Turnstyles Ticketing Success Story

Case Study
Cloud Contact Center
Software
Turnstyles Ticketing
Success Story
Breaking Ticket Sales Records with
a Cloud Solution
Switching from an on-premise contact center system to Five9
enabled Turnstyles Ticketing to easily handle enormous spikes
in call volume. As a result, client AEG broke the record for most
concert tickets sold in one day—more than 200,000—for a Garth
Brooks show.
Company Profile
Turnstyles Ticketing is a full-service sports
and entertainment ticketing company.
• Clients include national sports
leagues, performing arts venues,
universities, and museums
• 90 to 140 agents, working remotely
and from in-house and offshore
contact centers
• Inbound/outbound call volume up
to 170,000 calls daily
Industry
Ticketing services
Website
www.turnstylesticketing.com
Challenges
• Costly upgrades required to renew
premised-based system licenses
• Unable to scale to handle large
spikes in call volume
• Unable to accept new large clients
with confidence
Solution
• Blended inbound/outbound solution from Five9
• Significant operational cost savings
• Flexibility to scale up as needed
• Dramatically improved visibility and agent utilization
• Quick and easy agent training
• Recording, storage, and retrieval
capabilities
Company Background
While working for the National Football League (NFL), Mike Jennings recognized the need for a service to help
sports leagues and teams—as well as universities, performing arts and fine arts venues, fairs and festivals, and
others—with ticketing, fundraising, customer surveys, and other customer contact-related activities. Consequently,
in 2003, with the NFL as their first customer, Jennings and his business partner founded Turnstyles Ticketing.
Today the Piscataway, New Jersey-based company has approximately 90 employees and provides a wide range of services—sales, operations, customer service, technology, and consulting—for some of the top names in
sports and entertainment. Among its many clients:
• The NBA, NFL, New York Yankees, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins
• University of Alabama, Mississippi State University, University of Wisconsin
• Denver Center for Performing Arts, Metropolitan Opera, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
• Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG)—the second-largest provider of live music and entertainment and owner
of the AXS ticketing platform
In its early years, Turnstyles Ticketing used an on-premise system to manage calls. However, in 2010, when the
system vendor notified the company that it would have to purchase new licenses and new servers because of a software upgrade, Turnstyles Ticketing knew it was time to make a change. “That’s when we started looking at a cloud solution,” recalls Jennings, Turnstyles Ticketing chief administrative officer. “Why should we have to buy new licenses just because the vendor improved its product?”
Flexibility to Scale Quickly and Cost-Effectively
While searching for a new contact center solution, the company was also in the process of signing a very large client, one that could require the addition of up to 100 agents in the near future. “With our previous platform, we could not have taken on this client,” says Jennings. “Adding the server capacity, phone lines, and software
licenses would have been cost-prohibitive and logistically difficult, if not impossible.”
Fortunately Turnstyles Ticketing discovered the Five9 cloud contact center solution. “With Five9, we can easily add as many lines and licenses as we need, scaling up quickly and cost-effectively to meet patron demand,” explains
Jennings. “This flexibility allowed us to engage that very large new client—and many more since—with confidence.”
Today the company supplements its regular staff of 90 with 20 to 50 additional agents whenever needed to support major events expected to draw large call volumes. Approximately 40 percent of Turnstyles Ticketing’s
business is focused on inbound traffic, 30 percent on outbound calls, and 30 percent on other services.
Over 200,000 Concert Tickets Sold in One Day
The ability to scale quickly proved indispensable when Turnstyles Ticketing helped AEG handle ticketing for several
dates of the 2014 Garth Brooks concert tour—the country singer’s first tour in 15 years. Ten shows went on sale the
first day and 170,000 tickets were sold within 24 hours. A week later, due to popular demand, an 11th show was added
to the schedule. For that one show, over 200,000 tickets were sold in just one day, breaking the previous record for
the number of concert tickets sold in a 24-hour period. On this record-breaking day, 267,000 calls hit the switch.
“There is no way we could have accepted that type of call volume without Five9,” recalls Jennings. “Being able to
quickly and easily double the number of Five9 licenses for that period, and automatically and intelligently route
calls to available agents and IVR, was key to our success.”
“With Five9, we can easily add as many lines and licenses as we need, scaling up quickly and cost-effectively to meet
patron demand. This flexibility
has allowed us to engage our
clients with confidence.”
Mike Jennings
Chief Administrative Officer,
Turnstyles Ticketing
Get More Information
Call 800.553.8159 or visit
www.Five9.com
Additional Agents Easy to Train, Can Work Amost Anywhere
With Five9, adding licenses on the fly is easy for Turnstyles Ticketing. An agent with no contact center experience
requires at most two days of training on the extremely intuitive and easy-to-use platform. Most of the company’s
new agents have had some related experience, however, so the training process typically takes just a few hours.
Turnstyles Ticketing agents can also work from almost anywhere as long as they have an Internet connection, a headset, and a computer. Approximately 20 percent of Turnstyles Ticketing agents work at the company’s New Jersey headquarters, 40 percent work at a contact center in Costa Rica, and 40 percent work remotely.
Turnstyles Ticketing supervisors can be located anywhere as well, yet have complete, real-time visibility into agents’
status and full control over quality and performance. “Our supervisors love the increased visibility that Five9 provides,
that they can see which calls are in queue, how long callers have been waiting, and so on,” notes Jennings.
Significant Cost Savings from Improved Agent Utilization
Increased visibility due to the Five9 platform’s reporting functionality also helps the company save money. “Prior to Five9, we had no idea what our agent utilization was like,” says Jennings. “Thanks to Five9 reporting,
we’ve been able to hone in on how agents spend their time. As a result, we have been able to more effectively
manage and distribute staff, saving pennies on every call.”
A Wise Financial Decision
Turnstyles Ticketing is currently gearing up to handle ticketing for another giant event with 18 to 20 A-level entertainment acts. “We would not be where we are today without Five9,” claims Jennings. “Our clients trust us with their number one revenue source—their patrons—so we have to continue to provide the best possible service and come through for them when they need us to, no matter how big the call volume. Going with Five9 has proven to be a very prudent financial decision.”
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