TicketstotheCity - Support Blog

Online sales? Check. Phone-in and walk-up sales? Check. No more monthly equipment fees? Checkmate.

The release of TicketstotheCity Version 3.0 brought the addition of our Virtual Box Office (VBO). Now you can now take orders from phone-in and walk-up customers to supplement your current online offerings. The VBO is structured to make purchases easy for your staff, and this article will help introduce you to the features and operation of our newest module.

The Virtual Box Office was created to help your organization further integrate personal sales with your online box office, and has the added bonus of ridding you of those ongoing equipment fees associated with most credit card terminals. The VBO allows any user of your account (main and basic) to process sales using a new interface integrated into the TTC account backend:

The VBO’s interface is comprised of the following areas, the main window:

and the shopping cart:

To get started simply click on one of the three options in the main window: Events Packages or Donations (tip: the number in the box signifies how many active items are available for each option). For our example today we’ll choose the only available option (see the main window image above) and select Events. Next, you’ll be shown a list of current active events for your account:

To choose an event simply click on the Select button. Since we’re viewing events this will show us a list of available dates (note that the number of available dates is also visible in the events list, see image above):

At this point I’d like to point out a feature unique to the Virtual Box Office.  Unlike online ticket sales, which end prior to your scheduled curtain time, sales through the VBO may be processed up to an hour after your event begins.  This will allow your staff to keep selling tickets in case of a delayed start time, or a rush ticket purchase.

Just as in the events list to select an available date click on the Select button. This will bring up the purchase form where you can select the number of tickets or a specific seat(s) your customer is requesting (in the example below this is a reserved seating venue):

Simply choose the seating and click Add to Order to place the seats into your shopping cart:

Note that the total amount of this order is updated and displayed in the orange TOTAL box above the shopping cart. As you continue to add items to the order they will be displayed in the cart. To see the cost of an individual item simply move your mouse over the seat information (quantity or the seat label, A5-2 in the example below) and the price will pop-up:

A general seating example (quantity of seats shown):

When you are ready to complete the order click on the checkout link in the shopping cart; the checkout form will be displayed. You can update the order by adjusting the cart items in step one and clicking on Update Order, or proceed to entering the customer’s billing information (more on that after the screenshot of the checkout form). Note that unlike the online checkout form, the VBO allows you to enter a discount amount:

The customer’s required billing information changes based on how they pay. The VBO will accept cash, check, VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover. Note that if you choose a credit card as method of payment your check from TicketstotheCity will be for the purchase price minus the credit card fees; there are no service charges added for using the VBO, and all cash/check sales should be handled by your staff and have the added bonus of being fee-free (that’s right - we don’t charge a penny to use the VBO if your customer pays by cash or check).

Once the transaction is complete you will be shown an invoice. At this time you can choose to print the receipt or start over with a new sale:

If you are worried about the cost of printing receipts (either environmental or hard costs) then don’t worry, as your customer will be emailed a copy on completion of the sale.

The printable receipt:

One nice feature of the printable receipt is your printing options will automatically open and prompt you to choose a printer to print:

We hope you find the Virtual Box Office an easy-to-use addition to TicketstotheCity, and if you aren’t currently selling tickets through our system contact us today or click on the Getting Started link at the top of this page to jump start your online ticket sales.

Footnotes

To view a list of all of our system updates or articles please visit our archives.