The Challenge
The High Museum's group booking process depended heavily on manual staff intervention. Prospective groups filled out a form and waited. Staff across multiple departments then manually entered data into Tessitura, coordinated docents, and sent invoices by hand. With no dedicated group booking staff, the process was slow, inconsistent, and hard to scale.
The Approach
In August 2024, Jixaw launched the Online Education Booking solution for the High — a fully integrated self-service portal connected directly to Tessitura. Groups could browse available tours, filter by type and age group, and select dates in real time. Key features included:
Integrated login: Each group logs in with credentials tied to their Tessitura constituent ID
Smart filtering: Groups select their type (school, university, corporate, nonprofit) and age filtering automatically limits tour options to those appropriate for their group
Tax-exempt pricing: Public schools, universities, and nonprofits automatically see tax-exempt rates, built through layered pricing rules in Tessitura
Flexible payment: Groups can pay now or use a pay-later option, where the order confirmation acts as an invoice for organizational approval
Optional add-ons: School groups can reserve workshops tied to their chosen tour type, with dynamic capacity limits managed in Tessitura
No phone calls, no waiting, no manual data entry.
The Outcome
Within the first year the results spoke for themselves. School group attendance climbed 35% and school group revenue rose 41%. Adult group revenue increased 57% and the average adult ticket price grew by 53.4%. The museum gained efficiency, cleaner data, and significantly more revenue without adding staff.
It's amazing to think that they took our complicated system, developed something that had never been done, and made it work.
