If you accept reservations, Punchpass lets you create a waitlist for any class you want in Punchpass. This article explains how to turn waitlists on, how customers can be added to the waitlist (by themselves or you), and what happens when a spot opens up in class. We also list a few caveats and 'things to be aware of' when using waitlists.
Setting Up the Waitlist Feature
You have options for how Punchpass will handle Waitlists, this is decided by the selection in the Online Reservations section. Your options are to email everyone when a spot becomes available or to autofill the available spot(s).
As an Admin, with waitlists active, you can override these settings at any time and manually move a customer off the waitlist.
1. Update your Online Reservation Settings
Under Manage > Settings, in Online Reservations, you can choose either the Confirmation option (default) or the Autofill option for your waitlists.
Confirmation option: When a spot opens up, the customers on the waitlist are all emailed about the opening. They receive the following email and can click to book. The first customer who claims the spot will get in the class.
This option benefits your business as the priority is getting any customer to actively claim the open spot in the class, however, there is no priority for the customer who got on the waitlist first.
2. Autofill option: When a spot opens up, the first customer on the waitlist is automatically added to the class. They will receive a confirmation email letting them know that they have been moved off the waitlist and into the class.
This prioritizes the customer who signs up first on the waitlist, HOWEVER, you may have these customers "no show" and claim to not have received the confirmation email. We recommend creating a policy for how to handle that scenario for your business.
2. Turn Waitlists ON for the Desired Classes
By default, waitlists are OFF and need to be enabled for an individual type of class. To do so, go to Manage > Classes, select the class, then click Edit. The waitlist option is in the Reservations Settings of the class.
How Customers Are Added to the Waitlist
Note: For ticketed classes, when someone moves off the waitlist, they will automatically be assigned an unpaid pass and you'll need to follow up with them to collect payment.
Waitlist Option 1: Someone Reserves a Spot in a Full Class
Your customers will be prompted to sign up for the Waitlist whenever the class limit is reached. Here's what happens and the screens your customer will see:
Class Full - Waitlist Sign Up:
When a customer clicks the "Add Me To The Waitlist" button they are prompted to confirm their reservation.
Waitlist Confirmation:
After pressing the "Yes - Add Me To The Waitlist" button, the customer is redirected to a confirmation screen.
Waitlist Reservation Confirmation:
From the Admin side, when a customer signs up for a class waitlist, we send YOU a notice that a waitlist reservation for the class was created and that a customer signed up for it.
We do NOT send the customer an email. Instead, we let them know an email will be sent if a spot opens up/if they are auto-added to the class.
Waitlist Option 2: Manually Make the Waitlist Reservation
As an Admin user, you can make class reservations for your customers using the standard Add a New Reservation form on the class details page. This also allows you to add customers to Waitlist and move them off of it!
A few things to be aware of:
As an Admin, you can always create a reservation for a customer and this also means you can overbook your classes.
To manually add a customer to the waitlist, you need to check off the "Add the customer to the waitlist" option, or a standard reservation will be created.
Here is what the class details page looks like to an Admin user when there are two people on the waitlist:
How the Waitlist Process Works
When a customer reservation is canceled, moved to a different class, or the # of spots available for a class is changed, Punchpass reviews the class to see if there is now a spot available.
From Waitlist to Class Reservation Option 1: Email Everyone
With this option selected in your Online Reservation settings, when a spot in a class becomes available, Punchpass sends an email to everyone on the waitlist:
In order to claim the spot in class customers need to click on the link in the email, and then click the Yes - I'll Take The Spot button.
If the spot has been taken, then the customers will see:
If your plan includes customer logins, customers on the waitlist will be able to claim the spot from their account:
If they are the first to claim the spot, we send them to the reservation confirmation page and send them an email. If they aren't the first (and there are no spots left) we let them know the spot has been filled.
For ticketed classes and ticketed series, a customer will be automatically assigned an unpaid ticket and prompted to pay in the reservation confirmation email.
From the Admin side of Punchpass, once the customer has been added to the class reservations from the waitlist, they'll appear as having an unpaid ticket:
From Waitlist to Class Reservation Option 2: Autofill the Spot
With this option selected in your Online Reservation settings, when a spot in a class becomes available, Punchpass automatically adds the first person on the waitlist to the class.
The customer will receive a reservation confirmation email to let them know they have been added to the class.
For ticketed classes and series, a customer will be automatically assigned an unpaid ticket and prompted to pay in the reservation confirmation email.
From the Admin side of Punchpass once the customer has been added to the class reservations from the waitlist, they'll appear as having an unpaid ticket:
From Waitlist to Class Reservation Option 3: Manually Edit a Reservation
As an Admin, you can always move a customer from the Waitlist and into class. Punchpass allows an Admin to make reservation decisions for their own classes, so you can overbook your own classes if you like!
If you wish to place someone into the class from the waitlist, you can do this from the Class Details page by clicking the 3 dots next to their name and then clicking Move From Waitlist to Regular Reservation.
For full classes, you will be prompted to confirm and acknowledge that you understand this will overbook the class when moving a customer off the waitlist.
And when you manually move a customer to have a class reservation, they're sent an automated email to let them know they have a reservation for the class.
Waitlist Tips
Waitlists are NOT a guarantee that your class will be full. There are LOTS of reasons why a customer may not receive or see the email.
Confirmation: Customers have to take action in order to claim their spot OR they may not check their email
Autofill: The customer may not see the email.
A Series will support a waitlist only if the class it is based on has the waitlist feature enabled.
Waitlist reservations for ticketed classes and ticketed series are assigned as unpaid. This means if they are accepted off the waitlist, they are assigned an unpaid ticket and prompted to pay, but might not have!
Waitlists and Series
When creating a series, if the class your series is based on allows waitlists, there is a waitlist for the series only. We do not allow the individual classes in a series to have a waitlist.
This only impacts classes included in a series, so your other class times are not impacted.
Frequently Asked Questions
I created a class with a waitlist, it's set to be eligible for passes and tickets. How will the waitlist work?
If the full class accepts passes and tickets, we will apply an unpaid ticket when the customer moves off the waitlist.