Introducing Single Sign-On (SSO)

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hard at work on a feature we knew would make all the difference to some of our most sophisticated customers – and millions of ticket buyers worldwide, even though they will hardly notice it. But then again, that is exactly the point of Single Sign-On (SSO). SSO puts an end to something we have all learned to dread, both as professional software users and as customers buying things on the internet. Let’s dive in!

What is SSO?

Single sign-on, or SSO, is an authentication method that allows users to create one set of credentials, like a username and password, and have these credentials work across multiple platforms. The easiest way to explain the incredible value of SSO is by analogy: Login screens, be it for online shops, software products, or social networks, are like locks. When your platform doesn’t use SSO, your users have to carry around a chain full of keys, one for each lock. The more logins your users have to negotiate, the heavier the chain and the harder it is to find the right key.

With SSO, your ticket buyers get a magic key that works for all locks – provided you gave them the permission, of course. Let’s say your ticket buyer has an account with your fan app – and now wants to buy tickets to the big game on your ticket shop. With SSO, they can simply use the key for the app to access the ticket shop, too. Not having to search for the right key and instead simply clicking on a magic link is pretty awesome – and your ticket buyers will delight at this subtle, yet powerful magic.

How SSO Benefits Organizers

With ticket buyers accessing every aspect of your platform via a single log in, event organizers benefit from insightful, uncomplicated data analytics. Your internal team benefits, too, since they only need to sign in once to access all necessary platforms used during their workday. Implementing an SSO service into your ticketing system leads to more accurate data analytics: With SSO, you seamlessly connect customer data across platforms – and build buyer profiles across their entire journey, from your homepage to the completed checkout. Ultimately, this improved tracking via the credentials you issued allows for much richer, detailed customer profiles – and, in turn, enables personalized ticket buyer experiences that scale.

How SSO Impacts the Ticket Buyer Experience

With less friction on the buyer’s end, SSO leads to higher conversion rates and increased customer loyalty. Most checkout systems consist of endless sign-ins that never save customer data for the next time around. With SSO, fans have that one magic key that fits every lock. When fans experience a beautifully simple checkout— and they never have to repeat the same tedious steps again— they’re bound to keep coming back for a flawless purchasing experience.

What’s more, with SSO you can easily introduce discounts and unique offerings to buyers holding certain unique credentials. Let’s say you work in a college athletics department and want to make sure current students get access to discounted tickets to drive game day attendance. By leveraging SSO (and, let’s say, an integration to an authentication provider like Shibboleth), your students can log in to the ticket shop using their existing school credentials – and land right on the secret ticket shop containing the contingents at reduced prices. Gone are the days where they had to jump through hoops just to verify they were really students at the university – with SSO and vivenu, they get to their goal in a flash, and your game day attendance never looked so good.

How vivenu Customers Reap the Benefits

Some of our customers have already built amazing experiences using SSO. Sports clubs like German first-league soccer legend Schalke 04, famous for their loyal fanbase, have partnered with vivenu to make seamless fan experiences come to life. Their radical fan focus coupled with the power of SSO creates a personalized experience for ticket buyers, allowing them to enjoy a truly frictionless fan experience that starts when they sign into their account with the club – and ends with the tickets to the next game in their e-mail inbox.

Interested to see what vivenu can do to revolutionize your ticketing? Head over to vivenu.com/contact to have an expert walk you through the magic of empowered ticketing.