Smartz Solutions provides an integrated omnichannel communication platform.

Ticketpro is a proud member of the Blue Label Telecoms group of companies, which specialises in ticketing solutions, access control and cashless systems for promoters, event holders, venues and fans. Ticketpro sells tickets conveniently and securely online and in more than 2 200 physical outlets around South Africa, giving all South Africans a more accessible and convenient opportunity to buy tickets in the country’s largest distribution network.

By providing feature-rich, data-driven, customer-centric services, Ticketpro gives promoters, travellers and fans the most unforgettable experiences, while bridging the gap of accessibility through groundbreaking market innovations.

The company deals with an incredible volume of customer service requests and issues that require a strategic and innovative solution. Faced with overwhelming challenges with its legacy contact centre application, the outdated system hindered seamless customer interactions across various channels, leading to disjointed experiences, inefficiencies and limited scalability.

The need for a solution that prioritised customer experiences was business-critical. Naturally, Ticketpro embarked on a strategic initiative to replace its legacy system with Smartz Solutions, a state-of-the-art cloud-based omnichannel solution that removes operational inefficiencies with zero downtime and record time go-to-market campaigns.

“Ticketpro was the catalyst for a larger deployment within the Blue Label group. Smartz Solutions ticked all of the boxes, specifically the ease of use, cost and e-mail campaign facilities,” said Beverly Mare, Product Manager at Seacom.

The big challenges

1. Legacy limitations: The existing system Ticketpro used lacked flexibility with e-mail routing, outbound sales and marketing campaigns across voice and digital channels. This significantly limited its ability to connect with customers, solve queries and generate new sales.

2. Time to market: The existing legacy system lacked robust outbound dialling and sales campaign management. Ticketpro operates in an environment where ticket sales and promotions are time-sensitive, delays in outbound dialling therefore have huge business implications.

3. Inefficient operations: Agents struggled with siloed data sets. This caused continuous delays in issue resolution, impacting productivity and both customer and employee experiences.

4. Vendor contract lock-in: As is the case with legacy products, contract lock-ins hold clients hostage to systems even when they do not work to benefit the client.

5. High total cost of ownership: When looking at the additional costs of set-up, compliance, communications, operational resources, the total cost of ownership becomes unaffordable.

6. Heavy on-premises technology footprint: The lack of flexibility comes into play with significant resources being on-premises. Having a solution that locks you into one way of operating limits the road to scalability.

7. Future technology fitness and readiness: Legacy systems have established infrastructure that play catch-up with the evolving era of technology. This opens the door to downtime, additional costs and impacts on campaigns that are not geared towards the evolving needs of the customers.

The 'Smartz' solution

Ticketpro partnered with Smartz Solutions to implement a comprehensive cloud-based omnichannel solution to give it the flexibility, scalability and customer experiences it needed. Smartz Solutions integrated into Ticketpro’s business by offering it a seamless future-forward solution through the following:

Omnichannel capability: Smartz Solutions provides an integrated omnichannel communication platform through a multitude of channels, such as:

• Voice using next-generation routing.
• AID routing (Smartz Solutions' pioneering routing tool, Automatic Interaction Distribution), which uses AI to match an agent's skill with the customer profile to offer personalised experiences.
• Sales and marketing campaign management.
• Real-time sentiment analysis – ensuring a consistent experience across touch points.

Scalability and flexibility: Leveraging cloud infrastructure allowed for easy scalability, enabling rapid adaptation to changing business needs and emerging communication channels.

AI-powered insights: Implementing AI and analytics provided valuable customer insights, enabling proactive engagement, personalised experiences and predictive issue resolution.

Agent empowerment: Equipping agents with a unified interface, access to comprehensive customer data and a live visualisation of the customer interaction journey, finally gives Ticketpro the ability to deliver efficient, personalised and context-aware support.

Financial flexibility: Providing Ticketpro with the choice to structure the contract and move from annualised upfront payment to monthly payments offers immense financial flexibility for the broader business.

“The support, enthusiasm and instant user adoption by Ticketpro contributed to making this a frictionless and seamless transition from their legacy contact centre to the Smartz Solutions omnichannel CCaaS solution. We’re proud to have alleviated the pain points Ticketpro was experiencing and look forward to the journey of continued success,” said Henry McCracken, CEO of Smartz Solutions.

The benefits of Smartz Solutions

Ticketpro saw an immediate improvement switching to Smartz Solutions in the following areas:

1. There was zero downtime during the migration from on-premises to cloud. With a quick, error-free migration and excellent agent adoption from the legacy product to Smartz Solutions, Ticketpro had no impact in operational productivity.

2. Improved customer satisfaction through the use of sentiment analysis, CSAT and NPS post interaction survey tools.

3. The change in financial model from capex to an opex model instantly and significantly improved cashflow.

4. Rapid time to market campaigns drastically improved sales and revenue.

5. Agent productivity skyrocketed through the ability to finally have a single view management of agent activity across all channels using Smartz Analyz.

6. The scalable and adaptable nature of Smartz Solutions ensures Ticketpro stays ahead of evolving customer preferences and technological advancements via cloud technology.

By replacing its legacy contact centre application with a forward-thinking, cloud-based omnichannel solution like Smartz Solutions, Ticketpro not only addressed immediate challenges, but also positioned itself as a future-fit organisation. This commitment to a seamless, integrated customer experience and operational agility has empowered Ticketpro, which is driven by perfectionism to ensure it continues to be a market leader in secure online ticket sales 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.