Over the last 12 months, we’ve been focusing on enhancing the experience for our supporters, right from purchasing a ticket down to leaving at the stadium after a match. And this focus will continue throughout 2024.
To explore our focus and next steps, we spoke to Ed Rice, Head of Commercial at Glamorgan Cricket and James Matthews, UK & Ireland Country Manager at CM.com, the Official Ticketing Partner of Glamorgan County Cricket Club and Sophia Gardens.
At Glamorgan Cricket, the supporter experience is key. “Essentially, we want people to have a positive experience and make Glamorgan Cricket a place that supporters want to come back to time and time again,” explains Ed Rice.
To improve the experience there are two areas of focus. “The first is the booking process, making sure it's as straightforward as possible to come find and buy tickets from Glamorgan Cricket.” The second element is “personalising the offering, tailoring it to fit each member in our diverse supporter base and keeping them informed of what we have on, making sure that it's suitable to them, something they’re interested in and potentially save them money in the long run,” continues Ed.
A key focus for improving the supporter experience is through technology, especially the ticketing platform. “Any technology we use needs to work and be accessible to all and as user-friendly as possible and this is what we were looking for in a ticketing partner,” describes Ed. “With CM.com, the simplicity of the ticketing platform on the supporter side and the ability to personalise the experience in the ticket shop, with supporter-based pricing for example, aligns with our goals and ambitions.”
James Matthews explains that Glamorgan Cricket “are an open and collaborative club with an ambition to grow,” which means we’re able to share the same vision when enhancing the supporter experience.
So far, we have seen our supporter experience scores significantly increase year on year. These scores are what we measure after each short-form cricket match, including the T20 Vitality Blast and our international fixtures.
“The scores are based on how easy it is to purchase tickets, or how easy it is to get into the ground, all of which are basic expectations, but getting those right makes a big shift in the supporter experience,” explains Ed. In addition, “since implementing our new ticketing platform we’ve seen customer service calls and queries to our box office significantly reduce, meaning the team is freed up and that’s a real positive.”
This is simply “the tip of the iceberg” says Ed, “there is much more potential and aspects to work on. Moving forward in 2024, learning more about our supporters to optimise their experience is vital.”
“The key focus for us as we move into 2024 is finding new and different ways to improve and provide the best experience, a personalised experience that revolves around the supporter and ultimately drives more people to come to watch Glamorgan Cricket and visit Sophia Gardens.” continues Ed.
James explains how “automation could be the next best step for Glamorgan Cricket. Utilising rich messaging channels such as WhatsApp or Instagram for supporter communication, whether marketing, customer support or even sharing tickets for matches at Sophia Gardens.”
To reach this goal Ed describes “we are incredibly open and want to try something different. We can't just do exactly what we've done because we'll not see any improvement. We’ll constantly challenge ourselves to find diverse ways.”