EP 31: Top Questions to Ask When Choosing a Mobile Bidding Software

1. "you need to educate your donors walking into that" --> "it helps to educate your donors walking into that"

2. "you need to look and say, the mobile bidding software I'm investing in, is it accessibility compliant?" --> "it's worth asking whether the mobile bidding software you're investing in is accessibility compliant"

3. "You need to also ask what laws apply to me" --> "It's worth asking what laws apply to you"

4. "you need to maybe dig a little deeper" --> "it's worth digging a little deeper"

5. "you need to factor that in" --> "it's worth factoring that in"

6. "you have to ask yourself some questions" --> "it helps to ask yourself some questions"

7. "these people need to have some expertise" --> "ideally, these people have some expertise"

8. "you should listen to them" --> "it's worth listening to them"

9. "you should ask" --> "it's worth asking"

10. "They need to see the end user experience" --> "They'll want to see the end user experience"

11. "you need to look out there and say" --> "it's worth looking out there and asking"

12. "you need to also ask what kind of person are they going to send" --> "it's worth asking what kind of person they're going to send"

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Jeff: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about the variety of ways that you can make your next fundraising event better. And today, we have a really fun topic. And in order to talk about a really fun topic, which is pricing, we had to bring in some really fun people.

Diana: Yes.

Jeff: I love that introduction. Back from a vacation overseas, possibly still jet-lagged, but decided to join us today is the ever-popular Diana DuPonche.

Diana: Hello. Thank you, Jeff. That was such a nice introduction. And I am jet-lagged for sure.

Jeff: Awesome. Well, thank you for being here.

Diana: I'm totally pumped to be here.

Jeff: We're going to keep this hopefully under 30, 35 minutes so Diana can get to her nap.

Diana: I am not going to take a nap. But I'm a terrible napper. But thank you, I appreciate the offer.

Jeff: And also joining us is one of our most favorite -- and I would say one of our customers' most favorite -- service, onboarding, and event staff people, Lori Mackay.

Lori: Hey.

Jeff: Hey. And nobody cares that I'm here, too. That's totally fine. And Jeff Porter.

Diana: Nice.

Jeff: I feel like I'm in a hockey game. Okay, so I called this a fun topic because we spend a lot of time talking about this, especially with people who are inquiring about Handbid for sales. And so this isn't a Handbid sales call, by the way. But we now know -- and I would say this has probably gotten more complicated over the last two years -- there are so many options out there when you're looking at mobile bidding software, and you're probably saying to yourself, "I don't know how to navigate that. What's the best software for me? Where do I even start looking? What should I be looking for?"

Jeff: And it's interesting. I use this analogy a lot, so you guys are probably tired of it. But I was talking to our staff the other day, and it kind of reminded me back in the day when I actually did try to take care of my own lawn. I do mow my lawn, but I am not a green thumb when it comes to turning grass green, especially in Colorado, which is not always easy.

Diana: True.

Jeff: So I'd go into the Home Depot, and I would stare at this entire aisle of fertilizer, and I'd be like, "I don't know. I don't know what 10-5-2 means. I don't know what any of these things are. I don't know what phosphorus does. I don't know what iron does." And so you start looking at these things, and you're like, "What do I pick?" And so when you don't understand what you need, or how the things on the shelf or the options available solve those needs, you pick the cheapest one. Why not, right?

Diana: Or the one that looks the prettiest.

Jeff: You're a package girl, huh?

Diana: Oh yeah, you should see me pick out a book.

Jeff: How about a bottle of wine?

Diana: Not judge a book by its cover -- I judge wine by its cover. It's all purple inside. I might as well just look at the label. It's true.

Jeff: No, you can't do that. So that's the whole point. And then more recently, we had to replace the windows in our house. Our house is old enough now. And in Colorado, the climate is brutal on windows just because the temperature changes are so massive during the day and sometimes at night.

Jeff: So we're like, "Okay, we want black windows or whatever." That seems pretty stylish. Go to Home Depot, get a quote. Oh, they don't have black windows. Hmm, I don't know why. Let's find another. Oh, you have black windows, great. We just want black windows. So we get a quote. And then my wife's like, "I think we should probably get a couple of other quotes." I'm like, yeah, you're probably right. We don't know anything about windows. We know how they work, right? But we don't exactly know why there's different types. And why are some of our quotes $20,000 and some of our quotes $80,000 for all the windows in our house?

Diana: That seems outrageous, right.

Jeff: You just did this too.

Diana: I just did it too. I know.

Jeff: So, I know -- they're like, "Mobile bidding software and you're talking about windows?" Yes, we're going to talk about windows for one second.

Diana: Actually, they're pronounced "windows." Windows.

Jeff: I can't believe we brought this back around. Sorry.

Diana: It's all right. For all of you folks from the southeast, we're talking about windows. Windows.

Jeff: So anyway, Carrie, who's very thorough, very analytical, she brings in a bunch of other quotes. And she said to me, "Hey, can you just not go into work right away? Because these guys are coming to give us a quote. And I want you here." I said, fine. So these guys show up and they're like, "Well, where else are you looking?" And we're like, "Well, we looked at Lowe's and Home Depot." And he says, "Well, there's going to be some things that they're not going to do that we're going to have to explain to you, because they're just going to use a standard installer. So are you prepared to re-trim the outside of your house where the windows are replaced? Because likely when we replace these windows -- or anybody comes in and replaces them -- some of your boards probably need to be replaced that border them. And are you going to seal them, and then are you going to repaint everything?"

Jeff: Carrie's like, "Yeah, maybe I'll repaint, but I didn't factor that into the price. How much is that going to cost?" And he said, "What did they quote you?" And he looks at it and he's like, "Oh, vinyl windows. You can't have black vinyl windows in Colorado." "Why not?" And he starts to explain why. And so now, all of a sudden, we're getting educated on, "Hey, this is what you said you want. And here's some other things that you need to consider that are going to impact that, that are going to make it a better experience for you, or a better product or result for what you want for your house." And here are some things that you shouldn't do, like buy black vinyl windows in Colorado, which will fade to a gray, he says, within a year or so.

Diana: Whoa.

Jeff: Right? So I was like, "All right, fine. How much is this going to cost?"

Diana: But he gave you questions that you never thought to ask.

Jeff: Never thought to ask. Right. And so we've been doing a lot of that, because we got started back in 2011. And I would say for the first four or five years, the number of mobile bidding companies that we knew about -- or that were considered by people that were also considering us -- was a handful. And so it was very logical to say, "Well, this is what they do. This is what these other people do." Now we get on the phone with people. And they're like, "Well, I'm looking at this piece of software." And we're like, "Okay, I've never heard of them before. Hold on."

Diana: Yeah, just look, research.

Jeff: Totally. And I think part of that was with COVID, right? Everybody moved online. And then when everybody moved online, all of a sudden, fundraising software tools that always did online donations and online events of some sort added an auction component. And now they're "mobile bidding solutions." But are they really? I mean, again, it comes back to what do you need, right? And what factors do you need to consider? And so now the landscape is just massive. And so what we want to do today is, like I said, we're not here to sell you Handbid, because it might very well be that we're not a good solution for people that are listening to this call.

Diana: Yeah, it's not for everybody.

Jeff: No, and we would be able to tell you that. But what we want to do is start talking about the things that you want to be asking, the things that you want to be considering when you're looking at software like this as it pertains to your event. And maybe even just beyond this one event. When you think about it, "I'm looking for software to help me automate and elevate my event," right? What kind of software am I looking for? And is it really going to elevate my event?

Diana: And is it going to do it for this specific event or is it across the board? What kind of questions -- or do you need more than event software for one event? Do you need a software that does multiple purposes?

Jeff: Yeah, exactly. So before we get into some of those elements, let's start with the elephant in the room, which is: why in the heck does some software say it's free, and some software is a few hundred bucks, and then some software is a few thousand dollars? Like, I don't get it. And so let's start there. And then from there, we'll start talking about, okay, so for these packages that do cost more, why do they likely cost more? They don't just cost more because they cost more. There's reasons why, and so we're going to dive into that also.

Jeff: So in terms of free, let's just get this one out of the way. We talked about this on a previous podcast, too. Free is not free.

Lori: It's not free.

Diana: Yeah, it's not.

Jeff: Somebody is paying for it. These people are not working for free at this organization that are writing this software. And they're not getting free rent. And those aren't free sodas donated by the Coca-Cola Foundation. That ping-pong table was not free, right? These people are getting paid. This business has costs, so this business is making money. So the software -- it may appear to be free to you as a nonprofit or somebody running auctions -- but somebody is paying for it. And the recent trend is that it's your donors that are paying for the software. And so is that what you want?

Jeff: I mean, that's the first question.

Diana: Yes, I'm totally fine with that. Okay, well, I think it would be helpful for our listeners for you to describe the workflow under which a donor receives that messaging, because I believe that you had a friend who had a situation where he was bidding in an auction and thought he donated. He donated in a paddle raise.

Jeff: That's right. I'm remembering this now. He donated in a paddle raise, $1,000. And they were using -- don't ask me why, because this organization raises plenty of money -- they were using free software, and his bill was for $1,150. And so he had a $150 tip put on there. And he was trying to figure out, "Well, what is that?" And then he's like, "Well, maybe it's the credit card fees." And I think they were covering the credit card fees. But where's this 15% tip coming from?

Jeff: So he called the organization up. And they said, "Oh, that's from the software company. That allows us to use the software."

Lori: Wow.

Jeff: They didn't say, "It makes it free to us." They said, "That allows us to use the software."

Lori: It doesn't sound like they really understood what they were not paying for.

Jeff: That's right. I agree, Lori. So anyway, he's annoyed. And they said, "Well, we can refund that fee if you want." He goes, "Yeah, I mean, I don't want to pay $150. If the money was going to you, it would be fine, but the money's not going to you."

Jeff: So a couple of things that people need to understand. These tips -- that money is going directly to a software company. It is not going to the charity. So the consequence of that is you really, as a charity, have no idea how much money they're extracting out of your guests. And what you're actually doing, if you think about it, is you're handing this software company a bunch of supporters of your organization -- call them wealthy, call them generous, whatever you want -- and you're allowing this company to extract money out of them. And in most cases, probably considerably more than the software would cost if you just bought it.

Diana: Yeah, right.

Jeff: So we're not fans of that. We're fundraisers. I wouldn't do this with my own donors. I wouldn't ask them to pay for my software. We have an event, and obviously we try to have ticket sales and stuff cover the cost of the event. We try to get sponsorships to cover the cost of the event. That money's coming to us. And so now the donor gets the tax write-off because it's coming to us. We know exactly how much money's coming in from our donor base, and we can thank them for it.

Lori: Well, it tells me, based on your friend's experience -- and I think other things we've heard in the industry, because we have clients, prospective clients who call and say, "We tried this free version and it did not go over well" -- because it's not clear. And then there's a trust that's broken. There's something that's confusing about it. And then organizations wise up and say, "This isn't how we want our donors to see us. We want them to understand where all their money is going."

Jeff: That's right. And these things are not easy to get out of. So there's two ways -- and we're not going to talk about who these companies are, you can go find them, they say "free fundraising software" all over their Google search results -- but there's kind of two ways to approach it. Some of them will allow you to turn that feature off, but then they're going to charge you some sort of percent. Well, use that percent as a rough proxy of how much money they're going to extract from your donors, because they're not going to lose money by letting you turn it off.

Jeff: So let's just use easy math, because that's me. I don't do math in my head well.

Diana: Total lie, y'all, he totally does math well in his head. Keep going.

Jeff: So 5%. Say you're raising $100,000 at your event. All in. I mean, that's paddle raise, live auction, silent auction, drawings, whatever else you're doing. Ticket sales, whatever. So you're raising that kind of money at your event, which is not unheard of. We have plenty of clients raising that kind of money.

Lori: Sure.

Jeff: Your donors are paying them, or you're going to have to pay them 5%, which means on average, your donors, if you turn that on, would be paying them about $5,000. There isn't mobile bidding software out there, except for a few exceptions, that would cost you that much to just buy it.

Diana: Or ask for a tech sponsor.

Jeff: Yeah, right. Sell a $2,500 tech sponsorship if you feel like you want that cost covered. If you leave it on, they'll say, "Oh, your donors can just opt out." Have you tried to opt out of these things?

Lori: No.

Jeff: It's not easy. If you're talking about making it easy -- I mean, that's the trend for 2023, 2024 -- make it easy for your donors to donate. Well, now you've made it hard, because we were playing with a couple of them. You go to donate, it automatically throws in what it thinks you're going to tip, and one of them was 15%. The other one we tried was 12%.

Lori: Wow.

Jeff: So when you clicked on the thing to change it, it was 15%, 12%, and 8% or whatever. I'm like, those are still pretty high. All of those numbers are high. And then there's an "other." So you have to select "other." And then in this other spot, now you have to type in the amount you want to tip. And so you have to type in zero. And people don't like typing in zero. It makes them feel cheap, I think. So they hate it.

Lori: And they also think that the zero dollars or the zero is less of a donation to the organization. That's the impression I've seen, where you see these options for a tip. They think they're tipping the organization.

Jeff: That's right. And they're not tipping the organization. So there's a little bit of a mind game happening there, where the donors are like, "Oh, well, I want to help the organization. Here, I'll give them 2% or 3%." But that's not going to the organization. That's going to the software company. So it's a mind game for the donors. And then they're really upset when they find out that money didn't go where they thought.

Lori: They are annoyed, yes.

Jeff: Yeah, really upset, annoyed, confused. My friend was -- when I explained, he didn't really fully understand this until I explained it to him. And then he was mad. He's like, "Well, I'm calling them. How cheap can they be?" And I was like, "Well, come on. Hang in there."

Lori: Well, the organization isn't thinking that they're being cheap necessarily doing that. I think they're being frugal. But that's the impression it gives to the donor.

Jeff: So there's a couple of bad angles that come off from that. I would just say it's a lack of transparency. So if you go with something like that, it helps to educate your donors walking into that. They want to understand that tipping is for the software company and that's to help cover the cost of the software.

Diana: Yep.

Jeff: Well, you're not going to find Handbid implementing tipping. You can charge premiums.

Lori: Except tips. I'll come to your event and you can tip me $5,000. I will let you do that.

Jeff: Hilarious. Yes, that is funny. Okay, so let's move past free software. So now we know that software costs money. So what are the things that are going to drive the cost of the software? First and foremost, I think it's user experience.

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: When you look at the applications and the tools out there, the ones that are generating both a great end-user experience and also a good auction manager experience, they're investing in that. And I think it matters, because a guest that's enjoying your software, a guest that finds it easy to use, a guest that finds it engaging, is going to bid more, possibly donate more -- at least stay more connected.

Diana: Anything else on that you guys want to add?

Lori: Well, when researching software, ask the representative to show you what the end-user experience is. They should be able to easily show you what it looks like. If it's mobile bidding software, they should be able to show you what it looks like on all different devices. If that's an option, can they show you what it looks like on a desktop? What does it look like on my phone? What if I download an app and do it from there? You'll want to see the end-user experience. And how easy is it for an end user to get connected?

Diana: Well, I would say, yes, 100%, Lori. I love that. And when I do demos for our clients, I try to make sure to cover the laptop, desktop, the phone on mobile, the app on the iPhone, and the app on the iPad. And a lot of our prospective clients have a great concern about the age of their donor and how they're going to adapt to the new system. Are they, if they're moving from paper, how are they going to make their donors feel comfortable with this change? Or if they're just changing from one mobile bidding solution to another, how is that experience going to go with this older demographic?

Diana: And when it's easy, when you click a link and you get auto-logged in, everyone is like, "Is that it?" You're just like, well, it should be. It should be. And that's the thing, wherever we can, we like to look and see what other companies are doing with their software, obviously. And so one of the cases -- they're like, "Oh, this company has this new app, how cool, we should download it." We have an app, right? So let's see how they did their app. We learn something. Well, I had to type in some code. I'm like, "Where the heck do I get this code?" It pops up, and it's just a screen with a code. It says, "Enter your code."

Jeff: You're like, "Wait a minute. Where do I get -- can we get a little color around this?" One of the other ones out there that created an app, we log into it, and we have no idea where to go.

Lori: Wow.

Jeff: And so we're like, "Where are the items? I wanted to start bidding on stuff." So we're just here to say, you should try to play with these too.

Diana: Yeah. Take your time. I tell my clients, my prospective clients, to put these various solutions on their phones and then have somebody else in your committee meeting bid against you and really see how easy it is.

Jeff: That's right. For the first time, get started for the first time. So I think it's really important. You have to be educated on the system to answer the questions from your committee, and to do that, play around with it.

Jeff: And user experience -- it's an art and a science. But when you find a good user experience, that means that company is investing in the end-user experience. And what that means to your event, your guest satisfaction, your revenue -- all of the above.

Diana: What would you say if the user experience looked like an old video game, Jeff?

Jeff: Well, I'd say that company's probably not very innovative. I hear that a lot. If you're using software that looks like it was written in the '90s, it's probably not a company that you'd want to consider. And I'm not trying to bash on anybody, but they're not investing in the end-user experience.

Jeff: And if you look at companies and where UIs have gone over the years -- Apple's always people's benchmark, right? Because they try to focus on that quite a bit. And I think people recognize that. If you look at Apple as a leader in where the user interface and user experience are going: back in 2009, 2010, it was this skeuomorphic design, right? Everything looked like it was real. The Apple calendar app had stitching around it. It looked like it was leather.

Lori: I forgot about that.

Jeff: Remember that? And then they went to their flat design, and all the icons on the iPhone went flat. And now it's kind of morphed from there, and everybody followed them. The only reason I'm bringing that up is because that's people continuing to advance the topic. People whose user interface designs evolved over time -- you can say these people are paying attention to how people are using their software and they're making adjustments. And they're staying current.

Lori: Well, they're open to feedback. That also means not only are you trying to keep up with the coolest trends or be ahead of the game, but you're also a company that's willing to take feedback from people and say, "Oh, well, this didn't work. Let's try this and be innovative," because you're listening to the experience.

Lori: When I think about how the Handbid iPad app has evolved since 2015 -- maybe when I was hired in 2015 -- it had a hardwood floor background.

Jeff: Yes.

Lori: The only thing you could do on it was place bids with a five-digit pin code.

Jeff: That's right, with a five-digit pin code. And then we made so many changes. Now you can check people in, you can place live bids, you can run your paddle raise from it. There's so many cool things. You can scan QR codes. It's amazing when I think about what's happened with the iPad. And it's going through a redesign again.

Diana: There you go. Oh my gosh. Awesome.

Jeff: Because it's time. But I think we've kind of beaten this horse to death. It is absolutely important for you to look at the software and say, "Yes, this looks like it was written in the last four years."

Diana: Yeah, exactly.

Jeff: But along with interface and usability, let's talk about the other one. And I put on here: adherence to standards and policy. So the first one, let's talk about accessibility. And that one -- what the heck is that? You might see some websites have the little icon in the corner, and it says that this site is accessible or something. This kind of reared its head during COVID, because when people had to use software online, all of a sudden you have people paying attention to how accessible this software is to people with disabilities.

Jeff: So if I'm a blind user, can I use a screen reader and navigate this software to donate, bid, whatever? Or if I have some sort of other visual impairment and I can't see certain color combinations, is there a way for me to modify the software to accommodate that? There's a plethora of them. It could even just be that you have an older guest who doesn't see very well, so they cranked up the font size -- I've already done this, guys, it tells you how old I am -- cranked up the font size on their phone so they can see. And does that reflect in whatever you're using, whether it's an app or the website? It's doubtful on the web. But when you're inside of that app, are they pulling in those changes -- high contrast, font size settings that end users put on their phone? That's accessibility, and there are standards around it.

Jeff: We work with a lot of universities, and they're always the first to ask, "Do you comply with these standards?" That's a requirement for them, because they don't want to get sued. And the lawsuits started going up because you have people sitting around going, "They're not compliant. They're legally required to be compliant. We're going to sue them." You don't want that type of situation. So it's worth asking whether the mobile bidding software you're investing in is accessibility compliant. It's called WCAG, and you can ask them. Earlier on the show, we said, "What questions should people be asking?" That's one. How accessible is your software?

Jeff: We had a kid who was blind get up on stage -- he was kind of the emcee of this event. He got up on stage with a screen reader in the Handbid app and donated. And it was fun to see.

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: He came off stage and was, "I got a couple of ideas for you and how to make it better."

Lori: Send them my way. So cute.

Jeff: We'll dive into that. But it's important that you're able to do that. The other one I would say that's coming up is data privacy. We hear about this all the time. Our sales reps are like, "Okay, there's another state that has a data privacy law. Do we adhere to it or not?" They're coming everywhere. Virginia has one now. Obviously, California's has been around for a few years. Canada has a big data privacy thing. In Europe, it's GDPR. And they all have certain requirements. In most cases, they come around to: how are you protecting end users' data? And can that end user manipulate their own data, all the way up to even being able to remove their own account? And we support all of that.

Jeff: But it's important as a charity, when you're evaluating these companies, that you understand that. Why? Because you want your donor's data to be protected. And you also want to make sure that in terms of data privacy, you're adhering to all the laws that apply to you. Not all of them do. It's worth asking what laws apply to you. An attorney can help with that.

Jeff: But data privacy is another one. And then Diana's favorite.

Diana: Oh, gosh. PCI compliance.

Jeff: The heck is that?

Diana: Payment card industry.

Jeff: So a lot of mobile bidding solutions out there would tell you, "We're PCI compliant." And what that means is that they have, according to them, met some standard that the payment card industry has put in place that indicates they're credit card secure. Well, I don't know of any cloud-based software these days that's even storing credit card information. In most cases, what's happening is they've partnered with a payment provider, and they're using that payment provider's secure APIs or forms or JavaScripts to securely capture credit card data -- never touching the mobile bidding company's servers, going straight into the vault of this payment provider. And so that's how they're protecting card information. And that is 80% of it, for sure.

Jeff: But what's around that, that you have to be aware of, is there's still some obligation for these mobile bidding companies to provide some amount of security compliance.

Lori: And they want to know that it's tokenized. So on the side of the manager, when your internal staff is looking at a bidder profile, they're just seeing X-X-X-X and then the last four digits. So it's not truly visible to anybody at Handbid, hopefully not at some of the other mobile bidding companies out there. But the tokenization is what they're looking for, correct?

Jeff: That's part of it, yeah. And that part, I think, is largely solved by using some of these third-party payment providers, like a Stripe, or a PayPal, or a Braintree, and there's others as well. But there's still things the mobile bidding company has to have in place. My favorite benchmark is I'll go create an account on one of their sites. And if I can use the word "password" as my password, they are violating a certain PCI requirement. And I'm like, are you really just saying you're PCI compliant because you went and used Stripe to tokenize and vault all your cards? Fine, but you still have to do all these other things. You have to have certain policies in place and update those policies every year. There's just a variety of other things.

Jeff: So if you're asking somebody, "Are you PCI compliant?" -- there's a 99% chance they're going to tell you they are because they're in business. But you, as a charity, are at risk as well if they're not complying to these things. You're at risk of a data breach, you're at risk of not being compliant, and your merchant account can get affected. So it's worth digging a little deeper, maybe asking them for their attestation of compliance -- AOC. They have to fill out a document and submit it, so they have it. And you can ask for it as a prospect.

Jeff: And you're probably like, "What the heck am I going to do with this?" Well, maybe one thing -- you could hand it to one of your techie people to look through. But the other thing you could do is -- that at least tells you they're going through the discipline of filling it out. The other thing, though, is go create an account. Type in the word "password" and see if it works. It works on almost every mobile bidding site, except for Handbid, it will not work. But a lot of them, it will let you do that. That's actually a violation of what they ask you to do.

Jeff: So anyway, we won't get too deep. Security is boring. We're not going to talk about it too much.

Diana: It is, but it's important.

Jeff: It is important. Because every time you set up accounts with people and you're like, "Okay, now you've got to set your password." And you're like, "Oh my gosh, I have to set this big, long password." I'm like, this is good. This is actually a good thing. Let's introduce you to 1Password. I'm going to put in a shameless product plug for 1Password. It is absolutely a lifesaver. I love that thing. It generates all my passwords. I only have to know one password.

Diana: Hence the name.

Jeff: Hence the name. Go out and download it and play with it. You will not complain again about eight characters, uppercase, lowercase, whatever. I laugh now because the other day I had to sign up for a new account -- some online tool or whatever. And so I had 1Password generate me a password. And it came back and goes, "I'm sorry, your password cannot be longer than 14 characters." I'm like, wow. Cannot be longer than 14 characters. That's a new one.

Lori: It cannot be too secure.

Jeff: That's right. It's the opposite of secure.

Diana: Anyway. Passwords, passwords.

Jeff: So another thing to ask about: their security compliance. Okay, APIs and third-party integration. You get asked about this a lot, I bet.

Diana: Oh my gosh, all the time. Our clients, our prospective clients, want to know, "How are you going to make my life easier so that I can directly connect the Handbid data to my CRM?" And they want to be able to do that seamlessly. And if we don't have a direct integration, what are their options?

Jeff: Yeah. It's important because all of your donor data lives somewhere else. I think it's important for a variety of reasons. So obviously everybody thinks, "Oh, it just saves me time." It does save you time. If you can synchronize your contacts between your CRM and your mobile bidding software or your event fundraising software, that helps. But it's also more secure, because people forget this part. If I don't do that, what do I have to do? I have to export my contacts out of my CRM into a spreadsheet, which I'm storing hopefully on a laptop that's secured. But again, maybe not. So then it sits there. Maybe I threw it in Dropbox or some other file-sharing tool. And then I have to upload it into the mobile bidding software. And so now I've got a copy of my users' private information stored on a hard drive somewhere. Just pointing it out.

Jeff: And then on the flip side, you're going to have the same thing when you're trying to get transactions back and forth. And the more steps you do in that, it's just prone to more error. Maybe you didn't import it right. Maybe you had columns switched. I don't know. But anyway, it saves you time, it is definitely more secure, and I think it would reduce errors.

Jeff: So that's one reason I think it's important. But it's worth looking out there and asking, "Okay, so if this software is -- again, we'll skip the free ones -- but this software is 200 bucks. Does it have an API? Can I auto-load all my items into it? Can I synchronize this with my CRM? Can I synchronize my transactions? Can I get all my data out of this tool and into QuickBooks?" Those are the things to ask, because at some point, even if you're not ready for that today, in the future you might be.

Jeff: And then you'd say, "Great, I'll just ditch that software. I'll move to the other one." Again, we should do a podcast on why sticking with certain mobile bidding companies versus switching them every year matters, because your data ends up all over the place.

Jeff: But either way, I think it is important that you look at what kind of capabilities they have. And sometimes, like we have a Zapier plug-in. You guys are familiar with Zapier.

Diana: Yes.

Jeff: It's kind of like the WYSIWYG programming tool out there. And it allows our clients to do a variety of -- I'd say kind of fun stuff. You can do the serious stuff, like every time somebody buys a ticket, then put them in this spreadsheet over here or send this to QuickBooks or whatever.

Lori: Send me an email.

Jeff: Yeah, send me an email. That's a good one. But you can do fun stuff, like every time someone buys a ticket, I text Diana and tell her. Or every time someone checks in at the door who has a VIP status, then text this person and say, "Lori Mackay showed up." That's the fun stuff.

Diana: I think it would be helpful for our listeners to have you explain what a Zapier plug-in is. The way I explain it is Zapier is a conduit between two different cloud softwares.

Jeff: Exactly. And there's a trigger and there's an action. It's like, "When this happens, then do that." There's actually another one out there for personal use called IFTTT -- "If This, Then That." It's the same thing, right? Like if my garage door opens, then turn on my lights. Same concept, but this is in the cloud space. So it's like, "If this auction status changes to closed, or if this person checks in, or if this ticket is purchased, or if this item crosses its reserve price -- then I want you to do this."

Jeff: And we have a guy in Europe who was literally playing sounds and trying to turn on light bulbs. It was hilarious. Sometimes it's real time and it works and it's cool. Sometimes it's not. But it was interesting to watch because he's like, "Yeah, I just want this light to go on in our auction room when a bid comes in."

Diana: So he got it working.

Jeff: I love that idea.

Lori: Wow, your room is strobing. It's like the Kmart blue light special.

Jeff: Yes, exactly. That's the fun stuff. But we did show these guys how to do a thermometer in Google Slides. They wanted it to dynamically update. They're like, "But we want to show this slide. We're in a presentation." Because Handbid has a dashboard, right? They didn't want to go out of it. And so I said, "Oh, well, that wouldn't be hard. You're literally going to have it every time a purchase or a donation's made -- add a row to a Google spreadsheet. And then the slide is built off the Google spreadsheet and it updates itself every five seconds." And he was blown away. We're like, "Watch this. This is cool."

Diana: That's the fun stuff. Well, I think it's good to ask those good questions. As the decision-maker of your organization, or somebody who's gathering information for the decision-maker, when you ask if your CRM integrates, ask how. Because we've had a lot of people come to us that said, "Oh yeah, I was told that this integrates." And really what they meant was, "I was going to download a spreadsheet and upload a spreadsheet."

Jeff: So we're talking about a little bit more sophisticated. A little more real time, a little more sophisticated.

Jeff: So that's a good point. The last thing I put on here is just the types of support they offer. When you're like, "Okay, if I'm going to buy $200 software, I'm pretty certain they aren't going to offer you tons of support." And have they run a check-in at a real live event?

Diana: Yeah.

Jeff: So what kind of support are they going to offer? Email, chat, phone? What kind of expertise do they have? And we're going to talk about that next. But I would say you kind of have to get a sense of that. Can they even staff your event? Look, we're not a staffing company, and we're not here to tell you that you need to hire our staff to come, but we have plenty of clients who need that level of service. They want an experienced event person showing up on site, and so it's worth factoring that in. Is that something you need?

Jeff: Well, if you're not sure if you need that, it helps to ask yourself some questions. How comfortable are you running the event and using the software? And it doesn't have to be Handbid. The software you're looking at buying -- how comfortable are you handling all the details of the software and then executing an event using it? And that's everything from ticketing, registration, check-in, running your paddle raise (if you're doing that -- you should be), running your live auction, doing a checkout, running invoices at the end of the night -- everything. And then knowing all the nuances of that, especially when you're in the heat and stress of an event.

Jeff: So the other question to ask is, how willing are you to tolerate any issues? And I'm not saying that's necessarily software issues, but just any issues. This guest can't figure it out, or this volunteer left and now you don't have anybody in the bidding area, or the power went out at check-in -- we've seen that. I mean, you name it. When these issues come up, how able are you to handle those?

Jeff: And then figure out honestly how much time you have. Do you want to be spending time running check-in and the software, or do you want to be spending time with your donors? And I get it -- sometimes, for budget reasons, you can't spend time with your donors. But if you feel like you can, sometimes it's worth the investment.

Jeff: We go to events. And again, it's not a Handbid plug. It's just to be clear: I would say 80% of our clients use our software without us on site. And then the other percentage have us come. And sometimes you make that decision for year one and you get those experts to come in. You get it and you're like, "Okay, I see what they did with check-in. I see this process." And then you can start to take the reins.

Lori: Really, that is our goal, to kind of phase ourselves out of that job and to let the organizations do it on their own.

Jeff: Yeah, it should be that way. I feel like it's almost like this curve. In the beginning, it's like we're there to help you figure out how to do it. And then some of those charities, over the years, do it themselves. And then they evolve to the point where they're like, "Yeah, we're just going to enjoy the event. Can you guys come back and run it?"

Diana: That's true. That's funny.

Jeff: But it's something to consider. These mobile bidding companies that do offer on-site staff are doing so for a reason. It's not just to extract more money out of you. It's because they feel like, for a lot of their customers, they have something to offer at the event.

Lori: Well, in leading up to the event, have you spoken to anybody about whether this software is set up to maximize what you need for your event before you even get to the event? Do you have support leading up to that? Do you have the opportunity to meet with event experts and coaches and people that have that experience to be able to make sure that you have check-in set up the way it needs to be set up based on your event? And really having a partner, somebody that comes alongside you. And then, boy, if that same person can actually show up at your event, that's pretty cool. So you have a really cool relationship and rapport with that person. Then you actually know who's coming to your event, as opposed to a mystery person who's never talked to you, doesn't really know you or what you're doing or your event. And when they arrive, you have to spend the first half an hour of their arrival explaining to them how your event works. And so maybe you can minimize that by having a partner leading up to your event.

Jeff: I think that's a good segue into the last topic, because we're always asked, "What other factors should they consider?" We went through a bunch. Let's just quickly summarize and end on the last one. So: what's the user experience look like? What policies do they adhere to, whether it be PCI compliance or accessibility or data privacy laws? What APIs and third-party integration capabilities does it have? What types of customer support do you get?

Jeff: And so now we're talking about what kind of expertise they have in event fundraising. I think that's the most important one to end on, because it's the reason why some of these companies offer staff and some don't. We wouldn't offer staff to a charity and send somebody who's never run an event before. What would be the point? It's not worth it. If you just need a warm body, go find a warm body. You can call a temp agency. And we know a lot of mobile bidding companies used to leverage temp agencies. This is not like security where you just need someone to stand here and check tickets at the door. Ideally, these people have some expertise, and so the mobile bidding company that's supplying them should too.

Jeff: I would always ask: How was this company formed? Where did they come from? Why did they write this software? Why are they in this space? What kind of experience did they have, and what kind of experience do they have? So when someone in customer service is answering your question, do they know what you're talking about? Because a lot of the questions we get aren't, "How do I add an item to Handbid?" It's like, "How do I set up my guest list because I want to run check-in this way?" And now you're having a conversation about the process around their event, not some technical feature. And you do a lot of coaching, so I'm sure you have something to add on this.

Lori: Well, that's basically all I do -- talk to people about their event and the software and how the software can best be utilized for their event. So whether it's, "I want to run a wine wall," or "I want to do this crazy thing" -- how can I do that using this software? And being able to come alongside them and show them the way. Not a workaround, not this and that, but the best and easiest way to run it. And then if it doesn't work, having the willingness to say, "This isn't going to work. This is kooky."

Jeff: We do plenty of that.

Diana: Oh, yeah. I mean, tons of like, "I like that idea. It's really great. But we should probably not use the software for that." I mean, it's okay, because we want our software to be a great experience. And we don't want it to be just this hodgepodge of a bunch of ideas trying to be wrapped up. And we will tell you if it's not going to work for your idea. Most of the time, yes, you find middle ground.

Jeff: You find middle ground. And you also, sometimes -- this is the beauty of working with certain mobile bidding companies that have been there and through the trenches -- when they tell you something, I don't care who it is. I don't care if you're talking to OneCause, GiveSmart, us, Givergy, anybody. If they tell you it's a bad idea, it's worth listening to them. Please. Now you can disagree with them, but the point is that there's probably a reason why they don't do it that way. Now, you may not like the reason, like I said earlier, but in a lot of cases they're probably right.

Jeff: We've talked about check-in in all of our other podcast episodes. We're not going to revisit it here. But there's a lot of reasons why certain software works the way it does. If you're working with a company that has extensive event expertise, you can trust that there's reasons why they do certain things the way they do them.

Jeff: And so that's what we're going to leave it on: find a company that's got some event expertise, or ask them how much event expertise they have. And if they're going to send somebody to your event, it's worth asking what kind of person they're going to send. It's all important for you to find out when you're selecting these businesses out there.

Jeff: And then find an innovative company. Find a partner. Find someone who's tracking all these things. Find somebody who knows that the next state data privacy law is on its way before you have to tell them. Find a company that knows what the raffle and drawing laws are in your state. Hint, hint. That's a big one.

Diana: There's a podcast on that one, by the way.

Jeff: Exactly. Find someone who's adding new innovative things. Look at what they've added to the software. Ask for their release notes. Ask them, "What have you added to this software in the last year? Give me a bulleted list."

Diana: You probably drive their sales nuts.

Jeff: I would love to answer all those questions, by the way. But it's worth asking. Like, "Have you done anything to this thing?"

Jeff: People ask that. Smart, educated, sophisticated buyers will ask those questions. It's funny -- in the world of open source software, there's a lot out there. Say you're looking for some sort of tool or utility. You search it and you find it out on these public repositories. Like, "Oh, there's 15 different utilities that I can plug into my app that do that." What do you think the first thing is we look for? When it was last updated.

Lori: Oh, yeah.

Jeff: Like, "Oh my God, there's not been an update to that component since 2019." It's out. So it's a point to consider: are these companies improving and growing their software?

Jeff: So anyway, we're getting the signals. We're getting the signals that we've gone way too long.

Diana: Producers are calling us. I think there's some people jumping up and down in the background.

Jeff: She started to yawn over here.

Diana: I think I need a Diet Pepsi. I'm not going to lie. I'm going downhill.

Jeff: So we're going to end it there. Thank you guys. We're going to wrap up this episode of Elevate Your Event. Thank you, Lori. Thank you, Diana, for coming on to this one. Thank you guys for listening to our whole conversation on mobile bidding software and why it's priced the way it is. Reach out to us. If you like this episode or any of our other podcast episodes, leave us a five-star review. Share it. If you have a committee that's looking at different mobile bidding software, this is something that might be helpful to them. Let them listen to this.

Diana: And ask us questions, y'all. We love your questions.

Lori: Yeah. We love them. We appreciate them.

Jeff: And Diana accumulates all of them in her pink pen.

Diana: I do. Don't worry. We will bring them to the next podcast.

Jeff: All right. Sounds good. Thank you guys. Until we meet again, happy fundraising.