Use Signage to Tell Silent Auction Winners They Won & Need to Pay at Check-Out
A hand-written one-time-use bid board is placed at the check-out area of this auction. It lets guests know if they won.
Some organizations deliver purchased merchandise to each guest while they are seated at their tables. But most organizations require guests to pick-up their auction items at the end of the evening. Here’s a silent auction idea to save you some time.
A common question my team fields from the guests is, “How will I know if I won anything in the silent auction? If I didn’t win anything, I don’t want to stand in the check-out line.”
How can you easily let bidders know if they won?
There are several ways to let winners know. The simplest way is to use signage.
Signage can be reusable or one-time use.
This reusable bid board was placed near the check-out area. The circled bid numbers alerted guests that they needed to pick-up an item.
Reusable auction signage is made of a material (a chalkboard or white board) that allows winning bid numbers to be circled and erased each year. In contrast, signage meant to be used once is constructed of posterboard or foamcore.
Signage should list the winning bid numbers in numerical order. This allows a bidder to quickly scan the list and see if he’s a winner.
The signage should not list the names of the winners or the items they won. That information is unnecessary to the purpose of the winning bid board. In fact, the only reason a guest’s name would be listed is if the organization isn’t using bid numbers. (And if your group isn’t using bid numbers, why on earth not? The benefits of using bid numbers are well established.)
Place the auction signage in areas easily seen by guests.
1. If guests must exit the main area from a common door (such as guests leaving from a single ballroom door), the signage can be displayed just outside those doors. Guests will view the sign as they walk through the door on their way to coat check and check-out. I recommend stationing a volunteer or two next to the sign to draw attention to it, just as an airline will station a representative outside of the jetway to alert offloading passengers of gate changes.
2. The signage can also be posted near the check-out area itself. Put the sign on a easel so it’s at eye-level or a little above for easy viewing and reading.
At this large event with several hundred guests, the winning silent auction bid numbers were listed on a Powerpoint slide and displayed on the A/V screens. Guests knew whether they'd won any items in the silent auction long before the live auction started.
In addition (or in place of) signage, your event can make use of A/V screens by displaying the winning bid numbers on the screen.
A volunteer will need to create a Powerpoint slide once the high bidders are finalized. Save the slide to a handy zip drive and run it over to the individual handling the A/V equipment. He can easily upload the slide and display it to the crowd. While guests enjoy their meal, they can see whether they had the winning bid in the silent auction.
Like this idea? Click here for more silent auction tips.
And here’s a silent auction idea for an item (maybe a tad crazy) worth reading.
(c) 2009 Red Apple Auctions LLC
Comments
Sherry,
What a great concept. Years ago we used a similar system to record the winning bids – before computers became so useful and before we started using bidder numbers instead of names. Everyone had a great time watching the board to see what they won.
Thanks.
Laurel Gibson, Carolina Sunshine
Well good for you for switching to bid numbers! That seems to be a big hurdle for some organizations, but for a number of reasons, I advocate using bid numbers over names.
Where do you get the professional looking bid boards?
Julie, depends on which one you are referencing, but sign companies are a start.
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