Recently, a debate arose based on an article from The Stage (Kate Maltby: Adopting a ‘no seat should be left lonely’ policy stigmatises solo theatregoing) on whether we should restrict based on single seats.

In short, many organisations selling to a seating plan will restrict the purchase of seats which leave a single seat at a row end or between two groups, on the basis that these “singles” are hard(er) to sell and therefore impact the revenue of the venue. On the other hand, single theatregoers may feel discriminated against in the drive to maximise bums on seats, as they’re prevented from purchasing half of a pair in favour of the venue selling both seats.

Whilst there’s often a temptation in the media to make any issue into black or white, the reality is (or at least, should be) a little more nuanced – so this post aims to take a deeper look.

How Restrictions Work

I’m not aware of any systems which – and PatronBase certainly doesn’t – restrict the sale of single seats. The possible exception may be venues with “sofa” or box seating where sofas or boxes are sold as a unit rather than as individual seats. But for the most part, buying a single seat categorically isn’t a problem.

However, think back to when you’ve arrived at a conference, school play, gig, lecture or other seated event where seating is unreserved and offered on a “first come first served” basis. People naturally space themselves out to leave a gap between their group and the neighbouring group, as organisers wander the aisles asking people to “move down the rows to let more people in”. And who doesn’t love a plane row with a seat free so you can spread a little more. Left to their own devices, people will naturally form a checkerboard – and why not? More leg room, more room to relax, better view through the gap…

Of course, the problem with this is that the most popular group size in theatre, cinema and live events is 2, and therefore the reality is that if people space themselves out in this way, we lose anywhere up to a third of our income from the show, without saving any money on putting it on, which quickly eats through the profit into viability.

At PatronBase, we did a fair bit of work around modelling seating during COVID, where social distancing magnified the problem. We were one of the first systems to offer dynamic seat selection rather than forcing people to sit in pre-defined “pods”, but where each group needed a “ring” of extra seats to socially distance, this increased the impact of unsaleable singles.

So, as a result, most systems have some level of restriction. Some are cruder than others – PatronBase has fine-grained control over how and when this is applied – but typically, such systems will prevent customers from buying tickets which LEAVES a single seat either at the end of a row, or between two groups.

This doesn’t per se target single ticket buyers – if there are 3 seats left on a row, a couple will face this restriction – if there are 21 seats left on a row, a group of 20 will face this restriction. However, as shows sell out leaving a few scattered 2s and 3s left, it can certainly feel like it targets and scapegoats single seat buyers by drastically limiting their choice.

What’s the solution?

Sadly, the solution isn’t to remove these restrictions. Based on the modelling work we did in 2020, we estimated a typical loss of income from 5-15%, with an extreme worst case of 35%. In these times, no venue can realistically afford to leave that money on the table. So, such restrictions are an unfortunate fact of life. But, we can do things to improve the situation.

Know Your Audience

A first step is to know your audience. What group profile is typical for your events? Do you see mostly couples? Is there a mix of group sizes? Do some shows attract larger groups? This will guide your approach. The PatronBase Sales Profile gives you great insight into this.

However, take care – in data science terms, there can be an element of “survivorship bias” in these results. If you’ve spent months marketing your Feb 14^th showing as the ultimate romantic Valentine’s experience, you’re probably not going to find many single attendees that night! So how you’ve done things up to now may skew your picture of your (potential) audience.

Take Care with Pricing Bands

If I take a row of 20 seats, dividing this row into a “better” pricing band to both sides and a “best” pricing band in the middle splits this into 3 virtual rows – people don’t instinctively seat their group across pricing bands. So whilst a complex horseshoe layout of reduced price wings and centre “superseats” looks like it should do well on paper, it may well exacerbate the problem.

Nutcracker rather than Sledgehammer

PatronBase includes a configurable threshold over which this restriction is relaxed. Typically, applying a threshold like 80% or 90% is effective in balancing revenue with user experience – the system will prevent customers from leaving a single until the threshold is reached; once the threshold is reached, this restriction falls away to ensure that choice is maintained as the remaining seats available become more limited.

The configurable nature of this threshold means that we can use our knowledge of the audience to good effect on a venue-by-venue, or even show-by-show, basis.

An Effective  “Best Seats” Approach

In an ideal world, you’d seat all customers automatically to minimise unsold seats. That’s what your “best available” or “pick for me” button does.

But many customers prefer to make the choice themselves. In some cases, that may be due to preference or habit – growing up in Stratford, at the RST my family ALWAYS sat in the “D” section of the stalls to the front extreme left, giving a half-view of the stage, but allowing my deaf grandparents to hear the dialogue! However, in many cases, customers simply don’t trust us to pick seats which are as good as they’d pick themselves.

If customers trust us to “Pick For Me”, we can allocate seating to minimise singles seamlessly. But to do this, our “Pick For Me” needs to be the best it can be. Some of that is about using the right system – PatronBase’s “Pick For Me” has been refined over 30 years. Some of that is about tweaking the manual ratings of seats so that they reflect the seats people genuinely think are the “best”. And there are additional approaches such as allowing people to “pick again” or shape the pick with their preferences.

The better we make “Pick For Me”, the more our customers will trust us to guide them to seats they’ll like but which allow us to avoid singles without restriction.

Tailoring the Messaging

If customers understand what we’re doing, it’s easier to be supportive. I’ve previously written on software (which includes websites) having “personality” – we often focus on how well software works, but forget to optimise how things like error messages can impact on user experience. Tailoring the messaging – how we refer to single seats – can make this feel more collaborative and less like a restriction.

The Whole Package

I used to be a fairly regular single theatre- and concert-goer. And put simply, it’s not just the seating chart – the whole experience can feel a bit hostile. Which of us hasn’t had their table cleared while they nipped to the loo or felt rushed through a meal by a server over-eager to turn a table?!

Therefore, whilst seating can feel like a problem, it’s a symptom of a wider issue – because groups of 2 or larger are more common, the whole experience can neglect solo visitors.

What else can we do to encourage these valuable customers? Perhaps this is a potential case for dynamic pricing for good, offering discounts on single seats, to show our appreciation. Or perhaps there are creative ways to market, such as solo theatregoers clubs, social media challenges or special benefits such as meeting cast members.

Or perhaps we can apply this to our marketing, such as a “Treat Yourself” campaign, which makes clear we value solo audience members just as much as groups. Again, PatronBase can help you identify people who typically buy a single ticket, through segmentation, so that you can contact them to understand what would bring them back more often, or with offers and promotions they may find attractive.

Single-seat-remaining restrictions are, unfortunately, likely to be a fact of life into the future. However, that doesn’t mean we have to make solo attendees feel like second class citizens, through a combination of how we use restrictions, and the wider approach we take to understanding, segmenting and messaging to our audience. Tools like PatronBase are far more capable than simply putting restrictions in place and have a far bigger part to play in making solo audience members feel welcome, valued and included.