Here are a few recommendations when changing your list settings so you don’t inadvertently remove people from one of your lists.
Adjusting age or birthdate ranges
For example, if you had a 0-1yr and a 1-2yr list and you wanted to change it to 0-6m and 6-24m.
Make all changes in one edit session.
Make sure the entire range is covered in your new lists. For example, if your max age was 5y, and your new set of lists has a max age of 4y, everyone who was 4-5y will be removed from a list.
Converting age or birthdate based lists to manual
Step 1 – Merge all lists into a single age/birthdate list that covers the entire age range, and save the change. e.g. If your youngest list has a min age of 0y and your oldest list has a max age of 5y, create a single list with a min age of 0y and a max age of 5y.
Step 2 – Now that all people are on a single list, edit the list again and change the Placement to Manual
The Customer Signup Form allows your customers the ability to complete their waitlist signup from any device, at any time. They will not need to create an account to do this.
This feature is part of our Customer Portal which gives your customers self-service access to some activities within your waitlist including signup, confirmation, and removal.
Setup
To enable or make changes to your signup form to Go to Settings > Site Settings > Customer Signup Form. Below is an overview of what each of the fields on this settings page does.
Active – The Active checkbox will turn this feature on. When not checked your customers will not be able to see the form.
Get Email Notification– If checked you will be sent an email each time a new person is added to your list via this signup form.
Go to Portal after signup – After completing the signup process would you like the customer to be sent to their portal page. The portal must be active for this to work. If not checked, they will be directed to a basic page with a generic “success” message.
Special Instructions – Here you can enter a message that will be shown to your customers at the start of the signup process under “Waitlist Instructions”. If you leave this blank that step will be skipped.
Links to the signup form
Now that you have your signup form all set up you need to direct customers to it. The most common ways to do this are to put a link to the signup form somewhere on your website, or include the link in an email. Directly below the settings, you’ll see a section for Signup Form Links.
Depending on how your lists are setup, you may have multiple links you can use from. Pick the list link(s) that best work for you.
Links for manual placement lists – If you have Manual Placement lists, you will have a unique link for each list. This will default to the specified list and will not allow the customer to change it.
Link for auto placement lists (Age or Birthdate) – If you have one or more Age or Birthdate based lists, this link will default to that set of lists. When adding a person to a list, it will require a birthdate and will automatically select the correct list. The customer will not be allowed to change it.
Link for default signup page – customer will have to select list – This link will allow the customer to select any list they like including Age or Birthdate based lists.
Questions
What fields can my customers see?
All form fields with Show on Online Form turned on will be shown in the Customer Signup Form. Of course they also need to be enabled for the person type (Child/Adult) that is currently being created.
For the best customer experience we recommend you don’t embed the signup form in your website. With the numerous device sizes and modern browser security features, it’s not an optimal experience for your customers. If you are really sure that this is the best route for you, you could have your website developer use an iframe to do this. While this may be possible and you are welcome to try it, we do not provide support for this method.
There may be situations when you want a person to appear on multiple lists. For example, at a medical office, your patients may be interested in seeing multiple doctors and you want individual lists for each doctor. You can enable multiple lists on your account which will allow a person to be added to 1+ lists.
When checked, the user will see an Additional List button near the bottom of the form. When clicked, an additional waitlist form will appear. Depending on what fields you have visible this may include the List Name, Date Added, and Requested Start Date.
Alternatives
If you want to group people in some way but would prefer to keep them on a single list, you could use a custom field. People will select the value(s) that pertain to them, and then you can filter your list based on their selection. This is covered in detail for a scenario with Multiple Locations, but you can apply the principal to other situations as well.
If you have customers who are signing up multiple times and creating duplicate submissions, you can enable a feature to prevent this with the Prevent Duplicate Signups setting.
Setup
Go to Settings > Site Settings > Site Details and click the check box next to Prevent Duplicate Signups
How it works
When this setting is on, we will look to see if any people on your list are using the same email. If the person with the same email address is not part of the current family, and they have a family member who is actively on the list, they will see the below error.
You can give your customers access to remove themselves from your list, or confirm their interest in it.
How to Access
There are two different ways a customer can get to this confirmation page. They can click on a confirm link you have added to one of your emails, or they can visit the page from their unique customer portal Url.
Email Link
In your email content, you can add a link or button that will take them directly to the confirmation page. Adding this to your email reminder content is a great way to keep your lists updated.
Customer Portal
If you have your Customer Portal turned on and have sent customers their unique URL, they can visit that portal at any time and click on the “Remove From List” link which will take them to the confirmation page.
Confirmation Checkmark
When someone confirms their interest in the list, we record the date they did so. On your list their name will have a green checkmark icon next to it. If you hover over it, you will see the last date that they confirmed their interest.
Removal
If your customer chooses to remove themselves from the list. They will automatically be taken off the list. Their information will still be available in the system, and you can search for them by name if needed. They will also appear on your home page in the Recently Removed widget.
Email reminders are a great way to keep your customers engaged and informed, and to also keep your list updated and accurate.
When turned on, your customers will be sent an email on a periodic basis to remind them that they are still on your list. The content of this email is fully customizable, and can include links for your customers to confirm their interest, remove themselves from the list, and/or visit their portal page to see their status.
Setup
Go to Settings > Site Settings > Reminders. Below is an overview of what each of the fields on this page does.
Active – The Active checkbox will turn this feature on and start sending emails within 24 hours.
Frequency – The number of months between the sending of email reminders. See below for detail on when an email is sent.
Customization
As covered in the Email Content help doc, you can fully customize the Subject and Body of your email. There is one placeholder that you should be aware of for Reminder Emails, the Confirm placeholder.
The Confirm placeholder provides a link or button for your customer to click on that takes them to your portal. There they can Confirm their spot on the list, or Remove themselves from the list.
The placeholder for a button is <confirm-button>. Alternatively, if you would rather have a text link that takes them to the same place, you can use <confirm-link>.
FAQ
When are emails sent?
The first reminder email will be sent out based on the Added Date of the customer and the interval you have set. The next emails will be sent based on the send date of the previous reminder email and the interval you have specified.
Example Scenario:
In this example, we activated this feature on June 1, and set the Frequency to 3 months
Person
List Added Date
First Email Sent
Second Email Sent
Notes
Jack
January 1
June 1
September 1
Reminder sent today because this person has already been on the list for 3 months
Jill
February 4
June 1
September 1
Even though they were added at different dates. Jack and Jill will be on the same schedule. Since they both start today.
Bob
March 9
June 9
September 9
Bob will get his first email in a few days as he has not been on the list for 3 months yet
Betsy
April 11
July 11
October 11
If you have people on the list who have been on for a while they may all get an email right away when you turn this feature on. If they have been on the list for longer than your frequency, they will all get an email within 24 hours of making this feature active.
Can I set the frequency to less than 1 month?
Unfortunately not. One month is the minimum frequency. WaitlistPlus is a long-term waiting list solution and most customers are on the waitlist for many months or years. Getting frequent emails over a long period of time could be a frustrating experience for customers.
In addition to a better user experience, we also need to protect email deliverability. Sending emails too frequently can trigger SPAM complaints, and can lead to future emails being blocked.
At the heart of WaitlistPlus is the ability to collect information from your customers. We have a default form which collects basic contact information, but you have the ability to customize this form in a few ways.
To make changes to your forms to Go to Settings > Site Settings > Form Fields.
Create New Fields
Near the bottom of the Form Fields settings page, click on the “Add Field” button. Here you can fill out all of the details for your new custom form field. For details on what each of these form field properties control, see below under Customize Fields.
Customize Fields
When adding or editing a form field, there are many properties which you can change to control the look and behavior of the field. These properties are:
Name
This will be the primary way to identify a form field. It will appear as a label next to the field on your form.
Required
When checked, this field will be required when visible. You will not be able to save the form unless this field has been filled out. Required fields will have an asterisk (*) next to the name on the form.
Show for Children/Adults
If you have a field that only applies to a child or adult, this is how you can determine which person types will see the field.
Show on Online Form
If checked, this field will show on the Customer Signup Form. All fields will show in the Admin area of WaitlistPlus regardless of this setting.
Show on List
When checked, the value input will be displayed on your list. See below: The green pills are values input for two custom form fields.
Notes
This is additional text that will appear as a popup from the blue information circle next to your field’s name. If you leave this blank, the blue icon will not be displayed.
Type
The type property controls how the field appears in the form, and what type of inputs it will accept.
For system fields, the type cannot be changed. WaitlistPlus requires that these fields stay somewhat consistent as they are used throughout the app for various purposes. e.g. we send emails using the Email system field, we depend on that field being a valid email address.
Here is a list of all available types:
Textbox
Allows the user to type in their response for this field.
Medium Textbox
Same as above, but it’s twice as long to allow for slightly longer responses.
Big Textbox – Multiline
This is a much larger text box and allows for longer responses which may be full sentences or paragraphs. It will take up the full width of the page and multiple lines. It’s also expandable by the user if they really have a lot to type.
Date
This field type will provide a popup calendar and will make sure that the user enters a valid date.
Dropdown – Select One Option
A dropdown will be presented with a list of options specified in the Dropdown Options property. The user can select at most, one option. You can add as many options here as you like. Click Enter or add a comma to separate options.
Dropdown – Select Multiple Options
Similar to the above dropdown, but the user can select as many options as they like.
File Upload
Will prompt the user to select a file from their device and upload it to WaitlistPlus.
Change Field Order
The order in which the fields appear on the form can be changed. To change, go to the Form Fields settings page, grab the three dot icon just to the left of the field name, and drag the field up or down.
This order will be used when the form is displayed on the screen. The fields will be placed on the form in a left to right, top to bottom manner.
If you already have a long list of people on your list and want to import them into WaitlistPlus, we will import the list for you.
Requirements
You have a file that contains your list. Typically this is a csv, xls, xlsx file, but we could process other formats as well. See below for File Layout tips
You have paid for a 1 year subscription.
Steps To Import a List
Create a WaitlistPlus account
Setup your lists and custom fields and test out your setup during your free trial period
Send us a copy of the file you’d like to import so we can review it and let you know if:
It’s importable or not
If there are any changes we need you to make to the file, or your account setup
Pay for your 1 year subscription
Send us a recent copy of your list with any changes made that we have requested
Wait. We usually are able to process imports within a few days if not the same day. It partly depends on how much we have to modify the file to do the import.
File Layout
There are a couple basic rules that if followed we will almost always be able to import your data.
All members of a family should be on the same row. If you have two parents, and 1 child, they should all have their own columns on a single row. For example:
Name fields should be separated into columns for each part. In the example above, there is a column for first, and one for last name.
Each person on the list should have a DateAdded column. This is the indicator that a person should be added to a list, and is not just a family member added for additional information.
If you have date based lists, you must include a Birthdate column that has a valid date.
Can I import my data for use during my trial period?
Unfortunately not. We require a paid 1 year subscription to help offset the cost of doing the import. Every list we get is different and usually takes a few hours by a human to review and massage the data to guarantee a successful import.
While we understand there may be benefits to having your own data for a trial, that’s not really the purpose of our 30 day trial. The purpose of the trial is to learn the features of the software, and give you a chance to configure your account to your liking. This can easily be done by entering some fake person information, and/or your own information.
If you are happy with your account setup and would like to make a purchase prior to the expiration of the 30 day trial, that is perfectly fine.
There are a few emails which can be sent automatically by WaitlistPlus. You can modify the content of these emails.
Editing Email Content
Go to Settings > Site Settings > Email Content and click Edit next to the email content you would like to edit.
The Edit page allows you to modify the Subject and Body of the email that will be sent
Change Colors
The color of your emails can be updated to match your brand colors. The colors that appear in the email are the same colors you have specified in the Customer Portal configuration. To change those colors, go to Settings > Site Settings > Customer Portal and change the Primary Color and Secondary Color options.
Adding content from your list
Within the body of the email you can add placeholders that will be replaced with information about the people on your list. In the example above, the placeholder <to-person-first> will be replaced with the first name of the recipient of the email.
Placeholders
Below is a list of placeholders and an example output for an email sent to “Marry Poppins” about her daughter “Emma” who is on the waiting list.
Placeholder
Description
Sample
<person>
The full name of the person on the waitlist
Emma Poppins
<person-first>
The first name of the person on the waitlist
Emma
<person-last>
The last name of the person on the waitlist
Poppins
<to-person>
The full name of the recipient of this email
Marry Poppins
<to-person-first>
The first name of the recipient of this email
Marry
<to-person-last>
The last name of the recipient of this email
Poppins
<confirm-button>
A button that will allow your customer to update their status
<confirm-link>
A link that will allow your customer to update their status
<portal-button>
A button to the customer portal for this person
<portal-link>
A link to the customer portal for this person
Custom Button Placeholder
If you have another url that you need to send your customers to and would like to add a styled button you can add a placeholder formatted as below.
