“We enjoy a good attendance at the Opera, but we cannot presume that this will always continue. We have to work more actively with our customer contacts.”

Malin Forkman, Marketing Manager
Royal Opera House, Stockholm

Despite being a national cultural institution dating back to the 1700s – the Royal Opera House in Stockhom still likes to be proactive when it comes to its internal processes and contact with customers. Last autumn the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system was installed, which is expected to increase revenues and reduce costs, as well as provide local audiences with a better service.

The Royal Opera House has been a well-known name in Swedish cultural circles since 1782, when the building was constructed by order of King Gustaf lll. This national stage for opera and ballet sees around 220 performances a year and a total of 240,000 visitors.
“We have a very loyal audience, which we are very happy about. However, the majority of local audiences are older. One of our challenges is to both retain our existing group of visitors, but also to find new customer groups”, explains Malin Forkman, the Royal Opera’s Sales and Marketing Manager.

Focus on sales aimed at target groups
In addition to the individual visitors, business customers also form an important target group for the Opera, as do group bookings of varying sizes. Malin Forkman and her colleagues identified a need to move from a system involving a simple order and distribution of tickets, to a more proactive sales approach aimed at specific target groups.

“We enjoy a good attendance at the Opera, but we cannot presume that this will always continue. We have to work more actively with our customer contacts,” she says.

Previously, for example, a group booking would be received and tickets would be sent out without the purchase being registered anywhere. There may have been some information in Outlook or in the solutions they had developed themselves. When Key Account Manager Mirelle Andreasson and Sales Manager Lena Hellström visited a CRM trade show and attended a presentation from consultancy firm Releye, they immediately saw how a CRM system could meet their requirements. Even if it just meant being able to gather information about their customers, gain an overview and thereby be able to spot any particular patterns forming. For example, if a group of visitors come to see a ballet every spring, might they not also be interested in a special offer for the autumn?

”Both Mirelle and I had experience of CRM systems from previous jobs. Together with Releye we went through our requirements at the Opera and how a CRM system could be adjusted to suit us. We felt that Microsoft Dynamics CRM would fit the job; it is flexible and is well-known on the market. It was very important to me to be able to have a reliable partner, one which was not going to go bankrupt and which would be making further developments to the product”, she says.

All information in one database
”Another key requirement was that there should be no other parallel system”, explains Bodil Ekström.

”Our vision was to have a system that would hold both private and business customers in one database, and be stored in the same place. Some CRM systems on the market focus more on business to business. But with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, it is possible to manage both private and business customers in one database”, she says.

In May 2009 the processes that best could be supported were defined and the CRM system was then installed at the Opera in the autumn. The thought was initially to allow just a small group of people in the sales and marketing department to use the system. However, this group soon grew to include people taking bookings and group ticket bookings, making a total of 13 users in all. After training and creating new work processes, they were ready to use the system. The first phase focuses on business customers, and next year the private customers will be added. This addition will be implemented in close collaboration with Ticnet, which handles online ticket sales.

“We expect to see increased revenues and reduced costs”
Even if the Opera House does not use its new tool to its full potential, expectations still remain high.

“We expect to see increased revenues and reduced costs, partly because we are selling more to both existing and new customer groups, and partly because we are reducing costs by making the project more effective. The CRM tool is also being used for project management. We should have more time to actively work on sales, not administration. This reduces internal costs,” says Malin Forkman.

She hopes to be able to see consumer patterns and trends, and to be able to identify enquiries and thereby sales opportunities. If there are several customers asking for an “after work performance”, then that is a concept we can work towards. Bodil Ekström confirms that the CRM system can also help the Opera with mapping out the market and the number of business contacts. They are even able to increase customer satisfaction, as the system recognizes if a customer has been in contact with the Opera previously.

Malin Forkman also adds ”it is important that customers know that the Opera can offer events and performances that meet their needs. It is definitely about having the right balance, because there are many customer clubs. But we know the ones that come to the Opera are often very committed. They are open to the right offers, as they are very loyal to the Opera House”, she says.