Currently we do repair slot bookings manually with web requests, walk-ins, phone calls etc and logged on our Outlook calendar.
However, we use TicketTailor (instead of Tito or Eventbrite) when we run ticketed events.
We’re interested in exploring a system for booking repair slots and are interested to know what systems other use for this….anyone else use TicketTailor effectively for it?
(Part of our challenge as a Repair Café that’s open for 4 sessions each week, with volunteers that sign up with differing skills with about 1 - 2 week’s notice…how to offer repair slots based on actual availability…most calendar booking systems use gaps in calendars to offer meeting times for example, when we currently have slots created with specific volunteers with certain skills to marry up).
You might want to take a look at Frappe Helpdesk. It’s customisable & so with some mods may suit what you’re looking for. Neil - could you run a ruler over this & see how many boxes it’s likely to tick?
We loaded another Frappe offering - ERPNext (version 15)- onto our server here about two years ago for its POS (we’re also a charity shop) & it’s still running just fine & so can vouch for its stability - though we eventually went with Square instead. We’re looking at something else they do - Changemakers - to modify for our House to Home project.
Yes we now use TT at Fixing Factories, having previously used Eventbrite. However, we only offer 3 x 1hr slots at our Community Repair sessions with the rest being walk ins so it’s less of an issue than having to co-ordinate multiple slots with multiple expertise.
As Arthur has already stated, we use Ticket Tailor for a few events.
With Community Repair sessions (repair cafes) at both Hackney and Camden FFs, we allow 3 reserved slots, with first come first serve for the rest, and charge £5 for the ability to reserve. I have found local community prefer to pay to reserve than just turn up.
I sympathise with being able to guarantee the right fixer, that’s why we limit to 3 - one reserved spot per hour as we always have minimum one expert fixer present. We work to 1 week availability of volunteers.
Some other functionalities we are using:
custom questions for booking process - we ask what item they are bringing, which can help allocate the right fixer in advance.
create different ticket types with set maximum of tickets available across all the types-
EG. We use this for a Repair Drop Off service, with different tickets for the type of item being brought, where we are can limit the total overall tickets bought.
For example, if there are 3 ticket types
lamps, toasters etc x 6 available; (more available because they take less time to repair)
audio equipment x 3 avail;
coffee machines, blenders x 2 avail (less available because they take more time)
we can limit the total tickets bought for that event (or week) to 5 across all of these types, meaning we don’t receive more than 5 items in total, despite 11 (6+3+2)being theoretically listed.
asking for donations during the ticket booking process, and have found we routinely receive the suggested donation amount.
Other helpful points, but perhaps don’t differ much from other platforms:
Copying events is simple.
in case of last minute repairer drop outs you can contact the individuals booked and offer to transfer them to another date yourself (or provide a refund (if charging) / refund voucher so they can rebook).
Hope some of that is helpful - happy to answer any other specific questions around using it.