I've gone Corporate!

I have a new job working for Ticketmaster. I take phone orders from people buying tickets for concerts and sports events. Pearl Jam wouldn't like me. I work for a major corporation. In the 90s they tried to sue Ticketmaster over the convenience fees. I found this undated article about Pearl Jam's arguments against Ticketmaster. It cites a couple magazine articles which will probably give a hint as to when it was written. And then ironically there is this E! Online article about how Pearl Jam started using Ticketmaster again during their 1998 tour. Ticketmaster has exclusive rights to vend tickets for certain venues, like Madison Square Garden, so if Pearl Jam wanted to perform there, they had to use Ticketmaster.

I had about a week's worth of training. The first few days were kind of boring. The trainer and her assistant talked about the Ticketmaster philosophy of being friendly, enthusiastic and polite. We learned how to use the computer system as well, but there were problems with the training program. I was happier once the problem was solved, and we could practice going through the computer program and making pretend ticket sales. The only thing we weren't adequately trained on was how to use the computer program that controls our phone lines. I found out the hard way that if I have that computer program up on the desktop and the main program running in front of it, calls sometimes get accidently disconnected!

My first day taking calls was pretty hectic! People really want "good seats" to these events. The computer pulls up the "best available" seats at any given time. Customers want to know if they are "good seats" and most of the time want a second opinion. I try my best to find good seats, but it's hard when customers order tickets 2 weeks before the event, especially with NBA and NHL games! At least I can use the Madison Square Garden website I linked to above. It has a very cool map of the venue so I can have an idea of how close the seats are to the action! During the orders we are supposed to read scripts for magazine sales and some sort of traveler's discount club. My first day I think I failed to properly transfer a couple callers. Hopefully I will be better at my job soon!

The things I love about the job are looking for information for the customers. I love looking up information on Ticketmaster.com! It is challenging because the phone sound quality is sometimes bad. It sort of bugs me when I can't find information on certain events. I don't know much about Broadway plays and musicals. The call center here in Madison handles the New York and New England market, so we get a lot of orders for Broadway shows. (Ironically there is a call center in New York state that handles the Midwest market.) I have tried to look up information on a play or musical called "Man of Her Dreams" and not been able to find a synopsis. Hopefully I will find it soon.