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Slow payers, how to give incentive to pay

Forums: General Discussion
Created on: 07/28/08 11:21 AM Views: 1781 Replies: 10
Monday, July 28, 2008 at 11:21 AM

Someone in another thread said that their reunion is in sept and that people are really slow to pay. We're having the same problem.

We have two deadlines. One was as an incentive to get people to pay early at a lower price, the second was a slightly higher price for those who left it later.

For those that pay by Aug. 15th, the ticket price is $45. From Augh 16th - 29th, the price is $55. We have to give our final count to the venue a few days before our reunion and we chose those dates to allow cushion for people who are real slowpokes.

Well, our 'first' deadline is two weeks away and out of over 100 classmates indicating they are coming to the reunion, about 20 have paid. We're getting a bit worried.

We put a blurb on our website asking people to pay asap as those of us on the committee have forked out money out of pocket to pay deposits.

I will be sending a personal email to each person who has not paid reminding them of the upcoming deadline in two weeks. We are also implementing paypal on the site to help people to pay faster and more conveniently.

I'm sure other reunion committees experienced slow payers, so can you offer any tips on what you did to get people off their duffs to pay and not leave it to the last minute? Or is this something to be expected and will work out in the end that we will get a flurry of payments soon?

Ideas for incentives are greatly appreciated.

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Monday, July 28, 2008 at 11:49 AM - Response #1

I would think that this is a problem for most of us. We have our reunion on August 30 and we are way short on ticket purchases. If everyone who says they're coming acually do, we should be ok. But simply seeing an icon next to their name is not reassuring enough. We will be able to write a book on the do's and dont's of reunion planning which will help us with the next one. We thought that with the help of Class Creator it would be a lot easier than past reunions and it has. We didn't even start the planning until the end of last May. People said we were crazy to think we could pull it off in 3 months, but no one else had stepped up, so our small group took it on. We've done pretty well and everyone appreciates the effort, but they still won't pay. I send reminders via email and some respond, but it's like pulling teeth. Our discount ends 7/30 so we'll see what kind of response we get and I'll let you know.

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Monday, July 28, 2008 at 12:20 PM - Response #2

Get creative and make it a contest. Post that the X person (year of your class) can get a free ticket to the reunion.

This is what I am getting ready to launch...

*The classmate to purchase the 88th ticket will receive that ticket for free.
•   This ticket has been donated by a fellow classmate. Some of you may have noticed that the “Who has Paid” page was not being updated and then was completely removed awhile back. That was to get ready for our 88th Ticket Contest. To make things fair we did not want anyone to see how close or how far we were from this number. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 15th, after the payment deadline and will be reimbursed for their ticket.

(I am the classmate who donated this ticket but I just decided not to disclose that part.)

Also I am doing a jackpot raffle where they can purchase raffle tickets and 50% of the cash from this raffle will go into the "pot". One raffle ticket will be drawn on the night of the reunion and the winner will win the whole cash jackpot. They can't buy the raffle tickets without buying their tickets. I am going to keep a running total posted of the current "jackpot" total on the homepage.

Good luck you guys!

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Edited 07/28/08 12:21 PM
Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 5:15 AM - Response #3

Most people have paid, but we still have a few lazy holdouts. I can't believe some people and our reunion is a week today!

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Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 2:35 PM - Response #4

Hi - we have had some success getting people to pay with different incentives.

During the summer registration drive we gave away a pair of baseball tickets to the person who helped us find and successfully register the most people.

For the fall registration we are giving away a laptop to whoever helps register the most classmates or brings 3 or more corporate sponsors.
An example of how that was presented is at:
http://www.83phs.com/class_classmates_missing.cfm

For the people who have expressed an interest in attending but have not paid - you may want to make it easier for them to pay by sending them an electronic paypal invoice.

You can include an incentive/discount for paying the paypal invoice by a certain date to encourage more responses.

Our most effective method so far has been periodically adding fresh content to the site. We got an excellent spike in payment and paid registrations by adding the online yearbooks for highschool and then the junior high yearbooks.

We were also fortunate that someone had kept all of the old student newspapers that we were able to scan and put online.

Each time we took something like that and sent out a message about the cool new content online - more people registered and paid.

As you send out electronic messages - keep in mind that you may be reaching far fewer people than you might suspect depending on the email clients and spam filters involved.

Postcards with a picture of the reunion event and a polite reminder to pay online can also make quite a difference.

--Chris
Reunion@83PHS.com

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Saturday, September 13, 2008 at 8:32 PM - Response #5

Okay, I am ready for the book on do's and don't's!
I need help. I am now remembering that my class really didn't do much of anything. Not a bunch of go getters during high school. They won't donate or send pictures or update their profiles. Give us some words of wisdom!

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Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 1:38 PM - Response #6

I found that as the reunion approached, that people got more involved in the site.

Your reunion is a year away, so you need to create a website that entices your classmates to join.

We had our reunion last night and I got so many compliments on the site and the features. Many said there was no way in hell they would have come if it wasn't for the website.

Many said they really liked all the memories, trivia and old memorabilia from school that is on the site.

Get creative and as your site evolves, more people will join.

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Monday, September 15, 2008 at 6:22 PM - Response #7

Hi,

You can check out an example of our latest effort to get more people to register and pay at www.83phs.com.

We linked our registration database to a template similar to what we used to generate name badges. In the example, we generated a "Wanted" poster for each classmate based on their registration status - depending on whether they had registered and/or bought a ticket yet.

The individual "Wanted" posters were strung together in a video clip that is now at the top of our main page.

We are optomistic that a mix of making the content fun, encouraging more people to participate, and a some polite peer pressure will continue to encourge more paid registrations.

--Chris
reunion@83phs.com

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Monday, September 15, 2008 at 9:23 PM - Response #8

Hi!
I checked out your Wanted Poster. This is really cool. How did you create the poster? Microsoft Publisher? Powerpoint? I'd like to do the same for our site, if you would care to share. Thanks,
Kim
MAHS '88

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Monday, September 15, 2008 at 9:56 PM - Response #9

The link to the wanted poster will not open for me. I too am a PHS Class of 83 and all the cool easy domains are taken. Please see if you can send me the wanted poster.
Thanks,,,,
Mike

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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 1:06 AM - Response #10

Christopher Jensen wrote:

Hi,

You can check out an example of our latest effort to get more people to register and pay at www.83phs.com.

We linked our registration database to a template similar to what we used to generate name badges. In the example, we generated a "Wanted" poster for each classmate based on their registration status - depending on whether they had registered and/or bought a ticket yet.

The individual "Wanted" posters were strung together in a video clip that is now at the top of our main page.

We are optomistic that a mix of making the content fun, encouraging more people to participate, and a some polite peer pressure will continue to encourge more paid registrations.

--Chris
reunion@83phs.com

I really like that "WAnted" video! What a creative idea! The only thing I had a bit trouble with is the text moving too fast. I couldn't read it because it would change too quickly.

I agree that the site has to be made fun, interactive and positive. Everyone is so happy that we're keeping it open.

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