Gantner Ticketing, a provider of software for museums, zoos, cultural heritage and visitor attractions, is assisting a cultural venue in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to easily offer visitors practical insights into the behind-the-scenes workings of the museum’s activities.
Museums and galleries usually only display a percentage of their collections, with the rest hidden in warehouses or research areas that are inaccessible to the public. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen bucks this trend by transforming its archive building into a publicly accessible art depot in a unique concept that opened to guests last year.
The Depot is found in Rotterdam’s Museumpark, next to the main attraction, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen itself. Home to a range of private and corporate collections, the iconic building features fourteen climate-controlled compartments with over 150,000 artworks. It is of utmost importance to keep rooms’ humidity and temperature stable to preserve the artefacts.
Flexible ticketing
Gantner now enables visitors to access the depot seamlessly with the ease and safety of its integrated online ticketing system, and printable tickets for device-free access.
Head of marketing and communication Daniël Bouw says: “Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen has until now worked with time slots. That is a system we installed in COVID times, but time slots and capacity management also seemed useful to us after the pandemic to guide flows of visitors in a practical way through the depot’s specific layout.”
The Depot is suitable for group bookings, with an educational offer currently in the works. The organisation can now also easily manage rates and discounts, a crucial feature when approximately 85% of visitors use discount cards or passes. At the Depot entrance employees can quickly scan the tickets for access control, and use Gantner’s cash register solutions for on-site F&B and retail.
Meeting the challenge
The strict, assorted climate conditions in various art compartments means access has to be limited in time and visitor number. The Depot, therefore, required a controlled approach to visitor flows, using time slots that could easily be booked online.
ICT manager Peter de Jonge says: “During the COVID period and associated mandatory closures, we often had to offer rebookings. That is quite time-consuming and therefore we could not possibly do it properly ourselves.
“As an organisation, we want to evolve towards a fully digital ticketing environment, without physical cash registers. However, we have to make this transition gradually, because not all target groups are immediately on board with the digital story. And of course, we also regularly receive questions about our functioning as a museum repository. For all those questions, the GANTNER managed e-commerce service is an ideal partner.”
A self-sufficient system
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, closed for restoration works until 2029, was already using an external partner for online ticket sales. However, with the Depot, Boijmans Van Beuningen wanted to bring the sales function back in-house, with the benefit of minimising costs.
Peter de Jonge continues: “Thanks to Gantner’s solutions, we have more control over our ticket sales and can better optimise our operating costs. Now that we manage everything ourselves with Gantner solutions, we can also react more quickly to changes.
“The strength of Gantner lies in its multiple solutions: online ticket sales, operation of shops and restaurants; everything is taken care of in the same software system, and it is easy to control and manage.”
Having a helpdesk at hand is a key attribute for a great customer experience. Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen opted to use Gantner’s helpdesk support services, meaning it is available to assist prospective visitors but does not have to deal with the logistics of having its own support team.
Instead, it is Gantner that provides an experienced team of helpdesk professionals assisting with rebookings, refunds and queries. In addition to phone support, guests can also be assisted by email or chatbot.
Bouw says: “We are very satisfied with the solutions from Gantner. Even with the limited number of people in our team, everything is easy to manage, and that translates into happy visitors.”
Last year, Gantner Ticketing launched Enviso, the firm’s new cloud-based ticketing and integrated payment solution for attractions and cultural venues.
Photos: Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen/Ossip van Duivenbode
