A very common bit of event planning wisdom says that much of the value of an event comes from the value that you assign it, meaning generally that if you host a free event, while you may attract a lot of participants, you are almost always guaranteed a high no-show rate. For the registrant, it was nothing to sign up, and will therefore be nothing to not bother showing up. This results in wasted money and resources, and overall aggravation.
A common way to combat this is to charge a very nominal amount to register, refundable only in the case of a cancellation a certain length of time prior to the event, allowing you to get accurate final numbers and save money on consumables like catering. But what if your corporate policies don’t allow for this? What if needs dictate that the event be free of charge no matter what?
ePly now has a solution to help discourage no-shows, and potentially recoup a no-show’s lost investment in the event – the Credit Card Capture option.
The registrant is prompted to enter their credit card information, and warned that if they are a no-show without first cancelling their registration, that the card will be charged a penalty amount. It allows the registrant to pay nothing up front, but allows the planner at the touch of a button to “ding” them if they don’t appear, allowing them to recoup money spent on this registrant’s food and materials.
This feature also comes in handy if you are managing a hotel block for your registrants – they can enter their payment information, and if they don’t appear for their reservation, you can easily charge them for the penalty you will incur for their empty room, whether it’s for one night’s rate or their entire stay.
The process is safe and secure, implemented in four easy steps:
If you feel that this feature would be useful for your events, don’t hesitate to contact us, and we’ll help you get set up. If you want to try it yourself, follow the directions on how to Set Up Credit Card Capture Feature
Free Events and No-Shows – Does One Really Have To Come With The Other?
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- The registrant clicks “Add Credit Card”
- They enter their card number, expiration date, CCV, and email address, then click “Save”.
- The registrant’s card info is then sent directly to your merchant gateway and saved there – it is *not* saved on ePly servers.
- Your merchant gateway sends ePly a “token”, which is saved in our system. This token is what we use to access your merchant gateway when and if you decide to charge their card. Your client’s card information is kept safe during the entire process.