Independent Cinema Sector Losing £50M a Year Due to People Hearing Busy Tone on Ticket Lines

• Survey also reveals voice activated systems “major turn off”
• Capital 21 designs new system to tackle issues

A survey has revealed that the independent cinema sector is currently losing at least £50 million a year as a result of people attempting to book by telephone, only to hear a busy tone.

Failure to get calls answered was listed as the number one reason for people opting for other activities - such as an evening in the pub or watching television.

The research which involved interviewing 1,000 cinema goers revealed -

• 63% give up after failing to get through the first time
• 23% would make a second attempt before giving up
• 14% would make three or more attempts

The second most significant turn-off for would be cinema goers is overly complex phone management solutions - with voice activated systems coming out way on top of the hate list across all sectors. And such is people’s dislike of answering questions posed by machines that 74% of regular cinema visitors questioned stated they had waited a month after an abortive try before attempting the daunting experience again.

Whereas it had been expected that cinema goers would have a similar dislike of being held in a phone system queue, this in fact did not turn out to be the case. Just so long as they were regularly informed as to their position, most people accepted this booking process.

As to booking on the web, the survey showed this is not yet seen as a true alternative to phone bookings in that 94% of all people said they would not attempt it because of the over complexity of operation or lack of conviction it would work.

The independent survey was conducted on behalf of Capital 21 - the leading provider of call management systems to the Football League - to enable the company to develop a phone system that best meets the needs of the independent cinema market.

For futher information, please call 0870 787 0490.