Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What type of answering/annoucement system do you use?

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Posted by Christian Volpi (Member # 2370) on 08-06-2004, 07:55 PM:

I don't think that this has been discussed yet but if it has just let me know where I can find the thread. My company is getting ready to open a new 14-plex and has given me the task of finding an answering system for our "movie line." Currently we are using in our locations the Takacom 2-line answering system and in one of our locations we have the SMART Movie timeS 2 line digital system. What do you recommend?

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 08-06-2004, 09:56 PM:

I like the SMART system's design, but dislike the fact in which when a perspective customer calls the recording is already underway and he/she may come in half way through it. Avoid Dictaphone since they suck. When we used to be three screens our recording system was only turned on when the building was closed. It was a simple tape-based household answering machine. The old man who ran the business believed that if a customer called during business hours there had better be an breathing employee on the other end. It was absolutely pathetic taking every call in the box office on a sell-out Friday night. Very unprofessional. This was one of the first things changed when he got booted.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-06-2004, 11:40 PM:

For hour box office line we just have a regular old answering machine (for when we're closed). As for our movieline, we actually rent a voicemail box. It has 16 incoming lines so our customers almost never get a busy signal. It costs like $14 a quarter or something like that, very cheap.

Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 08-07-2004, 12:38 AM:

Show Time Answering Equipment

or

Programme Information Answering Systems (UK)

or

Does anybody know of a good phone answering machine.

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 08-07-2004, 01:11 AM:

We also use Verizon's VMS service, but it's $19.95 a month here with an additional rollover line ($30.xx and a $6.95 line hunt fee per month). It's a safe bet that we'd be much better off with a SMART system, assuming that it could handle multiple calls simultaneously. Our VMS rolls over to the fax line for the 7th caller, until the recording starts, then the line clears up for another caller, or so they tell me..

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 08-07-2004, 02:51 AM:

some of you guys should have a touchtone menu
Press 1 for regular movie announcements
Press 2 for the Express Announcement
Press 9 for Customer Service numbers

THe express announcements are for those of us who just want to hear the titles and the freaking times told in a brisk manner. I dont care about the rating, or stars, or titles uttered at the rate of 1 word a minute.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 08-08-2004, 03:19 AM:

Unecessary. It would cost more (if you are renting a voicemail box) and eventually everyone would just use the 'express' option.

Our movie line lists title, stars (usually max of two), rating, and showtimes. Its read in brisk manner but slow enough that people don't have to call back and listen again because they missed a time.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 08-09-2004, 02:04 PM:

SMART 2 line digital announcer. We used this before we signed on with Moviefone, then it became a Disneyworld-style message for our speakers outdoors, outside of the box. (Welcome to Muller Family Theaters' Lakeville 18!! [scream]

)

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 08-10-2004, 01:34 AM:

Its very easy to build a PC based system that enables touchtone interaction with your caller. All you need is a modernish PC into which you install one or more telephony cards, and some IVR software. A decent microphone to record your information is also useful. Once PC can handle many incoming lines.

You record your speeches into files. You creat a script using a drag/drop interface. Its really easy, no programming required.

The big advantage of IVR is that messages always start from the start, and the customer gets to hear what he/she wants to hear, not just being dumped into the middle of a pre-recorded loop.

Good software for this is http://voiceguide.com, and they sensibly recommend Dialogic hardware, which is the IVR industry standard.

An independent operator could use this software (plus some external add-ons for credit card stuff) for ticket sales over the phone too...

Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 08-14-2004, 12:14 PM:

I work in a 20-plex that does upwards of 4,000 people a day on most weekends. We have a 3-line phone system for our information recordings. Then we have one direct line to the office that is not listed in the phone book. It's perpetually busy on the weekends and people complain to high heaven about it.

Posted by Kyle Watkins (Member # 986) on 08-14-2004, 04:32 PM:

Do they make some sort of computer voice that can tie into your box office computer schudule, be a lot easier so you dont have to kept changing the show times it be done automatic. I dont want it all done by computet voice just the names and show times. be great for the mega plexes.

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 08-14-2004, 05:20 PM:

Using the voiceguide software I suggested above, you can do this two ways.

1) Record the times you want, either complete eg "seven fifteen", or separate eg "seven" "fifteen" and put them together, either with mouse clicks, or a bit of programming

2) use the Text-to-Speech facility to actually say it for you.

I prefer the former approach, as you can use a single voice for all the bits, driving directions, menus, whatever, so it sounds like a coherent whole rather than a bunch of words by different speakers.

if you have your time and performance data already stored in some data format on computer somewhere, thejn (again, with a bit of programming) that can be automatically extracted by VoiceGuide, so you just need to keep one system up to date, and the IVR system will follow.

Posted by Mark Hajducki (Member # 1732) on 08-15-2004, 07:10 PM:

One problem with the computer voice systems (which use sampled voices) is when a different person records the show name than the person who did the rest of the announcements. This creates a very disjointed unprofesional image.

These systems usually take ages to get to give the times since there are lots of menus (as in selecting which day you want the times for) and because they have pauses between every sample. Booking tickets through these systems is even more annoying.

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 08-16-2004, 07:16 PM:

The faults you detail (which are not uncommon, particularly the first) are not the faults of IVR systems per se, they are the results of someone (theatre management?) making poor choices.

IVR done bad?

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 08-18-2004, 01:02 PM:

quote: Brandon Willis
I work in a 20-plex that does upwards of 4,000 people a day on most weekends. We have a 3-line phone system for our information recordings. Then we have one direct line to the office that is not listed in the phone book. It's perpetually busy on the weekends and people complain to high heaven about it.

So, in the near-ubiquity of the Internet, people are still flooding a 3-line system with calls? Even before I started publishing showtimes online, no one I knew ever liked those phone recordings, and that attitude certainly hasn't changed to my knowledge.

Does your theater offer their showtimes online, and do they publicize that URL in all of their customer contact vehicles? I find it amazing that you would be keeping three lines busy with people calling in...

Anyway, I used to work at a company called Electronic Tele-Communications (www.etcia.com) and we designed and manufactured multi-channel announcement devices, time and temperature announcers, and interactive voice response systems. It's been quite a few years, so I'm not familiar with their product line any longer, but you may want to check their products out if you want something better than a $14 special from WalMart.

If they still make it, the Aris Multi-channel would probably serve your needs for announcements only, and the Messenger product would let you do some pretty sophisticated things.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 08-19-2004, 01:49 AM:

I find calling the theatre faster than (going home if necessary, or to another place with internet access), initiating a dial-up connection, waiting for image bloated website (or even lightweight, well done website) to load and looking at the showtimes on the first or second page I load.

I've done a few phone systems where there was an option for a "fast dictation" and a "slow, detailed dictation". People seemed to like that and the two were actually used about 50/50. Not everyone chose the faster/breifer one as others have suggested customers would do.

Further, phone recordings are especially important in tourist or cottage country areas since MANY people, especially during the summer, have no access to the internet.