Just thought I'd share... Saturday morning we awoke to find out my truck had been broken into. Of the items taken 3 of 4 season ticket books were one of them. An email later (after canceling credit cards and talking with police) to Roy and the bar codes are being cancelled, and the box office is working to take measures to identify if they are used. For today's game? Tickets are waiting for us at will call! The response was fast and diligent, top notch. Say what you want about the FO and marketing, but the customer service level from the sales team is all class. Thanks, and very well done!
I think the important thing about this is that someone thought the season ticket books where worth stealing. FCD is on the rise!!!1!
I've always dealt with Dianna Childs for customer service, and I would agree that the service is exceptional. She is always quick to respond and extremely helpful. Much much more so than my season ticket rep for the Mavs!
It's easy to have a great Customer Service staff when you only have to service the fewer than 6600 fans who showed up for Sunday's match. Disgraceful.
This is good. The ticket folks have always been quite helpful for FCD. However, the strategy of selling tickets to people one at a time is not going to work. This team needs an enema. (I still like the Tim Burton "Batman" better). HSG needs to sell this team to somebody local! Oh, wait... HSG needs to sell this team to somebody who gives a crap!
I doubt your spirit, but I'll let karma judge you and deal with you. However, you make a couple of good points in that we do have some quality people in the ticket office. And, HSG has had a difficult time from day one as owners of the then Dallas Burn, grasping the fact that they have to provide a product that appeals to the existing soccer market. A "take it or leave it" approach will not fly here nor anywhere else. I do think that they understand this shortcoming and are trying to fix their problems. However, they still lack the personnel w/ local understandings to get the job done. It takes time, and it is on their dime, so oh well. At least they have allowed themselves the luxury of time with other revenue producers. But, I think that the sand is running out of the hour glass. When our ten year lease expires, so does the game. There are tons of soccer fans in the area. We have just not targeted those types. As well, we have pissed off a lot of varied fans over the years in the stubborn insistence of tying the local kiddy market into the sole source of product demand. Where I disagree w/ you is the "selling tickets one ticket at a time". That is precisely what will get this team back up again. I don't know a damed thing about your corporate sponsors and group ticket sales, but I do know who shows up to 10+ games a year. It is your loyal supporters. When you hook these types, they pay off exponentially. They buy repeat tickets on their own, and do selling for the team on their own.
The ticket sales people are the only people in this organization that realize that while the team sucks right now they need to make everyone as happy as humanly possible short of babysitting kids to get people to the game. (And I think Diana would if I asked her) As far as the kiddie organizations go they get out to them but they dont follow up. I cant tell you how many times I have heard coaches in Carrollton and the Colony saying that the organization had a stack of tickets for tonights game. I think that they think that just getting the tickets to the organization is going to do the job. There has to be some boots on the pavement getting the job done. Someone has to follow up with the organizations and make sure they are selling the tickets. If they arent then you find out why.
Sorry to disagree, but that is exactly the problem. Getting away from this philosophy is exactly why they find themselves in the predicament they are currently in.
As far as I can tell, the season ticket base is small. Very small. If you only sell tickets to those people, then you will have a very small group of fans in the seats. This team needs new fans. More fans. And I'll go out on a limb and say different fans. Not that they need to run off the old guard, but the Library does not inspire the team at all. The prawn sandwich crowd in the Library needs to be supplemented by reaching out to different types of fans. Mass marketing the team would be a good start. Grassroots marketing of the team to people with dollars (five-year-olds do not have money) and free time (five-year-olds' parents often don't have a two-hour block on a Saturday). Who's going to call Joe Cowboy and tell him about this team? Nobody. Unless there's an ad on TV, he'll never even know the team exists.
My point is that a solid fan base IS built one fan at a time. FCD has gone from bad to worse by (mis)managing to take a relatively small fan base and making it even smaller through bad customer service. The "build it and they will come" mentality they had when they moved to PHP got them away from the philosophy of thinking every fan matters to one that basically didn't care what the fans thought. Three years later, they are reaping what they sowed. Recently, it seems they have caught on, and are now trying hard to bring back that good customer service they were known for having a long time ago. There is no doubt they also need to "mass" market so that they can get the FCD brand in the minds of the general DFW populace, but it's 20 times more difficult to get a new fan to become a season ticket holder than it is to retain one that already is. That's why the initial base, albeit small, needed to be treated right. If you can't do that right, you're never going to enjoy success from your mass marketing efforts since you don't have a solid foundation to build on.
Since I do not have an assigned ticket rep, I requested Roy Tewell today. Guess what? I was told he no longer works there. WTF?!!?!?!?!?!?! And so goes another chapter of a good guy. So much for continued customer service...do your job and for whatever reason you no longer have a job (didn't get why he's no longer there). Good luck Roy...where ever you go. Apparently you were good...some of us will never know. I think I'll call Wagner...
Roy was not a ticket rep, he was the Soccer Sales Manager. He is now with the CRapids. Their gain, big loss for FCD because Roy is great at his job.
Don't worry about requesting a specific person. I don't know all the CS reps, but every one I've dealt with or heard about has been great. Quality of customer service reps is not one of their problems. A couple of years ago I got randomly assigned Jamie, and she split for some reason, so now I have Kirsten, and both of them are great. Everyone on here raves about Kevin, of course. It doesn't seem like a long term kind of job, but they're not having any trouble getting good people for that part.
Well...that sucks. The Crapids fans will enjoy his services. I did want to add that my replacement tickets and parking pass showed up 3 DAYS LATER! Stellar once again!
Incorrect. The so called "Ticket Sales Rep" is officially titled "Account Executive" and "Senior Account Executive". http://web.mlsnet.com/t104/load.jsp?section=about&content=staff Roy worked more with partnerships with groups and organizations. Although I think he started at FCD as a Account Executive before being promoted.
Just my two cents........As a season ticket holder and the parent of a 5 year old and 10 year old (both very active in soccer) we don't have the time but make the time. The problem is every time I try to recruit my daughter's academy team or friends to come watch we are just embarassed. They need to start winning to attract more fans. They are professional athletes. Why is it my job to inspire them? We do go out there and yell, etc but wouldn't a winning team help the marketing? They just don't seem to have the heart? Fight for the shirt, etc? Two seasons ago, they fought! They lost but they fought to the end! Tonight's game just made me sad.....I have to go drink more.....