Busy Days in the Box Office: Handling high volume ticketing onsales

With the right ticketing box office software, you’ll be ready to meet demand and maintain great customer service, even in periods of peak sales.

Every box office team is familiar with the stories of ticketing gone wrong - customers stuck in queues, losing their place at the point of transaction, or struggling with priority access codes. Too often, as demand for tickets rises, the quality of customer service falls. 

There’s a common factor in these box office horror stories. If your ticketing software’s clunky or outdated, it’s unlikely to keep pace with online demand. If it looks slick on the surface, it may not have the robust foundations needed to handle pressure. If you rely on external providers, you’re putting your reputation and customer relationships into the hands of companies whose public profile is viewed ambivalently, at best.

With Spektrix, it’s possible to sell tickets at up to 10x the speed of similar systems - and to maintain a great customer experience along the way. With full control of your customer data, you can personalise the journey with upsells, pre-visit information, and follow up communications - turning your biggest events from box office headaches into seamless introductions to your programme.

PR disaster or ticketing triumph? The importance of smooth onsales

The biggest events in your season can make or break customers’ experience. Yet the irony for box office teams is that the smoother the onsale, the less attention they receive. 



When it goes well, customers barely notice the ticket buying experience. They’ve got tickets in their hands, they’ve added the most sought-after merchandise, they’ve received an email telling them where to be and when. Everything feels easy, and they’re focused on the big show!

When it goes badly, on the other hand, everyone seems to know about it - from executive suite to social media, the conversation can quickly turn negative. That’s unpleasant for box office ticketing teams, especially when there’s little to be done about it in the moment - a surge in incoming ticket requests can quickly overwhelm outdated or flimsy ticketing systems, leading to long queues, frustrated customers, and potential revenue loss. For teams juggling all the pressures of pricing tiers, seating preferences, promotional offers, and presales, even the best laid plans can go quickly awry if your box office software and purchase pathway simply aren’t up to the task.

And the impact on your reputation shouldn’t be underestimated - loyal attendees are left feeling like venues or promoters don’t care, whilst newer customers can form a snap judgement based on a single negative interaction.

Ever-growing onsale capacity

Figures from a recent Spektrix onsale at The Barbican in London, Europe's largest arts centre:

• 3,600 transactions confirmed within 30 minutes - two sales every second!

• At its peak, 226 transactions were confirmed in single minute - four sales every second!

• A queue of 4,236 people progressed smoothly and cleared within 25 minutes of sales going live.

Every year, as the Spektrix client base grows, we test the onsale capacity of our system a little bit further. And we haven’t found our limit yet! In an approach that’s unique within the arts sector, our servers draw on the infinite, adaptable capacity of Microsoft Azure’s elastic pools - allowing us to scale our usage based on demand and make downtime a thing of the past.

“Spektrix has revolutionised our approach to ticketing, memberships, and donations. We've noticed a significant decrease in complaints regarding the online purchasing process compared to our previous system and we no longer worry about system crashes during onsales. With Spektrix, we've elevated our game, transforming challenges into triumphs, complaints into compliments, and revenue streams into rivers of success. It's simply outstanding.” Saratoga Performing Arts Center, New York

What customers want from a smooth ticketing onsale

Customers’ expectations seem simple - they want to get hold of tickets, fast, at a price they’re able to pay. But as every box office manager knows, it’s not quite that easy. Ask someone about a good ticketing experience, and they won’t have much to say. Ask them about a bad one, and prepare yourself for the tirade.

• Tickets! Ideally, let customers choose their own seats from a plan - but if your system struggles with onsale overload, you might choose to offer them Best Available seats at their chosen price point.
• A good queueing experience. Holding people in a queue can speed up live transactions, and even create its own buzz. Spektrix has queueing built in at no extra charge, providing customers with live updates on their position and - critically - moving them securely from website to purchase pathway, with no risk of losing their place in line.
• Reliable VIP access. Your members are often your biggest spenders and donors. Access to priority onsales is granted in Spektrix the moment an eligible customer logs in - creating a smooth, secure experience  for existing members, and upselling VIP access within the purchase pathway to enable instant premium benefits.
• Trustworthy pricing. Legislation’s rolling out internationally to clamp down on junk fees and hidden charges. Whatever the law says for your area, it’s good practice to advertise prices openly and upfront, ensuring visitors aren’t hit with unanticipated add-ons at the end of the purchase path.
• Accessibility as standard. Disabled customers have the right - legally and ethically - to buy tickets online in the same way as everyone else. Invite people to register their needs in advance using automated tags in Spektrix or integrated national schemes like the the Nimbus Access Card, ensuring they can find and purchase tickets that meet their needs - for example, with automatic access to wheelchair spaces, hearing loops, companion seats or other provision.
• Secure transactions. If customers are buying tickets for your organisation, it’s best for everybody if they purchase through your organisation directly. Big centralised ticket agencies are viewed with increasing suspicion, as stories about excess fees, software failure, data breaches, and ticket touts fill the media. By keeping audiences on your own site throughout ticket purchase and payment, you’ll build their confidence in the process - and shave vital seconds off every transaction with rapid payment options like Google Pay and Apple Pay.

What venues and promoters want from a smooth ticketing onsale

The goals of the box office team may not be all that different from those of your customers. With the right technology, onsale day should be exciting - a moment to enjoy the buzz that surrounds your programme, and to see revenue pouring in.

• Reliable software. If you can’t rely on your ticketing software, any onsale feels daunting. And reliability means many things - a stable platform, a smooth integration with your website, secure transactions, and accurate reporting. With ever-growing capacity, Spektrix provides speed, stability, and security, as well as reconciliations that line up to the penny.
• Responsive support. You shouldn’t feel alone in preparing for a big onsale or programme launch. At Spektrix, members of the Client Success team will work with you to plan and deliver a successful season launch, often joining you on a dedicated live chat to share results, respond to questions, or address concerns throughout the day. 
• Increased revenue. Slow transactions mean lost or delayed revenue. Poor customer experience reduces the chance of repeat visits. And agency sales limit your ability to communicate with your own audience with crucial pre-visit information, upsells, or asks. With evidence that your ticketing system is fast and reliable, it’s easier to convince promoters to keep the bulk of the allocation in-house.
• Efficient setup. No matter how complex your seating plans, presales, locks, or price tiers, it should be easy to set up your season. A layered approach to event building means Spektrix users never have to build the same element twice - choose and combine maps, layers, offers, and more, so everything’s ready ahead of time.
• Flexible allocations. If part of your inventory’s allocated to high-profile agents like Ticketmaster, See, or TodayTix, they can sell directly from a shared seating plan through the Spektrix API - maximising sales whilst maintaining visibility and control over your inventory.

With the right ticketing technology in place to do the heavy lifting, you’ll be free to focus on customer experience, with creative campaigns and human touchpoints by phone and at the box office counter.

Power up your ticketing with unlimited server capacity

The success or failure of your big onsales depends, above all, on the capability of your ticketing platform. Many arts organisations still rely on technology partners offering a traditional approach to cloud-based software - ring-fenced capacity, still managed by their onsite team. A few may even rely on old-fashioned onsite servers, running from a cupboard in the box office - placing all the effort of maintenance and uptime on you and your team. 

With Spektrix, you benefit from a platform that’s designed to offer reliability, scale, and the most current updates to every user - without any risk, cost, or downtime. In 2020, we undertook a transformative move to host the system using a platform as a service (PaaS) approach. Rather than maintaining our own servers, Spektrix now runs from Microsoft’s serverless Azure database. Azure’s infinite capacity allows us to scale up and down our usage in seconds, giving us all the computing power we need when things get busy, without paying for it when it’s not required. That approach is unique in the world of arts ticketing software, and it’s a solution that benefits everyone: from our users, to their audiences, and to the planet.

Improve the onsale experience for audiences and box office teams

If your ticketing technology’s struggling to handle capacity, or creating a negative onsale experience for teams and audience members, it may be time to consider a change. Here are a few questions to ask when you’re assessing current or potential providers.

Onsale capacity

• How quickly could this system process 1,000 transactions in a seated venue, with customers choosing their own seats?
• How would you support us before and during a major onsale to ensure its success?
• If our inventory’s split across multiple promoters, what visibility or control do I have over allocations?
• Are there any add-on costs to increase server capacity, access support, or manage allocations?

Customer experience

• How are VIP access and presales managed, and what does that purchase pathway look like for customers?
• How will your system help us to offer an positive, accessible ticket buying experience to disabled customers?

Box Office team experience

• How long does it take, on average, to set up a seated event with multiple price tiers and a VIP onsale?
• What training or support is available to us as we prepare for a major announcement or season launch?

Already working with Spektrix? 

Reach out to our client success team for guidance on upcoming onsales or improved purchase pathways.

Not yet working with Spektrix?

Ask us for a demo or informal conversation to understand more about our platform, servers, and technology, and how we've helped hundreds of organisations like yours to achieve more.