The Agency API feed allows you to give agencies live access to sell for your events. This allows a more flexible working relationship with the agent by effectively turning them into an advanced web booker, whilst leaving you overall control of bookings for your events.
In order to access the Agency API, some development work is required from the agency's technical team but, once this is done, it’s a relatively simple process to set up agents on your system. For more information on which agencies already have an integration with Spektrix, please visit the Partner Directory.
NOTE: if you want to start using the Agency API, please contact the Spektrix Support Team, who will be able to turn this feature on in your system.
Once it’s switched on, you will need to follow these steps to allow agencies to sell through the API.
Setting up Agent Commission Structures
Setting up Agent Commission Structures can be done in the Admin Interface under Pricing > Agent Commission Structures.
See this article for more information.
Setting up API Agent customer records
Agents should be set up in the system as normal customer (Individual) records in the Sales Interface under the Customers section.
Create a customer record as usual (this record must contain an active email address); once the record has been created, you can use the Agency Panel to define the Agency Commission Structure. The Agency Panel is located beneath the Contact Preferences and above the Tags on a customer record, and it looks like this:
Once you've ticked the Allowed access to agent API tick box, you will be prompted to add a mobile number for the record and will then be able to generate an API key for the agent:
The API key is used as a security measure to prove the agent's credentials when they try to access the API feed. This is a secret key and should never be sent via insecure methods (such as email). When you hit OK, this will start a two-step security procedure to generate the key.
The agent will receive an email with a link to the key generation tool. This page will ask for a code, which will be sent by text to the mobile number you supplied.
Setting up an Event for sale through the Agency API
Once your agency is setup, you are then able to select which Events and Instances these agents are able to access through the Agency API.
This is done at the Instance level, in the same way you might select which events are available for sale on the web. You can either update this status using the Bulk Instance Editor or on an Instance by Instance basis.
Managing agency sales via the Agency API
When an agent processes a sale via the Agency API, this appears live in your system in much the same way a web sale might.
From the point an agency opens a transaction through to the point the transaction is confirmed, it will appear in your Open Transactions list in the same way as any other transaction. Once confirmed, the order will appear in the Sales Interface under Orders and can be managed in the same way as any other order.
Agents only have access to sell tickets via the API; if they require any tickets to be refunded, this has to be done by the Box Office, giving you complete control over this process.
NOTE: to process a refund for a ticket purchased via the Agency API, you'll need to navigate to the Credit, deposit & vouchers tab in the Payment section of the Basket:
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When an agent processes an order via the API they can supply you with some extra details to help identify the order within your system.
If you are fulfilling the tickets for the agent, these details can be added onto ticket designs for ease of collection.
As part of an order process, the agent also has access to the Spektrix order number as well as the unique barcode reference for the tickets. This means that if the agent is fulfilling the tickets, the order can still be searched for within Spektrix and scanned just like any other ticket on the door. See this article for more information about searching for Agency API orders.
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You should now have everything you need to be able to set up and manage the Agency API. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Spektrix Support team.