I was a poorly boy yesterday and at about 3pm I decided it was going to be better if I stayed at home.
Phoned the ticket office and was on hold for 20 minutes, with my place being "number 5" the whole time. WTF????
So I emailed to let them know my seat was going spare, got a prompt reply telling me they'll get back to me in 2 working days.
That's good.
Grrrr.....................
E-mail the club about a month before you are travelling and ask if you can be put on the list for International supporters wanting to see a game. I did this and got two tickets to watch us play Arsenal. Lost 1-2
Fu@king brilliant.....I was a poorly boy yesterday and at about 3pm I decided it was going to be better if I stayed at home.
Phoned the ticket office and was on hold for 20 minutes, with my place being "number 5" the whole time. WTF????
So I emailed to let them know my seat was going spare, got a prompt reply telling me they'll get back to me in 2 working days.
That's good.
Grrrr.....................
I think if you were being decent enough to inform the ticket office that you were unable to attend the game, you could at least expect somebody to answer the bloody phone in a reasonably prompt manner.You reckon that the TO is immune from any shortages caused by the Pandemic? That could be one reason.
Might not be, but don't assume!
Yes agree, just played the game back on TV, there is an astonishing amount of empty seats in those areas, wow! No way it's just no shows given the positions in the ground.To be fair, having just watched the highlights, almost the entire block (MS/SS corner) was empty... So this isn't just empty seats from people not turning up surely... An entire block?!?!?!
They could do a lot worse than employ a market research team to get involved to establish what is and what isn't known, when it comes to process... Actually, if money is an issue, it would literally take the TO one afternoon to knock up a simple survey in google forms (or any number of survey design tools) and send it to every one of the 1000s of fans on their database... I think someone said the club had over 100k names on the database so working on the usual 10% return from such things... that is a sizeable amount of user data to work on...
I work in user research and understand the power of user/customer feedback/interaction... It's amazing what assumptions are made by companies about their customer(fan) base, and they have no idea they are making these assumptions...
Note that I have advised my seats would be free for games before and often they weren’t sold on despite having a sell out
I wonder if any pf the groups that work with the club have ever asked why are so rigid with our ticketing each year... You hear so many stories of other clubs offering some really innovative solutions to keeping ST holders.
I know we dont really have an issue with selling out, but we certainly do have an issue with keeping those that bought the tickets in the ground...
Just 3 simple ideas... which could go a long way to getting more people in...
- With the introduction of scan entry systems, there is no reason why ST holders cannot easily cancel their tickets for any game they choose, and that doesn't mean engaging in an email or phone conversation with the ticket office. It should be able to be done online with one click. Offer £10 off next year's ST for every time you give up your seat, to a maximum of £100 off next year's ST
- Offer 1 year breaks for ST holders. We all know it can be hard to stump up the cash for a ST, so offer people the option to pause their ST for a year. Also with it so hard to jump back in, many folk might be just keeping hold of their tickets, regardless of their intent on using it... It might be really tough one year to get to the ground by it's worth paying the £500 as they've had the ST for years... The club can then resell 1 year STs that are returned
- On top of the previous point, if anyone needs a second year, they can but at a £100 holding fee, for example... A lot cheaper than buying at full price and not using it, and offers said ST holder the peace of mind that they can have it back the following year again...
So are we still using Twickets...? Seems to be set up as a portal for us, but not one ticket found for any of our games...Not forgetting that we did once have this.
https://www.afcb.co.uk/news/tickets/club-joins-forces-with-twickets/
http://afcbournemouth.twickets.co.uk/
So are we still using Twickets...? Seems to be set up as a portal for us, but not one ticket found for any of our games...
The problem is that you can't just lump something new out there and expect it to be a success. The TO need to work at it, market the sh*t out of it at games, social media, email, everywhere and make a real thing of it for a long time, to change people's thought process of not being bothered, and to educate fans on its benefits and uses...
... and then the question needs to be asked as to why bother introducing a 3rd party to do something that could be better served by keeping it in-house by building it into the ticketing site...
Getting fans continually through turnstiles is part of the foundations to running a successful club... So skimming on funds to do this seems ludicrous... Yes it is big money to develop Apps and good, usable websites, but in the grand scheme of things, it's pennies