I was in line to purchase a ticket to watch a film this morning and was refused, along with about a dozen other people, because the staff said it was too early and the cinemas weren't open yet. Of course, they were not open yet because we're all lined up for the first screenings of the movies we'd like to watch. Also, since there are staff assigned to the entrances to the cinemas, they may inform people if they could already enter the theaters. I really couldn't understand why the box office could not sell tickets earlier considering the films had schedules and they were also selling tickets in advance anyway, according to one poster at the box office.
I casually asked the staff who would give the go signal for her to start selling tickets and she replied that the ones in-charge of each cinema will be telling her if they were ready. I thought this was a lame excuse for a policy (if ever that was a policy) given again that they could have simply blocked the entrance to the theater if they weren't ready to allow people to get in. That was the logical thing to do rather than advise people to wait for the time when they could buy tickets while the staff stood idle at the box office. In fact, when they did start selling tickets a few minutes before the screening time of the earliest film to be shown, the staff couldn't handle the queue quite efficiently because they also took time processing transactions made by the senior citizens in the line. For the uninformed, senior citizens in the Philippines are given discounts provided they present their IDs and sign forms to avail of the discounts.
A word of advice to the different malls' managements - sell the tickets as soon as you have your staff manning the box office ready. There's no sense at all not to do so early considering people get to choose the screening schedules and it takes time to process purchases especially when seats are selected or when senior citizens are involved. You have staff assigned at the respective cinema entrances. They have and should do their jobs of letting people in according to the schedules on their tickets. Unless of course your cinema box offices still employ primitive ticketing where it may be difficult to determine the time when a customer is supposed to enter the theater. In that case, it's time you realize that you need to modernize your ticketing. It will be good for business.
I casually asked the staff who would give the go signal for her to start selling tickets and she replied that the ones in-charge of each cinema will be telling her if they were ready. I thought this was a lame excuse for a policy (if ever that was a policy) given again that they could have simply blocked the entrance to the theater if they weren't ready to allow people to get in. That was the logical thing to do rather than advise people to wait for the time when they could buy tickets while the staff stood idle at the box office. In fact, when they did start selling tickets a few minutes before the screening time of the earliest film to be shown, the staff couldn't handle the queue quite efficiently because they also took time processing transactions made by the senior citizens in the line. For the uninformed, senior citizens in the Philippines are given discounts provided they present their IDs and sign forms to avail of the discounts.
A word of advice to the different malls' managements - sell the tickets as soon as you have your staff manning the box office ready. There's no sense at all not to do so early considering people get to choose the screening schedules and it takes time to process purchases especially when seats are selected or when senior citizens are involved. You have staff assigned at the respective cinema entrances. They have and should do their jobs of letting people in according to the schedules on their tickets. Unless of course your cinema box offices still employ primitive ticketing where it may be difficult to determine the time when a customer is supposed to enter the theater. In that case, it's time you realize that you need to modernize your ticketing. It will be good for business.
No comments:
Post a Comment