Welcome to BigScreenBiz.com

We have a 2 screen (196 seats each) and when we opened 2 weeks ago it was with a new staff and new RTS system. For ye who know not: RTS is a very popular, cost effective, intuitive concession and ticketing software/hardware system. The people who build/design/provide/update RTS are regulars here as are many of their clients.

My question: we seem unable to move our ticket line. I watch the tik gal and she is going as fast as possible: no chatty dallying, cash draw is open, computer is not lagging, hitting "exact change" instead of entering the "tendered amount", she can make change in her head... (wow!!! 10.00 less 6.00 equals.....???) We start selling tiks 1 hour before the show and yet the lines out the door and we're holding the show to get everyone in. Worst of all: it hurts us big time at the Per Cap Concession stand.

We have another location where we tear tickets by hand and never have a back up like this.

Any suggestions on how to make this situation go faster?

---

If its not your computer( which you could speed up just by adding RAM), and its not your employee, then its probably your customers. Is there anyway of adding a secondary line during extreme busy periods?People always come to films in the last 15 minutes then act outraged that theres a line. One would think that, by simple repitition, they would learn to come earlier, but they never do. This is a problem everyone has and generally the only way to solve it is to have more selling stations available. Sorry, I hope it helps.

Mike
Are you printing individual tickets for groups or families?
lance

I would also like to ask one question. I'm assumming that you don't have the person selling tickets also tearing tickets. This is a loss prevention nightmare, and its most likely contributing to slowing the line down.

yes to the all showing at 15 mins before show time.

No tik tearing by seller.

Yes we are printing individual tiks foir each person. Can we print one per family?

---

I believe that this is two problems.

1. Do you have the thermal printer or the Boca printer? The Boca printer is 2 or 3 times faster than the thermal printer. I know that $3,000 is a lot to spend on a ticket printer but speed costs money. Get the Boca printer.

2. Training. The cashier usually has to ask what film and how many. Then they get the cash, make change and print the ticket. My hand hovers over the print button. As soon as I see the cash, I print the ticket. If I make a mistake, I place the tickets in the cash drawer and move on. I can always refund them later.

Separate your two showtimes by 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes and you will have less mixing of the two shows in your ticket line.

As a cashier I hold a bundle of ones in my left hand and make change with that bundle. It saves me half of the routing around in the cash drawer.

Make sure that the cashier is being proactive in asking what people want instead of waiting for them to tell the cashier.

Make announcements in the line that tickets cost x amount of money, please have your money ready. This speeds the line of greatly.

Yes, pushing the movie button, the ticket button and the print button is 3 more buttons than the automaticket but you should still be able to sell tickets faster than people can dig money out of their pocket books.

I haven't used Automaticket in 10 years but my staff had no problem transitioning from Sensible Cinema and Sharp cash registers to RTS with touch screen and Boca printers.


[This message has been edited by Large (edited November 14, 2002).]

Be sure your showtimes, ratings, screen numbers, type of sound, etc. are CLEARLY posted at the boxoffice, minimizing the delays caused by questions and confusion. Having a brief description of the movies posted away from the ticket line helps indecisive people choose a movie if they haven't yet, rather than asking the cashier for "suggestions".

Likewise, a posting "doing the math" for multiple tickets will help people have the proper amount of money ready.

If you can, have a ticket pricing structure that keeps the amount of change simple.

---

John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services
Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 585-477-5325 Cell: 585-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Most everyone has beaten me to the punch; here are a few suggestions from RTS.

Go to setup - local computer - tickets - uncheck the print tickets separately - you will now get one ticket per tendered transaction as suggested by Lance.

RAM won't help, RTS only needs 16MB, he has 64MB (talk about optimized!)We use a proprietary flat file database to achieve this, MS Access is ridiculous in the need for RAM.

He has the thermal roll printer, we can speed up the auto-cutter on the Samsung by flashing the EPROM with code through the parallel port, have Tony call me and I'll verify this has been done to that printer. the printer isn't quite as fast as the Boca, but with the code the cutter only has to cut and reset instead of cut, travel across, and reset.

I echo many of the thoughts above, 30 minutes apart on the show times, clear posting of pricing, and easy pricing.

You could always buy an additional ticketing/concession station

As for the theatre, we have a 3 plex we handle with one ticketing station and shows scheduled 10 minutes apart, we have another 3 plex that we have 5 one stop stations at to handle the rush, it's all about location and customer preference. What you cannot have is unhappy customers not buying concessions, do whatever it takes ASAP to fix the problem.

Greg Borr
RTS


[This message has been edited by GREGBORR (edited November 14, 2002).]

Of course part of the problem is what I identified in an earlier post.... people as whole seem to be coming later and later. I attribute it partly to the speeding up of our society and that the fact that everyone I know (myself included) is so crunched for time.

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited November 14, 2002).]

Has anyone ever thought of preprinting tickets and having someone outside the boxoffice selling them. I think it might work when a long line is anticipated for certain films.

What about Debit/Credit Transactions?
I know, when we lost our lobby ATM due to a stolen forklift/break-in this summer, we put in debit machines at the ticketbooth and concession. The transaction time is soooo slow. Now that we have front doors again and the ATM is back, I think the debit machine will be leaving soon. It's slow, and requires my staff to opperate it. The ATM requires no one to operate it. We do make a "commission" on each of the sales from both.

Actually I've been meaning to ask Greg about debit/credit integration. On the RTS tills does each till need a dedicated phone line or is there some way to connect them all via router/high speed cable or something like that?

RTS processes everything via the internet, an "always on" internet connection at 56K will allow for less than 3 seconds to transmit and approve credit cards, high-speed connections will get to around 2 seconds. Transactions under $35.00 do not require a signed receipt in the U.S.

The internet connection is broadcast across the entire network.

What bank does the theatre use Mill?

Is this a national Canadaian trhing, with say, Soctiabank, or is it only in your area?

---

"Would you like fries with that?"

"break in-fork lift-atm?" say what?????? I want to know more about that!

We will do some of these things asap.

1. if we know it's busy we can always print up tiks in advance and have a second person sell

2. I'm thinking of a second person selling with them barking out the orders to the operator "2 adults for sweet home" print/hand/etc. and handle the cash from a second box.

3. 30 mins diff seems way too long for me! We like 'em close and tight!

---

Okay, this is my first time posting, but Mike wanted me to check out what was on the forum for our ticketing problem.

On week one I went into setup and re configured the printer so that it prints the tickets the minute the ticket girl presses 1 Adult / Harry Potter. THis has sped up the lag time between change and waiting for tix to print.

We use 1/2 dollars to also speed change process up. Our prices end in even and half dollar increments so this has also helped

We also tried pre printing tix, problem is trying to find that magic number of how many to preprint, if the person selling pre prints runs out, it is very difficult to get to tix booth and try pre printing more without holding the line up more than it already is.

The fact is that people here have gone for so long having a dumpy run down rat's nest for a theatre that they use to coming 5 minutes before show time and having no problem getting in. Now that it is a clean, beautiful, friendly, professional, "wow, the floor is so clean I can eat off of it", establishment (trying to brag you up MIke), that when they come 10 minutes before show time , they realize so did the rest of the town, and find themselves waiting out in the cold frustrated and mad that they can't get in.

Advance tix would be great, except for the fact that we are a the only theatre in a 45 mile radius and would sell out WAY before showtime, and then again would have an angry mob standing in line screaming that there are no tix left.

So with that being said, anyone else got any other suggestions? Or how about one of those subliminal messages that I can run on the screen to get people to manage their time better and get to the movies ON TIME!!!