Roles
Not addressing skill set issues
When managers do not realise that more training (or indeed any!) is required, staff morale can fall quickly. Staff who feel unsupported have a tendency to avoid tough customer care issues or can quickly blame their organisation in front of customers.
Staff newly promoted to a managerial role, without adequate support
It is very easy to assume that someone who can perform very well – lets say a member of the Box Office team – can also naturally move into the role of being Box Office Manager. Even the gap from being a Supervisor to being Manager is huge. In some respects it can be a particularly big challenge for Box Office Managers because they are amongst the few members of staff within an organisation where their line manager does not understand the specifics of their role. Box Office Managers are faced with very particular customer care, technical and staff management issues. Unlike many other skill set areas within arts organisations, there is no specific external training scheme for Box Office Managers.
Changing roles in response to new technology
New technology, whilst generally bringing efficiency and increased effectiveness to an organisation, can have wider implications. The technology has to be set up, managed, understood and utilised properly. All this can require significantly different skills than existing staff were recruited for.You may need to invest in significant training of your existing staff, or even recruit one or more new specialist staff.
Without at least the thought, if not specific action to review skill sets, you are almost certainly going to miss out on some of the advantages that your investment could bring. You will not be getting the best out of your systems. This may require a change in roles and responsibilities.
For example, the expansion of internet ticketing to over 60% of ticket sales has significant implications for the staffing of a Box Office, not all of which is about reduction in staffing costs. Internet ticketing certainly takes a large amount of drudgery out of the process of selling tickets, but it also brings with it many new challenges many of which are highly technical. The way that you need to design the sales process on your website, is not something that should be left just to Marketing teams, but also requires the informed and expert input of your Box Office team.
There are other matters you need to consider like how you handle special offers, your Box Office becoming your website helpdesk, when and how new seasons go on sale, handling duplicate customer records.
