Streamline Your Checkout Process for a Better Show Experience

[sarahsellcm]

I do this at my show but am trying to make it better. How do you all go about checkout time?

 

[wadesgirl]

I tell them at the end of the show that I will take orders one at a time "over there" (where ever there is it's usually not any where near the food or display table if I can help it). This way I can talk to people one on one. If someone drops and order and runs, I wait for them to come back. That's about it. I do have host packets, recruiting packets and business cards waiting along with my calendar and calculator.

 

[lkprescott]

I set up my laptop before the show starts so once folks are ready with their order, I'm ready too. I tell them to bring them up to the laptop and I take them, one at a time, entering the info to verify totals (most folks don't like figuring out their sales tax) and explaining the Round Up thing (I get a lot more folks to round up this way too), asking them how they liked the show and if they'd like to host one of their own. I've tried it other ways like trying to sit with each person and me moving around the room but it was exhausting and people played musical chairs... I've also just collected orders and made announcements about hosting and such and got no bookings. With the set up I tried at just one show with less than 10 folks showing, I got an order form nearly every adult there, 2 bookings and lots of praise on how things were so orderly. The best part, the orders were already entered into P3... if I didn't have a laptop though I'd set up a check out station for folks to bring their orders up to.

 

[riggs62]

I have a hard time with people bottlenecking up in line at the ordering station. And I feel awkward asking everyone about booking and the business with people behind them. I heard somewhere to have guest stack their orders at the end of the table and to enjoy the food while they wait for you to call them in the order that they stacked them up. I'll be doing this at my next show.
HTH

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

I saw the cooking shows demo and like what she said about putting all the orders in a pile and calling people up one at a time so they could socialize.

I have yet to try this ... since most of my shows have been catty shows and not the live variety ... and at one show, the husband was watching TV in the living room when the party ended which means there was really no place I could pull the one and only guest aside ... and at the other show I was so tired I could barely think straight and the one and only customer didn't want to get off the couch ... and at the third show both guests booked book shows but neither bought ... what a wealth of experience I am ...