Gantner Ticketing, a provider of software for museums, zoos, cultural heritage and visitor attractions, has been working with Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the biodiversity institute of the Netherlands. This is home to an award-winning museum and manages one of the largest collections in the world, with over 43 million natural history objects.
More than 120 researchers work at Naturalis’ research centre to study and protect biodiversity. The institute is a leader in digitising collections and creating ICT infrastructures that gather all biodiversity data at the European and global levels and make it available to scientists across the world.
Recreatex ticketing software from Gantner is being used by Naturalis to streamline the customer experience across all channels. The most significant method of ticket sales for the museum is online – in 2022 about 80% of sales were made online. Customers can select a time window on the website well in advance of their visit.
Additionally, Naturalis provides four ticket vending machines with Gantner Ticketing software and the service desk as places to purchase tickets, and also to buy parking tickets. At the entrance, tickets containing QR codes are read and validated.
Ticketing software that can meet demand
The museum had been gradually exceeding its 150,000 visitor capacity, necessitating the need for a new building and corresponding ticketing software. The institution even went beyond the mark of 410,000 tickets in 2016.
With nine outstanding galleries, the fully renovated museum enables visitors of all ages to discover the natural world of today and yesterday. The museum offers both a seeing and doing experience for visitors. Guests can ask questions of scientists, observe a specimen being prepared up close, have their own natural discovery examined, and meet a T. rex.
“Since the new building was accommodating for more visitors, we also wanted to make the customer journey more seamless,” says Wilfred Gerritsen, head of application development and management at Naturalis Biodiversity Center. “In addition, we wanted to have a flexible system that offered us the possibility to customize ticket prices, exhibition programs, and more.”
The museum also sought to make purchasing tickets online easy and user-friendly. Prior to 2019, Naturalis already understood the significance of online sales. However, the museum also discovered the value of a high-performance online sales platform during the two challenging years of the COVID pandemic.
The museum made an investment in a brand-new, all-in-one ticketing system from Gantner Ticketing to handle its escalating number of visitors.
Flexible and futureproof
As well as making things easier for visitors, Recreatex has also improved operations for the attraction’s employees as well.
“Although there is a learning curve for Recreatex, due to the comprehensiveness of the system, we also appreciate the wide functionality of the ticketing software,” says Gerritsen.
The system enables staff to better provide details on tickets, as well as to deal with rebookings and cancellations, and to resolve complaints. Naturalis also uses Salesforce for automated customer communication in addition to sales. Salesforce CRM software and Recreatex are now fully connected, enabling staff to send customised communications prior to and following a museum visit.
Gantner Ticketing was chosen by Naturalis because of its flexibility. Recreatex offers numerous capabilities to customise ticket types and prices, add new exhibitions, or deal with subscriptions, discounts, or group prices, in contrast to the ticketing systems previously employed.
“We were looking for a reliable and flexible ticketing system, and that is exactly what we got with Recreatex,” says Sander Bal, application manager at Naturalis Biodiversity Center. “Gantner Ticketing’s experience and solid references in the museum market also reassured us that we had made the right choice.”
Last but not least, Naturalis wished to position itself for expansion and the future. Naturalis does anticipate that more focused and seasonally focused exhibits will become a part of the programme, even though the museum does not intend for a massive increase in visitors in the near future. The Naturalis team’s ability to manage this will make a multi-functional and adaptable ticketing solution even more crucial.
Earlier this year, Gantner Ticketing announced that it is providing a new, seamless admissions process for Kasteeltuinen Arcen, one of The Netherlands’ leading botanical gardens.
