Outsourcing Music Festival Customer Service.

Providing great customer service is essential for any organisation and is critical for music festival entities too. With a focus on producing memorable experiences for festival-goers many organisers sometimes give little emphasis to the provision of customer service. Should festival organisers outsource this function or keep it in-house.

Any large-scale music festival can have upwards of 20,000 ticket buyers and invariably some of these festival-goers will have questions about the event from simple queries to more serious complaints. Often overlooked by organisers the ability to quickly and accurately respond to any queries is an essential part of protecting and promoting the festival brand.

In-house vs. Outsourcing. 
Having an in-house team handle some or all customer service enquiries can be an expensive and labour-intensive solution. Many organisers choose to have a skeleton team operating the customer service function with a heavy reliance on comprehensive FAQs to answer the most commonly asked questions. As festivals are usually seasonal organisers can consider boosting their in-house team in busy periods but the alternative option is to outsource customer service to a professional third-party agency.

Home Country or Overseas.
There are always plenty of options for outsourcing customer services to a company in the same country but the costs can be prohibitive. More common is the use of overseas customer service outsourcing agencies that utilise fluent English speakers to answer questions. Outsourcing to an overseas agency can significantly reduce costs but can encounter resistance from customers making enquiries.

Briefing an External Agency. 
How well an outsourced agency manages the customer service function will depend on how thorough the briefing is. Any outsourced customer service agent is operating as an ambassador for the festival and it is therefore essential, they have comprehensive understanding of the event and all likely questions along with answers and a clearly defined escalation process.

Benefits of Outsourcing Customer Service.
Aside from a comprehensive briefing from festival organisers outsourced agents will already be familiar with systems and technology used to handle calls and emails quickly and efficiently. The costs of providing customer services are greatly reduced negating the need for recruitment and training of an in-house team. If the outsourced service is overseas, it may be possible to provide round the clock availability rather than being restricted to office hours.

Key Considerations.
A festival that uses any of the major ticketing companies will usually find that they offer dedicated customer support for ticketing enquiries but organisers should check with their supplier what is and is not included. Any support for vendors and suppliers should remain in-house as they are often critical to the logistics of the event. In addition, any on-site customer support for festival-goers can be handled by volunteers who are trained and briefed prior to the event dates.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels

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