Group requests: company outings, clinics and tournaments

What are group requests?

A company, a group of friends or a club wants to take a group to the golf course and needs someone to organise it. Your site has a request page at /golfclinic. Old links to /groepsuitje still work. A visitor chooses what they want, leaves their details and sends the request.

On a Golfly site, /golfclinic is a page of its own that can show up in Google (in English at /en/golf-clinic). It lists the types you offer, with the duration, the minimum and the starting price if you fill them in, plus a short section about you, your locations and a few frequently asked questions. The form opens in a panel on that page. Your homepage has a band Golf clinic for your team or group that leads to it. With the form turned off, the page and the band are not there.

If your site was custom built, /golfclinic is just the form, titled "Request a golf clinic or golf outing". No starting price is shown there.

It is a request, not a booking. The confirmation email says so: "This is not a booking yet." You (and your partner, if you have one) then put together a proposal. The outing is only confirmed once the requester approves it.

Turning the form on

1. Go to Admin → Lessons, tab Group outings.
2. Turn on the switch Request form for group outings.
3. Choose below who handles the requests (see the next step).
4. Under Types of outing, turn on at least one type. With no type on, the form stays closed.
5. Click Save. The link View your request page then appears so you can check the result.

If a club manages your account, this tab only shows a note that group outings go through the club. The form is not open and you cannot change anything here.

With a partner or just you

Under Who handles the requests? you choose:

• Together with a partner venue, for example a golf course that arranges catering, rooms and the quote. Enter the Partner name (the requester sees it in the form and in the privacy text) and one to three email addresses. Each address gets its own email with the request. Under Replies to the confirmation go to you choose whether a reply from the requester reaches the partner or you.
• No partner, just me. The request then reaches only you.

Setting up types of outing and extras

Under Types of outing are the four types a visitor can pick: Golf clinic for beginners, Training for golfers, Golf tournament and Not sure yet. Turn on what you offer. For each type that is on you set:

• Minimum number of people. Optional. The form then starts the number of people at this minimum. With fewer people someone can still send a request; the form then mentions the minimum.
• Price from, per person. Optional, in euros, for example 45 or 47.50 (no thousands separator). Only for Golf clinic for beginners, Training for golfers and Golf tournament. On the request page of a Golfly site it shows as "from €45 per person" next to the type, and the lowest price also appears at the top. Leave it empty and the page names no price. The form itself never shows the price.
• Duration options. In hours, for example 1.5 or 2, in steps of a quarter hour and six options at most. Without options the form does not ask for a duration. Not every type has this option.
• Extras. What you offer besides the golf, for example a round on the course. Give each extra a name and, if you like, an English name. Without an English name the English form shows the Dutch one. Not every type has extras; for a golf tournament they only appear for golf, not for footgolf.

Your golf clinic page: photos, reviews and locations

On a Golfly site the block Your golf clinic page sits below the types. On a custom-built site you do not see it, because there /golfclinic is only the form. Save what you change here with the usual Save button at the bottom.

• Photos of your clinics. Choose 3 to 6 photos of clinics or groups you have taught (JPEG, PNG or WebP). You can pick several at once; your browser scales them down and uploads them right away. A description is optional. Without one, screen readers skip the photo; they do announce the strip as "Photos from clinics with" and your name. With 1 or 2 photos you cannot save. Without your own photos the page shows general photos of golf groups, without captions. If you have a profile photo, it sits at the top of the page next to the heading and your clinic photos go in the photo strip below it. Without a profile photo your clinic photos sit right below the button, the first one in front; that photo then shows First photo. Use Move to front (the arrow pointing left on a phone) to put another photo in first place. On the page each photo keeps its own shape, landscape or portrait. If you remove a photo and save, the file is deleted too. A photo you upload but do not save is deleted when you save later and the upload is more than a day old.
• Reviews. Up to 3 real reviews from groups or participants, with their permission: the text, the name and optionally a role or company. They appear on the page right below the types you offer, close to the buttons to send a request. Without reviews there is no review section.
• Clinic locations. Only when you have two or more active locations. Tick where the clinic can take place; the page then names only those locations. Nothing ticked means all active locations. If you later set a ticked location to inactive, it drops off by itself. If no ticked active location is left, the page shows all active locations again.

The list of requests

Once the form is on, or as soon as there are requests, the menu shows the item Group requests under Offer. A number next to it shows how many requests are still New.

The list shows the newest first, with reference, date received, requester, type, number of people, preferred date, status and source (your own website or a club website). Use the buttons at the top to filter by status. Settings takes you back to the settings.

Opening a request and setting the status

Click a request to see everything the requester filled in: contact details, group and planning, programme, wishes for food and drinks, source and the handling so far. At the bottom the History shows every status change, who made it and the note.

The statuses are:

• New: just arrived.
• Picked up: someone is working on it.
• More info needed: you still need to ask something. Fill in what you want to ask and say whether the form should have asked it. That last answer helps you improve the form.
• Proposal sent: a proposal is with the requester. You can note the golf professional.
• Booked: the outing is confirmed. Enter the date of the outing; the golf professional is optional.
• Dropped: it is not going ahead. Choose a reason (date is full, no golf professional available, budget does not fit, customer dropped out or other). If you choose Other, add an explanation.

Under Change status choose the new status, fill in the fields that appear and click Save status. A note is optional and goes into the history.

A partner sets the status from the email

The email to your partner (and to you) contains buttons for the statuses. That way the partner can update the status without logging in.

1. The partner clicks a button in the email and lands on a status page with a summary of the request.
2. Just opening it changes nothing. The status only changes after Save.
3. The partner enters their name so the history shows who made the change. The device remembers the name for next time.
4. You get an email saying the status changed, with the old and new status, the name and the note.

The link in the email is the only way into that page.

Revoking a status link

If an email reached the wrong person, revoke the link. Open the request, scroll to Status link and click Revoke status link. Confirm with Revoke.

After that the buttons in the emails already sent to the partner and to you stop working; the page says the link no longer works. You cannot undo this. From then on you change the status only in your own admin.

What the requester sees

After sending, the requester gets a confirmation email with a copy of what they filled in, the reference and what happens next. It states clearly that this is not a booking yet and that the outing is only confirmed once they approve the proposal. If they reply to that email, the reply goes to the partner or to you, as you chose in the settings. The requester does not get an email when the status changes.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't I see the Group outings tab?

If a club manages your account, the feature is off for you and the club handles group outings itself. If the tab is there but shows only a note, the same applies.

Why isn't Group requests in my menu?

The menu item appears as soon as the form is on or there are requests. Turn the form on under Admin → Lessons, tab Group outings.

Can I close the form for a while?

Yes. Turn off the switch Request form for group outings and save. Existing requests stay in the list.

Related

• Organising group lessons and courses