Hey all!
I am at Ballet Arizona and we process thousands of comps (both online and via lists sent to us). It really bogs down my staff on entering these lists, and organizing those lists. We get them from a variety of different places. I want to know how everyone deals with all of the lists in an effective and time-saving way.
Thanks!
Chris
Hi Chris!
When I was there I got a system down that helped a lot with the sheer number of comps coming through that helped quite a bit. I had all staff submit their ticket orders online to help mitigate some of the requests. Nutcracker is by the far the time when you get the largest lists come through, so you won't have to worry anywhere near as much for future shows.
As for my system for processing things, I would process all of the comps in one order (usually under the name of the org tickets were coming from), and handwrite names on envelopes if possible. If you have time, you could also do a mail merge of sorts with the comp names and print them onto the envelopes to save some time. That way you only have to stuff tickets rather than hand write the names as well. I would also check who your will call volunteers are. There are certain volunteers you can trust (Ellen probably knows who I mean - if not, shoot me an email, and I can help you with that) to give a stack of tickets and a list, and they will make sure people get the right amount of tickets.
I think part of the issue with the comps at BAZ is when the lists generally come through, or at least it was for me. Let me know if I can help explain that more. Didn't want to put too much detail specific to BAZ on the forums.