Selling Workshop Tickets on Your Own Site

Classes booked by email

September is when fall classes start: cooking nights, tastings, painting evenings, beginner workshops. Many small businesses still sell the places by email and phone, with cash on the day.

It works for the first few. Then two staff book the same seat, a regular reserves four places and brings one friend, and the list by the till no longer matches the room.

Payment on the day also means nothing from anyone who does not come. The empty seat costs the fee and the person who was turned away for it.

Tickets sold on your own site and paid for at booking solve most of this, with tools many shop systems already have.

What a ticket setup has to do

• Count the seats and stop selling when they are gone.
• Take payment at the moment of booking.
• Collect a name for every attendee, not just the buyer.
• Ask what you need, such as allergies or experience.
• Offer a waiting list once a date is full.
• Send reminders with the time, the place and what to bring.

The first is what email cannot do. A class listed with a stock of twelve sells twelve and then says sold out, whoever is at the till and whatever hour someone books.

Each date is a product

Most shop systems, including WordPress shops and Shopify, can treat each class date as its own product, with a stock count equal to the seats.

If a class runs on several dates, give each date its own product or its own option, so a popular Saturday can sell out while the Tuesday still has room.

List upcoming dates on one page, in date order, each with what it covers, how long it runs, the price and the seats left.

Take past dates down as they happen. A class from last spring still on sale is a refund waiting to be requested.

The class page itself

Each class needs a page that answers the questions people otherwise phone about: what you make or learn, what is included, how long it runs and whether beginners are welcome.

Add the practical details: age limits, what to wear, parking, and whether the room is accessible.

A photograph from a real class, with real people at the counter, does more than any description.

Waiting lists

When a date sells out, leave it on the page marked full, with a short form to join the waiting list. It shows demand, and it gathers the people to contact when a seat opens.

When someone cancels, offer the seat to the first name on the list by email, with a deadline. If they do not take it in time, offer it to the next.

A long waiting list is also the plainest sign that a class should run again.

A refund rule, written down

Decide the rule before the first ticket sells, and put it on every class page and in the confirmation email.

One common pattern: a full refund until a week before, then no refund, but the seat can go to a friend or move to another date.

Say what happens if you cancel, for example when too few people book. Then everyone gets their money back in full, without having to ask.

Keep the rule the same for every class, so nobody at the till has to decide case by case.

A worked example

A Caribbean restaurant in a suburban plaza runs a cooking class one Sunday afternoon a month from October to March. Jerk marinades one month, roti another, twelve places at the kitchen counter.

Places were booked by phone, by email and at the till, written in a notebook and paid in cash on the day.

Last season two classes were overbooked, because staff took reservations on different lists, and several people who booked never came, leaving empty seats that others had been told were taken.

No single list held the true count, and nobody had paid, so not coming cost nothing.

This fall each class date is a product in the restaurant's online shop, with the stock set to twelve and payment taken at booking. Full dates show a waiting list form.

The confirmation asks about allergies and repeats the refund rule. A reminder goes out two days before with parking and what to wear, and phone or counter bookings are entered through the same shop admin while the customer waits.

Reminders and the details people forget

Send a reminder two or three days before, with the date, time, address, parking and what to bring.

Repeat the cancellation rule, so someone who cannot come knows what to do with the seat, and give a phone number for the day itself.

Keep it a service message. Next month's classes can wait for the newsletter.

Tickets bought for someone else

Classes make popular gifts, more so as the year goes on. Let the buyer enter the attendee's name and email, and send the reminder to the attendee rather than the buyer.

Gift buyers usually want something to hand over. A printable page with the class name, the date and the attendee's name does the job.

If you sell gift certificates, decide whether they can pay for classes, and check that the checkout accepts them.

The counter-case

A business running one class a year, for a few people who all know the owner, may not need a full ticket setup. A sign-up form on the site with payment by e-transfer can be enough.

Free events with no fixed limit are simpler still: a registration form and a reminder do most of the job.

Once seats are limited and payment matters, though, sell each date as a product on your own site, with a waiting list, a refund rule and a reminder.

Before the first fall class

1. List each class date as a product.
2. Set the stock to the number of seats.
3. Take payment at the time of booking.
4. Ask for attendee names and allergies.
5. Add a waiting list form to full dates.
6. Publish the refund rule on every class page.
7. Enter phone bookings through the same system.

Step seven is what keeps the count true. A ticket system that only knows about online sales will happily sell a seat someone took over the phone an hour earlier.

The same discipline for other orders taken by phone is covered in phone orders entered through the website.

Frequently asked questions

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