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Pete Stajk
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November 21, 2013 at 8:15 pm
Dear EE,
To promote my business and compel potential customers to sign up for my SAT course, I thought that offering a 10% early discount to those parents who sign their sons and daughters up 2 weeks in advance of the course’s starting date would push students and parents to do just that.
Then, I thought I would sweeten the pot a little more by offering a “Bring a Friend” option and offer a 25% discount for both individuals, so that if my course is set at $800, one student would call his buddy and both students would sign up and only have to pay $600 each.
I know that I am able to manually set the early discount myself, which I already have, but I guess my real question is how do I successfully implement my second promotional option to A) function correctly through my site, or B (if A is not possible to accomplish via EE) manage through my site without confusing or annoying potential customers through my Event Registration page?
Should I simply have students sign into my course and only pay the $600 rather than the full $800 after I’ve spoken to them directly or just have them sign up and bring the money in person to my classroom on the first day of class?
I just want to clearly advertise this option through my site without confusing any potential customers and dissuading them of using my services just because they were unable to find the offer on my Payments Page and pay the proper amount – $600 in this case.
A little advice on this issue would be really welcome, thanks!
Pete
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Dean
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November 22, 2013 at 6:57 am
Hi,
The Volume Discount add on could solve this for you.
You can set it up to use categories or event meta fields and can target particular events and offer a discount depending on the number of registrations.
Example. Create a category called SuperSaver and apply it to the event. In the volume discounts you set it up so that if the number of registrations is more than 1, they get a 25% discount and then allocate that to the SuperSaver category.
Now each event that is in the SuperSaver category if you register two or more people they will get that discount.
The Multiple Event Registration add on is a requirement for Volume Discounts though.
Read more about the add on here: https://eventespresso.com/wiki/volume-discounts/
Sign up to the Pre Release channel after reading this guide: https://eventespresso.com/wiki/pre-release-channel-guide/
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Pete Stajk
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November 24, 2013 at 6:39 am
Hi Dean,
You said: “The Multiple Event Registration add on is a requirement for Volume Discounts though.” Ok, so how will that impact my current Event Registration setup? Is there a major overhaul that I now have to complete to make my “Bring a Friend” promotion function on my site?
In other words, will it be a major pain to implement the Multiple Event Registration on my site and is it possible to do so without disturbing everything I’ve already worked so hard to create?
Also, I see the first step to this setup is to disable the Standard Registration Form. Will all of the basic information that I hope to gather from customers no longer be available for them to complete and for me to view?
Thanks,
Pete
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Dean
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November 25, 2013 at 12:56 am
Hi Pete,
Adding in MER is very simple and it should not impact too much, but it does depend on the setup you have.
In short, MER adds another link on the Event List display which says add to cart. This will oddly enough add the item to cart.
While you don’t have to remove the registration form, it is recommended, especially with the fact that you need to use Volume Discount. If you don’t remove the form, users will be able to sign up “normally” and as such will not get the benefit of the discounts.
The forms themselves are only removed from the registration page. So after clicking add to cart, visiting the cart and adding the number of tickets, the users will then be taken to the form you created to fill it out.
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Pete Stajk
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November 25, 2013 at 5:00 am
I guess my concern with MER working on my Calendar is the current setup of my course registration …
Basically, a 10 class “package” exists on my Calendar page. Those viewing my Calendar will see all of the classes color coded for each course, but I’ve linked all 10 of the classes to one Alternate Registration Page (Class 1’s page), meaning that for all courses Class 1 is the main registration page.
So if I have a 5-week course setup from December 9-January-23 or so any class that a potential customer clicks on will automatically bring them to Class 1’s page.
I’m thinking the role of MER is to select any variety of classes but since I have a “package” deal setup, I’m not sure if this will work the way I want it to.
Is there an easy way for me to circumvent this issue and add MER to the course signup I currently have on my Calendar page, or if I add MER will that interfere with the setup I have now and create unforeseen issues?
Thanks,
Pete
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Dean
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November 25, 2013 at 6:34 am
Hi,
The plugin will take care of this, because it wont allow your visitors to add those type of events to cart. Take this screen shot as an example, main event 2 is tired to MAin event and notice there is no add to cart link? http://d.pr/i/dSrZ If I untie that event, then the add to cart link will appear.
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Pete Stajk
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November 25, 2013 at 8:36 am
Great thanks for your expertise, also if I have the “Bring a Friend” option will their be difficulty for the two different parents/students to sign up and pay separately within the promotion? In other words will parents who would like to access my “Bring a Friend” promotion have to share payment information, or will they each be able to pay separately and fill out registration info from their home locations/computers? Does my question make sense?
Thanks!
Pete
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Pete Stajk
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November 25, 2013 at 7:51 pm
I just activated MER through my plugins page, but I’m a little fuzzy on how it actually works. I’m guessing it’s pretty straight forward though. I’m looking at Documentation and see that it operates behind the scenes, except now what?
Where should I see the “View My Cart” or “Add to Cart” button? I don’t see it on my Class 1 page.
What’s the next step at this point, and where can I “spot the difference”?
Thanks again.
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Dean
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November 26, 2013 at 1:25 am
Hi Pete,
Regarding the Bring a friend, you may run into difficulty here as there isn’t a way to pay separately for one transaction – which is what this will be.
Regarding MER, the Add to cart link will be on the Event List page. IF you need to add it to the single registration page then you will need to use a shortcode (or template modification using the shortcode) see here – https://eventespresso.com/wiki/multiple-events-registration-use-add-to-cart-link-instead-of-default-registration-form/
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Pete Stajk
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November 26, 2013 at 4:52 am
Ok, the fact that both parents would be unable to pay separately for the Volume Discount presents a huge road block to this idea then.
I’m thinking the best way I could advertise this Promotion on my web site would be to explain to potential customers or parents on the Calendar page that they must both separately fill out the Registration form and then simply each mail me a personal check because if I didn’t things could get awkward/messy with both sets of parents forced to share each other’s payment information with one another.
Now, I notice when a potential student or parent fills out the Standard Registration form, a spot from the class is then automatically taken. Is that a guaranteed way for parents to reserve a spot for their sons/daughters?
In other words, if 1 parent catches wind of my “Bring a Friend” promotion calls another parent who may be equally interested in the promotion after hearing about it – they then “join forces” so to speak – will both parents who fill out the Registration Form (without paying online) effectively reserve 2 seats in the course?
In your opinion, would that be the most effective way to present this deal on my web site, or might there be a better way using the add-ons and such?
Thanks as always!
Pete
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Dean
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November 26, 2013 at 5:48 am
“Is that a guaranteed way for parents to reserve a spot for their sons/daughters?”
If the attendee is marked as completed (paid) or pending (not paid) then yes the capacity is reduced by one. If they are marked as incomplete (not paid) then it is not reduced. You can set the default status to pending on a per event basis by changing the “Default Payment Status for Event: ” to Pending, or site wide by doing the same in the General Settings page.
If you absolutely need the payments to be separate I don’t think there is a simple or elegant way to do it. They would have to register separately, which means that Volume Discounts wont work. A promotional code could work for a discount but there is no way to police it.
In my mind the best way would be to use the Volume Discounts and MER, and let the parents sort out the payment themselves.
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Pete Stajk
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November 27, 2013 at 8:14 pm
Thank you Dean, you definitely shed some light on my options here. I thought it over for awhile and realized that this would just be asking for trouble. Anytime parents have to start relying on each other for money etc., things get ugly real quick, so it would be best in my opinion to leave this idea behind. I do understand the idea of MER and Volume Discounts, so I will keep this stuff in mind for the future. Appreciate your help, plus I just have to be patient and wait for business instead of constantly trying to slash my prices with bargains and deals and such. Take care, thanks again.
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Dean
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November 28, 2013 at 12:48 am
No problem, glad I could help and good luck!
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