Christian Retailing

ADVICE: Dear Betty Print Email
Written by Staff   
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 11:08 AM America/New_York

Our church has many special events, for which we have been asked to carry tickets. Is this a good idea?

Special events can be both a blessing and, to be honest, a lot of hard work. When you become a ticket service, you are that—a service. Along with bringing traffic to your store, it also brings quite a bit of expectation from those customers. You are not only a book or gift store, but you are a “vendor” of an entertainment product.

Whether it is a concert or guest author event, if you are responsible for selling tickets, you must be prepared to keep accurate records. It will make a great difference if the tickets are reserved or general admission. If you are using a P.O.S. (which I hope all of you are doing) then general admission tickets should be entered like any other product. You can enter them by price point and thus keep an up-to-the-moment count of sales. I would also suggest that before the tickets are printed you give them a bar code so that the actual ringing up of the sales can be streamlined.

Many events will bring customers who only want to purchase their tickets and leave quickly. If you are selling on Sunday, then you need to have a special line for those purchasers. Frustration sets in quickly with ticket sales, so prepare your staff for unusual behavior from some who are not used to being in a church setting.

There are other facets of ticket selling that need to be addressed—credit cards, sales-tax issues and refunds. Be sure and set all the ground rules before taking on this project. If planned out carefully, it can be a win for both you and your customers.

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