Heart of Midlothian Football Club
When the tickets for Heart’s European games at Murrayfield went on sale, ROCKETUK.COM sold 1,000 tickets in an hour, and 32,000 in total. Without ROCKETUK.COM, Hearts’ staff would not have been able to manage such a vast number of calls.
Commercial Director at Hearts of Midlothian FC, Ali Russell
Heart of Midlothian FC is a Scottish Premier League team with a fan base of over 398,000. As one of the most popular clubs in the UK, tickets to the 17,420 seat Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh are always in great demand. Improvement in the team’s performance and the recent change in the club’s ownership has led Hearts’ ticket sales to increase by 62% from season 2004-05 to 2005-06. As a result Hearts’ season ticket sales have nearly doubled from 7,000 to 13,500.
Coping with demand
With 20% of all Hearts’ tickets purchased over the telephone, the new increase in demand proved to be a strain on the club’s telephone sales staff, who were unable to cope with the rise in volume of calls.
“We found that our telephone sales staff were unable to keep up with the demand for tickets and as a result, Hearts’ supporters had to wait in a long, automated queuing system,” explains Hearts Commercial Director, Ali Russell. “It has always been our aim to provide our fans with a high standard of customer service, enabling the call and transaction to take place as a short, straightforward interaction. When we discovered that our fans were finding the procedure of purchasing tickets long-winded and frustrating, we knew that changes had to be made.”
The Rocket Ansa-Call service from the outsourced telephony provider, ROCKETUK.COM was chosen. ROCKETUK.COM provided a service where all ticket sales calls were fully managed, using the specialist Seatbooker software. Its team of contact centre agents based in Aldershot, Hampshire are able to make full ticket transactions and handle other sales related enquiries.
“With experience in this type of project and an understanding of ticketing systems, ROCKETUK.COM was the perfect choice to fulfil all of our needs. ROCKETUK.COM provides a high standard of customer service, and was able to capably manage a high volume of calls, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” adds Russell.
Ansa-Call Sells 1,000 Tickets in an Hour
ROCKETUK.COM proved that it was more than able to deal with ticket demand during Hearts’ run in the 2006-07 European Champions League. Hearts’ European games were played at the 67,800 seat Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh to accommodate a higher number of supporters. “When the tickets for Heart’s European games at Murrayfield went on sale, ROCKETUK.COM sold 1,000 tickets in an hour, and 32,000 in total” explains Russell.
“Leading up to the European Champion League games, ROCKETUK.COM was dealing with extreme volumes of ticket sales whilst maintaining a high standard of customer service. Without ROCKETUK.COM, we would not have been able to manage such a vast number of calls. ROCKETUK.COM enabled Hearts supporters to obtain European home tickets without experiencing frustration and stress in long call queues.”
Russell concludes, “ROCKETUK.COM sell one in five of Hearts’ tickets and therefore we consider them to be more of a partner than a telephony service. With our plans for a new 26,000 to 30,000 seat stadium and the demand for a further 7,000 season tickets, ROCKETUK.COM are essential in our aim to provide a reliable service to our supporters at times when tickets are in great demand.”
