I know! I know! Everyone has been talking about it right? Well, I got talked to about it too, so armed with 4 friends (all Beauty-ful) we decided to see the play.
First co-ordinating dates between 5 busy people is no joke. Still when you do want to be part of an event like this and share it with your friends, it is all worthwhile. That among others is the ‘Beauty’ part.
The ‘event’ as I put it was indeed spectacular.
Now let’s talk international. Have I seen productions abroad. Yes. And I am not bragging because those are ‘experiences’ more than anything else. For a production that was start to finish an indigenous one, it does make you proud. And indeed it was not one of the normal ‘stage’ productions that come and go. It was a ‘made-to-order’ set – truly breathtaking in its coverage and expanse and very very impressive.
A show of this size, scale and number must have been quite a mammoth task to put together.
I won’t give it a left-handed compliment by saying grudgingly things like ‘almost up to international standards’ and ‘we’re getting there’. I’d say whole-heartedly it was awesome – in size, scale, performance and set design. Could it have been better? Of course, that’s the human spirit isn’t it? To do better. And be better. And show better. That’s for the next show isn’t it?
But all in all, some of the performances and singing was noteworthy. The production values, the sound, lights and the overall impact breathtaking. The flaws (in my mind) remained in the fact that the script itself is not so great, the songs and the melodies quite forgettable and the choreography so-so but not so awe-inspiring.
So here comes the Beast!
The beastly part I mean. And that was booking the tickets. #Book My Show was an absolute nightmare. I must have made at least 8-10 attempts to book these tickets. I used the laptop, ipad, phone. I tried in the day time and night time. On the office network, home network,3g network, 4g network. No go. No luck. No use.
The app/website just would not respond.
Frankly I love going for shows/plays/events and it’s time carved out from a busy week or weekend. And that time is precious. But well worth spending. But if I have to spend several hours after work or during breaks trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to book the tickets on an app that is supposed to make my life easier, then I am seriously worried.
At one time, I decided I would not go for the show for all the trouble the booking gave me. Not only that on a Sunday evening if there were a large number of empty seats and I pretty much interpreted that as those less persistent souls who gave up on the show because they could not book the tickets.
So I tweeted to #BookMyShow that I was unable to book and all they wanted was a screenshot. Which I couldn’t supply simply 
because the screen went blank when I clicked on ‘Proceed’.
Then after almost giving up I decided that I would book the tickets on the phone. Having done that with little less trouble, I asked for a parking space. I was accusingly told that if I wanted parking I should have booked online! Really?I What kind of logic was that?! In disgust I hung up, cancelled the outing, informed my friends about cancelled plans and gave up.
It was just that a colleague sensing my frustration tried a couple more times through the app and finally got through that the plan came to life again and we ended up going for the show!
I saw a lot of empty seats and felt sorry for those folks who had not managed to book thanks to a failing app and website and probably a startup that has now taken on too much.
I was later told by the same colleague who booked my tickets that it was the same issue with the IPL tickets.
So here’s my advice to BookMySHow. Try booking the tickets yourself and see what happens. Once more put yourself in the shoes of a customer. Because if you are BookMyShow I am the one who is booking the show! Get the beast out. Get the beauty in. And we are all good for another spectacular season.
(And it’s not all bad. Here’s a great thing that BookMyShow did last season. Check it out here. http://bit.ly/1TvGN4G)
For more of my blogs on Customer Experience check out these links
CX for the Healthcare Industry
CX for the Hospitality Industry
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