LOOKING BEYOND THE PRICE TAG

The True Cost of Your Ticketing System

January 19, 2025

Brought to you by UpStage’s CEO, Drew McManus

When evaluating ticketing and CRM platforms, many organizations focus solely on the annual subscription cost. But here’s the reality: the platform’s efficiency, or lack thereof, can have a far greater impact on your bottom line than its sticker price.

Let’s consider what your current ticketing system actually costs when you factor in the time your team spends wrestling with it.

Time is Money, Literally

Every minute your staff spends building reports, managing products, or analyzing data in a clunky system is a minute they’re not spending on revenue-generating activities. For example:

  • Number of Team Members: 2 full-time employees working with the CRM.
  • Average Annual Salary per Team Member: $55,000.
  • Monthly Labor Cost:
    • Per employee: $4,583.33 ($55,000 ÷ 12).
    • Combined: $9,166.67 (2 employees × $4,583.33).
  • Time Wasted on Inefficient Tasks: 12% of their working time.
  • Monthly Cost of Time Waste:
    • $1,100 ($9,166.67 × 0.12).
  • Gross Margin Impact: 11%.
  • Monthly Opportunity Cost:
    • $1,235.96 ($1,100 ÷ (1 – 0.11)).
👉 Working with an inefficient Ticketing CRM costs your organization $38,028 per year!

For that much money, you could not only afford to migrate to UpStage but likely end up reducing annual expenses.

Hidden Productivity Drains

Consider these common scenarios:

  • Your analysts spending hours compiling data that could be automated
  • Support teams navigating through multiple screens to resolve simple tickets
  • Managers manually cross-referencing data for basic insights
  • Product teams dealing with sluggish catalog updates

The Opportunity Cost

When your team is bogged down by inefficient systems, they’re not just losing time,they’re missing opportunities to:

  • Develop stronger customer relationships
  • Identify emerging market trends
  • Innovate on product offerings
  • Proactively solve customer problems

Making The Shrewd Investment

Even if an efficient platform like UpStage might have a higher annual fee, it acts as a force multiplier for your team. When you can accomplish in minutes what used to take hours, the platform effectively pays for itself through increased productivity and improved customer satisfaction.

Ready to calculate exactly how much your current system is really costing you?

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