Every winter brings the chance of rain, wind, snow, blizzards, flooding and sub-zero temperatures. We can only hope a catastrophe doesn’t happen on the day of your event, but what if it does? Here’s 5 steps to take if faced with making difficult decisions in the middle of a storm.

1. Contact Client Services immediately. 
When faced with a canceled event, or even an event that is facing complications—such as ticket buyers not attending due to icy roads—contact the Client Services team right away. They can help guide your steps and how you will communicate with your ticket buyers. If your event is canceled due to weather, they can help you call and/or email ticket holders to let them know. Plus, by being equipped with knowledge about what’s going on with your event, you’ll empower our call center to better answer questions for your ticket holders and resolve refund requests in a way you specify.

2. Put customers first. 
Your ticket buyers are your number one priority. You can turn a bad-weather situation into a chance to demonstrate above and beyond customer service. If you plan to reschedule your event for another date, let your ticket holders know immediately. If someone cannot make it to the rescheduled date, you can again offer a refund, or offer a complimentary or discounted ticket to a future event. If your event needs to be out-right canceled, you can offer refunds.

Bonus tip: Be sure someone is located at the event location to greet any ticket buyers who show up to the event. Even if you make every effort to contact ticket buyers, some still may not get the message. Walking up to a closed, cold, empty building is a bummer.

3. Reschedule your event. 
It may be easier to reschedule your event rather than flat-out canceling it. In a couple easy steps, you can change the date on your pre-existing event page onBrownPaperTickets.com instead of creating a whole new event page. Again, be sure to contact Client Services so they can help you and your ticket buyers with this process.

4. Provide alternate transportation ideas. 
The show must go on! When the weather is bad, but your event is still on, you may worry about attendance. A couple good ideas we’ve seen from other Brown Paper Tickets event producers is to offer transportation options. You can email ticket holders with bus route options. We’ve also seen producers set up carpooling options for ticket holders. Again, this is something Client Services can help you with.

5. Have a backup plan. 
If planning an event when you know there’s a chance of dramatic weather, have a backup plan. We’ve seen plenty of times where an opening band can’t get into town because of snow. Make sure there’s another local option that can step in if need be. If the venue parking lot lacks attendants and it snows during your show, make sure you have snow shovels on hand. Recruit volunteers to help. Keep jumper cables handy so no one is stranded in your lot overnight. Think of these worse-case scenarios and try to imagine the best solution. With so many details to putting on a good event, the possibility of bad weather throws in more to consider. The better you are able to anticipate possible scenarios, the better prepared you’ll be to meet these challenges and pull off a successful event even if the worse does occur.

Client services is here to help you in good times and bad! Call 800.838.3006 (option 3) or emailSupport@BrownPaperTickets.com.