Box Office Managers
BEMIDJI COMMUNITY THEATRE
INFORMATION FOR BOX OFFICE MANAGERS
This
document seems intimidating,
September 30, 2000
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
You will serve two primary duties in most productions staged by BCT: -
• Preparing tickets and making them available for customers to purchase.
• Collecting and accounting-for the money which customers pay.
It is best if one person (you) handles both the advance sales and the lobby box-office counter.
If you cannot do both, select a very reliable co-worker to take the other half of the duty.
GETTING STARTED
• Get started far enough in advance to avoid hassles:
Talk with Production Manager to clarify just what functions you will be doing, and what
might have already been done (or arranged-for) by other people
> What outlets to use, and who makes arrangements
> The facts:where, when, price, and etc
> How many seats in the auditorium?, don’t make ‘extra’ tickets, we could be embarrassed
> Who creates design for tickets
> Who gets free tickets: - for advance publicity; - people whose duties require them to be in
the theater that night such as ushers, box office workers, concession stand workers
Depending upon the method of duplication for the tickets, have the originals at the printer’s
three weeks before the show opens
Tickets should normally be at the distribution outlets 14 days before the show opens
PREPARING TICKETS
• The BSU Printing Services shop is a low-cost place to get them done, but parking is a hassle.
• Usually have a master sheet for each performance, ten tickets on a 8.5 X 11 sheet works well
> Easy done on any computer, use ‘cut and paste’ to repeat the single design
> Make each performance on a different color paper to avoid confusion
> PBP usually provides 300 seats, BSU main stage 280 seats, BSU black box 100 seats
> Title of Show, place, day and date, time, price(s) (adult & child?)
We have never used assigned seat numbers, but it is smart to number each days tickets
by hand, after printing, so you can tell how many are given to each sales location, etc.
DEALING WITH SALES OUTLET LOCATIONS
• We have been using Iverson’s Corner Drug and the Hobby Hutch (and PBP when in that bldg)
• Have a multi-pocket "wallet" for each location, including your own box office in the theater
> Show your name and phone number on the lid of the wallet
> Tickets for each day’s performance in a separate pocket
> One more pocket for money
• Be accurately aware of closing time of each location, so you can pick-up unsold tickets
> Before each performance, pick up unsold tickets (so you can sell then at your box-office)
and whatever money they have collected for ALL sales made thus-far
We do NOT try to ‘balance’ the money with the particular date printed on each ticket
• If the show is popular, you may have to "juggle" tickets from one outlet to another
RUNNING THE BOX OFFICE IN THE THEATER LOBBY
• Secure a helper to work with you for each performance (business can get brisk)
• Use the ‘wallet system’ to sell tickets for future performances without confusion
• Have enough ‘change’ of appropriate denominations (either your own $$; or from Treasurer)
• If a ‘sell-out’ seems to be imminent, take steps to be fair about who in the waiting list gets
tickets and in what sequence (sometimes a party of two can get in when four cannot)
Use your good judgment, be prepared to defend your choices, keep smiling)
• DANGER: If you have sold all the tickets for a performance, DON’T attempt to use empty seats remaining just before curtain time to admit people who want to buy a last-minute seat. Whoever bought that ticket has bought the seat, whether or not they are sitting in it.
They may arrive ten minutes late, or even at intermission.
This is why you must keep track of how many seats are available in the auditorium, and how
many tickets have been sold, and how many remain unsold.
WHAT ABOUT PHONE CALLS ASKING TO RESERVE TICKETS FOR PICK-UP LATER
This has to be approached cautiously, to avoid holding tickets which will never be picked-up, and thus cannot be sold to a real live customer. Especially dangerous if the show is popular.
Ask your advance outlets what procedure they are in the habit of following, decide if that will work OK for your show.
All callers should be told that tickets are ‘General Admission’ and that late arrivals get poorer seats.
It is a good idea to inform any phone caller that reserved tickets MUST be paid-for at least a half hour before curtain time. Maybe a friend who lives here in Bemidji (or who gets downtown easily) can pay for them at the downtown outlet, but the ticket seller holds the paper ticket and gives you the name of the customer, who will get the ticket from you when he arrives at the theater just before curtain time.
We CANNOT deal with credit cards. If they call several days before the date they want, they can mail a check to you, and get the tickets up to curtain time.
SUMMARIZING ACTIVITY EACH NIGHT, AND AFTER THE LAST PERFORMANCE
• Ask your Production Manager what to do with each batch of money as you get it, whether from
the advance outlets ahead-of-time, or as each performance date is reached.
• As accurately as is reasonable, give the Production Manager a count of how many ‘ticketed’
customers (including free promotional tickets) attended each performance. Don’t count
ushers, concessions workers etc. List adults and children separately. This number ought to
come close to matching with the original number of tickets printed, and the number of unsold
tickets remaining.