(Almost) Everything Doubleknot Can Do (in about 75 seconds)

We’re very pleased to present our new “explainer” video, which covers the scope of Doubleknot’s solutions in a little over a minute. Click below to watch, and let us know what you think!

A registered National Historic Landmark located in Ely, Nevada, the Nevada Northern Railway Museum (NNRY) maintains the original railway locomotives, rolling stock, track, passenger station and buildings that served the historic copper mining region of Central Nevada for over a century. As the best-preserved example of a standard-gauge short-line in North America, NNRY has received multiple tourism awards and has been featured in seven episodes of The History Channel show American Restorations.

After using Altru for six years, NNRY sought an integrated solution that better met their needs for ticketing, reservations, memberships, donations and merchandise sales, including reservations and discounts for multi-night lodging.

Selecting the right system would lay the groundwork for NNRY’s continued growth and success. NNRY selected Doubleknot.

Since implementing Doubleknot, NNRY reports:

• A 400 percent increase in online donations with a donation request integrated into the checkout process
• A 33 percent increase in reservations
• An overall upward trend in revenues booked online compared to call-in sales

Read the complete case study here!

IMPORTANT: 15 Minutes of Testing Will Save Hours of Frustration

We frequently receive calls asking us to change an event configuration after the event has opened for registration. These changes can frustrate to your constituents and create challenges for data reporting.To avoid these issues, follow this general procedure to test your event before you make it open to the public:

1. Paste the event URL into a browser in which you are not logged in to Doubleknot.
2. Add two of each registrant type to the registration.
3. Continue the registration process. Be sure to complete each form for each registrant and for the overall registration to ensure that the right forms are being displayed at the right time.
4. When you reach the shopping cart, click any Fix It items that are displayed and enter the requested information.
5. If discounts can apply to this purchase, test every variation of the discount.

As you go through the process, ask the following questions:

• Did I ask for the same information twice? For example, this can happen when you ask for name and contact information in the registrant attributes and on a form. (Use registrant attributes whenever you can to simplify registration for your visitors.)
• Is there a form that should be assigned to the overall registration that’s actually assigned to each registrant?
• Are any forms assigned to the wrong registrant type?
• Are required forms and fields clearly marked as required?
• Are optional forms clearly marked as not required?
• Are the correct costs displayed?

Following these simple steps will result in a better experience for your customers and staff. And remember, Doubleknot will always provide a free review of your event configuration to make sure that it’s as easy and efficient for your customers as possible. (If you want to take advantage of our free event review, we need at least three days of advance notice. Contact us at doubleknot@doubleknot.com for more information or to request a review.)

Best Practice: Use Integrated POS/MPOS for On-Site Sales

Admission-based nonprofits are unique, with enterprise-level requirements for ticketing, registrations and reservations as well as nonprofit-only needs like fundraising and membership management.

But, most POS solutions are designed for the for-profit entertainment industry, and don’t easily support the additional ways that nonprofits generate revenue. If your ticketing, admissions and retail sales aren’t fully integrated with your membership, registrations, reservations and donations, you might face the following problems:

• You have to configure everything in two systems: one for online purchases and one for payments at your site.
• Fees may be higher. Generic payment solutions can have less favorable terms than the ones you’ve already negotiated.
• Because payments are recorded in another database, you have to manually consolidate sales and registration information from different systems for accounting.
• You can’t access purchases that a customer already made online, so you can’t update registrations or collect outstanding payments and have the information automatically updated in your records.

In addition, separate payment solutions fail to capture every constituent interaction in a single database for reporting and analytics.

To empower our clients to save time and money, Doubleknot offers Sales Station, a complete front-desk/front-gate/retail POS solution with support for industry-standard peripherals like ticket printers, receipt printers, scanners and more. With Doubleknot and Sales Station, you set up everything you offer to the public once, and it’s available for sale directly to customers through a web browser, or at your site at a Sales Station register.

And, the Sales Station mobile app for iOS delivers the flexibility of a mobile payment system with the power of our integrated database so you can sell and validate tickets, update registrations, collect donations and sell merchandise anywhere. The Sales Station app for iOS eliminates the need to set up an unrelated system for mobile sales, which saves money on processing fees as well as administrative time to set up and reconcile different systems.

So, no matter it’s purchased, every admission ticket, special event, camp and class registration, birthday party reservation, field trip, membership purchase or donation is recorded in a single integrated database with comprehensive analytics and reporting tools for a 360-view of your constituents.

With Doubleknot and Sales Station, you can:

• Add easy-access buttons to the Sales Station screen for any event, reservation, membership, merchandise or donation
• Add anything to a purchase (even if it’s not assigned to a button) with a few simple taps
• Reduce wait time and speed admissions by using the Sales Station app on iPads and iPhones as a pop-up ticket or membership booth
• Look up registrants and attendees, update registrations and collect payments anywhere
• Ask for donations to support an exhibit as visitors exit, and accept donations at special events on or off your site
• With roaming membership sales, convert visitors to members and credit the cost of today’s admission against the membership price
• Go Green with our optional paperless solution that includes electronic signature capture, electronic receipts and mobile ticket delivery and display!

Support for the Sales Station mobile app for iOS
is included in every Doubleknot subscription!

Call us at (408) 971-9120 x203 or visit
hello.doubleknot.com to learn more and request a demo. 

WEBINAR: Using Enhanced Single-Page Donation Forms

Doubleknot now supports enhanced single-page donation forms that update the contents of the form based on what the user selects.

For example, if one donation level includes a T-shirt, options to select T-shirt size are displayed when the visitor selects this donation level. If the next donation level includes a T-shirt and a personalized tote bag, the page will display T-shirt options and tote bag options when a visitor selects that donation level.

Example: Page content changes depending on what the user selects (click image for a larger view)

In a webinar on Thursday, February 9 at 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific, we’ll show you how to create an enhanced single-page donation form and also discuss best practices for online donations.

WEBINAR: Using Enhanced Single-Page Donation Forms

Date: Thursday, February 9, 2017
Time: 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific

WEBINAR: Important Changes to Programs for 2017

NOTE: If your organization is using Programs to manage spring and summer camps, we strongly recommend that at least one person from your organization attend this webinar.

We’ve made several significant changes to the Programs module for 2017. In this webinar on Tuesday, January 10, 2017, we’ll discuss how to use the new features to make registration easier for your constituents and managing programs, sessions and session events easier for you and your staff.

Understanding Updates to Programs 2017

Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Time: 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific

Streamlining Summer Programs: Ebook & Webinar Video!

For most nonprofits, summer programs are more than just a reliable revenue source: they’re one of the most effective ways you deliver your organization’s mission. The best camps build happy memories, instill positive values and help grow a new generation of supporters.

At Doubleknot, our goal is to minimize the administrative tasks of program management so you can focus on what really matters: delivering an excellent camp experience. So, we wrote an eBook called Seven Simple Strategies to Streamline Summer Programs, which offers strategies to make every aspect of camp administration—from communications to registration and all the way to check-in, check-out and end-of-season followups—easier for your families and more efficient for your staff.

Response to the eBook was so positive that we used it as the foundation for an educational webinar. We invite you to download the eBook or watch the video (or both!) and contact us at Doubleknot@doubleknot.com if you have any questions or suggestions.

• Download the eBook
• Watch the video

Simplify Summer Camp Administration Webinar

Camps are more than just a reliable revenue source: they’re one of the most effective ways that nonprofits deliver their mission!

Please join us on Thursday, November 10 at 1 PM Eastern for a fact-filled webinar designed to make every aspect of camp administration easier for your families and more efficient for your staff.

Topics range from improving communications and registration to payment collection and all the way to check-in, check-out and end-of-season followups.

We look forward to seeing you there!

WEBINAR: Understanding Pricing, Price Groups & Payment Schedules

Doubleknot offers complete control over how prices are presented to your customers and how your customers can pay for their purchases. Please join us for a fact-filled webinar on Tuesday, November 8 at 2 PM Eastern/ 11 AM Pacific where we’ll thoroughly cover every aspect of pricing and payments including:

• Using price groups to display only the prices that are relevant for the selected registrant types
• How to schedule price changes in advance (especially helpful for facility reservations)
•  Setting up payment schedules so customers can pay in installments.

Webinar: Understanding Pricing, Price Groups & Payment Schedules

Date: November 8, 2016
Time: 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific

Sales Station on iPhones Automatically Adapts to Your Usage

To ensure the best possible experience when you’re using the Sales Station mobile POS app on an iPhone, the contents of the screen changes depending on whether the iPhone is in landscape mode or portrait mode.

In portrait mode, the items in the purchase aren’t displayed on the main register screen, which provides more space for register buttons and easier scrolling. The number at the top of the screen shows the number of items in the purchase. To view the items, tap View Cart. To return to the register buttons, tap Hide Cart. You can swipe a card or tap Charge to begin the payment process on either screen.

Left: Sales Station in portrait mode hides the contents of the order to improve visibility and navigation. Right: If you tap View Cart, the items in the order are displayed. 

In the iPhone’s landscape mode, Sales Station displays both the register buttons and the contents of the order.

Sales Station in iPhone landscape mode. 

Use of the Sales Station app for iOS is included with your Doubleknot subscription. For more information, contact us at Doubleknot@doubleknot.com.

Security Upgrade

Doubleknot has implemented a stronger data security standard for secure (HTTPS) access to our site. For most people, the change will be undetectable. However, people who are using outdated operating systems including Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2 without KB968730, Windows XP without Service Pack 3 and Mac OS X through version 10.4, may no longer be able to access Doubleknot pages.

If your staff or constituents are unable to access Doubleknot and cannot upgrade their computer to a current operating system, download and use the latest version of the Chrome browser.