Two super smart (originally) working-class chaps from Manchester made hundreds of millions (Sterling!) yesterday. 💷 🏆

I was one lucky customer who secured tickets to the Oasis Comeback Tour 2025. The experience was stressful.

On my social media half the world away, I saw the ticketing sites struggling to keep up with 15 years’ worth of pent-up demand, there were tens of millions trying to access tickets at the same time in a gas panic! 🤯

I heard horror stories of customers queue counting down, little by little, only to be disconnected because they resembled a BOT. 🤖

As a CX and change professional, I seldom criticise companies on social media, I have perspective on how difficult things are to plan, design, and execute. Even more so at peak, and this was a peak of all peaks.I shall tread carefully, but soldier on 😉

Yesterday was an interesting case study for CX. It demonstrated that CX involves every department in the B2B and B2B2C world. Example. Procurement

Ticket Master is the largest and probably has the best reputation for ticketing sites from a consumer POV (B2B2C). Hence why Oasis probably chose them as their supplier.

Ticket Master did get things right:

* The UX was intuitive and fast to read. One assumes the emotional state of the consumer was built into the design.
* Correct “nudges” from a marketing/sales POV. Customers had time to make a decision. But also enough pressure to ensure they transacted. An art and science in itself – important because CX is a commercial team too!
* DON’T GO AWAY! They offered regular updates when you were (eventually) in the queue.
* Customers were potentially rage-clicking, refreshing the page, opening multiple tabs, using VPNs etc. Not good in virtual queues. Simple instructions helped reduce this.
* BOT detection. From what I read this seems to be getting more sophisticated, on both sides.

This didn’t happen in a champagne supernova but years of marketing, ops, CX design, CI, feedback loops and UX/ UI working together.

What were the main issues?:

* The most obvious – the painful queuing.
* Customers not being able to access the website at all / for hours.
* Queuing for hours and the “kicking-out” for legitimate and now very desperate customers.
* Re-sales

Sometimes, customers do not mind queuing, in fact (the design part I mentioned above) millions of people felt part of something yesterday, a community, with a common goal of getting a ticket!

Some areas to tackle in the future:

*Going Nowhere – “I want clarity on where I am in the queue or process?”
*I’m outta time? – “Am I going to get tickets, or am I wasting my time / fading away?”
*Let there be love! there must be a way back into the queue, at the spot you were kicked out if it was erroneous
*A backup plan …. and more tickets.. perhaps a tour all around the world.