„It soon became clear that Tymes4 was the ideal solution for us“.

Since July 2022, Almere City FC has been using Tymes4, the ticketing platform developed specifically for professional football organisations and now used by 20 professional football clubs in the Netherlands. We spoke to Perry Hendriks, communications manager at Almere City FC, about the commissioning of Tymes4, how the platform has helped the club and future plans.

The choice of Tymes4

Perry explains that the choice of Tymes4 soon became clear: ‘After the transition from SRO to another ticketing platform, we ran into some limitations. It proved incredibly difficult to make the translation to a ticket module for a football club, despite the fact that the parties already had a lot of experience with large audience groups. So we were specifically looking for a party that had become big in football. In doing so, we compared several platforms side by side and talked to colleagues from other BVOs. In doing so, it quickly became clear that Tymes4 was an ideal solution for us.’

The flawless migration to Tymes4

‘The migration to Tymes4 was quick and dirty,’ says Perry. ‘Actually, our demand towards Tymes4 was impossible, because we only realised late on that we needed another solution. However, the onboarding was quick and clear and very well organised. From the questions asked, the relevance with the football industry and the thoroughness were actually immediately apparent. Added to this was the difficulty that the first part of our campaign had already started on another platform, but the migration of that data to the final Tymes4 environment also went flawlessly. In total, we had the entire platform set up from a to z within about 2.5 months. Truly a revelation!!!’

Relief for front and back office and higher conversions

Perry explains in what ways Tymes4 has helped the club: ‘It has mainly relieved us in both the front and back office. The system is more intuitive for the end user and some things are automated. So you mainly notice that there is less pressure in terms of e-mails and phone calls. You also notice that conversions are higher than before. In the past, customers tended to drop out during the ticketing process. You can’t put a science on it because of all the other factors that come into play, but it can’t be a coincidence that Almere City FC has had record ticketing sales this season!’

Business portal

Almere City FC is currently not yet using the business portal offered by Tymes4, but Perry says this will happen: ‘Based on the experiences in the B2C environment, we definitely intend to take the steps in this. Our commercial department will pick up that gauntlet in the near future.’

The support from Ormer ICT

Perry is in regular contact with Ormer ICT: ‘The support at Tymes4 is good. With Marcel Kole, we also have someone from Almere who is also familiar with the club. In that respect, things couldn’t be better. From the day-to-day support, the new season ticket campaign was also set up and, for now, it is going well.’

The future

‘We are excited to take the partnership to the next level,’ said Perry. ‘Like Almere City FC, Tymes4 is evolving and new functionalities and releases have been released in recent months that can also help Almere City FC take the next step in ticketing. For example, the addition of the business platform is on the list here, as well as the integration of a ‘single sign on’ using different partners. This will further structure the process and make it more efficient.’