City Have Areas Of Improvement Says Survey

The survey emailed to season ticket holders and others on the club's database comprised of the following areas:

Ticket Office, Club Shop, Kit, CCFC Website,Match day experience, Programme, Customer Service Complaints, Season Tickets and over all, Overall Ratings.

TICKET OFFICE
Some 1705 supporters filled in the survey and were mixed with the way, the Ticket Office runs. The vast majority of those who responded (68% of males) and (82% of females) bought tickets in person rather than any other means with buying on the phone the next highest.

Although waiting times averaged around 6.2 minutes on a match day and 4.4 minutes on a non-match day, the staff were viewed as helpful or very helpful. 87% found it easy or very easy to buy a ticket and the overall rating for service received from the ticket offices in the last six months saw a mean score of 7.5 out of ten.

By and large, those who bought from the website were happy and gave it a 8.1 mean score.

Views expressed as to where the ticket offices could be improved were:
Better trained, more experienced staff
More staff at busy periods
Answer the phone promptly or at least have a system where you are told you are in a queue. If Voicemail is to be used get staff to reply promptly to callers.
Make sure the website always has the most up-to-date ticket information
Make online purchasing easier and offer facility to choose exact seat via the website.
Get rid of booking fee for online transactions
Get rid of surcharge for purchasing tickets on a matchday.

CLUB SHOP
The club shop is another area where most people visit in person with the shop at the Arena being used twice more often than the one in West Orchards.

On matchdays's not surprisingly, the shop at the ground was used more but on non match days, 43% said they had used the West Orchards store.

Although the staff were rated helpful or very helpful, the areas for improvement were:
Better trained, more enthusiastic, older staff
Reduce queues and crowding at Ricoh club shop on match days
Cheaper prices/better offers
Better range of products, better quality products

KITS
On kits, the home kit was prefered to the away kit, whilst those surveyed were generally happy with the quality of the kit, the prices which currently is £40 for an adult shirt, but costs £7.50 to make, were not well received with 56% rating the price as not very good or not good at all.

CLUB WEBSITE
The website, which the club have to have with Premium TV under Football League rules, received a 6.5 mean score. Areas of improvement were listed as follows:

Less clutter. Make the homepage look less busy.
Simplify navigation
Too many adverts and too much promotion of Sky Blue World
Keep it up-to-date, especially with regard to ticket availability
More news
Website is too generic.
Get rid of the front intro page

MATCH DAY EXPERIENCE
The Match Day Experience saw the catering outlets run by Rugeley based Compass Catering more or less slammed. Value for money for catering wa more likely to be rated as poor than good. Around half also rate the quality of products and service as quite poor or very poor.

Areas where improvements could be made are:
Reduce prices
Better choice, including healthier and vegetarian options
Better trained, more experienced staff
Employ staff who understand English
Serve people quicker
Don't run out of products
More vendors walking round selling food and soft drinks as well as alcohol
Don't take caps off drink bottles when selling them.

ONSITE PARKING
Around a third of those who have attended a match in the last 6 months have used the onsite parking. The proportion rating the parking as good value for money (55%) is slightly higher than the proportion rating the parking as poor value (45%). Service is generally better thought of although a quarter still rate the service as quite or very poor.

Almost three-quarters of those who have used the parking facilities say that it takes them more than 10 minutes to exit the car park after a match with over a quarter saying it takes longer than half an hour.

Area of improvement are:
Reduce prices
More parking spaces
Reduce queues on entry. Fast entry for those who have pre-paid
More exits from car park

STEWARDS
Only 17% rate matchday stewards as very helpful although 59% rate them as quite helpful. Just 5% think they are very unhelpful.

PA SYSTEM
Around three-fifths (59%) rate the PA system as quite good and 17% as very good. However, a quarter say that the PA system is not very or not at all good.

TOILETS
Toilet facilities are rated quite highly with 86% rating them as very or quite good. Women rate the toilet facilities more positively than men.

Areas of improvement were
More toilets.
Ensure loo roll, soap etc. do not run out.
Police entrance and exit to gent's or install turnstiles to make sure they are used properly.
Wash basins and hand dryers should be located near the entrance not the exit.
Entrance and exits are too narrow.
Stop people smoking in the toilets

PROGRAMME
Just over half of those who have attended a match at the Ricoh in the last 6 months have bought a programme. Just over a quarter of those who don't buy one say it is because they are poor value for money. Almost two-fifths say they don't buy one because they get the information they want from elsewhere.

The content of the programme is generally well thought of with two-fifths saying it is very good and almost three-fifths quite good. Value for money is not quite as highly rated but is still favourable with almost a quarter thinking the programme is very good value for money and three-fifths quite good value.

The main reason for not buying one was the fact that supporters got the information they needed from elsewhere. 58% described the content as good with 60% thinking it is value for money.

SEASON TICKETS
Just over half of season ticket holders have missed a match this season. The televised match against Ipswich over the Christmas period was the most likely to be missed. The most often given reason for missing matches was being on holiday (54% who had missed a match gave this reason). Just under a third had missed a match due to work commitments.

The reasons for not having a season ticket were:
Live too far away
Can't get to enough games
Can't afford one
Get in for free (stewards, complimentary tickets etc).

OVERALL RATING
The club received a 5.7 mean score rating down on the last rating overall

Areas of improvement were:
Better transport links including a railway station
Better pedestrian access to ground
Improve PA system
Get rid of embarrassing pre match routine of introducing the stands to the away fans
Better half-time entertainment
Concern about the over-zealous approach of the stewards particularly in the Telegraph stand.
Improve the atmosphere at the ground
Encourage more people to come (cut price tickets etc.)
Allow home fans to sit near away fans in Jewson end.