CEO reveals new system in the pipeline for next season
Fans of Shrewsbury Town can now look forward to a much more advanced, simpler and effective way of purchasing match day tickets.Chief executive Matt Williams has been busy working on many issues at the club since starting his role back in June and believes that the new ticketing system, which will be implemented in the summer, will be a relief for both supporters and staff.
“One of the systems I’ve reviewed since joining the club is the online club shop and the ticketing solution, which I have to admit is not very user friendly,” said Matt.
“That’s not a criticism of the company that host it or whoever decided it was the best system to go with at that time, but it certainly doesn't give people the confidence to buy online.
“We are in the process of changing the ticket office solution which will also mean the club shop changes and that should make it a lot more user friendly both for the staff to upload products as and when they come in and also for the user to purchase products.”
Matt is aware that due to the current protocol, supporters can be left queuing at the ticket office right up to and beyond the kick-off time on a match day, something the new system will eradicate.
“The new ticket office system will allow us to operate a print at home policy, like they do for concerts, so people can simply go online and print their ticket at home.
“We are going to go to the bar code entry system but we’ve stopped short of having it completely automated as we want to do things in small steps,
“We are also making changes to the season tickets so that rather than having books there will be season ticket cards, which is always nice to have a bit of blue and amber in your wallet.”
It is hoped supporters will embrace the new system in the same way the Greenhous Meadow staff have.
“It will make it easier for us to see who has and hasn’t come to the stadium without having to go through three thousand ticket stubs at the end of a match,” added Matt.
The system has also been put in place to enable the club to stay in better contact with their supporters, something Matt knows is extremely crucial if the club want to keep current supporters as well as attracting new ones.
“To me it’s important to have email addresses, phone numbers and date of births so we can keep in contact with our supporters.
“We can engage fans better in ways such as email and text, which is a lot cheaper and more personal than handing out flyers over the town.
“People do get out of the habit of going to football and they are difficult to get back once they are out of that habit so we need to make the experience of being here easier, the purchase of tickets easier and at a competitive price, as well as having a good standard of football.”
The quality of football at the Greenhous Meadow has no doubt pleased all Salop fans this season, even though most would agree, the current playing surface can at times hinder the footballing styles of Micky Mellon’s team.
“We all know the pitch isn’t at the standard that we want,” says Matt.
“We have various people in to look at the pitch to price up renovation work at the end of the season. That’s something we know we’ve got to do.
“Micky wants to play a certain way and although the pitch isn’t the worst in the football league, it certainly isn’t where we want it to be.
“At Shrewsbury Town Football Club everyone particularly the Chairman wants to be the best at everything we do. We want the best programme, best ticket office system, the best food and drink, but we also want to be the best business.”
“It’s all about the experience a supporter has when coming here and to make that better we need better communication, that is something that I am very big on and I hope the supporters can see the changes we have made to engage with them whether it is in person or on social media.”