Chelmsford Racecourse

Introduction
Chelmsford Racecourse is one of the UK’s newest racecourses and the home of horseracing in Essex. Since opening in 2015, Chelmsford Racecourse has gone on to become one of the busiest and most dynamic racecourses in the country, hosting large scale events that go beyond just horse racing. Firework displays, music festivals, and Christmas parties; you name it, you can find it at Chelmsford Racecourse.

The problem
Due to the undeniable popularity of the racecourse, queues were becoming astronomical in length on race day. Furthermore, race days occur on an almost weekly basis. The frequency of the events meant that the racecourse was constantly inundated with customers. On top of this, the venues’ emerging reputation as a site for high-quality large-scale events meant that the racecourse was often overwhelmed by the demand they were experiencing. The booking software Chelmsford Racecourse was using was not fit for purpose. Chelmsford Racecourse tried many different software systems from multiple companies. However, they were yet to find one to suit the diverse nature of their business.

How we solved it
The importance of a well-structured, multi-faceted ticketing system cannot be overstated. We recognised this, and so we implemented Booked it booking and ticketing software across all levels of the business. Chelmsford Racecourse has taken on our complete suite of services, including bookings, ticket sales, CRM, loyalty scheme, mobile ordering, marketing, membership system, EPOS, our cashless system, our accompanying app, and full web integration.
Within the first ten weeks of switching to Booked it, Chelmsford Racecourse was seeing an 11% increase in advanced bookings and 100% increase in traffic on their website across their ticket releases. This used to be a huge concern, as their website would crash whenever large-scale event tickets were released. Considering Chelmsford Racecourse was often being overwhelmed by the extent of customer demand before making the switch to Booked it, an increase in advanced bookings of 11% is impressive.

Furthermore, dealing efficiently with customers at points of contact such as the bar, the restaurant, and the turnstiles, was imperative. We realised this, and so we approached them with our cashless payments system. Going cashless has allowed Chelmsford to almost eliminate cash at their venue altogether, thereby complying with the governments’ coronavirus restrictions, whilst also streamlining the flow of customers around the site and increasing their profits. Since switching to our cashless payments system, Chelmsford Racecourse has seen a 17% increase in spending per head.

Conclusion
As you can see, our cashless payment system and online booking software has had a significant impact on the way Chelmsford Racecourse operates. Both the cashless and booking systems we offer complements the multifaceted nature of Chelmsford Racecourse’s business models, and allows them to continue offering their customers the dynamic experience they have come to expect from Chelmsford Racecourse, whether it’s Race Day or they are attending a music festival. By taking on our complete suite of software tools, Chelmsford racecourse are no longer experiencing the issues that plagued them beforehand.