HOW THE PALACE THEATRES INCREASED MEMBERSHIPS BY 900% WITH LEAP

About The Palace Theatres

In the heart of downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, The Palace Theatres has been a beacon of performing arts in its community since its founding in 1914. This nonprofit arts organization features five thriving spaces, including The Palace Theatre, The Spotlight Room, The Rex Theatre, Forever Emma Studios, and the Singer Center for the Arts.

At its core is the historic Palace Theatre, a stunning venue that seats 834 people and hosts a wide variety of performances throughout the year. Nearby, the Spotlight Room offers the perfect setting for private events, pre-show gatherings, acoustic performances, and comedy shows. Just a short walk away is The Rex Theatre, a lively 300-seat performance space. Forever Emma Studios serves as their hub for youth theater programs and has been instrumental towards impacting their community. Finally, the Singer Center for the Arts is a bustling rehearsal space for everything from professional productions to their youth programs.

Reflecting on this extraordinary growth, Director of Operations Katie Lovell notes, "We have five venues now, which is crazy to say since we used to only have one. We would never have been able to have these five venues, sell tickets to all the different shows, and be this organized and cohesive without Leap."

To learn more about their success and how Leap Event Technology’s patron management solution has helped them, we met with Director of Operations Katie Lovell and Box Office Manager Cherie Prior.

LEAP DELIVERS RESULTS

Increase in tickets sold*

Increase in total number of memberships**

Increase in ticketing revenue*

Estimated decrease in chargebacks*

Increase of contacts in email database**

Time needed to send thousands of SMS messages**

*Data collected from The Palace Theatres in 2023 versus 2024

**Data estimations from The Palace Theatres in 2017 (the switch to Leap) versus 2024

Needing a Better Technology Solution

Before switching to Leap’s Salesforce CRM for the arts (formerly known as PatronManager), The Palace Theatres faced significant challenges with their previous system, particularly due to its lack of integration and automations. This ticketing software, while sufficient for managing their one venue at the time, quickly became limiting as the organization grew. According to Lovell, “When I started in 2012, we had a different ticketing software that was very basic. It got us by… but it was not integrated within the whole organization. This software was only for ticketing. So, we had different software for fundraising, emails, marketing, and everything else.” As their small theater continued to expand, the team quickly realized they needed a more sophisticated solution to streamline their operations.

Their system’s lack of automation was another major hurdle. Routine tasks (such as creating daily reports) had to be done manually and were incredibly time-consuming. “For one daily report, I had to go through every receipt and manually put them in,” Lovell explained. This process took approximately six hours per report, compared to the five minutes it takes now with Leap’s platform. Prior also highlighted how their data tracking used to rely on precarious methods like spreadsheets: “We tracked [everything] in a spreadsheet, and all it took was one person to accidentally mess up the spreadsheet, and we lost all of our data.”

Making the Switch to Leap Event Technology

Once The Palace Theatres realized they’d outgrown their system, their team researched many different software and ultimately landed on Leap’s dedicated solution for the arts. Since making the switch in 2017, “it's been very interesting for me to see all the changes that The Palace Theatre has been able to make and how we've been able to grow since joining with Leap and implementing this ticketing software,” Lovell emphasized.

When asked what contributed to their decision to partner with Leap, it was heavily influenced by these four key factors:

1. Seamless Integration

For The Palace Theatres, the primary reason for switching to Leap Event Technology was the ability to streamline their entire organization under one unified system. Not only did integrating all their data into Leap’s system save them immense amounts of time and money, it also fostered a greater sense of collaboration between their different teams.

"As a whole organization, everyone is able to use it – in fundraising, marketing, and the box office," Lovell explained. "[Being] integrated has been huge for us in the way that we communicate with each other in the organization, how things flow, and [how] the cohesiveness of our operations have completely transformed. We've been able to grow." Streamlining their operations with Leap allowed The Palace Theatres to focus on what truly matters — serving their patrons and advancing their mission to cultivate the arts in New Hampshire.

2. Dedicated Customer Service

Since The Palace Theatres could call their old ticketing system anytime with questions, easy accessibility to a support team was essential when switching to a bigger platform. Lovell praised Leap Event Technology for excelling in this area: “The customer service was really good. And [with] the support, whenever we've needed something or help, it's been a pretty quick turnaround getting in touch with someone.” Their team has direct contact with one of our dedicated support representatives, giving them the confidence that expert assistance is always available.

3. Powerful Client Community

“When we decided to transition to Leap, one of the big things that helped us was current client testimonials,” Lovell shared. Prior to making the switch, she had connected with two local theaters who use PatronManager (now known as Leap), and their directors and box office managers gave her the confidence to adopt this solution too. In fact, since then, Lovell shared that “we formed this little group with local theaters that use Leap, and then we can bounce ideas off each other.” With the help of Leap, The Palace Theatres’ team is grateful for the partnerships this platform is now forging with other theaters to support the overarching community in New England.

Beyond these local connections, The Palace Theatres has also benefited from Leap's broader, online client community. Lovell emphasized how “the client community was instrumental in the early days” and continues to be a valuable resource to this day. This forum-style platform empowers them to connect with other organizations, sharing knowledge, troubleshooting together, and unlocking the full potential of our CRM built on Salesforce. Prior added that she’s tapping into this online daily.

4. Leap’s Promising Future

From the beginning, it was clear to The Palace Theatres that Leap Event Technology wasn’t just focused on meeting the present needs of their clients – they were invested in staying ahead of the curve in live event technology. Lovell noted how she appreciated “where [Leap was] headed in the future and all the changes [they] were making to the software.” This is evident in Leap’s regular schedule of feature releases, solidifying their confidence in the future of this platform. Ever since Leap acquired PatronManager, Prior mentioned how much she appreciated “the rapidity of improvements and exciting new features every quarter.”

As The Palace Theatres pursues its ambitious goals for the future, Leap is innovating its solutions alongside them, which Lovell stated was “a huge factor” in selecting them as a partner. “We've been very happy so far,” she added. “We like the direction that Leap is heading, and we're heading there as well. You guys are growing, and we're growing. We're very excited for the future.”

Elevating Memberships at The Palace Theatres

Their membership program is an instrumental aspect of The Palace Theatres. This dedicated community of donors supports the theater in exchange for special perks, including free tickets to select shows, exclusive discounts, behind-the-scenes access, and more. Throughout the year, The Palace Theatres also hosts a variety of member-only events, such as backstage tours, exclusive tech rehearsals, meet-and-greets with the casts, season reveals, and free movie nights.

Since the organization first joined with Leap (formerly known as PatronManager), they have increased their memberships by over 900% to over 10,000 members! Lovell stated how this “has been instrumental for us, because those are 10,000 people that love the Palace and are coming back and buying tickets to shows.” She emphasized that Leap’s powerful technology played a key role in achieving this for their organization.

The Ease of Renewing Memberships

“Leap has helped us grow to 10,000 members,” Lovell emphasized, “One of the big [factors] is the integration… We have all sorts of data on our customers.” Leap’s powerful reporting tools have been a game-changer for The Palace Theatres, streamlining all their data to simplify their renewal process and scale their membership program.

By quickly pulling detailed reports of memberships that are soon to expire, the team can proactively reach out to patrons through email, letters, and phone calls. For those patrons, The Palace Theatres can send them a link to renew their membership online in just a few clicks. “We make it as easy and simple as possible,” Lovell noted.

Now, it’s also super easy for the team to identify patrons who frequently attend their shows but haven’t become members yet. Thanks to Leap Event Technology, they can personalize their outreach to this group of patrons. “We're leaving them notes under their chairs, because we know that this person has come to 10 shows,” she noted as an example. “We can get them to join our membership program and [offer] some of the benefits… because of Leap that we weren't able to before.”

Membership Perks in Leap’s Platform

Curious what types of benefits Leap can help provide members? Let’s dive into a few ways our Salesforce CRM is leveling up The Palace Theatres’ program!

Discounts

Thanks to our solution, The Palace Theatres is saving time from entering membership discounts manually. Instead, discounts get automatically applied to patrons’ tickets based on membership level. Plus, whenever a staff member pulls up an account to help someone with a discount, they can quickly see their membership level and duration. From there, they can personally thank that patron for being a member as well as share the perks of considering a higher level.

Member Accounts

Members gain access to an easy-to-use interface powered by Leap where they can manage their account themselves and tap into their membership benefits. “A lot of people just want to be able to do it themselves,” Prior stated. “And that's a great feature.”

Ticket Vouchers

Free tickets to certain shows is another perk that The Palace Theatres offers its members. Not only do their patrons love a free show, it’s a strategic move to boost attendance for specific shows. The Palace Theatres can simply pull a list of members who haven’t bought tickets to that show yet, send them a code to get free tickets, and have them redeem it at the show.

Subscriptions

Another popular perk among The Palace Theatres’ members is subscriptions. These are bundles of tickets to a group of events in a given season. For example, they offer two free tickets to specific shows that members can call in and redeem. Leap has helped the box office save immense amounts of time by moving from physical ticket vouchers to digital ones. “We're talking hours [saved] plus postage,” she noted. Instead of printing, cutting, and mailing vouchers to each member, Prior shared how their subscription is simply added to their membership order online.

Empowering The Palace Theatres’ Marketing

From SMS to email, here’s how The Palace Theatres is leveraging the powerful Salesforce integrations within Leap’s platform to revolutionize their marketing efforts and better connect with their community.

Multi-Buyer Lists

Pulling multi-buyer lists is a powerful way for The Palace Theatres to create highly targeted marketing campaigns and better connect with its patrons. Since these lists only pull patrons who meet your selected criteria, Lovell highlighted how they target specific people to promote upcoming performances to: “If we send a text for one specific show, we could pull a list of people that have seen similar shows that we know would be directly interested in that show.” Prior emphasized how quick and easy the system makes generating these lists, especially when identifying patterns in patron behavior: “We pull [multi-buyer lists] all the time, especially when we're looking to pull a list of people who are going to similar shows. I just generate these reports, and it’s so easy to get all this data.”

Beyond marketing, the multi-buyer list feature helps The Palace Theatres efficiently manage their resources like venue space and staff. With so many members attending their events, they’re able to monitor attendance and call in extra staff as needed. Ultimately, generating these highly targeted reports is a key strength of Leap’s solution for the arts, empowering nonprofits like The Palace Theatres to work smarter and personalize their patrons’ experiences.

SMS Marketing

Tapping into Salesforce’s extensive catalog of integrations, The Palace Theatres uses Mogli to send targeted text messages straight from our CRM. Seeing that it only takes five minutes to text thousands of patrons who might be interested in a show, Prior pointed out how “we have definitely seen an increase in ticket sales because of it.” For each campaign, they can run reports in Leap’s arts management platform to see how many people purchased tickets from specific links and have all their insights streamlined into their existing data. “Because it's integrated into Leap, everything is in one system,” Lovell added. “It's been instrumental in our marketing efforts.”

Email Campaigns

When it comes to email marketing, The Palace Theatres’ team leveraged Leap’s integration with Emma to grow their contact list and launch targeted email campaigns. Since 2017, they’ve successfully increased their database by 220% with tens of thousands of contacts! Lovell shared how our platform's CRM Snapshot feature empowered them to do this: “We started using CRM Snapshots when we really started to dive deep into Emma… marketing [to targeted] groups and what shows they might be interested in and just growing our database in general.” With everything in a single platform, they can easily determine the level of engagement with each email and the success of their marketing efforts to optimize their future initiatives.

From pre- and post-show emails to cancellation announcements, automating these emails has saved time and presented new opportunities as well. In their “know-before-you-go” emails two days before the event, they provide details like parking, where to go, and where to eat. These have opened new chances to promote their partners, especially downtown restaurants. According to Prior, sending these emails “not only promotes and helps us – it's helping our community on a larger scale.” When a show gets canceled, Lovell shared how easy it is “to just click a button and tell everyone that it’s cancelled” instead of spending time calling patrons. It’s just as quick to send out urgent updates, like letting people know about street closures.

Gift Card Management

According to Lovell, her team used to manage gift cards manually in their previous system, updating an Excel spreadsheet whenever a member would use their voucher and gift cards. Thanks to Leap, this is now automated, saving them time and ensuring accurate data entry. Because of these improvements, Lovell noted, “Think about the human errors that we're not making anymore.”

In recent years, The Palace Theatres has taken advantage of our Salesforce integration with Smart Transaction Systems (STS), making their gift card management easier than ever. They also were able to move from paper gift cards to digital ones, which saved them additional time and resources as well. “STS gift cards changed our lives,” Prior emphasized.

Enhancing their Organization’s Daily Operations

Discover how we’re helping The Palace Theatres revolutionize their operations by enhancing admissions, saving time, and reducing chargebacks with our platform’s innovative tools!

Improved Admissions with Mobile Ticketing

When asked about how our ticketing services have enhanced The Palace Theatres’ admissions, Prior mentioned, “Mobile tickets had a huge impact, as well as the new card readers and ticket scanners.” She continued describing how this has added convenience to the overall theater experience, since “it saves time for our patrons, because they don't have to wait in line for will call.” Their younger demographic especially has appreciated simply accessing their tickets on their phones and walking right in.

Mobile ticketing is also saving them money on printing costs and frees up staff time previously spent on distributing physical tickets. Lovell shared how their staff “can focus on calling memberships to see if they want to renew [and] other reporting things that the box office can do,” all thanks to mobile ticketing.

Saved Time with Automations

Leap Event Technology is transforming how The Palace Theatres builds reports, empowering them to spend less time pulling data and more time analyzing it. Previously, Lovell shared how generating daily reports was an entirely manual process, consuming hours each week and detracting from time that could have been spent making strategic decisions based on their data. “Now, we can really look at the data that we have and analyze it,” Lovell mentioned. “It's really serving us to be able to have this extra time to look into everything that Leap has to offer and use it to our advantage.”

As box office manager, Prior added how our Salesforce CRM has allowed her to automate tasks in her role as well: “That has made such a huge difference …to automate a lot of things that we used to do manually in the box office, even just 2-3 years ago, that now we're doing through Leap” Thanks to the power of these automations, The Palace Theatres is operating more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

Streamlined Payments with Merchant Services

In addition to a powerful Salesforce CRM, our patron management solution offers their nonprofit with streamlined payment processing as well. When it comes to their revenue streams, Lovell stated, “We're doing it all with Leap.” Every transaction is run through this all-in-one system, including (but not limited to) donations, invoices, sponsorships, and rent payments for other organizations to use the space. Prior reinforced how this makes pulling reports and looking up transactions super easy for their organization, rather than having to reference separate systems.

On top of that, The Palace Theatres has experienced an estimated 90% reduction in chargebacks since partnering with Leap’s merchant services! According to Lovell, “With the new card readers, the number of chargebacks has dropped down. So, that’s a win.” This is thanks to Stripe’s advanced technology for fraud prevention, plus the easier reporting, settling, and chargeback fighting we offer. Now, whenever a chargeback comes through, Lovell appreciates how all the information she needs to fight it is right there, alongside the expert support she needs to win those claims. “When you can really understand how it benefits your organization and your time, it's a game changer.”

“Working with Leap has been a game changer. We've been able to grow. We have five venues now, which is crazy to say when back then we only had one. We would never have been able to have these five venues, sell tickets to all the different shows, be organized and cohesive without Leap, and everything that we've been able to do with it.”

Katie Lovell

Director of Operations at The Palace Theatres

How Partnering with Leap Helps Arts Organizations Thrive

From streamlining their data to opening up more time for data analysis, this partnership between The Palace Theatres and Leap Event Technology has truly revolutionized their operations. “We’ve transformed our operations completely. I feel like Leap was just the starting-off point for that… [and] has been instrumental in the growth and success of the Palace,” Lovell reflected. As their organization pursues ambitious dreams to further expand, The Palace Theatres is equipped to achieve them with our solutions by their side.

With powerful tools like Leap’s patron management solution and merchant services, The Palace Theatres has achieved significant growth from using our ultimate patron management solution. If you work with an arts organization that’s ready to take your operations to the next level, contact Leap Event Technology today and let’s make your dreams a reality!

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