How can I set up Customer Self Service Rebooking

Introduction

With customer self-service rebooking, you can allow your customers to rebook their tickets independently. You can set up strategies to specify which tickets can be rebooked to which other tickets or events, ensuring that no unauthorised rebookings occur.

Reduced support effort for ticket buyers.
Maximum flexibility, as rebooking strategies can be defined down to the ticket type level.
Reduced no-show rate, as customers are offered the option to rebook their ticket if they cannot attend.
Minimise financial losses, as no refunds or credits are issued when rebooking to cheaper tickets.
Upsell opportunities, as rebooking to more expensive tickets is offered with additional rebooking fees possible.

Important: A new system fee is created for every ticket re-booked.

If you implement customer self-service rebooking, it’s important to clearly communicate this to your ticket holders - otherwise, how will they know this is available?

We recommend including this information on your website - typically within a FAQ or Ticketing Information section and/or on the event page or within your Terms & Conditions.

To reduce customer friction and maximise the benefits of self-service rebooking, this information should clearly outline your rebooking parameters, including:

Which ticket types can or cannot be rebooked, and any limitations
Whether tickets can be rebooked within the same event and/or across different events
Any applicable deadlines or cut-off times for rebooking
Advising that new booking fees may apply and/or a rebooking fee
Advising customers that no refunds or credits are issued when rebooking to cheaper tickets
Advising customers that if higher priced tickets are purchased, a payment will be required

To further support your customers, IWannaTicket also provides a step-by-step guide that you can share directly with ticket holders, or you can use this create your own branded guidance to suit your audience or brand. Locate this via the Ticket Buyer Support category in our help area or related articles and the end of this article.

Summary

Rebooking Strategy Settings

When using customer self-service rebooking, a rebooking strategy must be defined. Without such a strategy, customer self-service rebookings are not possible.

Deadline parameters can be optionally set to define the period during which customers can make self-service rebookings. This deadline applies to the entire strategy and all associated events. You can choose:

Hours, Days, Months or Years
Before or After the Event Start, Event End or Order Date

Customer Fee Settings - you can elect to set a rebooking fee that will be charged to the customer for each rebooking. This fee can be calculated either;

Ticket Fee (fee is applied to each ticket)
Checkout Fee (fee is applied to the whole order. If there are multiple checkout fees applying, the highest one will be used)

Customer Self-Service Rebooking Fee Offsetable

If this is disabled, the rebooking fee is due in full regardless of wheather the new ticket is cheaper. If enabled, the fee is offset against the newly selected tickets, reducing the rebooking accordingly if the new tickets are cheaper.

Rebooking Rule Settings

In the rules section, define which tickets the ticket buyer can rebook to from their original tickets. Without defined rules, rebookings are not possible. Within a rebooking strategy, you can define multiple rules to cover all possible scenarios.

Define "From"

Specify which tickets are available for rebooking. You can choose;

Ticket groups, Individual ticket types, or All ticket types
Events from which tickets can be rebooked "from"

Multiple tickets and events can be specified. Note that each selected ticket can subsequently be rebooked to tickets defined in the "To" section.

Note: Use ticket groups if already defined in your event, e.g., through cart automations. Otherwise, we recommend using ticket types.

Define "To"

Now select to which tickets and events the previously defined "From" tickets can be rebooked. Again, you can choose ticket groups, ticket types, or all ticket types of an event.

Note: Within a rule, each ticket from the "From" section can be rebooked to any ticket in the "To" section. If exceptions are needed, define them through a new rule within the same rebooking strategy.

Help Guide

Step 1 - Create and configure Customer self-service rebooking "settings" & "rules"

Click Settings (via Account Menu), then and select Rebooking Strategies from Settings sub-menu
Click Create, choose an internal name for recognition in the dashboard, then click Create
All exsisting strategies will be listed in the menu, click Edit to configure settings
Name the Strategy
Configure the Deadline (After expiry of the deadline, rebooking is no longer possible)
Configure an additional Fee (optional), (as a reminder, the original customer charges are not rebookable and will be retained by you, the customer will also be required to pay any applicable booking fees on the new order.
Toggle on or off if you would like the rebooking fee to be offsetable (refer to the summary for further detail)
Click Save

In the Rules section, click Add, then Edit and Name the new rule
In the From section define the Type and Event/s
In the To section define the Type and Event/s
Click Save

Step 2 - Activate Strategy

After defining the rebooking strategy, self-service rebooking can be activated at two different levels:

Event Level: Activate self-service rebooking for a specific event. These settings can be overridden at the ticket type level.
Ticket Type Level: Activate or modify self-service rebooking for a specific ticket type.

Pro Tip: It's best to set up self-service rebooking at the event level and only modify settings for specific ticket types as needed.

Activate self-service rebooking at the event level (most common)

Open the Event, click Sales (from the event menu) and stay in the General Tab
Scroll down to the Rebooking section and select the desired strategy from the dropdown menu.
Click Save to confirm your changes.

Activate self-service rebooking at the ticket type level

Open the Event, click Ticket Categories (from the event menu). Open the ticket type settings for the desired ticket (access the ticket type settings by clicking edit from the 3 dot icon)
Within the General tab, scroll to the Rebooking section and select the desired strategy from the dropdown menu.
Click the x (top right hand corner to close the ticket type settings pop out)
Then ensure you click Save to confirm your changes.