“We have seen a big increase in our membership numbers, especially with online purchases and renewals.”

Amber Cruz, Membership and Database Coordinator at the Palm Springs Art Museum, is excited about the growth Tessitura facilitates for her organization. The technology platform is revolutionizing the museum’s ticketing and customer experience, both online and in person. Moreover, back-office operations run more smoothly because the team collaborates in a unified system. 

These far-ranging improvements mark a sharp contrast from just a few years ago.

Struggling with disconnected systems and inadequate functionality

The Palm Springs Art Museum exemplifies the elegant simplicity of desert modernism. The building, situated against the backdrop of Mt. San Jacinto, integrates sleek glass with natural materials, seamlessly connecting indoor and outdoor spaces. 

Inside the museum, however, staff struggled with disconnected technology systems that hindered growth and visitor cultivation. The museum’s previous platforms fell short in many ways. 

“We migrated from a system lacking the functionality and flexibility we needed. It was built for performing arts, but we offer way more than that here at the museum,” said Pansy Cuevas Nicholas, Visitor Experience Systems Administrator. 

“We offer general admission, performing arts, special exhibitions,” Pansy explained. “We run our gala ticketing. We have a wide range of things our old system just didn't have workarounds for. It was very rigid.”

While their previous platform is marketed as a unified solution, its fundraising and membership functionality failed to meet the museum’s needs. The Palm Springs Art Museum used only the ticketing function, paired with a separate commercial platform for fundraising and memberships. Like many institutions, they hoped the combination would provide robust capabilities for critical income-generating departments. 

However, using multiple vendors created new challenges. Amber noted that having “completely separate” systems added layers of manual work. It was also difficult for front desk staff to verify basic customer information, such as membership status.

“If somebody at the front desk sold a membership, they would have the guest fill out a piece of paper. We would manually collect their card information,” Pansy said. “That would get passed along to our membership manager, who would put it into the fundraising database. Then, finance would process it. 

“Every once in a while, we would do an update to get that information over to the ticketing database,” Pansy explained. “So, the information never matched across systems.” 

“We wanted a system that was more united,” Amber said. The museum needed a single system with equally strong functionality in ticketing, fundraising and membership.

Why Tessitura? Flexibility and continuous evolution

As the Palm Springs Art Museum team searched for a new technology solution, Tessitura quickly emerged as the clear choice. A key reason is that Tessitura is designed to be highly configurable to meet the widely varied needs of arts and culture organizations. 

“We are a very small team,” Pansy said. “The ability to transform the system comfortably into something we need is essential.” 

That ability is proving especially useful for the visitor services team, whose ticketing needs go far beyond daily admission. “We have a theater inside the museum, the Annenberg Theater, which also frequently operates as a rental venue. All kinds of performers come through. We have films, plays and lectures in that space, each with their own dynamic ticketing needs. We do lots of community engagement programming. We do workshops,” she said. 

“The constant evolution of the system is the biggest selling point for me.”
— Pansy Cuevas Nicholas

Even spaces such as the museum’s atrium house live events. Tessitura makes it easy to turn these into ticketed facilities. “We’re constantly creating maps to seat people in different spaces within the museum,” Pansy explained.

In addition to seated venues, Tessitura helps Pansy manage room capacity effectively. “There are capacity options that didn't really exist in our previous system,” she noted. “It’s very easy to cut things and add them back and move them around. It gives us a lot of freedom.” 

With Tessitura’s flexibility, the team can manage their programs intuitively. “Tessitura is completely tailored to our institutional needs,” Pansy said. 

More importantly, Pansy added, “This is a system that's constantly growing and is very receptive to feedback.” The museum’s team appreciates the regular release of new features to Tessitura v16. 

“We’ve seen many features added in the last year and a half that have completely changed the way we use the system,” Pansy said. “The constant evolution of the system is the biggest selling point for me.” 

Truly unified, in real time

Amber enjoys Tessitura’s native handling of both memberships and ticketing. Now, members can redeem their benefits through any channel. Previously, Amber said, “We either manually tracked those benefits or we didn’t track at all, honestly. That capability to redeem benefits online, as well as over the phone or in person, and for us to track that activity, is a great aspect of Tessitura.”

Plus, the information is always current because data entered into Tessitura is available in real time. Amber noted, “We deal with so many guests and members at the front desk. Having information that’s immediately up to date was really important.”

Previously, Pansy said, “It was all a manual process to pull data from one end to another. Now we have pretty much eliminated that problem, because what I'm doing in ticketing communicates directly with what finance is doing, communicates directly with what development is doing, all the way to our frontline staff.”

In other words, Tessitura gives the team a real-time view of every customer’s activity. Amber noted, “You don’t have to pull different things from separate databases to get information. You’re able to see the donor as a whole, and that’s probably your best tool as a nonprofit. 

“You’re able to see what they’re doing in different aspects of the organization,” Amber continued. “They’re giving this amount to this exhibition. They came to this event. They were a member, but they didn’t renew their membership. With Tessitura, it’s all in there, and it’s all easy to access.”

“You’re able to see the donor as a whole, and that’s probably your best tool as a nonprofit.”
— Amber Cruz 

Enhancing the online experience

Tessitura’s powerful e-commerce platform enabled the Palm Springs Art Museum to make significant improvements to customers’ online experience, too. “We sell pretty much everything on our website,” Pansy said. “We process all ticket sales, whether that is general admission, special events or rental events. We process all online membership transactions, since they can purchase any level of membership through our website. They can also make donations through our website to multiple categories.”

She appreciates how Tessitura’s flexible pricing rules help them manage discounts efficiently. Once those rules are built, she said, “It’s seamless to our guests. For example, we have a lecture series called ‘Mixed Feelings.’ Members get a 15% discount. They are able to log in, put the event in their cart and automatically get the discount.”

Promotions for the general public also apply automatically. “We offer a bundle discount if you purchase tickets for both locations. The customers get a pop-up message. It’s very easy; they don’t even have to think about it,” Pansy said. “That is the thing I’ve gotten the biggest feedback on. It’s so much easier now not to have to search for a promo code and enter it or call to get your discount.”

Growing membership

The museum’s enhanced e-commerce path especially pays off for loyal members. “Previously, we didn't really have any member functionality online,” Pansy said. “Our members are the ones who saw the biggest transition in the way they interacted with our website. They seem to be loving it.”

Amber agrees. “It’s definitely far easier for our members to access their benefits and see the most recent information on their account,” she said. Before, she noted, “We didn’t have the most accurate data on how many of our members were actually coming to member events, and which ones. Now we do.”

The museum also enjoys better visibility into gift memberships and guest passes. Amber appreciates being able to see not just that a visitor used a guest pass but also which member provided it. Similarly, she can view the giver, recipient and redemption date of a gift membership. “Tracking-wise, these things are a lot cleaner in Tessitura,” Amber said. 

“It’s far easier for our members to access their benefits and see the most recent information on their account.”
— Amber Cruz

This rich data trail provides powerful opportunities to nurture relationships. Amber said, “If someone comes to an event because of a member, it’s easier now to send them a communication to say, ‘Thank you for coming to this member event with this person. If you’re interested in becoming a member, here’s how.’”

Amber also values Tessitura’s ability to track customer interests. “We’re able to really see what our members are more interested in and what events are successful,” she said. Those insights help them better target their communications and make smarter decisions about future cultivation efforts.  

Working more closely as a team

Both Pansy and Amber remarked on how far the museum has come from its previous operations. Tessitura’s unified platform facilitates closer collaboration across teams. 

“We have the ability to be a team of power users rather than the way that we functioned before,” Pansy said. “This is the first time we have had something that’s completely integrated.”

That collaborative approach is improving customer service, too. “We definitely have more capability to assist people,” Pansy noted. “Previously, everything was locked down to the supervisor, and that greatly increased wait times. Now, our frontline team is ready and able to support people, which I've gotten great feedback on.”

Rich resources and a robust community 

Palm Springs Art Museum benefits not just from their new technology platform but also from Tessitura’s robust community, learning resources and professional support. “The resources available to us are a valuable part of our experience,” Pansy said. “The 24-hour phone support and the community network have been wonderful parts of becoming confident and capable within a system that I’d never used before.”

She also appreciates the Tessitura Learning & Community Conference for help staying up to date on business practices and understanding how other museums operate. “Before, it wasn’t very community-based. It was mostly just me sitting there doing it myself,” she recalled.

Amber agreed. “Our onboarding training was great. All the training that Tessitura has is great. I use all the resources, the community forums, everything,” she said. “That’s something we didn’t have in our last systems, where you just had to figure it out yourself or call support. I enjoy all the resources Tessitura has.”

“All the training that Tessitura has is great. I use all the resources, the community forums, everything.”
— Amber Cruz

Creating time for high-impact projects

Tessitura has helped museum staff streamline administrative work so they can think beyond day-to-day deadlines, such as closing their fiscal year. “Historically, this has been the busiest paperwork time of the year for me,” Pansy said. “Now, I have the privilege of focusing my energy on changes we can make to the system in the upcoming year to make it even better, to increase functionality for our end users.”

That stands in contrast to her previous reality, which she described as: “Something breaks, you spend time fixing it all at once, then you play catch-up. And then you repeat that cycle.”

She’s now enjoying time with the museum’s front-end and back-end staff to collect feedback and ideas. “I actually have time to research and figure out how to make it happen,” she said. “Having Tessitura has allowed me more creative freedom.” 

 

Photos courtesy of Palm Springs Art Museum.