Best Practices: Checkout

Let's get started with some best practices, Check-Out Chief!

Here are suggestions from our event experts on how to manage a successful check-out at your event!

Before End of Event

• • At least one volunteer/staff member should be at the checkout table 30 minutes to an hour before the auction ends in order to process 'Buy It Now' bids, register payment information, and/or answer questions for guests departing early.
  • All of the checkout team should be at their designated stations 30 minutes prior to the auction's end.

End of Event

• • A designated volunteer or staff member will hit the red “Close Items” button at the set event or auction end time.
    • This will automatically notify winners, close open items, and send a notification requesting them to confirm the payment information.

Checkout

• • Winners will line up at the checkout table. Volunteers/staff who are working the checkout station will welcome the winning bidders and ask for their name in order to locate their cart within the platform. 
  • Input their name into the "Search" field on the 'Attendees' tab. Once you locate the correct user, you will then click their name. This will open up their account information and you will want to look for and select the cart icon in the upper left-hand corner. 

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  • Once you have opened the users cart, you will see any items they have won, donations they have made, and other items that may have been added prior. It is always good to confirm the outstanding unpaid items prior to moving to the next step.
  • Next, you will want to confirm the card they have on file is the card they would like to use for checkout. (Tip: Read them the card type and last four digits of the card to confirm its accuracy.) If they would like to use another card or do not have a card on file, you will select the "Add Card" button and fill out the appropriate fields. 
  • Ask them for permission to charge their card if they have not already done so. Once granted permission, click the shopping cart, choose "Card" (or "Offline" if they are paying with cash/check) and click "Pay Cart."
    • Note: Do not pay a cart as an offline payment until you have that cash or check physically in your hands!

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  • If someone has a dispute about an item they have won or claimed to have won, click the "bids" on the item card to review the bid history. If you need to text another bidder to help resolve an issue do so through the text option to their phone.
    • Remember they cannot text you back so give info on who to contact or where to go, if necessary.

Follow-Up Notifications

• • At some point after checkout, we suggest resending the "Payment Link" on the 'Messaging' tab. This text message will only go to people with outstanding payments and send them a specialized link taking them directly to their cart. 
  • Additionally, you can send out the "Pickup Message" from the 'Settings' tab to let guests know where and when to pick-up their items.
    • This will only be sent to people who have won or purchased an item.

Event Follow-Up

• • All winners and attendees will get a receipt emailed to them after checkout (if they provided an email address).
  • Continue to contact winners who have not completed payment or picked up their items until all have been retrieved and paid for.
  • You can thank attendees for their generosity and even share the total amount raised in order to show them how they impacted your organization!
  • You should have signed up for a FREE Stripe Connect account while creating your event for direct deposit to your connected account to receive your payouts in real-time as guests buy tickets or pay for items and donations. 
    • If you chose check payout, you will receive event proceeds from Event.Gives after the 45-day review period.
  • Most importantly, contact the Event.Gives team with any follow-up questions.

Congratulations on preparing for a successful event checkout!

Continue to the next lesson to learn about how attendees make payments!