Target Ratios

In this chapter, we explain target ratios in more detail.

Overview

When creating activities in your event schedule you will need to enter a target ratio if you use the Lead/Follow or Lead/Follow/Switch booking styles.

The ratio you enter determines the maximum acceptable balance between leads and follows at the activity. It determines whether or not a lead or a follow ticket at the event can be sold - either when a customer applies for a ticket, or when checking whether tickets can be released to someone on the wait-list.

How to Choose a Ratio

When choosing a ratio, there's several different ways of thinking about what to set it to - and we've described these below.

TIP

When setting the ratio, the higher number refers to the role that sells the most tickets - i.e. it is not tied to a particular role.

Rotating Partners

If you are running a lesson in which partners rotate, and you are prepared for one role to sell more tickets than the other, then you can think of the ratio in terms of the rotation within the class.

For example, imagine a scenario where your lesson sells more follows than leads. If the ratio is set to 5:4, this would mean there would be five follows for every four leads. In practice, this means a follow would dance four times before being out of rotation once.

4:3 would allow more follows to book, but they would now dance only three times before being out of rotation once. Conversely, 6:5 would means a better balance with follows dancing five times before being out of rotation once.

INFO

Remember that the higher number applies to the role that has sold the most tickets. So 5:4 with lead tickets being in greater demand would mean 5 leads for every 4 follows.

Capacity

You can also think of the ratio in terms of the total capacity of your activity.

For example, if we have a lesson with a capacity of 50. You could set the ratio to 27:23 - i.e. a ratio that totals 50.

If there was greater demand for lead tickets, then 27:23 says you are prepared to have four more leads than follows. You could loosen the ratio to 28:22 (six more leads than follows), 29:21, 30:20 etc.

Equal Balance (1:1)

In an ideal world, all our dance lessons would have an equal number of leads and follows. If you would like an equally balanced lesson, set the ratio to 1:1.

1:1 ratios work but they are the most restrictive of ratios. This is because the system cannot assume that the activity will sell out. A 1:1 ratio is therefore sought throughout the sales period. For example, if your lesson has a capacity of 50 but only 22 sales have occurred, you will have 11 leads and 11 follows.

TIP

What to do if you want a very balanced ratio, but are unsure whether your sales will achieve it?

We recommend starting with a more flexible ratio - for example, 5:4. Then if sales of both roles look good, switch to something more balanced like 7:6 or 1:1. Achieving this new target will be dependent on subsequent sales, but you will achieve a better ratio than the initial target if more sales occur.

Length of Sales Period

We recommend being as flexible as possible for an event that has a short sales period, e.g. less than a month.

This is because the tighter the ratio, the more likely it is that one role ends up getting wait listed. When there is a short sales period, there is less time available to sell to dancers on the wait list.

In this scenario, you need as many customers as possible to purchase a ticket when they first apply for one. A looser ratio achieves that.

Changing the Ratio

You can change the ratio at any point. However, achieving the new target will be dependent on sales patterns after you make the change.

For example, imagine a scenario where you set an initial target of 4:3 and end up with 12 follows and 9 leads. If you then changed the ratio to 1:1, you would be dependent on more lead sales to achieve the new target.

Conversely, you could start with a tight ratio and loosen it if demand looks quite unbalanced. For example, imagine you start with a target of 7:6. If you end up with a lot of follows on the wait list, reducing the target to 5:4 would result in follows being able to purchase tickets.

Can the Ratio be Bettered?

In short, yes.

When you set a ratio, DanceCloud uses it as the maximum acceptable ratio. Which means - depending on the pattern of sales at your event - you could end up with a better ratio than the target.

Can the Ratio be Exceeded?

Once balancing is activated, DanceCloud will not sell outside the target ratio. However, there are circumstances in which you might end up with a balance that exceeds the target. This can happen if:

1. You choose to manually release tickets to people on the wait list.
2. A customer cancels. This would take the activity outside its target ratio if the cancellation is for the role that has lower demand.

DanceCloud will attempt to get the activity back to its target ratio. However, achieving this is dependent on demand for the role with lower bookings - so it cannot be guaranteed that sales will get back to the target ratio.

TIP

Typically the longer amount of time until your event, the better chance there is that the exceeded ratio will get back to the target.

For example, this means manually releasing a ticket to someone on the wait list is less risky a month before your event, but carries more risk in the final few days.

Should Socials Be Balanced?

Historically, the organisers we work with have not balanced their regular social dances. This was because running lead/follow balancing when selling tickets was a very manual process, so was focused on lessons where it mattered the most.

By automating lead/follow balancing, DanceCloud makes it easy to balance any event you want - including social dances.

However, should you balance socials? This is up to you! Dancers do enjoy socials that have a good balance more, so it is appropriate to set a target ratio. If doing so, we'd recommend the following:

1. Use Lead/Follow/Switch booking if possible, as there are a lot of dancers nowadays who dance both roles at socials.
2. Use a loose ratio - for example, while a lesson might be 5:4, typically a social dance would use a less restrictive ratio such as 3:2 or even 2:1.
3. Set a higher activation point for socials than you would for a lesson.