Hello!
We are a performing arts facility with three public entrances, and we are exploring different options for how to handle our will call. Our box office/will call is located on the west side of the building, but patrons often enter the south or east entrances looking for their will call tickets.
There are a-frame signs outside of the east and south doors explaining where to go for will call tickets, we insert ticket pickup information in our reminder emails that go out before performances, and our box office staff has been trained to educate patrons about will call location. Inevitably though, there will still be patrons that arrive at the wrong entrances for their will call tickets.
In these situations, we ask patrons to walk around to the west side to pick up their tickets. This is not ideal, especially in inclement weather, and we are looking for a more welcoming solution. Do any of you with multiple entrances/one box office handle things differently? We would love to hear your thoughts!
Warmly,
Robin
Robin,
This is actually an issue with our local performing arts center as well, since there are multiple theatres and multiple entrances within a building that spans a good portion of a city block. We're always having people come in the wrong side of the building for our performances, or coming in on "our" side of the building for performances in a different building.
Because this has been such a recurring issue, the ushers that we work with are pretty well-trained to help direct traffic; that being said, we also have the issue of people being directed to go outside and go all the way around a building to get to their appropriate entrance. Thankfully, our season doesn't coincide with much of the severe weather season here in Tulsa (we don't have much of a winter, but you don't want to be here in March or April), but it's still definitely a point of frustration.
To help combat this, we try as much as possible in our messaging to use the specific entrance to the PAC that corresponds to our performances. Thankfully, this tends to work out in more instances than not.
Just wanted to share our background and also be on this thread in case anyone else has brainstormed something more elegant.
Thank you,
Brian
Hi Robin:We have entrances on three sides of the building, north, south and east. The box office is located in the lobby on the east side. A few years ago, we began simply letting them walk through the inside lobbies to get their tickets. We've not had any problems.
Inclement weather or not, it seems to be far more welcoming for our patrons.
Wishing you all the best,Mark
We have a similar situation. Our museum has two entrances. The “side” entrance is also the theater entrance, where evening concerts, lectures and performances take place. Typically, the “Main Street” doors close at 5 pm, whereas the theater entrance is open until an evening event ends. A few months ago, we got a GPS address for “side entrance” and we heavily promote it for all theater programs. It’s a little early to tell how successful it’ll be. Best, Sue
From: Tessitura Customer Service Forum [mailto:forums-cust.serv@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Brian Parker Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2017 12:09 PM To: Susan Carey Subject: Re: [Tessitura Customer Service Forum] Will Call Solution
From: Robin Briskey <bounce-robinbriskey2151@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 3/15/2017 3:39:32 PM
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Hi Robin,
We have this issue as well. We find no matter how many times we explain to patrons where to pick up tickets, no matter how many signs or helpful way-finding volunteers we put in place, a lot of them disregard all instructions and enter by the wrong door. If you find a solution, I’d love to hear it!
Thanks,
Joanne
From: Tessitura Customer Service Forum [mailto:forums-cust.serv@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Mark Sackett Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2017 10:57 AM To: Joanne Madeley Subject: Re: [Tessitura Customer Service Forum] Will Call Solution
Hi Robin: We have entrances on three sides of the building, north, south and east. The box office is located in the lobby on the east side. A few years ago, we began simply letting them walk through the inside lobbies to get their tickets. We've not had any problems.
Wishing you all the best, Mark
We too suffer this same problem at our summer venue, where we have two entrances that span a very long and narrow lobby. Our Will Call is located nearer to one of those entrances than the other.
Similar to what Brian mentioned, we have volunteer ushers, and have one specific usher trained to man the other entrance to guide patrons on where to find Will Call (and the bathrooms, box office, concessions, etc.). Kinda like a concierge for our patrons. The patrons seem to love this idea, and don't mind walking the length of the lobby to get to Will Call.
Looking forward to seeing others' thoughts and ideas on the topic.
Cheers!
I imagine this would be a great situation to research the use of TRBO. You could have a box office person be at your other entry points with a TRBO tablet and a hip thermal printer. Your ushers could send people needing Will Call to that box office person at those entrances and they could reprint the tickets right there. Of course, this would really only be ideal for patrons who's name is on the account. It probably wouldn't work in situations were large amounts of tickets are printed en masse and then put into named ticket envelopes. But for those patrons just needing tickets reprinted off their account, this would help in those situations I imagine.
Christopher Cuhel, The 5th Avenue Theatre
Can TRBO reprint tickets? Last I heard, it could not but it would be wonderful to hear that that has changed! It would be a perfect feature for just this case.
If only you could reprint tickets from existing orders! But unfortunately you can't enter order numbers... hopefully one day this will be a feature!
Well boo. We aren't using TRBO yet. That certainly would be great functionality to have though. Hint hint, nudge nudge Tessitura. :)
We agree that the ability to look up previous orders (and modify them or reprint them) is huge. I think that we all need to submit this request separately to Tessitura so they can put that on their story list for future development. The more that submit it, the higher priority it might be given.
-Julie Knight
Assoc. Director of Membership
SFMOMA
Julie Knight Associate Director of Membership
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Now Open! Tickets Available at SFMOMA.org
415.357.4099 jknight@SFMOMA.org 151 Third Street | San Francisco, CA 94103
From: Tessitura Customer Service Forum [mailto:forums-cust.serv@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Christopher Cuhel Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 1:25 PM To: Julie Knight <jknight@SFMOMA.org> Subject: Re: [Tessitura Customer Service Forum] Will Call Solution
From: Alison Lambert <bounce-alisonlambert8064@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 3/20/2017 4:09:53 PM
Completely agreed with the thoughts in this post – I submitted an enhancement request this morning and would encourage all of you to do the same if you haven’t already!
Brendan
Brendan Martin
CRM Administrator, Minnesota Zoo
13000 Zoo Blvd, Apple Valley, MN 55124
Office: 952.431.9303 Mobile: 816.419.2648
Brendan.Martin@State.mn.us
www.mnzoo.org
Twitter: MNZoo/ Facebook: MNZoo
The Minnesota Zoo connects people, animals and the natural world to save wildlife.
From: Tessitura Customer Service Forum [mailto:forums-cust.serv@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Julie Knight Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 5:45 PM To: Martin, Brendan (MNZOO) <Brendan.Martin@state.mn.us> Subject: RE: [Tessitura Customer Service Forum] Will Call Solution
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Susan,
Curious how the GPS solution has worked for you so far! We would love to hear any feedback you might have.
Thanks!