As we enter a new football season here at Ticketmaster Sport, our team in the UK has been working with our UK football clients to help them prepare for the busy few months ahead.
The off-season is a particularly busy period, let’s hear from a few members of the UK team on what goes on behind the scenes.
Michael Ashley, Services Manager:
Once one football season comes to a close, the clubs are not only thinking about their final league positions, possible play-offs to win promotion and exciting cup runs but how to re-engage season ticket holders and members to return again next season. The Services team assists clients to bulk renew their memberships by processing members’ annual direct debit schemes making the process much more efficient for both the clients and the fans.
All members require a card to gain entry to new season’s matches whether they’re a new or renewed member or season ticket holder. Our team prints and dispatches these cards to ease the work load at the clients’ ticket offices as the volumes are large and the time frames are often tight. Running in parallel is of course the cricket season where we are continuing to print and dispatch tickets for 5 days of test cricket or domestic and international T20 at a number of the famous cricket grounds in the UK so it’s an incredibly busy time for the team.
Before we know it the new football season is underway, the cricket season is drawing to a close and we’ve supported our clients in renewing 250,000 direct debit members, printing more than 500,000 tickets and 200,000 cards and letters to see them gain entry to the stadiums and support their teams.
Stefan Trafford, Client Account Manager:
The football off-season spells the start of a busy period for me as I help my clients prepare for the upcoming season. My role differs from that of other client account managers as I fully manage my clients including many of the processes outsourced to us from creating and setting up the events, managing sale periods, printing and dispatching season cards and match tickets and providing after sales support for fans.
Work begins as soon as the previous season draws to a close and we find the final resting places in the tables. From here I work closely with my clients to decide the pricing structure and periods for renewals and sales. I’m also responsible for creating the seating plans, applying the prices, creating reservations for returning season ticket holders and configuring the websites and call centre platform. Next, the first round of renewals are launched as fans use the interactive seating maps online, mobile sites, call centre and ticket offices to secure their seats for the season ahead. New stock for match tickets and season cards is ordered and tests produced to ensure everything is of the high standard you can expect from Ticketmaster. Then begins the process of printing, packing and dispatching these in time for the new season. All of this is balanced with preparing the early home and away fixtures to go on sale in July alongside membership and match package schemes.
Zoe Barrett, Client Services Assistant Manager:
The Client Services department provides our clients with a bespoke customer service experience, each completely tailored to their needs. The core team are there to handle customer service calls for sports fans, helping to answer varied queries from season tickets to help choosing the best seat to watch a game of football. Our busiest time is when servicing our day to day phone lines whilst supporting the sales and fulfilment of the Football League play offs. Over the summer alone the team have handled over 24k calls and answered over 3.5k emails. With a record-breaking 800 calls handled in one day. Our team numbers often fluctuate up and down to ensure we can speak to the fans whatever the demand.
