Music
A day in the life of a Ticketmaster Customer Care agent
The 9am start is handled in various ways; for some it is a queue for the free coffee, for some a leisurely saunter to the desk pre-purchased cup in hand, others a mad dash to the desk to punch in on time. I aim for the second but invariably end up with the latter due to a lingering propensity for the snooze button.
The first thing to do is check emails. Here, there’s daily updates, a scattering of information that needs to be collated and passed on to you, our waiting customers. Every day we walk into find a flock of fresh queries, new replies and a new challenge.
Today looks like a good day, a few replies from our account management team (who deal directly with the event promoters, meaning I’ll be able to clear some of my waiting queries) and a hastily tapped thank you note from a customer letting me know that they got into an event the day before with no problems. It’s a nice boost to start the day.
I start the day with replies trying to resolve any outstanding queries early before moving on to the fresh queries. Take a deep breath and dive in.
It’s never easy as every query is different, different circumstances and different actions needed. Even a query as simple as “where are my tickets ?“ we need to check where you live, what the event is and how long we’ve got to get your tickets to you, not to mention if we even received the blank tickets from the event organisers to print and send in the first place.
It sounds simple but just because we haven’t replied yet doesn’t mean we aren’t looking.
You’re always busy and the day passes in a tapping of keys, the flicker of different screens, as you flick from our email system to the ticketing system to the system where your bookings are stored to Faceb… No, not there… to the online system to the Royal Mail website.
If you’ve exhausted all the information at your fingertips, it is time to hear the chair springs sigh in relief as you go hunting on foot. Maybe run to our fulfilment department who are responsible for printing, packing and sending your tickets, or to our call centre teams who sell tickets 24/7 364 days a year (you can’t blame us for wanting to be at home on Christmas), or more often than you’d think to your team manager to help you find the next step or check you’re going in the right direction.
At 5pm, it’s time for me to go, at least this week, other weeks I’m sauntering in happy and refreshed at midday to finish at 8pm. That’s the late vigil, with a few lonely souls watching over your queries to try and make sure any of you that have lost or forgotten your tickets on the night can get into the event and to make sure the most urgent queries are looked into straight away.
Not today though… pub?
Words: Aaron Jones
