I haven't had many issues with scanning off mobile devices at multiple Tessitura venues. Best practice is to inform patrons to scan off the actual email (instead of taking a screenshot) that way you can resize the barcode if necessary. Also make sure the brightness is turned up on their phones! You can include these instructions in your confirmation emails or with signage at the doors. My experience is that patrons who choose the PAH option are often well-versed in the process.
When training ushers on handling patrons phones I would just recommend they give verbal instructions to the patron (open the PDF, resize the barcode, turn up the brightness etc) and only handle the patron's phone themselves, if they're comfortable, as a last resort and after asking the patron's permission. Mobile devices carry a lot of personal information, so you don't want to seem like you're infringing on personal property!Good luck!
Hi Al, we actively encourage our customers to use their PAHT on mobile. We use a simple clean template design that renders well on mobile. Both the template and the PAHT email copy contain simple instruction on how to use on mobile.
I believe our FOH team regularly instruct patrons to adjust brightness, be prepared to scroll, etc. as they arrive at the doors to keep lines moving well.
Hi Al,
Agree with everything that's been said thus far, and we also recently implemented QR codes in our design, which has made it even more streamlined for mobile.
We have always had two barcodes printed on our PAHT, one made up of the ticket number (so there's a backup) and one made up of the N-Scan number (a combination of order/seat/ticket number indicators). We flipped the shorter, ticket number barcode to a QR code and repositioned it at the top of the PDF. This made it much easier for the patrons to open in the right spot, a lot less zooming in and out because the QR codes naturally fit well on mobile screens, and the scanners like the QR codes much more. We still have the longer N-Scan number barcode as the backup.
Good luck (and bring on Apple Wallet/PassWallet down the track!)
Here at the Center Theatre Group we've had very few patrons pull up their Print at Home tickets on their mobile. They normally bring the print out, OR they use our Apple Wallet version of our tickets (this digital ticket also works on Android devices with an app from the Google Store).
Here at Actors Theatre, we do not have the scanning capabilities yet to get the data from phone scans, so we re-iterate to all our patrons when they order by phone that they need to print off the tickets from their email. If they only use the online service when purchasing tickets, the email they get also instructs them that the tickets in the email must be printed off and presented at the theater.
We do run into a few that still think they can have our ushers scan the phone which they can’t. Those patrons are brought by the house manager to the box office window, where we will find the order and manually reprint hard copy tickets. This is a limit within our current hand held ticket scanners not the Tessitura system. Hopefully we will one day have an upgraded scanner that can process codes off of cell phones.
From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Skypp Cabanas Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 1:34 PM To: Marty Huelsmann Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] PAHT on mobile phone
From: Al Poulus <bounce-alpoulus7610@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 7/21/2017 1:06:00 PM
Hello, We are in process of going Live with PAHT, and wanted to know how many of you have issues with scanning or reading the PAHT pdfs on mobile devices? Do you make all of you patrons print the pdfs? Do you have a policy for staff/volunteers with how to handle patron’s mobile phones? Thanks, Al Poulus Director, Technology & Theater Operations Gallo Center for the Arts
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We gets lots of customers turn up with their tickets on their mobiles and we can scan them - we'd recommend getting the patrons to turn up the brightness on their phone as that can make is difficult to scan. Depending on the number of tickets in an order it can take a while to scroll through the PDF pages, but that's probably the only downside.
Skypp,
How did you go about creating the Apple Wallet version of your tickets? We are thinking about doing this.
--Joe
It's been a while since you wrote this - but I'm wondering if you ever found out the answer to this question? We'd also like to know how we can create Apple Wallet versions of our tickets.