Timed Entry Tickets Management

[MaryR328]

Hi! I don't have events enabled on my CC account so I can't figure out if this is a scenario CC can help me manage: I want to create an "event" for free timed entry to my location, say 25 people every 30 minutes between 10am - 3pm every day of the week for the next four months. I want to send all of my registered time entry ticket holders a reminder 24 hours prior to their ticket time, then send a follow-on message (asking for feedback, etc.) 24 hours after their ticket time. If I pay to use the events integration, will I be able to do something like this? Many thanks!

[William_A · Accepted solution]

Hello @MaryR328 ,

At this time the event builder tool isn't really built to be able to formulate separate emails dependent on what time slot people sign up for (aka what "item" or "price" they'd select). However our engineers are hard at work to revamp the event tool, so I'll get your feedback submitted to them for further review.

With that said, you could still accomplish this, however it would require some extra manual work on your part. Essentially you'd need to perform these steps:

1. Set a hard limit of 25 on how many of each "price" or "item" (your time slots) is available
2. Download your registrants as a CSV file and open it on your computer
3. Separate people into new XLS/CSV files based on the time slot they selected
4. Upload those separate files as new lists
5. Create several regular newsletter-type emails (copy the first one once completed and update contents as needed) to send out to contacts in the respective lists

Obviously this will require quite a bit of work if you're intending to have 30-min time slots for 5 hrs, every day, for four months. You may have to regularly go in and update lists as new registrants come in if you intend for registration for time slots to remain open all the way through. You'll also need to regularly update the event to make sure time slots are removed that have passed.

[MaryR328]

Thank you for the detailed description of the work-around. I think that process would be too time-consuming to carry out in the real world but I appreciate the steps.

I am sure with so many organizations needing to offer their visitors/customers a way to plan their visit - and orgs needing to space out those visits - these changes to the events tool will be appreciated. As I mentioned, unlike a one-time event, we need the ability to set up "tickets" for many times throughout each day (say on the hour or half-hour) and a way to communicate in advance with the group of people who are signed up for that day to provide reminders of the guidelines for entry. I look forward to trying out any new features. Many thanks.