This article will provide helpful tips for planning your registration and check-in area. These steps come from our first-hand experience and will help you to lead a smooth check-in process!
Planning a Proper Check-in
Are you checking in or registering people for your event/auction as they arrive on site? If so, you need to ensure this process is seamless and moves along as quickly as possible.
Here are some things to consider:
- How many check-in stations do you need?
- What equipment is necessary?
- What are the roles needed at check-in?
- What is the ideal check-in staff person like?
- How should my check-in area be organized?
How Many Check-in Stations are Needed?
The number of stations you need will largely depend on:
- The number of guests coming to your event.
- Your event timeline (e.g. how long is your ideal check-in time?).
- The size of your check-in area.
- Your budget.
- Your process.
Let's Break it Down!
Number of guests attending
A skilled agent can check in about 1 person per minute or about 1 check-in agent per 50-70 guests. Of course, this varies based on what you're asking the agent to do. But as a starting point, count on registration taking about one minute per person/couple. As stated above, we always recommend a minimum of three check-in stations, more depending on the size of your event. The time it takes to register a guest can be impacted by a number of factors:
- Are you collecting additional information? (address, etc.)
- Are you collecting a credit card?
- Are you assigning or giving them a table number?
- Is the person already registered on your guest list?
- Does the person already have the Handbid app installed?
If you have an event with 350 people, it is our estimate you will register somewhere between 150-200 people (assuming some come check in couples and bid together). Three check-in stations would be able to handle 50-70 people each and it would take about 50-70 minutes to get everyone registered. Do you want to make check-in go faster? Require less information, get people registered in advance, or add more check-in stations.
If you need a simpler formula, here is one we often use: Have 2 stations for every 100 persons you expect to check-in. Expecting 600 people to attend? You need 12 people doing check-in.
How your budget impacts your check in staff
So you may be thinking, there is NO WAY I can assemble the team I need to conduct a good check-in at my event. Therefore, you ask your mobile bidding company to staff the entire check-in. If you can afford it, this may appear to be a necessity and not a luxury. Let us suggest instead, that if you feel you need help, hire 1-2 highly experienced experts from Handbid and allow them to turn your untrained volunteers into a solid check-in team! We've done it before, so we know it can be done. Besides, many mobile bidding companies (not us) simply use temp staffing agencies to staff their events anyways. Why not just cut them out and hire those people yourself?
How Your Process Affects Check-in Staff
What information you gather and what you give your guests can impact check-in time. If you have agents collecting addresses and kids' birthdays, or if you have your guests manually completing registration cards - expect your check-in time to take a while!
One of the most time-consuming components at check-in is name tags. Name tags tend to require extra volunteers, extra time, and increases confusion. If there are last-minute guest list changes, if someone's name was not printed, or if there's a guest who needs a new one because they replaced another guest or had a misspelled name - yikes! If you must have them, consider either having the guests write their own names or have the name tag station set up in a separate area from check-in.
Our suggestion? Keep things simple at check-in.
How Your Timeline Affects Check-in Staff
If people are expected to be sitting for dinner at 7 pm and your registration starts at 6, then it will leave you with a short window of one hour to complete check-in. Our suggestion is, if you have 400 guests (sponsor groups and couples included) to check-in and you have 60 minutes to do it, perhaps decide which pieces of information can be collected at a later time. Perhaps only collect cellphone numbers and emails so guests can still bid, and then collect credit cards at check-out. Or you can even send out a Broadcast Message to remind guests to add a credit card to their profile.
What Equipment is Necessary?
For most situations, we recommend laptops/Chromebooks/Surface tablets. Many agents like having a full keyboard and a mouse when doing check-in, and laptops will afford them that luxury.
You can run check-in from iPads, which can be a really slick way to do it, however, make sure your agents are comfortable using an iPad/tablet before you toss one in their hands! Here is an article on How to Run Check-in from iPads.
Want to speed up the process of adding cards? Consider using a credit card reader on either the iPads (you rent those from Handbid) or from your laptops (you can buy these yourself).
What Roles are Needed at Check-in?
Not all volunteers are alike. The types of staff you put at registration can make or break your check-in process. We recommend the following roles:
- Check-in Agent
- Paddle Card Distributer
- Seating Escalation Person
- Greeter/Crowd Control
Selecting your Check-in Staff
Consider these traits when selecting your check in staff:
- Should be skilled in technology. This means they can navigate around a computer or iPad, use a mouse, and most importantly, TYPE! If you see one of your volunteers hunting and pecking around the keyboard or iPad, it's usually best to swap them out soon! (Let them hand out paddle numbers or greet guests instead!)
- Should be personable and friendly to your guests. Remember, this is likely the first person who greets your guests other than a greeter (if applicable) and who will make the first impression of your organization's event. Make sure this person is friendly and makes guests feel comfortable and welcomed!
- Should be presentable. We will let you decide what this means. Usually, this isn't an issue, but if you feel it could be, we recommend requiring a dress code for volunteers. It's always nice to keep everyone uniform and identifiable. Of course, you can decide what works best for you!
- Should be free from too much noise. Say what? Sorry, we couldn't hear your name over the 5-piece band that set up next to check-in! Make sure your staff can hear because they have a lot of questions to ask and some critical data to enter. Keep in mind that when it's nearly impossible to hear at check-in, it not only impacts your volunteers, but it impacts your guests and their experience!
Selecting your Greeter
This is an important role and is often not staffed at most events. You need one. Well, we think you do. The job of the Greeter is to keep the line moving, greet your guests, explain to them what is about to happen (they will be giving the agents their information and also most likely a credit card to put on file) and they should direct people in line to the next available check-in station.
Here are some important qualifications of your line Greeters:
- They should be polite and friendly, but they also need to have a bit of a taskmaster approach, to keep the line moving. So make sure you have people who can politely do that. What are examples of what they should say? Here's an example:
"Sir, Susan can help you right over there get all checked in, have a great night." and "welcome to the Grand Gala, hope you all are doing great tonight. We are going to get you checked in here in just a second. We are doing mobile bidding tonight, so make sure your phones are ready and charged up! One of the team up front will get you registered if you want to bid and will ask you for a credit card to put on file to help you zip out of here quickly at the end of the night. While you wait, feel free to download the Handbid app to your phone if you have not done so already."
Sound like a lot? Well then print that out on a small card and hand that out to guests when they arrive. - What else? Line Marshalls SHOULD NOT know everyone. This is not a good job for your social butterflies or "huggers." This is not a good time to catch up with the guests when they arrive and find out about their kids. The line needs to move. Leave the huggers and social butterflies for the "bid helper" jobs in the auction area.
If you have a large event, you may want to consider splitting the Line Marshall and greeter roles. In fact, you may opt for 2-3 greeters (or more) that can work the line while the line marshall stands up near the front of the line and directs people to a check-in station.
Bidder Card/Paddle Number Distributer
Anyone can do this provided they can hear and they can pass out cards. Believe it or not, certain people LOVE this job. Don't deny them the opportunity!
This person's job is to stand behind the check-in agents, see which bidder numbers are being registered, and hand that agent the correct bidder card that matches the paddle number in Handbid. Once registration picks up, this goes really fast and the bidder card retrievers (if you have more than one) start to get a rhythm going on where cards need to go. Believe it or not, this process flows well.
What skills do they need? Good enough hearing to hear the agent ask for the appropriate card.
Guest List Escalation Person
If Linda Jones is not happy where she is sitting (if your name is Linda Jones, sorry! We just made up that name for the sake of this example... please don't be offended!), it is not ideal to have the check in agent deal with that. There are a few key reasons why:
- The agent likely is not familiar enough with the guest list to even know why Linda is not at the table she wants to be at.
- The agent really needs to check in more people and these issues can take quite a bit of time to sort out.
So we recommend that someone who knows the guest list should sit in the check-in area with a laptop and the power (authority) to make adjustments to the guest list to accommodate guests with seating issues (or just guests with issues in general).
Setting up your Check-in Area
It is one thing to have 600 people attend and plan for 9 check-in agents. It is another thing to put them in an area where 600 people and 9 agents can not fit! You would think that never happens but it does! Here are some things to consider when setting up your check-in area:
- Use a big enough room that can hold at least 25% or more of your guests. Make sure there is ample space to allow people to get in the door and get in line. Waiting outside for check-in may be uncomfortable if the weather is not suitable for long (or even short) periods of waiting.
- Do not put your check-in area right at the top or the bottom of an escalator. We will let you picture in your head what happens when you do that.
- Make sure your check-in area is well lit and has WIFI access for your stations (and power)
- Limit the extraneous noise in this area. That means no bands or entertainment. Just drinks (yes highly scientific studies show that giving a guest a drink when they arrive has shown to diffuse check-in stress by 90%).
- Check-in works best if your check-in volunteers are standing. This makes it easier to have a conversation with your guests without them having to lean over. This can be easily accommodated by using "high top" cocktail tables, easily rented at any event location.
Want to read more? See our attached ZEN and the Art of Check-in EBook.
Final Best Practices to Consider about Check-in
- If your biggest fear is a line, lines happen, but they don't always have to be flowing out of the door. If you have 600 people coming and all of them show up at once, you will inevitably have a line, just remember to keep things moving. This is a great example of why it can be helpful to have a greeter and strong check-in agents. To help alleviate any frustration of a line, consider offering a drink to those when they arrive to diffuse their line waiting stress. Often times guests are very understanding that there are lines. It's an event, they happen!
- Give your check-in staff water and mints. They will be speaking to a lot of people and their mouths will get dry. Not to mention, they will be in close proximity to people's faces and it's always nice to have nice minty breath!
- Our list of Don'ts
- DO NOT put paddle cards on tables. It often does not save time. If that card number is not tied to a registered bidder in Handbid, you will have a difficult time figuring out how to get that bidder registered and paid up at the end of the night (and for weeks to come). Especially if you conduct a paddle raise that requires volunteers to use an audit sheet/donation recorders.
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- DO NOT segment your check-in area by last name (unless you go through the pain of making sure the segments are all even). We have never seen this work well. Guests often will not realize that and go to any line available, often creating more confusion and frustration for your guests and check-in agents.
- DO NOT allow guests to arrive with auction items and hand them to your check-in staff. Have a process for getting these and putting them into Handbid so that it does not involve your check-in team taking responsibility for that item.
Need More Info?
- Download our Zen Checkin eBook
- Review our Webinar on Guest List Checkin
- Review our MasterClass Series on the Dreaded Checkin