We know you want your events to be remarkable. Capturing the correct customer information at the time of booking can maximise success:

• Tailor your sessions to meet bespoke attendee needs.
• Understand and prepare for safety or health concerns.
• Meet any compliance and consent guidelines for your industry.

The Bookwhen booking form fields can be an excellent tool for getting to know your attendees and delivering exceptional workshop experiences.

💡Did you know?

You can edit the attendee register to include answers from the booking form fields. This is an excellent way for leaders to have a quick insight into the group on the day.

When creating your booking questions, focus on simplicity and your responsibilities as the Data Controller. Are your questions aligned with legitimate interests, PCI DSS compliance, and data retention guidelines? We’ll cover these essential points in more detail below.

🧐 Let's start by clarifying the default fields

We'll always ask for the 'Main Booker' email address. This means you always have a contact for the booking confirmation/reminder/cancellation emails. Booking form field questions can then be assigned by 'Attendee', meaning each attendee booked, or only once for the entire booking/tickets purchased.

Default Attendee Questions

The system requires a unique 'Attendee Name' and 'Attendee email address' for tickets purchased for each event date and time. The system will expect two different attendee details for tickets booked for the same event date and time. This is to avoid customers accidentally double-booking. These are Special fields and are indicated in red.

Special fields

Special fields are mandatory by default, and data captured here can appear in other system areas, such as booking confirmation emails, customer profiles, reports and the attendee register. You can remove these fields from an entry, but please consider how this might impact your data collection and reporting. If a special field isn't a good match for your business or customers, we don't recommend editing the titles. Instead, remove it and add a new field that better meets your requirements.

What if my event is for children? 👶👧🧒👦

When you have events for children, you can tell the system to skip the 'Attendee email' address capture via the "Will children be attending?" setting on the Booking form tab of the entry.

This allows parents or guardians to be the listed 'Main booker' and book different siblings at the same event without adding a unique email address for both attendees. You can add a new question assigned to 'Booking' to capture emergency contact details or other parent/guardian-specific information.

💡Tip: We appreciate that some dog activity/training event organisers might also benefit from the above setting when tickets relate to doggie attendees who won't have unique email addresses.

✏️ Editing, amending and updating booking forms

You can make updates in two areas: The Booking fields menu page under 'Settings', and The Booking form tab of each entry.

Booking Fields menu:

• Review a complete list of all your booking form fields.
• View how many entries are using that booking form field.
• Amend how a question is assigned to each 'Attendee' or the overall 'Booking'/'Ticket'.
• Make a bulk action like 'Add to all entries' or 'Remove from all entries'.

💡 Tip: Before creating new questions, checking if one already exists is always a good idea. Remember, editing a booking form field name/setting will update any entry where that question is used. In some instances, it could be better to create a new version, especially if it relates to consent and any changing T&C.

Booking form tab:

Use the headings in the menu box on the right-hand side of the tab to:

• Select and reorder fields: Drag and drop to arrange the fields; use the minus '-' icon to remove fields and the plus '+' icon to add them.
• Set which questions are mandatory.
• Create a new booking form field question

You can add a file to a booking form field or create a hyperlink to a file you've uploaded in the 'Files' area or to an existing webpage. This is useful when sharing PAR-Q forms, Terms and Conditions, etc.

🔏 Legal considerations

As the Data Controller, you are responsible for managing data collection, consent, and usage according to relevant guidelines. Follow these key points to ensure compliance and clarity:

• Ask only relevant questions: Ensure your questions are related to your organisation, the event, or the industry, and be transparent about how the data will be used. Bookwhen’s booking form fields include an 'Additional help text' option to provide further explanation.

• Do not request credit card details: To comply with PCI DSS best practices, avoid asking for credit card information in booking form fields. Instead, use integrated payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal for secure online payments.

• Capture consent: You can use a Yes/No question or Checkbox to capture agreement or consent. Each Bookwhen account includes a marketing consent question, such as: "Would you like to receive updates about our latest offers and events?" This can help filter customers on the Customer menu page.
  Learn how to export email addresses from Bookwhen to an email marketing service.

• Data retention: Depending on your region, there may be limits on how long you can store customer data. Review local regulations and update your Data Retention policy as needed.

• Enable 2FA: If you collect personally identifiable information (PII) for attendees and bookers, we strongly recommend enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for all team members' profiles.

💡 Visit our help article for further tips on using booking form fields to meet your specific needs.

Are you searching for online booking management software? Discover how Bookwhen can simplify your bookings. Sign up for a free trial, or reach out via live chat or email to learn more! 🕺