Cross Posted from Ticketing & Customer Service Forum
I would love to offer more of our free ticket options via TNEW instead of just as walk-up sales. However, the problem with that is we've gotten abuse of it in the past where people who register for those tickets just because they were free, and the front end associates did not check to make sure the patron qualified for those tickets. It was a lot worse in our old system, but I noticed it in Tessitura as well, which is why really early on we took most of the free ones off line.
I am wondering if v16 has any sort of set up where the screen will blink a certain color or make a certain noise on the scanner to alert the associates. Like something to tell the front end "Hey, this person bought a Bank of America ticket, please check to see if they have a Bank of America card."
We aren't going live with v16 until January, but I'm just curious if that is a current option or something they are considering. It would make my VSAs lives a lot easier if the scanner told them when to check for certain requirements based on ticket type.
Have you looked into memberships functionality so that you have to sign in and be recognized as a member to get the free ticket to show up as an option?
Conversely, when we have an admission type that requires an ID or documentation that doesn't live in Tessitura, those tickets can be purchased or reserved online, but they're then held at the box office, so that the checkpoint for 'required documentation' is at the box office wicket, not at gate control.
These aren't member tickets which is part of the problem. We offer those as well (though those show up for everyone, we're hoping to fix that in v16).
And we don't really like the "Hold at Box Office" option because it just makes more work for our Front End Associates. We don't print physical tickets, so having to go find an order and then manually attend them takes more time than simply selling the ticket at the front desk in the first place.