NEC Harlequins Case Studies
“At the start of a new season, demand for season tickets and advance booking generates a huge number of calls and -during this time- the Rocket Ansa-Call team will typically sell up to 400 tickets in an hour. Without this call overflow our own internal centre would not be able to cope with the ticket demand.”
Ticket Sales Manager at Harlequins, Damien Hutchins
The NEC Harlequins is a successful London-based rugby club that plays top-level rugby union in the Guinness Premiership. With thousands of dedicated fans and visitors, the Harlequins’ famous ‘Twickenham Stoop’ stadium regularly fills its 12,700 seats on match days.
Since rejoining the Guinness Premiership at the beginning of the 2006 season, the team’s regular matches with large Premiership clubs has led to a growth in demand for tickets. Despite being able to purchase tickets online, many supporters prefer to speak to someone when booking tickets for a specific game and this was having a direct impact on its call centre, which was fielding a large volume of calls from season ticket holders and fans that visit the Stoop on a regular basis. As well as an increase in sales and bookings, the number of general enquiries also grew with the team’s recent Premiership promotion.
“The increase in calls meant fans were waiting in a long, automated queuing system until an agent was free, which inevitably resulted in frustration and a potential loss of custom,” explains the Ticket Sales Manager at Harlequins, Damien Hutchins. “We always strive to deliver a booking procedure that is as quick and easy as possible, therefore we decided to outsource the overflow of calls to eliminate the queues that our loyal supporters were experiencing.”
The Rocket Ansa-Call service from the outsourced telephony provider, ROCKETUK.COM was chosen. Its agents were provided with full training to be able to answer any query a caller may have, in the same way that a member of Harlequins own staff would. This extended to using the same Seatbooker software to make full ticket transactions as well as reprint tickets and give out any relevant information on the remaining availability of seats.
“Harlequins experience peaks and troughs of call volumes and our relationship with ROCKETUK.COM allows us to flexibly switch on or off our overflow service,” explains Hutchins. “Using Rocket Ansa-Call as an overflow booking line immediately took the pressure off our own call centre staff and ensured the highest standard of customer service was experienced by callers,” he continues. “Rocket Ansa-Call has allowed us to handle our increase in popularity, enabling sales to continue with calls being answered without delay.”
“At the start of a new season, demand for season tickets and advance booking generates a huge number of calls and -during this time- the Rocket Ansa-Call team will typically sell up to 400 tickets in an hour,” states Hutchins. “Without this call overflow our own internal call centre would not be able to cope with the ticket demand.”
The overflow service runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week allowing supporters to purchase tickets at any time but, as Hutchins explains, this is not the only benefit of a round-the-clock service. “We have a number of overseas supporters or travelling business people who want to book tickets from wherever they are in the world. Operating in this way means there are no problems with different time zones.”
Hutchins concludes, “In addition to improving the standard of service we provide to our supporters, ROCKETUK.COM has enabled us to easily cope with the increase in demand for tickets. Rocket Ansa-Call is now an essential and integral part of our ticketing operations.”
