Hi everyone!
After a brutal day of receiving 60+ e-mails for comp requests (company, executive, marketing, development, etc) I thought, I'd love to know how other organizations manage this. It took two of us three hours to manage changes, switches from one name to another, did the company go over contracted comps etc.
I've been in ticketing a long time and we end up in this pickle every season. There must be someway to contain it.
How does everyone manage:
Comp requests
Comp changes / updates. Do you have a strict policy with company management, etc? Cut off times?
I've built a help desk through Spiceworks where requests "should" come through directly to the box office. Currently all things tickets, go through our Marketing Director who approves all things tickets, then CCs me. If there's a question involved back to the requester this can result in 4 to 10 additional e-mails for this one request! The labor hours it's eating up are frightening.
I would love to know how others manage.
Our policy is that staff get two comps per production (we’re a producing house), and artists/designers/actors get two comps to their production. If they need to change something around after they receive their comps, they usually go to box office, but this is pretty rare. If someone has used their allotted comps, they can ‘fly standby’ to any other show- meaning, they make themselves known to house management on the night, and if there are no-shows, they slip into those seats. And Development handle their own comps, so box office doesn’t have to worry about that.
It works well for us, but I think we’d do things a lot differently if we were a presenting/hire venue.
Cheers,
Kathleen
From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Michelle Wiesel Sent: Friday, May 20, 2016 1:36 AM To: Kathleen Smith Subject: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] Comp Request Management/Craziness
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Hi Michelle,
We have just implemented staff comps going through our web site. The staffer logs into our web site and has to put in an additional password to get to the "staff access" area. There they can choose an upcoming performance. There is a limit of four tickets and a number of rules posted - i.e must request 72 hours before show, a request id not a guarantee of tickets, Comps will be granted based on availability, the box office has final say on comps, etc. This creates a CSI in Tessitura and the box office runs a report the day of concert and assigns comps from this list.
This puts the request in Tessitura and there is a record in one place of staff requests. It is early days, but so far everyone seems happy with the arrangement.
Best,
Susan
Hey Michelle,
Our comp policies are similar to Kathleen's - we too are a producing house. That said, we are old school in that comp paper forms are handed out to artists on a show-by-show basis, with a limit of two in certain seating sections for certain performances. The form includes an order form should additional tickets be needed. If a form is lost, it is on the artist to go to the Production Manager for another form. For our internal staff, they have an email form to fill out and send to one designated person in the box office for fulfillment. Comps are limited to two to any show, and staff can come stand-by to another performance.
If Development, Production or Management is in need of additional comps for "whatever", they simply fill out the email form and give a reason code for the comp (Customer Service, Potential Donor, Artist Candidate, etc.)
So far this has worked for us and no one has overly taken advantage of comp ticket usage. But I too would love to hear more from others if they have a sophisticated system in place.
Beth Jones
Patron Services Manager
Broadway Rose Theatre Company
Our system is not sophisticated, but it's worked well this past season with some of our comp-heavy resident companies and rentals.
For each production, we create a Google sheet (with a separate tab for each performance), and this sheet is shared between our box office and the relevant parties (producing org, orchestra manager, are some examples). We do set a firm cutoff time for comps to be entered, usually 48 hours in advance of the performance, and normally are able to get everyone to stick to this pretty well.
We also have a policy that printing and reprinting of comp tickets will only be done for the presenter or the person whose name is on the comp list and has been specified to pick up the tickets. Talent as well as donors cannot pickup comp tickets for others unless they have written approval from that party to pickup their tickets for them. Again, there are always exceptions, but having this in place has helped a lot!
Good luck - feel free to email me if you want more details!