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How to Move a Slow Phone Sale

Katie Hetrick
$organization

This is not very Tessitura related, more general ticketing for the performing arts. 

When we launch sales for our upcoming Festival we have an issue with long call times. A lot of our audience members buy early and buy a lot. Some of these buyers are also a little bit older, don't use our website, and demand call time (sometimes our box office associates are on the phone with one customer for over an hour on the 1st day of sales, which cripples us when trying to get through 100 voicemails). We have a really small staff at onsale (5-6 call agents tops on the phones at one time). We are a multi-venue (12-13 venues), multi-genre performing arts Festival.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to move a call along? Any specific tactics when recommending seats, reviewing pricing, recommending performances, etc.? I'm not talking about shortcuts within Tessitura, we already try to train in that. Mostly just how to move a customer along to complete a sale faster without the customer feeling rushed?

  • $organization

    Hi Katie,

    I don't have any specific ideas on how to move them along on the call, but we've really pushed our patrons to our website by offering incentives for them to purchase there, ie: lower handling fees, web only discounts on certain performances, that type of thing.

    We also allow our patrons to mail/fax/email in their orders (archaic, I know!) but this also cuts down on calls to our call centre as those patrons know that their orders will be filled before the actual on-sale, so again incentivizing them to not call in.

    Michele

  • $organization

    Incentives to use the website are a good idea - online only promotions are a good way to get people to purchase online.

    As for phone sales, it is a difficult balancing act trying to ensure the patron feels taken care of while also managing call time. A few strategies I've used during lengthy subscription sales:

    • Ask if they have their show dates/times ready to go at the top of the call and if they haven't try to direct them towards the program or website before calling in to purchase. Try to work more with the mindset that they are calling the box office for ticket sales, not festival info. 
    • If you're using packages it helps if the associate asks for the show date & times to start and explains they will discuss seating, quantity and pricing after
    • For seating, avoid asking the patron where they would like to sit and instead ask something along the lines of "shall I place you in the best available seating" or "best available in X price level"? Most patrons will simply agree they want the best available, or will speak up if they have accessibility needs or a specific request. Stay away from discussion of row/seat numbers and instead get an idea of where they would like to be and seat best available. It's much faster than telling the patron what's available and having them decide - your associates know the space the best
    • If the patron continually wants to confirm information suggest that they give you a moment to put the order together and you will be sure to confirm the everything (date/time/price) once the order is complete before getting any payment information

    Good luck!



    [edited by: Katherine Beaulieu at 11:52 AM (GMT -6) on 31 Aug 2017]
  • $organization

    We have witnessed, especially with older patrons, that sometimes it seems like they just want or need someone to talk to.  Now, that is fine to a point, but not when you are getting backed up with calls.  Generally speaking, I would recommend that you remind your team to “lead the call.”  Of course when we are talking to guests we ALWAYS want to lead the call, but reminding about this can be helpful.  You can politely do this with some strategy and practice.  When I think about what this means in terms of training this and applying it, there is no secret sauce…but maybe it’s just keeping away from tangents and steering things back to the necessary parts of the process.  I think at times it helps to say things like “Ok, so all I need now to complete your order is…” or something to that effect.  And of course if your staff are quick while navigating between screens in the process, that helps too.  There are some keyboard shortcuts that have helped us to be more speedy…those are great.

     

    Oh, and with suggesting seats, we try to only offer a few choices…don’t give the guests too much to think about. 

     

    Maybe that helps, if even just a little bit.

     

    Brian

     

    From: Tessitura Ticketing Forum [mailto:forums-ticketing@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Michele Keutsch
    Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2017 10:58 AM
    To: Brian Seitz <bseitz@thecenterpresents.org>
    Subject: Re: [Tessitura Ticketing Forum] How to Move a Slow Phone Sale

    Hi Katie,

    I don't have any specific ideas on how to move them along on the call, but we've really pushed our patrons to our website by offering incentives for them to purchase there, ie: lower handling fees, web only discounts on certain performances, that type of thing.

    We also allow our patrons to mail/fax/email in their orders (archaic, I know!) but this also cuts down on calls to our call centre as those patrons know that their orders will be filled before the actual on-sale, so again incentivizing them to not call in.

    Michele

    From: Katie Hetrick <bounce-katiehetrick6175@tessituranetwork.com>
    Sent: 8/31/2017 9:46:40 AM

    This is not very Tessitura related, more general ticketing for the performing arts. 

    When we launch sales for our upcoming Festival we have an issue with long call times. A lot of our audience members buy early and buy a lot. Some of these buyers are also a little bit older, don't use our website, and demand call time (sometimes our box office associates are on the phone with one customer for over an hour on the 1st day of sales, which cripples us when trying to get through 100 voicemails). We have a really small staff at onsale (5-6 call agents tops on the phones at one time). We are a multi-venue (12-13 venues), multi-genre performing arts Festival.

    Does anyone have any recommendations on how to move a call along? Any specific tactics when recommending seats, reviewing pricing, recommending performances, etc.? I'm not talking about shortcuts within Tessitura, we already try to train in that. Mostly just how to move a customer along to complete a sale faster without the customer feeling rushed?




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  • $organization in reply to Michele Keutsch

    Hi Michele,

    Thanks for the advice! Question in regards to patrons sending in their orders- Have you ever had an issue with that kind of creating a "grey area" when it comes to when your onsale launches? Do you advertise that you take orders like that, or is it really only for customers you know will need the extra attention? If you are accepting orders prior to onsale, do you ever have any customer service issues with those who wait to call in on the 1st day and then find out they could have "jumped the line"?

    Thanks!

  • $organization in reply to Katie Hetrick

    We have a staggered on sale for our members, so each member level gets their day to place their orders. Mail/fax/email orders can be sent in as soon as patrons get their brochure. These are then filed in order of receipt by member level. If level A begins online on Monday, then our reps are keying those mail/fax/email orders on Monday and contacting patrons for payment. Then level B starts Tuesday, so we key those orders on Tuesday. It really saves on inbound calls and keeps the lines free for those experiencing any web issues. As for seating, we do keep research notes as to favoured seats and if there are no notes, we'll look back to last season to see where they sat and book similar.