I'm curious to know what types of phone systems other box offices within the Tessitura Network community are using. We're looking to upgrade our (ancient!) phone systems, and I'm curious to know what items on our wish list are wide-spread best practices and which are pie-in-the-sky dreams that will be challenging to implement.
Does your box office require callers to go through any menus before speaking to anyone? What sort of decisions/distinctions do you use? When callers are finally connected to a representative, does the rep get any of that information, via the phone, via a pop-up on their computer, etc? Is anyone doing this kind of call screening/filtering using voice recognition (IVR)?
I know this seems like such a basic, low-tech question, but we're upgrading from something ancient, so any information would be helpful to us! Thanks in advance!
We use Shoretel phone system. The main number goes to a phone tree, and the patron needs to push "3" to get to the box office. Shoretel allows us to manage our queues through a computer program. As the manager, I can see which reps are logged into the phone queue, which reps are on the phone. All the people who have access to answer the queue can see a listing of all calls waiting for an answer, with caller ID if possible (some will say "unavailable"), and how long the patron has been waiting. While people are waiting to speak to a rep, they listen to a prerecorded message that talks about our upcoming programming. We like it! We do not currently allow voicemails through our system for calls coming to the box office.