Ticket Office Closure!

[BlueEagles]

I phoned the ticket office this morning, to enquire the whereabouts of my sons membership cards, as I have still not received them despite paying by Direct Debit in January. I was amazed to hear a recorded message that stated that the office was closed until Thursday, 3rd April!

I subsequently viewed the official website & ascertained that the 'excuse' is that the staff are clearing admin backlogs & in order to provide a first class customer service, it has been decided to close the office. How can you provide a first class service if you are closed? There appears to be a complete lack of succession planning, surely the staff can work overtime and/or get temps in to clear the backlogs?

[Valentines Park]

At one time the back office was the only part of the club not riddled with incompetence.

I guess if you lie down with dogs long enough ...

[Starfish]

Thanks for post,

We took the decision to close the Membership and ticketing office for a period of three days to ensure we could offer that service.

Owing to the late release of ECB sponsor information we were behind on the print schedule of tickets and Membership literature which resulted in us being behind where we needed to be. The initial rush in NatWest T20 Blast tickets has been exceptionally high. As a result of our current ticket system we are unable to group together tickets for multiple games into one package. Naturally this has lead to a number of calls. We very much pride ourselves on offering a first class service and in order to do that we took this decision.

During these three days we are replying to emails via questions@essexcricket.org.uk

We have also undergone a number of staff changes in recent months. We now have the team very much in place, you will see an increase in customer service.

Thanks for your time, I hope this goes someway to outline the reason for closure. Thanks, Danny Macklin, Commercial Director.

[cashless]

Could be a practice to only pay staff to open two days a week. it appears that nothing seems to go smooth these days, must be the new staff not as good as the old ones. As long as they have your money you will have to wait.

[nat]

"...As a result of our current ticket system we are unable to group together tickets for multiple games into one package...."

I may be wrong but I thought the club bought a new system not long ago?!

[cashless]

Yes Nat, along with the short lived idea of barcodes on tickets to be read at the point of entry.

[Starfish]

Thanks for your post, we are reviewing ways to improve on the sending of tickets.

We have introduced the popular print at home option. We withdrew the ticket scanning as people were arriving late for T20 games.

We would welcome comments also via our focus group which takes place on 24 April.

Thanks

[cashless]

Arriving late or not, how can that effect barcode scanning. Tesco still scan no matter what the time is. Just another lame excuse for wasting members money.

[DT]

Perhaps I'm wrong to have a pop but I'm going to anyway - this is just typical of no clue ECCC - perhaps the staff should be better managed and we might not have to close to catch-up.  Perhaps it's the latest marketing guff to make us all think they really are busy hoping we'll all spend our money on tickets and membership...

[Starfish]

We have undergone a number of staff changes and a period without a full team. As a result we fell behind, however the biggest delay was awaiting the ECB sponsors and their logos

We have had a bright and encouraging start to ticket sales. There is no cover up, we are here to improve the service

Very keen to welcome you all to the next focus group. Feedback is vital. Thanks, Danny

[Valentines Park]

Feedback is vital.

You get plenty of feedback but never act on it.

The farce over Shepherd Neame being a major case in point.

[cashless]

Feedback is vital.

You get plenty of feedback but never act on it.

The farce over Shepherd Neame being a major case in point.

ECCC don't do feed back, they never have. Otherwise it would be a nice club to admit to being a member of. Other counties have offered good deals to members on tickets and membership for one-day matches, however Essex didn't want to go down that road and lost  membership.

[BlueEagles]

I phoned the ticket office this morning, to enquire the whereabouts of my sons membership cards, as I have still not received them despite paying by Direct Debit in January. I was amazed to hear a recorded message that stated that the office was closed until Thursday, 3rd April!

I subsequently viewed the official website & ascertained that the 'excuse' is that the staff are clearing admin backlogs & in order to provide a first class customer service, it has been decided to close the office. How can you provide a first class service if you are closed? There appears to be a complete lack of succession planning, surely the staff can work overtime and/or get temps in to clear the backlogs?

[Mog]

I phoned the ticket office this morning, to enquire the whereabouts of my sons membership cards, as I have still not received them despite paying by Direct Debit in January. I was amazed to hear a recorded message that stated that the office was closed until Thursday, 3rd April!

I subsequently viewed the official website & ascertained that the 'excuse' is that the staff are clearing admin backlogs & in order to provide a first class customer service, it has been decided to close the office. How can you provide a first class service if you are closed? There appears to be a complete lack of succession planning, surely the staff can work overtime and/or get temps in to clear the backlogs?

Succession planning? At No Change Essex? Are you kidding?

The liklehood is that it's a simple case of cost cutting, in attempting to make some funds available to pay for top performing *stars* the Club have provided us "so-called supporters" with over the past few years; Shah, Mahmood, et al.

[BlueEagles]

Danny,

I phoned the Ticket office back this morning to establish the whereabouts of my sons membership cards. After 3 attempts and queueing for approx 30 minutes, I abandoned the calls and gave up. It certainly wasn't the first class service you promised!!

In desperation,  I decided to visit the office at lunch time. After waiting for approx 10 minutes to be served, I spoke to the 'new' staff who apologised for the wait and advised me that they also answer ALL the phone calls. Why don't you have staff dedicated to take calls only?

In conclusion, I feel that closing the office for the best part of a week was very unprofessional and demonstrated yet again that ECCC are reactive and not pro-active like other clubs and organisations. What will happen if we get a home draw in the latter stages of the one day competitions ( albeit very unlikely!) will you close the office for a fortnight?