Most INTIX members have seen it before and will likely see it again (and again) — a customer denied entry at the door, gate or turnstile because of invalid tickets.
And when their tickets do not scan, what do they do? Show up at the ticket office window or will call.
They are emotional. They are angry. They feel ripped off, cheated and maybe even embarrassed too. Often, they are crying, screaming or both. “Someone” needs to “fix this” now, they say as they hurl their tickets or phone at the astonished customer service rep.
There are of course several reasons why tickets can be invalid. But how can you quickly help a sobbing or angry or embarrassed customer who bought tickets elsewhere? What can you do to help make things right?
Andrew Thomas
Former INTIX Board member, industry consultant and Ticketing Professionals Conference founder and producer Andrew Thomas says there is a way to immediately address the situation of invalid tickets at the first point of contact.
“We all know it is not the box office that has caused that problem, but we have a duty of care,” Thomas says. “The customer still wants to come to our event. They are still going to talk about their bad, awkward experience at the venue [if we do not help]. They are still going to frame [the problem] around the venue or the team [regardless of how or where they bought the tickets]. And I want to serve the customer behind them who has a genuine query or a collection [to make at will call].”
As INTIX member professionals know, there is a difference between a ticket that has been canceled by the venue and outright fraud. So how do you get a customer to step out of line so you can begin to address the situation and keep the line moving? Thomas shared with us the process that many venues across the U.K. are using successfully.
“So, you have bought tickets,” he says. “You got seat B23, and it will not scan at the turnstiles. You go to the box office and sometimes it has been canceled by the venue because they know it has been sold on secondary or because a person sold that ticket a number of times. We need to resolve this.”
Thomas says, “Most platforms have a mechanism whereby if you report and you can document that you could not get in with this ticket, they will do a chargeback. The broker or the reseller will not get their money and you will get refunded to your credit card.”
Enter the “form.” You can give it any name you want, but, says Thomas, it should be pre-printed on event, venue or promoter letterhead. It should be readily available to your ticket office staff. It should be a process that frontline ticketing professionals are trained on, and they should be empowered to address the issue immediately, without calling a manager or a supervisor.
“This can be a first-point-of-contact resolution, which is what we all want, because it saves the managers or directors of ticketing, or my supervisor, from being dragged into this,” Thomas says. “Customers want a first-point resolution.”
“I have seen it firsthand when I have been in the box office for theatre or sports events. I have seen an immediate de-escalation. If you can think about that highly emotionally charged person who has lost money, straight away you can lead off with, ‘I can make this right, or I can help you make this right, and this is how we are going to do it.’ Just straight away, from a box office point of view.”
He says, “It is great because you are not only controlling the conversation, but you are also talking [customers] off the ledge, and because you have this pre-prepared letter, that gets you a lot more confidence. If someone takes out a scrap of paper or a Post-it Note, it does not necessarily look like it is a system. When there is a pre-drawn-up letter, even a template, the customers gain confidence that the person they are speaking to behind the box office window knows and understands this situation, they know how this works. The staff can talk from [a position of] authority. I have seen people [who were] shouting, crying and banging windows be turned into charming little cherubs in 90 seconds. It is phenomenal how efficient it is.”
And yes, it can be that efficient and that simple. We will explain and provide a sample form in a moment, but first, let’s take a step back to our invalid “seat B23” and the process that many U.K. venues are using.
“So, you have a customer in tears with seat B23. Typically, what venues do in the U.K. is fill out a form with the reference number of the ticket, the name and date of the event, and the reason for [the ticket] being invalid. Typically, it is a ticked box that this ticket was resold against terms and conditions, this ticket has been sold multiple times and therefore refused, it has been reissued, et cetera. Then we will give … some kind of unique identifier or case number, give you [the form], and there you go, you can give that to [the person or organization from whom you made the] secondary purchase to show on official headed letter paper that this ticket has been refused,” Thomas says.
“Then what the venues will typically do is cancel … the original ticket that was issued and sell it [to the customer] at the face value. Say you paid £200 to Viagogo for your Celine Dion tickets, and you have been turned away. You come to the box office … I will then fill out this form, give it to you so you can submit it with all the relevant numbers, then sell you that ticket for £65. You [see the show and] can go back to Viagogo or your credit card company and say, ‘This is the basis for my chargeback. I want my money back.’”
Click here for a template for an invalid ticket report.
“I have seen this … at a Premier League football club … I have been in their box office, and they have very high-demand tickets. They would have people come to the window who had been refused at the turnstile. I have seen it in London theaters as well, people who are highly emotional because they spent a lot of money and may have been duped. But more than that is the [fact that they] were so looking forward to seeing this ‘insert production or game or whatever.’ There is a double thing [happening] there, which is, you are out of money, plus sometimes you have kids with you or your significant other. The issue is making sure the customer is looked after, but also, we want them to step out of line so we can help the customer behind them.”
While INTIX members know that an event is almost never truly sold out and there are usually some tickets somewhere, it is not always possible to reseat everyone.
“The key thing is if I bought this hot, hot ticket where there is not a single seat available, I am going to pay a lot of money for it,” Thomas says. “So, for me to be able to say, ‘[This can help you] get your $2,000 back,’ that is immediately going to de-escalate the situation.”
Then, says Thomas, you can ask them to come back later or try to sort them out for tomorrow’s show in the case of a residency. “When I run events that are not as popular as these, I knew I would have some tickets around kick-off time. I say, ‘Here is your paperwork [to help] get your money back. Can you come back here at five minutes after kick-off, and I will try and sort you out?’”
For venues that do not have this in place, what steps does Thomas recommend?
“I would recommend discussing it as a process,” he says. “There is nothing worse than rushing something in that has not been really thought out. I believe this method is a terribly simple, low-cost, low-implementation way of resolving not all but a lot of things very, very quickly. The key thing is that [if you have] completely fraudulent fake tickets, you are a bit out of luck, but when someone has a trail from a secondary seller, a broker or a private transaction, this is an opportunity for them to get their money back.”
Thomas adds that this process can be handled through a dedicated queries or escalation window, which addresses the issue of getting customers to step out of line so that the next one can be served. It can also work remotely, he explains.
“Someone might ring or write the box office up and say, ‘I bought these tickets for Garth Brooks next month, and I am just checking if they are real.’ We can resolve it then [if they are invalid]. I can email the form; this is not complex. Every venue would be an evolution of this, but the key is [helping to get] that money back in their hands, especially when they have been ripped off.”
Are there any pitfalls or warnings that Thomas recommends watching for when implementing this process at your venue or organization?
“I think you have to be careful about making the promise that ‘using this, you will get your money back.’ I think you should say ‘this can help you get your money back,’ but it depends obviously on which source you bought [tickets] from.”
It is also important, says Thomas, to specifically say that “this does mark the end of the road of the venue's involvement. So, if they cannot get the money back from the vendor, you are not going to act as a reconciliation or service to do that. They bought a fake ticket. Likewise, if they bought a fake iPhone and they walked into the Apple Store, Apple might escalate it and mention it to their people, but the Apple Store … is not going to chase down these [bad actors] and help claim your money back.”
Implementing and following this process, says Thomas, provides a high level of service that may also help win back customers who are purchasing tickets elsewhere.
“Service is a defining factor to many of us, and [while] we are not making any money out of this, what we are doing is showing customers that the venue cares. I think there is a really strong learning from this. You could be sobbing, and I could just pull the shutter down or have security remove you, but the fact that we do this shows that we care, which I know we all do.”
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