In this tutorial, I will demonstrate how to create a set of questions for attendee details. If you wish to ask questions, this must be done before you begin adding the event.
There are two types of attendee details:
1. Event attendee details: These are automatically generated questions that are not covered in this tutorial.
2. Ticket attendee details: These are questions that you can attach to a ticket and customize according to your needs. This tutorial will cover this type.
What are attendee details?
This feature allows you to ask your customers questions related to the event customers are booking. The Merlin system will present your questions after the customers have selected their tickets using the product page. This will add a new page to your website where they can respond to the questions, thus creating an additional step in the booking process. Please note that it is not possible to book an event until these questions have been answered.
Do you really need attendee details for this event?
If the details are for the event attendees, then perhaps not. These are preconfigured, so you don’t have the option to change them. It also creates an additional step in the booking process. The preconfigured questions are typically targeted at networking events. So, if your event is not a networking event, please do not activate the attendee details in step 1 of the event creation.
What type of questions can you ask?
You can ask any question that suits your needs. For instance, if you’re customers are booking a birthday party, you might want to know how many children are attending or what type of party food they prefer (via a dropdown selection).
Perhaps you’re organizing a Christmas event and want to gather child details so Santa has prior knowledge.
Or maybe you’re offering a selection of food and want to give your customers a choice while also asking about any potential allergies.
The questions are up to you, so they can be tailored to fit your specific requirements.
For this tutorial, I will be attaching my questions to a ‘Visit Santa’ event. Specifically, I will attach the questions to the Child tickets that I will be creating in step 3 of my event. This is because I want Santa to have some information about the child before their interaction, making the occasion a bit more special and personal.
Let’s get started
If you want to ask your customers questions related to the event and attach these questions to a ticket (which is in step 3 of the event creation), here’s how to do it:
Once you’re logged into the online admin area, select ‘Config’, then ‘Attendee Config’ from the left-hand menu.
This will open a new Attendee Config window.
If you haven’t previously added any attendee configs, the table will be blank.
If you have already added some attendees, they will be listed in the table below.
You can attach attendee configs to more than one ticket, so you don’t need to create new ones if your previous ones ask the questions you want to know.
Click ‘+ create a new attendee config’ to start. You’ll now see a blank table that requires you to add data. Don’t be intimidated, it’s very straightforward.
I have added numbers to the blank table for easy descriptions.
1. This acts as the title and identifier for the attendee detail template. It helps when linking the template to an event or viewing it in reports. Typically this is structured in a way that specifies the event it applies to and the ticket-type i.e. Epic Event (Adult Entry)
The title is what you will select to attach to the ticket in step 3. For this example, I’ll enter ‘xmaschild1’.
Field rules: Must be unique, so it can be found in the dropdown box. Only 60 characters maximum length.
2. This will be displayed on the front-end, this is used in most cases to provide further information to the user booking on what type of information is being collected and how it is being used.
For this example, I’ll enter ‘Let Santa know before your visit to make it extra special’.
3. Now it’s time to click the ‘Save’ button to save the data.
After the template table has been saved, the page will be further populated by the 'Attendee fields' section. Here’s what my page looks like at this point.
To start adding your fields, click the ‘Add’ button.
Now it’s time to start adding your questions. Again, to aid tutorial descriptions, I’ve added numbers to the blank table.
1. The ‘Label’ field is for the question you wish to ask that is displayed to your customer. For this example, I have entered ‘Name of Child 1’.
Field rules: Must be unique, so the data is not over written by another field. Maximum length of 60 characters.
2. The ‘Field Name’ is used to store the data and to add this field name to your report. This report can be found in the ‘Reports’ tab under ‘Attendee - Tickets’, using the left-hand menu. However, you don’t need it at this time. For this example, I want my report column holding this data to be labeled ‘childs_name_1’.
Field rules: Must be unique, so the data is not over written by another field. Maximum length of 20 characters
3. The ‘Type’ field allows for you to control what your customer can input in the field, there are four options available:
- Text - This field type allows the user to input any alphanumeric and special character into the field.
- Number - This field type only permits an input of numbers.
- True/False - This is a tick box, if the customer ticks it, this is marked as true. If the customer does not tick it, it's marked as false
- Select -This field type provides a drop-down with pre-set options (set by you) for your customer to select.
For my example, the field is a text type field, meaning the customers can enter any characters they want.
4. The ‘Required’ field is to ensures that the field-type has to be populated. Selecting this will make the field a mandatory.
In my example, I don’t want the customer to leave this field blank. I want to know the child’s name. For this example, I make sure the box has been ticked.
Here’s what my table looks like now with all the data filled in.
Now I’m ready to add another question. So, I will click the 'Save' button to save my data and then click the '+add new field button'. This will present a new blank table ready for your second question.
Here’s what my second question looks like.
The next question is ‘Age of Child 1’. For this, I am expecting a number-only type field. So, in the ‘Type’ field, I have used the dropdown arrow to select the ‘Number’ type.
I’m now going to add another question, so again click the 'Save' button to save that tables data. I will then click the ‘+Add new field’ button. This new table field will be used to gather some personal information about the child.
My table looks like:
I have now asked all the questions I want to ask for my child ticket 1 which will be connected to an event when creating the event..
6. ‘Save’ button - Click
Now that this is done, let’s look at the table. You can see my attendee config called ‘xmaschild1’ listed.
I am going to click the ‘Edit’ button, just to see what the fields look like and to make sure everything saved correctly. As you can see, it lists my three questions. You could add more if you wanted, but for now, this is fine.
For this tutorial, I have demonstrated how to add your own questions. I will not be adding more questions, but other tutorials will follow that show other scenarios and how I have set out my tables and the questions I have asked.
Extra Information - For my Xmas event
For the event I am creating, I need attendee details for 3 types of tickets:
One child ticket (as demonstrated) - xmaschild1
Two child tickets (ask questions twice) - xmaschild2
Three child tickets (ask questions three times) - xmaschild3
I am doing this because of the way I have set up my event and how I want it to sell out once any combination of child tickets has been bought, ensuring no other family can book the same time slot.
Here is what my table looks like for xmaschild2
If the table image is too small to see correctly. Right click the image and open in new tab. This will enlarge the image.
Please note my field names are all unique. ie childs_name_1, childs_name_2
Please feel free to contact support via email or call our office if you have any questions or need further assistance.
Contact us on +44(0)1226 294413
0 Comments