Product6 min read
Ticket tiers that survive contact with attendees
Early-bird, group, and comp tiers each create edge cases at the door. Design them so the edges are cheap.
By Priya RamanProduct
Every pricing tier you add is a rule someone will need to explain at a desk, at eight in the morning, to a person who paid a different price than their colleague.
Early-bird needs an end that is not a surprise
A deadline that passes silently produces support mail. A visible countdown and a confirmation email that states the price paid removes almost all of it.
Group rates need an owner
Group registrations fail when the buyer is not the attendee. Whoever pays needs a way to hand out seats, change names, and see who has claimed one — without a support ticket for each change.
Comps need to look like tickets
Complimentary passes issued out-of-band are the most common cause of a name missing from the door list. Issuing them through the same flow, with a code rather than a price, keeps one list rather than two.
The test for any tier is simple: can a volunteer at the desk resolve a dispute about it without calling you?