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Customer Care

Customer Care

Our Commitment To You

The Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre is committed to achieving excellence in customer service by setting high performance targets and involving and responding to our customers in a helpful, friendly, professional and timely manner.

Our staff will treat all of our customers fairly, equally, with respect, courtesy and consideration. These customer service standards cover all services provided by The Market Place Theatre and set out the level of performance and customer care that every customer can expect from us. If you feel that you have not been treated fairly we encourage you to let us know [https://visitarmagh.com/places-to-explore/the-market-place-theatre-arts-centre/contact-us/]

Where a standard indicates a number of days to do something, or respond, the number of days will begin on the day we receive your enquiry or correspondence. A key feature of this commitment is listening to and involving our customers and staff so that we can makesure our services respond to your needs. Customer involvement will help to monitor them to ensure they are achieved. We would appreciate your views on our setting of targets. If you would like to comment on our service standards or become involved we would be delighted to hear from you – https://visitarmagh.com/places-to-explore/the-market-place-theatre-arts-centre/contact-us/

We will continue to tell you how we measure up against these standards.

Our customers include all users of our service alongside suppliers and staff.

Through our service standards we are committed to:

*Providing responsive services
*Acting quickly if things go wrong
*Providing clear information
*Inviting customers to become involved in the organisation
*Providing a quality service

Our Customer Service Standards

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION

We Will…

  • Provide a range of booklets, fliers and information leaflets about the services we deliver
  • Produce A Monthly E-Newsletter Outlining The Programme Of Events
  • Ensure information is clear and easy to understand
  • Provide accurate and up to date information
  • Use our website as an information and communication tool that is updated regularly
  • Use our social media channels to provide up to date information

CONSULTING AND INVOLVING YOU

We will…

  • Actively invite you to participate in our Customer Service process and setting of standards via regular surveys, focus groups, through our website and in our venue.
  • We will publish performance data on our website so that you have the opportunity to participate and engage with us
  • Carry out satisfaction surveys on a regular basis with customers and via Mystery Shopping along with the pro-active circulation and analysis of customer comment cards

VISITING OUR PREMISES

We will…

  • Be Polite & Helpful At All Times And Measure This via comment cards and Mystery Shopping visits
  • Present a clean, warm and tidy venue and measure this
  • Provide access and provision for people with disabilities including spaces for ten wheelchairs, lifts to all levels of the building, low level access at box office and an infra-red system for patrons with hearing difficulties.
  • We will also provide a BSL Signed Performance, Captioned Performance and Relaxed Performance for our annual Pantomime.
  • Display and publish clear signage information
  • Respect your privacy at box office with dedicated workstations for customers.
  • You will be dealt with immediately when you arrive in the venue and if our box office staff are on a call they will acknowledge your arrival and deal with your enquiry as soon as the call is finished. Our target is 90% of callers seen within target times. We will measure this and publish results here – In Person Call Log

CONTACTING US BY PHONE

  • We aim to answer your call within six rings. You will be advised of the name of the staff member dealing with your enquiry and which department you are through to.
  • We have upgraded our telephone booking system. If our staff are busy on another call you can choose to either hold for the next available staff member or leave a message and we will return your call. We aim to return all calls within one hour and we will measure this, and publish the results here – Telephone Call Log

WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

  • We aim to provide a website that is accessible and easy to navigate and provide information on it which is useful, accurate and up to date
  • We have a facebook page and twitter account where up to date and accurate information is provided. Facebook page here and twitter account here

MAKING A COMMENT, COMPLIMENT OR COMPLAINT

  • We record, monitor and measure complaints and compliments and will publish the results via the website.
  • We aim to acknowledge and deal with complaints as quickly as possible.
  • We will acknowledge all complaints within 72 hours and aim to deal with all complaints within 10 working days. We will monitor and publish the results of these here – Customer Complaint Log 23 24
  • We will ensure that you have clear information on how to make a comment, compliment or complaint and will use information from comments, compliments and and complaints to improve our services

CUSTOMER CONSULTATION | INVOLVEMENT

  • We will consult and involve our customers using a wide range of methods and review our approaches annualy. Results and improvement actions from our consultations will be communicated via our website
  • We also aim to achieve 98% ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ comments from returned comment cards

DIPS IN PERFORMANCE

Whilst we take great care to ensure that we provide all our services to a high standard, we accept that from time to time problems will arise or your expectations may not be met. This may result in a dip in performance against our customer service standards.

If customer expectations are not met we will inform you of this and outline the reasons why and more importantly what action we are taking to put things right and prevent it happening in the future.

We assess performance and any dips through feedback comment cards, mystery shopping visits, customer surveys, evaluation of complaints and comments, and focus groups to monitor our standards.

FOCUS GROUPS [2016]

Focus Group meeting carried out with different customers who were randomly selected to give us additional feedback, opinions and recommendations for improvement. Areas to be followed up include:

  • ISSUE: Squeaky seats in North and South Galleries | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: All seating to be tested and fixed as required.
  • ISSUE: Seat selection not available on mobile sites | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: To investigate possibility of providing seat selection with ticketing provider.
  • ISSUE: Saturday matinee performances of adult targeted shows would be appreciated | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: To look into the viability of such programming.
  • ISSUE: Front cover of current brochure doesn’t convey The Market Place Theatre’s name strongly enough | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Future covers to be reviewed for strength of brand.

FOCUS GROUPS [2017]

Focus Group meeting carried out with different customers who were randomly selected to give us additional feedback, opinions and recommendations for improvement. Areas to be followed up include:

  • ISSUE: Building fabric degraded in areas | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Capital spend to be pursued for general building upgrade.
  • ISSUE: Issue with customers using mobile phones during performances | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Front Of House staff to be re-trained in this area to prevent re-occurence.
  • ISSUE: Too many steps when booking online | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Online booking process to be reviewed with view to removing steps required.

FOCUS GROUPS [2018]

Focus Group meeting carried out with different customers who were randomly selected to give us additional feedback, opinions and recommendations for improvement. Areas to be followed up include:

  • ISSUE: No provision of week-long Youth Schemes in the Summer months | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Feasibility study to be undertaken for such schemes.
  • ISSUE: Various website issues including search functionality, missing information etc | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: All such issues to be addressed in full website review.
  • ISSUE: Car park accessibility problems | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Full refurbishment of the car park to be carried out in due course.

FOCUS GROUPS [2020]

Focus Group meeting carried out with different customers who were randomly selected to give us additional feedback, opinions and recommendations for improvement. Areas to be followed up include:

  • ISSUE: Car Park in need of renovation | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: To be addressed in forthcoming remedial works.
  • ISSUE: Toilet facilities in need of repair | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: To be addressed in forthcoming Minor Works programme.
  • ISSUE: Better search functionality on website | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Issue to be addressed with website designer and more search functionality added.
  • ISSUE: Website slow to load | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Issue to be addressed with website designer with regard to image loading times.

FOCUS GROUPS [2023]

Focus Group meeting carried out with different customers who were randomly selected to give us additional feedback, opinions and recommendations for improvement. Areas to be followed up include:

  • ISSUE: Customers felt day of week should be listed in website listings to help when booking | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Day of week is now included.
  • ISSUE: Due to car park currently being closed, it was felt a better parking map should be available on the website | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: A more user friendly version of the car park map has been uploaded.
  • ISSUE: One customer said that credit notes don’t work when booking online | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Issue has been tested and should be fully functional. Also, promotional code field has been removed when not in use to make the booking process clearer.
  • ISSUE: Customers felt that steplights were not bright enough. | ACTION TO BE TAKEN: Steplights to be checked and bulbs replaced where faulty.

How to make a complaint or suggestion

COMPLAINTS

If the service you received at The Market Place Theatre was less than satisfactory or you felt that it was not of a high enough standard please let us know. You can download our complaints form here – customer complaint form final

PROCEDURE

THE MARKET PLACE THEATRE & ARTS CENTRE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

The Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre aims:

  • To provide the theatre’s customers with the best possible service;
  • To acknowledge and deal with complaints as promptly as possible;
  • To provide the theatre’s customers with an effective and efficient means of resolving dissatisfaction with the services provided;
  • To provide a clear procedure with complaints;
  • To communicate effectively with a complainant throughout the complaints procedure;
  • To review complaints procedures with a view to learning from our mistakes and ascertaining ways to improve our services to meet the needs of the customers;
  • To provide a way of rectifying injustice whenever possible.
  • We record, monitor and measure complaints and will publish the results via the website

HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

Customers / individuals may submit a complaint in person to any member of staff present at the time, by phone, in writing or through Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council. A simple form is available here – customer complaint form final

The Market Place has a specific procedure to deal with customer complaints and as part of that procedure it is noted that The Market Place will acknowledge the receipt of complaints within 72 hours and respond to the complaint in full within 10 working days.

Where it will not be possible to respond in full within this period, due to the need to conduct internal enquiries, the complainant will be informed of this situation within 72 hours. The complainant will be kept informed after this period at regular intervals. With this in mind, The Market Place Theatre aims to resolve 90% of all complaints received within 10 working days.

HAVE YOU BEEN TREATED FAIRLY?

We are committed to treating all our customers and customer groups fairly and equally. We assess and measure this in questionnaires to various customer groups. If you feel you have not been treated fairly, please do not hesitate to get in touch. E: feedback@marketplacearmagh.com

HELP US TO IMPROVE OUR SERVICE

As part of our ongoing commitment to excellent customer care, we would love to hear from you about your experience of our venue. If you would like to make a suggestion about how we can improve our service, or comment on our standards, we welcome feedback from our customers. You can e-mail us at feedback@marketplacearmagh.com. We will acknowledge your e-mail and suggestions and try to implement them where possible, feasible and reasonable, and inform you of the outcome.

Improving Our service

OUR CURRENT ACHIEVEMENT AGAINST TARGETS

1. Mystery Shopping – Mystery customers make a booking at our venue and attend a show to assess our customer service levels.

2022/23

Overall Average Combined Score of 92.6%. Our target is 97% and we are striving to attain this very high standard by continually reviewing our service. See tables below for breakdown of review scores.

 

Box Office Scores

Customer Service Box Office Future Shows Enquiry Overall Experience Totals
Overall Average 100% 87% 100% 97% 95%

 

Theatre On The Night Scores

Housekeeping Front Of House Staff Ticket Desk Bar Staff Overall Experience Totals
Overall Average 92% 84% 95% 91% 92% 91%

 

2. Comment Card Scores – Comment cards are circulated to audiences at most of our shows, assessing quality, friendliness, value for money, overall experience, cleanliness and food & drink. Our target is 95% overall percentage and we are already exceeding this high level.

 

2022/23

Overall Percentage 98%
Category Scores (Good or Excellent)
Quality of Performance Attended 99%
Quality Of Service Received 100%
Value for Money of tickets 98%
Cleanliness of Building 99%
Bar Service 96%

 

We also circulate comment cards to conference delegates, and the scores can be found here CONFERENCE-COMMENT-CARDS-LOG-2022-23

 

3. Other Targets

KPI’S – 2022/23

Actual   Target
Average % attendance per show 82% 70%
Deliver Annual Craft Exhibition 1 1
Participant numbers against places available 855/901

(95%)

 1,000 / 1,100

(91%)
Mystery Shopping Average Score 92.6% 97%
% of ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ comments from returned comment cards 98% – 4882 returned 95%
To deliver 15 exhibitions each year across the Gallery and Foyer 14 15

 

4. Customer Service Standards

A] Returning Calls

  • We aim to answer your call within six rings. You will be advised of the name of the staff member dealing with your enquiry and which department you are through to.
  • We have upgraded our telephone booking system. If our staff are busy on another call you can choose to either hold for the next available staff member or leave a message and we will return your call. We aim to return 95% of calls within one hour and we will measure this and publish the results here – Telephone Call Log

B] Dealing With Complaints

  • We aim to acknowledge and deal with complaints as quickly as possible.
  • We will acknowledge all complaints within 72 hours and aim to deal with all complaints within 10 working days.
  • We aim to resolve 90% of all complaints within 10 working days and will monitor and publish the results here Customer Complaint Log 23 24
  • We will ensure that you have clear information on how to make a comment, compliment or complaint and will use information from comments, compliments and and complaints to improve our services

C] Processing Tickets / Bookings

Ticket bookings [online, telephone and at the counter] will be dealt with immediately. Tickets will be posted out that day if requested

WE WOULD ALSO APPRECIATE YOUR VIEWS ON OUR SETTING OF TARGETS. YOU CAN CONTACT US AT feedback@marketplacearmagh.com

 

DIPS IN PERFORMANCE EXPLAINED

1. Mystery Shopping Average Score – A number of elements have contributed including staff presentation, waiting times for drinks at the bars and presentation of the outside of building. Action taken includes Franchisee ensuring extra staff are on for busy nights, more regular meetings with franchisee to raise issues, regular feedback to cleaning company and daily checks outside the building, and new corporate staff uniforms.

2. Conference Comment Card Score – Conference rooms are to shortly undergo extensive refurbishment works, which will vastly improve the fabric of the facilities, as well as the technological capabilities. On completion of these works, rooms will be fully multi-functional for a range of meetings, conferences and interactive workshops.

3. Mystery Shopping Scores – highlighted issues with external grounds maintenance, specifically at front of building. Grounds maintenance has been improved and increased monitoring of same.

4. Strong Language | Content Advisory – customer comments have highlighted on one occasion an infrequent issue with strong language | content not previously advertised. This issue has been addressed with incoming promoters to ensure the content provided contains relevant warnings.

 

ACTION TAKEN TO IMPROVE SERVICES

Following consultation with our customers, and in an effort to address prevalent customer concerns, the following alterations have been made to improve our services:

A] Auditorium signage introduced to address issue of photography during performances.

B] Website listings amended to include performance day as well as date.

C] Car parking map on website amended to make it more user friendly.

D] Ability to download tickets to Google / Apple Wallets introduced.

E] FOH staff fully trained in audience monitoring to alleviate ongoing problem with disruption during performances

F] Fabric of building to be upgraded in many areas, including Auditorium seating.

G] Improved and ongoing communication with bar franchisee to ensure optimum customer service from our catering partner.

H] Improved maintenance of exterior grounds of venue, and increased monitoring of same.

I] Promoters reminded about the need to issue strong language or content advisories where relevant in show publicity.

Quality of Information

Quality Of Information

We Will…

  • Provide a range of booklets, fliers and information leaflets about the services we deliver
  • Produce A Monthly E-Newsletter Outlining The Programme Of Events
  • Ensure information is clear and easy to understand
  • Provide accurate and up to date information
  • Use our website as an information and communication tool that is updated regularly
  • Use our social media channels to provide up to date information

Views & Feedback

We would be delighted to hear your views and feedback on the accuracy and quality of the information we provide to you our customers. We currently measure this via customer surveys and through focus groups. If you have any views on the quality of information you receive from The Market Place we would be delighted to hear them, whether positive or negative. Please contact us at feedback@marketplacearmagh.com

Timeliness Of Information Delivery

Contacting Us By Phone
  • We aim to answer your call within six rings. You will be advised of the name of the staff member dealing with your enquiry and which department you are through to.
  • We have upgraded our telephone booking system. If our staff are busy on another call you can choose to either hold for the next available staff member or leave a message and we will return your call. We aim to return all calls within one hour and we will measure this and publish the results.
Contacting Us By E-Mail
  • Our website contact page here outlines who you should contact by e-mail depending on the type of query you have.
  • We will endeavour to resolve e-mail enquiries immediately and acknowledge e-mails within 24 hours. Where this is not possible [for example when we are not open or in the late evening/Sundays] your e-mail enquiry reply will not exceed 72 hours.
Contacting Us By Letter
  • We aim to acknowledge all correspondence within 5 working days. Our target is 90% of letters responded to within 5 working days.
Brochure Requests
  • Brochure and flier requests will be dealt with immediately and you will receive the information no more than 48 hours later

Benchmarking

Our customer service aim is to be up there with the ‘best in class’ and to be able to assess how we are doing we benchmark our performance against external organisations and venues of a similar nature.

 

We also seek to publish the results of this benchmarking on our website.

LISBURN BIRMINGHAM BELFAST MARKET PLACE THEATRE, ARMAGH
CRITERIA
Ask for customer views Y Y Y Y
Easy To Contact and answer queries quickly and efficiently Y Y Y Y
Provide Clear and relevant information Y N Y Y
Provide Effective Complaints Service Y Y Y Y
Monitor Performance against standards Y Y Y Y
Undertake regular reviews of service Y N Y N
Publish Results Of Standards Online N Y N Y

 

2021 Benchmarking exercise results published here – Benchmarking Spreadsheet 2021

AREAS WHERE WE NEED TO IMPROVE BENCHMARKED AGAINST SIMILAR VENUES

1. Undertake Regular Reviews Of Service – To carry out post-show surveys in a manner convenient to customer needs.

2. Review of website to be carried out to include improved search functionality, and page speed.

 

IMPROVEMENTS ALREADY UNDERTAKEN

1. Relaxed, captioned and BSL performances of annual Christmas production now available [best practice devised from industry experts].

2. Achievement of Autism Impact award to better facilitate customers with an Autism Spectrum Condition, sensory or communication disorders [best practice derived from industry standards].

3. Provision of Dementia-Friendly Film Screenings which are tailored to be accessible for people living with dementia.

4. Monitor Performance Against Standards – The Market Place has recently introduced a full set of customer service standards which are published online. We are now monitoring our performance going forward against these standards [best practice derived from benchmarking].

Box Office Tel: 03300 561 025