For the Town Hall Theatre to be sustainable, they have to be careful with money and rely on a pool of local volunteers. But, by 2016, they needed to spend because they had a problem. “Too many customers were booking by phone and travelling for long periods (sometimes 90 minutes) to find we were overbooked. One night we had 16 extra people; it was quite heartbreaking,” says theatre manager Beth Firman.
Not great for customers! Or for Beth, who found herself constantly at the cinema checking phone bookings to avoid overbooking. Something had to change.
And then they discovered Veezi. “We knew it would probably be out of our reach financially, so we told them we couldn’t afford it (as much as we would LOVE it). They were wonderful and came to the party with a special deal,” says Beth, who calls the Veezi team “wonderful”. She thinks Veezi made the deal because the theatre is a council-run, not-for-profit cinema, serving a wide area.
Town Hall Theatre have a monthly movie night highlighting mental-health issues. The theatre accommodates a wide range of activities like this, including events, presentations, and live shows, with Veezi software supporting all of these.
“With 55 or so volunteers, a fair bit of training was required. A handful of us learnt how to use Veezi, and then we taught everyone else”. Everyone picked it up quickly and is confident and happy using it.
And things have certainly changed for the Town Hall Theatre. “Not only has Veezi streamlined everything, it has made our theatre a more professional venue—we are not just this little country cinema. It has helped us save face with the larger cinemas; now our reputation is just brilliant. People come from other towns to find out how we do it,” she says.