Time and experience iron out the wrinkles in your ticket scanning process, but with these few ninja tricks you won’t have to take the time or make the mistakes to learn what we’ve learned. Your ticket scanning is pivotal. It shapes your ticket holder's attitude before they even begin to experience your actual event. If your ticket holders run into long lines or disorganized volunteers, they will enter the venue with a negative attitude. The more you can streamline your ticket scanning, the happier your ticket holders will be.
With these 5 ninja tricks, you’ll be able to kick long lines away and karate chop obstacles that slow down your ticket scanning process, making it as swift and agile as a ninja.
Ninja Stance - Expect the Unexpected
It’s inevitable, you will have unexpected guests show up who are not on the list. Without a plan, your volunteers will not know how to handle these unexpected guests. Not only will this stall the ticket scanning process but it will annoy the ticket holders with whom the guests came. Have a plan on how to handle these guests. Most events will have a ‘onsite’ line for last-minute guests who still want to come but didn’t purchase a ticket. This funnels all last-minute guests to one line where they can pay and give needed information without slowing down the other ticket holders.
Ninja Spin Kick - Inform
When following up with your ticket holders before the event, add information on how ticket scanning will look so ticket holders will know what to expect upon arrival. Answer basic questions for them.
Do they need to bring IDs? Should they come early? How many lines will there be? Are the lines first come, first serve or will it be separated by alpha name? This will help registrants prepare for check in and in turn streamline your check in process.
Ninja Low Block - Pre-Prepare
Handing out materials and getting people to their seats is usually is the most common cause for a bottleneck in the ticket scanning flow. As best you can, pre-prepare any materials. Giving free drink coupons or swag is a great idea, but don't let it impede guests from entering the venue. Have a ticket scanning flow or assembly line that keeps the line moving while ticket holders are entering the event and handed any merchandise or materials.
Ninja Death Chop - Train
If you want disorganized volunteers, train them 5 minutes before the event starts. See the information you just gave them leak out of their ears as they distractedly observe the event setup in the background. If you want awesome volunteers, have a volunteer meeting before the event. Then review the information during setup. Make sure your volunteers are ready to handle various situations and are knowledgeable about the event. It’s frustrating for your ticket holders to walk up to the welcome booth to stressed volunteers who are poorly informed.
Ninja Stealth - Don’t leave a trace
The easiest and simplest way to speed up your check-in is to digitize your process. Use a ticket scanning app (check out ours here) that electronically pulls in your ticket holder data so you don’t have tickets shuffled everywhere. No more fumbling with a pile of tickets, unable to confirm if the ticket is a duplicate made by a scammer.
These apps pull people up quickly and seamlessly, cutting both time and energy in your ticket scanning process.With these ninja moves mastered, you will become seamless at ticket scanning. People will wonder where you learned your ways. Not only will it transition ticket holders into your event smoothly, but it will keep their excitement unhindered as the event begins. They will walk away remembering your event and not the horrible ticket scanning disaster.