How to handle "will call" ticketing?

[Rob]

A client I’m producing a ticketing solution for requires “will call” support for their event ticketing process. I’ve searched the forum but can’t find any specific solutions or suggestions on this. Essentially, there’s just one staffer whose job it is, during all-day business hours, to handle all people coming into the office for questions or to resolve problems, and will call ticketing for the evening’s events is one of those duties. She’d like an easy way to quickly provide will call customers with their tickets. She’s familiar with the Events lookup in WordPress and has access to it, but if there’s anything Events Tickets Plus offers in that regard to streamline it more, please help me understand it.

[Brian]

Hi Rob,

We do not have anything that matches what you are looking for.

How does person purchase the tickets?

Do they do it only and then come to you?

Are they just not getting the tickets and you would like to provide new ones to them?

Could you describe the steps a person does to need a will call ticket and I can see if I have any suggestions on how to help with our existing features.

Cheers

[Rob]

Here are the two main user stories presented to me by the client, quoted verbatim:

Scenario 1) You stand in line behind all the people purchasing tickets and other merchandise. You approach me at my desk and say “I am Rob Watson and I need to pick up my tickets.” I ask you if you already called or e-mailed me requesting will-call. (Because if you did, a packet may already be assembled with your tickets and pins) You say “no”, so I try to look up your order by name, but your name is not there. I ask for an order number, but you don’t have it (Did I forget to mention the internet crashed?… you have to wait until it is back up so I can look up your order). Then you remember your sister ordered the tickets for you. I am finally able to find them under her name. I assemble the tickets you ordered (there are a lot) and put them in an envelope with whatever pins you ordered (because if I don’t you ask for one since you are afraid you will lose everything). You tell me your sister also ordered tickets under a different order for your parents and would like to pick up theirs as well. Begin process all over again. (You may be wondering why I assemble pre-printed tickets instead of printing them out right then- take my word for it, printing them out takes much longer).

If the will-call tickets and pins are pre-assembled, you get scenario 2.

Scenario 2) You don’t have to stand in line. You go straight to the cute little older lady at will-call and say “”I am Rob Watson and I need to pick up my tickets that were ordered to ‘will call’.” She asks for your name, but you are not there. Then you remember your sister ordered the tickets. She is able to find them under her name and hands you an envelope with the tickets and pins. You tell her your sister also ordered tickets under a different name for your parents. She finds the envelope with their name on it and hands it to you.

[Brian]

Hi,

Thanks for that.

That makes sense on the Will Call side, however, we do not have a way to send tickets to an admin to print through in WooCommerce so that might be the biggest issue as well as a designation for pick up of tickets.

I cannot think of anyway around that without getting into a customization.

It looks like the customization would involve setting up a Will Call Option and then once selected the tickets are emailed to a staffer instead of the person ordering so that a ticket package could be setup.

Cheers

[Rob]

Thanks for this information. Is there a supported way to add a customization to Events Tickets Plus, like the equivalent of what one would do with a child theme to extend a wordpress theme? Or is a customization a one-way road that gets wiped out when the plugin is upgraded later?

[Brian]

You can modify the tickets.php file for WooCommerce in your theme.

Then there are hooks through the plugin that you can utilize to modify things without modifying the plugins coding directly.

It is hard to say which is need for a customization such as this.

[Support Droid]

This topic has not been active for quite some time and will now be closed.

If you still need assistance please simply open a new topic (linking to this one if necessary)
and one of the team will be only too happy to help.

[Author]

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