides several benefits.

• Staff members can access a customer’s purchase history during a transaction to assist with upselling, check for deals, or see if organization membership needs to be renewed.
• Ticket sellers and front of house staff will be able to identify significant donors and other VIP customers and acknowledge them accordingly.
• The shared information can also be used to create specifically targeted marketing campaigns and personalized communications — ensuring that customers see offers that are most relevant to them, which increases their overall satisfaction and fosters loyalty and repeat business.

 

2. Find customers in your CRM database.

CRM integration with your POS system makes it easy to look up customers from your database. You should be able to search using any of several pieces of data, including customer name, phone number, e-mail address, or membership number. Or, for even faster service, simply scan the customer’s membership card. Recognizing your customers and offering personalized service goes a long way toward strengthening the relationship and encouraging continued patronage. And upselling suggestions based on purchase history are a great way to increase ticket size and revenue.

3. Apply customer membership discounts.

Once you’ve looked up customers in your CRM database, you can easily (even automatically) apply any appropriate membership discounts or loyalty program reward points toward purchases in concessions or gift shops. And if membership needs to be renewed, it can easily be done as part of the transaction, thereby maintaining both the customer relationship and the stream of revenue from memberships. Both are particularly important to arts and culture organizations.

4. Redeem existing gift certificates.

Customers can purchase gift certificates and gift cards through the Tessitura platform. CRM integration with the free POS solutions available from SalesVu (including OrderUp self-service kiosks) enables easy redemption of Tessitura gift certificates. To use a certificate, simply scan it at checkout or enter the number manually. Customers appreciate the convenience, increasing their satisfaction and loyalty.

‘Our initial attraction to SalesVu was its mobility and scalability. As a major presenting arts organization, we have an ever-changing range of needs across our venues, events and festivals and we were searching for one system that would allow us to capture both concessions and merchandise sales with an easy to learn interface for part-time/seasonal employees. The Tessitura integration will give us the ability to see a more complete picture of patrons’ spending with us and more easily fulfill membership perks. Being able to process Tessitura gift certificates will allow a gift certificate to be used for anything in our venues, not just tickets’.– Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
SalesVu currently offers the only integrated POS solution that accepts Tessitura gift certificates and cards. To find out more about the advantages of integrating SalesVu iPad POS and Tessitura, contact SalesVu today.