1-800-Tickets.com

I’m always “chatting” with Verizon reps, too. Sometimes they suggest I call the 800-number with my question, but often they’re quite useful online, and I don’t have to listen to hold music.

I’d love to see a presenter box office live chat option. “Need help picking the perfect concert? Let one of our experts help you. CHAT NOW.” That way, venues could have trained box office representatives who work from home. Call them “experts”, too – not “representatives” – because they usually are, and it’s more encouraging to the buyer that way.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra used to have a Leonard Slatkin hologram on their homepage. I don’t know where he wandered off to, but it would be fun to have an orchestra’s music director be the equivalent of the blonde 1-800-Flowers gal above: the icon of a music director helping you personally choose tickets to the orchestra’s concerts. You’d have to clarify that it wasn’t actually Slatkin responding, for our more oblivious friends, but I think it would be a nice image. “It’s my 81-year-old grandmother’s birthday on Sunday, Alan Gilbert Hologram Man: what concert can I take the whole family to see?”

Pittsburgh Opera (congratulations to you on your big win yesterday, by the way) has The Opera Lady and The Metropolitan Opera has Ask Figaro: both great, but not live.