Waitlist on Events
in progress
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Erin Fumiko Kinney
We would want the capability to have a waitlist feature for events. Once the event exceeds capacity - we can waitlist individuals.
Automatic waitlist :
If any of the registered users cancel their registration, Waitlist #1 - gets an automatic confirmation email to the event (this is how an automatic waitlist works). Admins should have the ability to manually move users in the waitlist (For example - If waitlist #5 (Mr. John) is a donor, the admin should be able to manually assign waitlist #1 to Mr. John - so Mr. John can skip the queue)
Manual Waitlist :
Admins can see all waitlisted individuals and choose who to admit to the event
Important - The alumni should not be able to see who are the others on the waitlist. The waitlist should be accessible by admins only
Note- Request submitted by Nikita (Almabase Team) on behalf of Erin Kinney (Associate Director of Alumni Relations at Punahou School) and Lynn Parrish (Events Coordinator at Punahou School)
Kanhai Shah
in progress
J
John Todd Boone
Currently, we keep track in an Excel document if anyone reaches out to us directly asking to be added to a waitlist. The need arises largely for sub-events, but occasionally standard events as well. However, I believe many more people would join the waitlist if it were available directly in the registration form.
For example, say I'm hosting an event with workshops 1, 2, & 3. If workshop 1 is full, I would like to be able to see who registered for the waitlist and in what order. If 2 people cancel their registration for workshop 1, I would want the ability to easily reach out to the 1st and 2nd person on the waitlist for that workshop.
For this to be effective, a few things would have to happen.
- If someone cancels their registration for a previously full event, it should only become available in the main registration if there is not a waitlist. And we would need to have some way of giving 1 or more people on the waitlist the opportunity to register without others being able to.
- I, as the admin, would have to be able to see who joined the waitlist first, and preferably be able to manually override the order they are invited to register. (Say if #1 on the waitlist for workshop 1, but already registered for workshop 2, but #2 on the waitlist hasn't signed up for anything yet, I would want the option to skip #1 initially and invite #2 to register for workshop 1)
- Have the ability to send & schedule an email/text to everyone on the waitlist.
- Have the option to turn off the waitlist prior to launching an event or even once registration is open.
Perhaps this could be an email template giving them the opportunity to register for that spot
Kanhai Shah
To help us better understand your needs around waitlists, we’d appreciate your input on the following questions:
- How are you currently managing waitlists at both the main event and sub-event levels?
- What types of notifications do you send to waitlisted registrants?
- What information do you collect when someone is added to the waitlist?
- If new capacity becomes available (e.g., 3 slots open up) but the top-priority waitlisted registration requires more (e.g., 6 slots), how do you typically handle this?
- Do you need waitlist functionality for only a few events each year, or is it required for most of your events?
Thanks in advance for sharing your responses—they’ll help us shape the right solution for you.
L
Leisa Domotor
Kanhai Shah
- Currently, we we add a note somewhere on the event to contact our Engagement Office to be added to a waitlist which is managed in Excel.
- Most communications are done on a one-on-one basis either by email or phone.
- Name of registrants email and/or phone, and how many guests
- Typically, we try to hold the tickets for the individual who requested the tickets first. We'll let them know we have "X" number of seats open and they can register their guests up to the number of available seats. If they choose to not purchase, we pass it to the next individual.
- It's required for most of our events.
Thank you!
Kanhai Shah
Erin Fumiko Kinney Elizabeth Babb ’82 Thank you for the detailed notes. I just had one follow-up question: are waitlists generally implemented at the main event level, or are they also available at the sub-event level?
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HUC-JIR Admin AS
Kanhai Shah So pleased this request is being considered. Though I’m not Erin or Elizabeth, I voted for this request and can share that we have needed this option for both the main level and sub events.
Kanhai Shah
HUC-JIR Admin AS: That would be really helpful.
If you could share answers to following questions, it would give us better idea
1) How are you managing waitlist at main event and sub event level today?
2) What all different notifications do you send out to waitlisted registrations?
3) What all details you would ask when registration is put to waitlist?
4) If the newly open capacity (for example 3 slots are open) is lower than what is required for most priority waitlisted registration, how do you handle this scenario?
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Rob Odoardi
HUC-JIR Admin AS I am in agreement! We didn't start this request but we voted on it. We currently use an Almabase form that we paste the link into the event description for folks to add their name, class year, email address, etc. It would be ideal to have this functionality built in so that as a spot opens up due to a cancelation the next person in line is notified of their registration versus this needing to be done manually.
However, if that is too complex we will settle for waitlist functionality to automatically go into place once we hit capacity.
H
HUC-JIR Admin AS
Kanhai Shah I'm in agreement with all of John Todd Boone's responses above. Here are my additional responses:
- Manually, and it's quite a pain! We change the description in the main/sub-event listing to include a link to a microsoft form, where they provide their info. Then we follow-up with them directly as space opens, and modify the max guest count individually so they can register!
- We reach out individually to the waitlist members to register them. As John mentioned, it would be helpful to have the ability to send & schedule an email/text to everyone on the waitlist, but having it automated should be optional. There are times that the admin would need to adjust the ordering of the waitlist, so best to have the option of sending them manually through almabase letting them know a spot is now available, and they have the option to confirm their registration. As Elizabeth noted, it would be nice to have a time limit for confirming their registration - and best if we had already captured all of their necessary info (except payment), so they would just need to accept their registration spot.
Finally, it's important to have the ability to turn off the waitlist prior to launching an event or even once registration is open.
- All of the same details as required for the main event or sub-event, unless there is an associated cost. I imagine you wouldn't want the CC info on file, but will defer to Almabase on process.
- This is the scenario mentioned in question 2 - where admin may need more manual control of the waitlist.
Kanhai Shah
under review
We are looking into possibility of building this
Siddarth Reddy
Merged in a post:
Adding a waitlist feature for sold out events
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Rob Odoardi
Adding a waitlist feature for a sold out event would be immensely helpful.
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Erin Fumiko Kinney
Hi Kanhai, we would prefer not to take payment for waitlisted guests. I’d like to keep a chronological list with name, email and number of guests that I could either manually select people from the waitlist or use a first form first served process that would email the next person on the list and give them the option to register. A max number on the guest list is nice but not necessary.
We currently do not use Almabase events for our event registration. We use Cvent and they offer this functionality. Thank you for considering!
Kanhai Shah
Erin Fumiko Kinney Thank you so much for submitting this feature request. I have some questions to understand the details of the waitlisting workflow
1) Would we be still requiring them to make ticket payments and register how a normal registration would go through? I am trying to understand this because this because if they don't go through to successful registration, they will have to be refunded
2) Would you want to have a maximum limit on waitlist as well?
3) How are you managing this workflow with current set up on Almabase?
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Elizabeth Babb ’82
Kanhai Shah - although I am not the submitter, I have a response to your questions because I would like to see this feature added as well. (1) I think there should be an automatic turn off of registration acceptance when event is at capacity but that the Event site should offer the alum the option of going on the waitlist. If they want to, they can add themselves - they should not have to pay at the time. Then if the "clear" the waitlist, they should get an email to register. If they don't register in 24 hours, the next person on the list should be emailed etc. If two openings open up within a 24 hours period, the second on the list should be emailed and given 24 hours and so on. (2) At this time they would pay if it's a paid event. Most of our events are free so this doesn't come into play for us too much. We would deinintely not want to get into a refund situation unnecessarily. (3) We would not need a maximum on the waitlist side. But we would need a CLEAR explanation that can be customized to go out to the alum who signs up for the waitlist. I.e. if an opening becomes available for your position on the waitlist, you will have 24 hours to register for the event so use this customized link to register.
Once the 24 hours is up, then "ya snooze, ya loose" and it the sytem automatically shoots out an email to the next person on the list wiht a customized link for them. etc.
We deifnitely need to be able to set some of this up at a global level for the event. We cannot be in the situation (as we are now), where we have to customize every confirmation for every event to our brand. We should be able to set some of the parameters for the event such as waitlist AND the branding at a school level for ALL events.
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Elizabeth Babb ’82
I want to let you know something that just happened to me on this. I was told that the system would shut off allowing registrations once your event was at the capacity you set. And that I should change the title of the event to say sometning like "We are now full and there is a waitlist." Which I did. However, I was not told to go into the event setup and also change the setting to STOP taking registrations. I did NOT do that, and I sent out a "are you for sure coming" email to registrants letting them know we had a waitlist and to please cancel their registration if they were not coming. Well some did, and between the time I sent the email out and I looked at the event, several had canceled and others had registered! So I didn't get to even go to my now 17 person waitlist. Ugh. Those who snuck in literally in the last 24 hours snafu-d my waitlist. I have now turned registrations off, so that should handle that, but I just thought I would tell you so that the support team mentions to others that you also should turn off registration acceptance when you are at capacity. I erroneously assumed that the system turned itself off...that's how I read the support thread when I asked "what happens when you hit capacity"?
Thanks.