Calling the ticket office (3 Viewers)

[oldskyblue58]

I doubt the ticket system is a bespoke program for CCFC. It is much more likely that CCFC operate the program under licence and it is established with other clubs.

That leads to to a couple of thoughts. Firstly that there are obviously costs involved on an annual basis and therefore piggy backing on to the wasps system as an alternative might (it might not) involve additional cost but it certainly will not be an entirely new cost that is not currently being paid.

Secondly there is a possibility that it may even be cheaper to piggy back the stadium system because it is established and maintained already. Shared rather than individual costs

Thirdly the focus on the program I think is wrong. There are plenty of comments I have seen on here recommending the online part of it. That seems to largely work - yes there are improvements they could make but generally its ok. Where it seems to fall down is the assets and staff that support the program. There are not enough people supporting the operation and imo the reason for that is the club do not want to spend the money and are trying to muddle through on a shoestring. Unless the human part of the ticket system is properly supported and financed then these problems will continue whatever the ticket system.

Easy to blame the computer system and hide behind that but the real problem is having the correct personnel (quality & number) in place to make the system work. That boils down to cost and money that the Club led by CA cant or wont spend. Words are easy to hide behind.

 

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[chiefdave]

I doubt the ticket system is a bespoke program for CCFC. It is much more likely that CCFC operate the program under licence and it is established with other clubs.

That leads to to a couple of thoughts. Firstly that there are obviously costs involved on an annual basis and therefore piggy backing on to the wasps system as an alternative might (it might not) involve additional cost but it certainly will not be an entirely new cost that is not currently being paid.

Secondly there is a possibility that it may even be cheaper to piggy back the stadium system because it is established and maintained already. Shared rather than individual costs

The ticket system we use at the moment is an off the shelf package which would have been a one off purchase. Thats why it doesn't work as well with things like iPhones, the software has never been updated since it was purchased. The only ongoing cost is maintaining the hardware it is located on.

Wasps don't actually have their own ticketing system, they use ticketmaster. It would be very easy for us to get our own account with them, the problem is the cost. It introduces a new ongoing annual cost and a cost per ticket which would either need to be added to the ticket price as a booking fee or absorbed into the cost, which of course would mean we take less per ticket.

That will be the decision for Anderson to make. The unknown in this is if a new system would generate more sales, does anyone actually not go because of the current online ticketing system?

The part of the system that Wasps do control is the access system (the season ticket cards and print at home stuff). It would be nice to use that but from what I have been told we were quoted a ridiculous price to access it this season when it would cost Wasps nothing to allow us to use it. Frankly we've managed with paper tickets for decades and in our position I can think of better things to spend out limited budget on.

 

[oldskyblue58]

Fair enough CD but it still seems to me that the real problem is the human aspect of the ticketing system. Simply a lack of bodies being available creates a lot of the problems I have seen complained about.

Yes there is a cost consideration but there is a cost consideration to dealing with the number of complaints created by not maintaining or obtaining a robust enough system. How much to update the current system?

It seems from what CA said at the last SCG meeting that they have a market leading solution so there must be a commitment to additional cost going forward. Having said that then surely they cant stick with what they have can they? But any system will break down without the human element sufficient to support all its elements - like answering the phone

The whole ticketing situation is a result of what has been going on that the club for the last couple of season. They have slashed costs without thinking things through. Staff have been let go and not replaced because thats an easy place to attack costs but it seems to me no one thought through the effect on customer service. And where do the club get their major income from?

The card access system i agree is a convenience not a necessity

 

[Nick]

Fair enough CD but it still seems to me that the real problem is the human aspect of the ticketing system. Simply a lack of bodies being available creates a lot of the problems I have seen complained about.

Yes there is a cost consideration but there is a cost consideration to dealing with the number of complaints created by not maintaining or obtaining a robust enough system. How much to update the current system?

It seems from what CA said at the last SCG meeting that they have a market leading solution so there must be a commitment to additional cost going forward. Having said that then surely they cant stick with what they have can they? But any system will break down without the human element sufficient to support all its elements - like answering the phone

The whole ticketing situation is a result of what has been going on that the club for the last couple of season. They have slashed costs without thinking things through. Staff have been let go and not replaced because thats an easy place to attack costs but it seems to me no one thought through the effect on customer service. And where do the club get their major income from?

The card access system i agree is a convenience not a necessity

It's not, when the queues happened the staff were stood waiting for the system, a transaction that should take seconds was taking minutes so they were stood apologising for the system locking up and dealing with frustrated people in front of them.

A decent system can save lots of man hours, the mistake they made is cutting staff with a rubbish system. Rather than getting a great system, then cutting staff when they could.

Like at some McDonalds now, you go in and order on a touch screen and it's done. It frees up the queues and having the person on the till.

 

[chiefdave]

Fair enough CD but it still seems to me that the real problem is the human aspect of the ticketing system. Simply a lack of bodies being available creates a lot of the problems I have seen complained about.

Totally agree. You can have the best system in the world but if you can't ever speak to anyone when you need to it all falls down.

 

[chiefdave]

What did people do before the internet? I can't really remember buying many tickets in advance unless it was a big game. Just turned up and paid on the gate.

 

[oldskyblue58]

i would agree nick. The ticket system has to be better and has to be paid for

Card entry in to the stadium is a different calculation of cost and I think less pressing than getting the tickets issued properly and quickly

 

[covcity4life]

We asked about how we could get the tickets when we bought the packages. I wonder why nobody has ever mentioned that. They said that we would have to go to the ticket office if we didn't want random tickets on the day.

The problem is that the whole ticket sales system is a joke. )I was going to say Mickey Mouse but I suspect that is unfair on Disney.) Nobody seems to take responsibility for it and we are a laughing stock for our efforts in this area. Anyway, I'm not sure I would trust them to get anything right via email as nobody seems to care. We won't be having the packages next season, I'm sorry to say.

i was never told by ccfc. some nice chap on SBT advised me it could be done. has saved me alot of time that guy!