Build Your Ideal Box Office!

What a great opportunity to craft a space!  I would say natural light if possible is amazing.  I would make sure that accessibility is front and center with the design, not only for your employees, but for patrons who may be coming to the window to purchase tickets.  Large monitors or duel monitors when possible since Tess screens are so teeny tiny on laptop monitors.  Use this opportunity to think about ergonomics with where your associates will be sitting and working.  Adjustable desks, monitor arms, chairs that people actually want to sit in for long periods of time.  Ticket printers that are easily accessible to load new stock and troubleshoot paper jams.  

You may also want to come to our Lean Coffee chat for this community group next week on Feb 20th @ 3pm EST and propose this as a topic for what I bet would be a lively discussion!

-Jeff

Hey Olivia,

I've opened about 8 new venues and have a decent amount of thoughts should you want to pick my brain. Some things I've seen/done that make alot of sense...

• A side area that is not visible (preferably separated with a door) that you can have your staff take a break, run reports, maybe meet with non-essential staff like marketing/promoters/etc. Also, a second area separated where you keep the safe.
• Private restroom that isn't open to the public and is accessible from the box office, but doesn't require leaving the box office AREA.
• Having built-in's in your cabinets/tables/walls for ticket printers is a big plus.
• Think about how your drawers need to be positioned so that they aren't in a weird space, and that the keyboard/monitor/computer/EMV devices are all positioned.
• If you have a closed box office, make sure that the EMV device wires are going to be able to go through the wall so that the customer can dip their card into the device with the device attached to the PC's.
• If you have an open box office (no windows) consider having a roll-away garage door type to secure everything when the box office isn't staffed.
• I know this isn't awesome to think about, but SECURITY... I worked at a venue where we had marble that if someone wanted to steal we trained the staff to open their drawer and drop to the floor because no standard gun could shoot through the marble, but the bad-guy could still get the money and didn't put the staff in danger... also, I have worked at several box offices where "they" forgot to put a peep-hole in the door, don't forget to do that.
• Since you're going to have 2 different size halls opening, it might be nice to be able to have 2 spaces for box offices, or a way to close 1 window when you don't have anyone sitting there.
• Signage... I always suggest signs hanging from the ceiling (if you have an open box office). Or fixed signs, above the windows if you are going to have windows/closed off. If you have windows and will have multiple windows I would suggest snap in signage between the windows with the seating chart(s) or show schedule.
• If you have windows, make sure they're far enough apart that your staff isn't on top of each other (and the customers can easily get out of the way of the people behind them). I would recommend at least 32" between windows.
• I worked at 1 box office where the counter was table height which means people had to lean down to talk to the staff and the staff either needed to bend over to type or they had to sit (not ideal). The problem with standing height is you aren't ADA compliant should you have a little person or wheelchair patron. You can typically meet 1/2 between the 2 by making your counter lower than bar height but higher than table height. I would recommend something right around BELT BUCKLE height for your counters.
• Depending on how long the staff is going to be in the box office...  a fridge/sink/microwave.
• FOH: Make sure you have enough power to have a large cabinet or shelving for all of your tablets/scanners/etc. It's also great for FOH to have an area that has lockers for the ushers/ticket-takers. Again, separate bathroom and sitting area.

That's all I can think of off the cuff, but feel free to DM me if you want to discuss. I've been in multiple roles in multiple venue types during the facility openings. So happy to help.

-Mark

How fun!

I got to help plan out a box office renovation and I'll second printer access. We put ours on sliding shelves so you could pull the printer out to restock. A+. We also considered how often we needed to move desks for events. We put them on quality casters, made them in sections that fit comfortably in the passenger elevator, and got custom-made covers to protect them when we moved them around. 

I always prefer more full-time vs part time staff. Morally and because the continuity of knowledge when someone is there 5-day/week is muuuuch better, but I'm guessing as a university you probably will lean more toward part-time staffing for students.

I also recommend a phone system that allows for remote-work (desktop-based). We use Ring Central (and have a cool tessitura integration I can always share more about) which allows for much more flexibility for call center/box office agents, especially if you have high-volume days when you need all hands on deck, or when you want the box office to stay open during bad weather/pandemics. :) 

I will just say our ticket office windows are outside for customers and we live in Seattle where it rains 10 months of the year. So guess what is #1 on my wish list. Yes, we have a roof over the windows, but when lines are long the roof does not cover everyone. All that to say, consider your environment!