When parents make a booking, they have to enter their name and email address. But you can ask for other information too, by setting up custom fields. Read on to learn more about this useful feature, and how we've added a couple of enhancements that make it even more valuable.
First of all, we've given custom fields their own page. Instead of scrolling all the way down the Advanced settings page, go to the EVENT page and click the Custom fields link at the top.
When you get there, you'll see you can now have custom fields for students, as well as parents. Parent custom fields are useful for information relating to the person doing the booking, like their mobile number for instance. But now you can collect information about each individual student too, like their age, food allergies, or sports grades.
And if you've used custom fields before, chances are you were frustrated when some parents didn't fill them in. In which case, you'll love the new optional/required setting. This prompts the parent if they leave a required field blank - we insist that parents complete the custom field before they can make a booking.
As an example, lets say your school wants to take registrations for a student boat trip. You want to know the parent's mobile phone number in case of emergencies, and whether each student needs a life-jacket or will bring their own.
If your field requires a yes or no answer, add "(Y/N)" to the name to make this obvious. We've done this with the lifejacket field.
You may be tempted to use longer custom field names, like "Does this student need a lifejacket or can they supply their own?". This will make the form much harder to read, so it's not a good idea. Instead, consider adding special instructions (on the EVENT page) for Step 1 instead - perhaps "Students may bring their own lifejackets, but school lifejackets are available if required. if you need one, please enter "Y" below.".
We used capitals for the form names, because all field names in our forms are converted to upper case, including custom fields. And here's the resulting page that parents will see:
Beautiful! Simple and easy for parents to fill in, but still getting all the information you need. As always, if you've got any questions or just want to make sure you've got the setting right, just email or phone us via our CONTACT US page.
Happy bookings!
Last updated Thu 7 Mar 2019 by MessageMyWay Support.