Professional Guest List Management : Top Tips. RSVP Master Series Managing your Guest Lists. My Top Tips will give you the low down on guest lists.

Transcription

1 RSVP Master Series Managing your Guest Lists My Top Tips will give you the low down on guest lists. 2

2 AUTHOR PAGE: Terry Sutherland Terry Sutherland is the founder of the RSVP Agency and has extensive experience in the development of RSVP solutions for clients across industries. Rene Fletcher Rene Fletcher has worked across a number sectors and managed many large scale RSVP projects. Rene has deep insights into the challenges that Event Organizers face running a professional RSVP Project from concept to conclusion. 3

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS: TIP 1: Sourcing your lists 6 TIP 2: Creating a master list 7 TIP 3: Excel guest list set up 8 TIP 4: Excel Data Manipulation 9 TIP 5: Online RSVP 10 TIP 6: Communication 11 TIP 7: Reporting 12 TIP 8: List update 13 4

4 Background Managing RSVP guest lists is more complicated than you think Managing guest lists for a large and important event is key to a successful outcome. This ebook will give you the top tips and tools to allow you to avoid pitfalls and efficiently manage the most complex guest lists for the largest events. Use our Top Guest list management tips for every event, large and small. 5

5 TIP 1: Sourcing client lists Sourcing and compiling guest lists can be tricky because guest information can reside in many different places within an organisation. Customer information resides the following places and is a source for lists for your event. 1. Corporate CRM: Guest information could reside in a corporate CRM system that store basic customer demographic information 2. Microsoft Outlook: A great deal of customer contact information is stored in contact management systems like Microsoft Outlook. Typically the most updated addresses are stored in Outlook 3. Past Event Invite Lists: Past event lists store client information regarding past event attendees 6

6 TIP 2: Create a Master list per guest category Once you have identified all of the sources of guest information, a single guest list should be compiled per guest category. Potential guest categories could include: 1. Client list 2. VIP list 3. Media list 4. Staff list There must only be 1 MASTER LIST per guest list. Creating multiple versions will create management challenges. Ideally, a single person will be responsible for each single list. The fields that each master list should contain include: 1. First Name 2. Last Name 3. Address 4. Landline Number 5. Mobile Number 6. Company name Microsoft Excel is the most common technology to create client and manipulate client data. 7

7 TIP 3: Excel Guest List Setup Microsoft Excel is an accessible and ideal tool to do high level client list manipulation. In order to ensure the best possible result for your event, you need to create the highest possible quality lists. Excel has much better data manipulation capabilities then Microsoft Word. For example with Excel, you will be able to create client list format with the a column for each field of data you need to collect for each client. At a minimum the following fields of data needs to be collected: 1. Title 2. First name 3. Last name 4. Company 5. address 6. Cell number 7. Landline The excel document should appear as follows: 8

8 TIP 4: Excel Data Manipulation Once you have your data structured in Microsoft Excel, you will be in a position to manipulate the data in the following ways using the following scripts and techniques: 1. Duplicates: Especially when working with large lists or having lists submitted from various people. One will generally find duplicate guests on a list, this is often due to the incorrect spelling of names or incorrect addresses. 2. Incorrect address format 3. Mobile number format 4. Sentence case 5. Split first name and last name 6. Filters: Never submit an Excel list with filters enabled. Others won t know your filtering criteria and programs will also import the non-filtered rows as Excel has only temporarily hidden the information so you will land up with unwanted guests added to your list. 9

9 TIP 5: Online RSVP Once you have assembled your list/s, they will then need to be uploaded onto an online RSVP system to send out the s. When using the online RSVP system, the online database must be treated as the MASTER list as it will update guest information online (as and when information is filled in) keeping it current. These lists (whether guests have accepted or declined) may be downloaded into an excel spread sheet format. Make sure you date each list thus ensuring the list you are working with is the most current. You will need to upload your data in another program likely to be in excel Make the column headings be the following: 10

10 TIP 6: Communication Communication: Always consider varied communication and follow up methods. Make use of: 1. and web integrated Invitations & RSVP Management system, 2. SMS reminder (an additional service of ours) and 3. call downs (follow-up call on whether guests have received the invitation and RSVP on their behalf) 11

11 TIP 7: Reporting The RSVP Invitation & Management System will download all the information you have requested in the online invitation into an excel spread sheet for you (it can be as detailed as you like - shirt size, glove size, handy cap, do you need a golf cart, will you be staying for the prize giving and Dinner etc.) The RSVP Management System will take the pain away from manually having to consolidate and populate forms. It will download the dietary requirements for your guest and much more. Reports are now at the touch of a button and right at your fingertips. 12

12 TIP 8: List update During the RSVP process, you will need to continue to update your guest information. Guest information ages very quickly 13

13 ABOUT THE RSVP AGENCY The RSVP Agency offers a professional service with an outstanding track record in the management of RSVP projects. We have developed the most user friendly and cost effective Invitation and RSVP Management Solution in the industry today, making our services and user friendly technology the perfect match for any company or individual that requires a full RSVP service. Our Vision To empower our clients to use us for every event large or small, every day at better value than any competitor Contact RSVP Agency Terry@rsvpagency.co.za 14

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