Calling all telephone box office users

In addition to online bookings, TicketSource offers its users a telephone box office service enabling customers to book tickets over the telephone with one of our friendly box office team and receive their tickets in the post for an extra £1.50 per booking.

From today, event organisers can opt to absorb the telephone box office service fee into the booking or simply continue to pass this fee on to the customer. If you're an existing telephone box office user and would like to absorb the telephone box office fee then please contact us with your request at support@ticketsource.co.uk.

If you'd like to use our telephone box office service and haven't yet registered your interest, drop us a line at boxoffice@ticketsource.co.uk and we'll send you some further details about the service.

2D or not 2D? That is the question

We've recently updated the TicketSource Express App for iPhone and Android devices to support ticket scanning of both 1D and 2D barcodes.

2D barcode

The newer 2D barcode (or QRCode) format is generally quicker and more reliable to scan so we'd recommend anyone who uses the mobile app to scan and validate tickets on the door to make the switch. And there's no need to worry about those existing tickets with 1D barcodes, the mobile app will continue to scan and validate those too!

1D barcode

You can set your ticket barcode preferences by logging in to your TicketSource account and selecting the "Event Settings | Ticket Settings" menu option.

Thermal ticket printing on a budget

UPDATE: If you're considering using our thermal ticket printing solution with the DYMO LabelWriter 450 series printer, we've been tipped off by one of our TicketSource users, Ron Balmforth from Kings Langley Players that the printers are currently available from Amazon for £49.98 including VAT and delivery.

TicketSource provides a thermal ticket printing solution, TicketSource Venue for all your in-house ticket printing requirements. Simply record details of your in-house cash, cheque and complimentary bookings via your TicketSource account and print the tickets to your connected thermal ticket printer.

For the budget conscious event organiser, we now support thermal ticket printing with the DYMO LabelWriter series printers. The DYMO LabelWriter series is available from www.dymo-label-printers.co.uk with prices varying daily, but starting from around £50.00 + VAT.

DYMO LabelWriter

This entry-level thermal printer is very compact and perfect for printing tickets on to white thermal card stock (106mm x 62mm). Watch TicketSource and the DYMO LabelWriter in action below...

For further information on TicketSource Venue, the DYMO LabelWriter series printers and to purchase compatible thermal card stock to use with the printer, visit the TicketSource Venue page.

Opening hours during the Easter weekend

Over the Easter period, there will be a few days where TicketSource support is operated on a remote basis and telephone box office will be taking a break - so here are some dates for the diary.

There will be no telephone support, live chat or telephone box office available during the remote cover period. Technical support email enquiries will be checked periodically throughout the day (typically morning and evening)

Fri 29 March: Remote cover
Sat 30 March: Business as usual
Mon 1 April: Remote cover
Tue 2 April: Business as usual

Next generation marketing

Many organisations market their web sites by placing a small QR Code on their posters, flyers and other marketing materials.

Users of mobile and tablet devices are simply able to point and click their built-in camera at the QR Code and be taken directly to the organisation's web site.

Why not make the most of this new marketing opportunity by including your very own QR Code link to your TicketSource event listings page?

You can access and download your personalised QR Code from your TicketSource account via the "Event Settings | Publicise Your Event Listings" menu option.

Roadmap for 2013

We have lots of enhancements planned to keep us head and shoulders above the competition, some of which we've outlined below as a taster of things to come this year! 

Automatic "rules based" discounting

We'll be providing you with the facility to offer automatic discounts to customers based on a flexible set of English-based rules added to your TicketSource account.

As an example, rules you could construct might include "buy 10 get one free", "spend more than £20 and get 10% off" and "three tickets for the price of two".

2-D barcodes and barcode scanning

Support will be introduced for 2-D barcodes with the Android and iPhone apps being updated to enable scanning of the newer format.

2-D USB barcode scanners are vastly more expensive than the existing 1-D barcode scanners that we currently offer but we are currently in talks with a supplier to offer an affordable 2-D barcode scanner.

2-D barcodes also open up the possibility to customers of using the iPhone's Passbook to store their tickets.

 

We will continue to support the existing 1-D barcodes following the introduction of 2-D barcodes.

Knowledgebase and video tutorials

We're currently working on compiling a knowledgebase of solutions to lots of commonly asked questions and we'll also be introducing a series of video tutorials providing walkthoughs on many popular topics.

Improved Management Information

We thought we'd start the new year by giving the Event Run Summary Report ("Reports | Event Run Summary Report" menu option) a bit of a revamp.

The report now provides additional charts with details of the ticket summary and referral source summary for the selected event.

When running the report, you can now also specify which of the price categories for an event are full price categories and which are concession price categories.