What is a Box Office Manager?
The box office manager supervises the office that books and sells the tickets to the theater. In addition to supervising ticket booth operators, the manager is responsible for counting money and credit card sales to make sure that amount matches the number of tickets sold. After shows, the box office manager calculates ticket sales for reports. The box office is the point of contact for customer service. Good verbal communication and problem-solving skills are required to assist theater patrons.
Real People Profile
| Name: | Theresa S. Simonton |
| Workplace: | Peace Center for the Performing Arts |
| Education: | High School Diploma and some college. |
| Favorite Subject(s) in School: |
Chorus and science |
| First Real Job: | Worked as a hostess in a restaurant. |
| Dream Job: | Being shot out of a cannon/lady of leisure. |
| Interests: | Video games, animals, music - in no certain order. |
Real People Q&A
Advice for students interested in my job:
Get in early and learn all you can. Experience is the best teacher.
What subjects in school will students need to do my job?
Math, English and public speaking
What I like most about my job?
The thing that I enjoy most about being the box office manager is that when we have shows at this theater, or any of our other theaters, it is very high volume and very fast paced. We have people come to pick up their tickets at that time and it makes the day go by like that.
What is the biggest challenge in my job?
That would be the customer service aspect of the job. Generally, ninety percent of the people that come to the Peace Center are happy. However we have the other ten percent that aren't happy. That is very challenging. We can't please everyone but we do everything we can to make everyone happy. We try to maintain a high standard of customer service.
How do you get a job like mine?
Perseverance always pays off and I am living proof. I had no theater experience whatsoever, but I loved the arts. I had been in every other business. I couldn't really decide what I wanted to do, so I started here as a part time operator and I built that up to the empire you see before you today.
