Tinmans Love Child Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 I'm seeing a lot of posts from people who struggle to get through to the ticket office on the phone, especially at busy times, and it seems maybe the expectations on service standards are higher than the reality the club can currently deliver. So what are the solutions?: I assume there are only a few staff who deal with tickets on a daily basis, whether that be a normal day or busy day (I'm sure somebody can confirm) ultimately it's not feasible to have a call centre on stand by in case we get a decent cup draw and demand goes up for tickets, especially when you can buy online (which thousands have done for the Man City game). However what we could do is invest in a better phone system with much more capacity. Also a system which does auto call back, so when you get a place in the queue you don't need to stay on hold for hours. This came into my GPS recently and made a huge difference to the customer experience. If a GP's can find the cash for a better system then surely we can! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pongo88 Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 Although I’m not impressed by City’s IT system I have a bit of sympathy for the club regarding the phone system. As said, it’s not feasible to have a call centre on stand by. Just having more capacity might be a problem as it would require more operators to be drafted in a short notice to answer the calls. On the other hand an auto call back seems to be perfect. It’s a quite common feature with a lot of companies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hittheginger Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 The club don't want you to buy tickets over the phone so have no incentive to spend any money increasing capacity. Some ticket types can only be bought over the phone and providing a good service for those should be a priority, but the club needs very limited capacity for that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodiesaffer Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 Yes indeed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redandproud Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Tinmans Love Child said: I'm seeing a lot of posts from people who struggle to get through to the ticket office on the phone, especially at busy times, and it seems maybe the expectations on service standards are higher than the reality the club can currently deliver. So what are the solutions?: I assume there are only a few staff who deal with tickets on a daily basis, whether that be a normal day or busy day (I'm sure somebody can confirm) ultimately it's not feasible to have a call centre on stand by in case we get a decent cup draw and demand goes up for tickets, especially when you can buy online (which thousands have done for the Man City game). However what we could do is invest in a better phone system with much more capacity. Also a system which does auto call back, so when you get a place in the queue you don't need to stay on hold for hours. This came into my GPS recently and made a huge difference to the customer experience. If a GP's can find the cash for a better system then surely we can! Yes I found that yesterday,phoned TKT office,35th in the queue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristol Rob Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 There is no value in having greater capacity to keep more people on hold if there aren't more people able to take calls. I would rather call back later than being in a queue for hours. Also, there are Ofcom rules around hold times which vary depending on if a number in local, national or premium rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Musicworks Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 15 minutes ago, Hittheginger said: The club don't want you to buy tickets over the phone so have no incentive to spend any money increasing capacity. Some ticket types can only be bought over the phone and providing a good service for those should be a priority, but the club needs very limited capacity for that. I have to buy over the phone (Ambulant and Carer) and got through after a short wait. I was told I could now purchase online for the first time which is another section of fans that no longer need to phone. I then purchased online within a minute. In the past I have had to wait several days until phone bookings could be made so fair play City for making it easier. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocking Red Cyril Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 (edited) Having worked and trained staff in call centres in my time. Having advisors on stand by does incur additional staffing and training costs. And the installation of call back systems are not cheap for the necessary setups. But with the extra income from this game. Tickets sold, increased ST and memberships sold. I can not believe that the cost can be a feasible reason not to do it. Office space not there for extra staff, does not seem seem to be a reason. Maybe just the maximising if profits is at the core of the clubs lack of increased ticket sales capacity particularly on the phone. We all know the IT is shit and needs up dating again with costs. All in all I feel the club is being short sighted in its lack of improving ticket sales experience on web and phone. And again profit over fan experience is leading the game plan . Very poor by the club. But then they know they will sell the game out so does the club give a **** . Poor show They could employ a call centre to take overflow calls for tickets. Not complicated to do, and many big corporates and government lines do this, it is common place . But not sure what that would cost. But takes out many of the set up problems listed above. Edited February 9, 2023 by Rocking Red Cyril 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
italian dave Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 38 minutes ago, Rocking Red Cyril said: Having worked and trained staff in call centres in my time. Having advisors on stand by does incur additional staffing and training costs. And the installation of call back systems are not cheap for the necessary setups. But with the extra income from this game. Tickets sold, increased ST and memberships sold. I can not believe that the cost can be a feasible reason not to do it. Office space not there for extra staff, does not seem seem to be a reason. Maybe just the maximising if profits is at the core of the clubs lack of increased ticket sales capacity particularly on the phone. We all know the IT is shit and needs up dating again with costs. All in all I feel the club is being short sighted in its lack of improving ticket sales experience on web and phone. And again profit over fan experience is leading the game plan . Very poor by the club. But then they know they will sell the game out so does the club give a **** . Poor show They could employ a call centre to take overflow calls for tickets. Not complicated to do, and many big corporates and government lines do this, it is common place . But not sure what that would cost. But takes out many of the set up problems listed above. I think in City’s case it’s probably more accurate to talk about minimising loss than maximising profit! But slightly more seriously, I think that whilst we’d all love to have the phone answered first time whenever we call, we also call constantly for us to go out and spend money to improve the squad. My personal experience is that buying tickets online is pretty easy and straightforward and not a bad experience at all. I bought my Cup ticket on Monday evening, and literally 2 minutes from clicking the link on my email to having the ticket printed off. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to steer as many as possible to that route and the point @Hittheginger makes above is a good one: not saying City do this but it’s not uncommon for companies to actively disincentivise customers from phoning to do things they could do online by deliberately making them wait longer if they use the phone. I am no IT expert, but I wouldn’t argue with your suggestion that the IT looks like it needs an update: it’s not very intuitive, it seems quite clunky at times, but I’d probably rather that was where any investment went. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KendrickDNB Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 What trying to get through most days this week has looked like ‘user busy’ so the call cuts because the queue is full. This was happening before phone sales had even started for Man City and all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristol Rob Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 16 minutes ago, italian dave said: @Hittheginger I am no IT expert, but I wouldn’t argue with your suggestion that the IT looks like it needs an update: it’s not very intuitive, it seems quite clunky at times, but I’d probably rather that was where any investment went. This is an area I don't know if the club have an skilled executive operating in. A football club is obviously quite different to a multi-national who have IT professionals at all levels, but you have to wonder when it comes to investment in IT, if the club have an approach that sees them define what they would like the IT to do, and then identify suppliers who can meet these requirements with full compliance or if they are being led by software houses who can pitch a great idea and the club go along with it due to the skills on being in the room to challenge some of the claims. See also, implementing, testing and rollout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davefevs Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Rocking Red Cyril said: They could employ a call centre to take overflow calls for tickets. Not complicated to do, and many big corporates and government lines do this, it is common place . But not sure what that would cost. But takes out many of the set up problems listed above. They do already…it’s called Bristol Sport. Supposedly benefitting from economies of scale by having a critical mass of staff to smooth out the volume demands across the sports. Edited February 9, 2023 by Davefevs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin phantom Posted February 9, 2023 Admin Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 As much as this will sound uncaring to some of our fanbase, I can't imagine that many people still need to call to sort tickets The club simply don't employ the staff to handle large numbers of incoming phone calls, lots of the tickets being sorted out for home and away games recently have been done with other staff helping out Bristol Sport have gone down a specific route of how they will sell tickets and phone sales are sadly a thing of the past I will always remember the away Cardiff play off semi final being in a queue for over an hour, but there was a recorded message telling me my number and it did move, but equally I have heard about people getting into this queue more recently and when they get to the low numbers the only reason they are getting nearer is because people are dropping off the line rathter than actually being answered The other problem if a number was advertised for specific sections of our fan base you know that this number would be circulated and then the numbers would be clogged with all trying to get through Ultimately it is about designing a user friendly system that can supply all supporters As someone who writes and designs training material for all levels of IT competency I cringe at how a simple rewording / visual diagram could assist 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocking Red Cyril Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 3 hours ago, Davefevs said: They do already…it’s called Bristol Sport. Supposedly benefitting from economies of scale by having a critical mass of staff to smooth out the volume demands across the sports. I long ago gave up buying tickets on the phone. I found it a bloody nite mare. When me and grandsons can go I use the internet. It's clumsy but works as members still awaiting my priority for Man city game to be active . I will let you know how it goes .maybe they need extra support for big games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwicolin Posted February 9, 2023 Report Share Posted February 9, 2023 Just bought our FA Cup tickets over the phone. Just over an hour but worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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