The idea behind piece pickups is that rather than collecting contact information on slips of paper that can be hard to read and get lost easily, we can store them digitally. We can also group them based on the types of events that people come to. We also want to allow people to do this on their own mobile device if they have one available so that multiple people can be doing this at the same time.
You can collect pickups in two different ways:
- Links
You will have a link that will look something like this: studioname.kilnfire.com/collect. This may be possible that you could give out this link to your customers in various ways, but in order to group pieces, that link can get longer, so it may be too long or too annoying to type at some point. - QR Codes
QR Codes give your staff the ability to show someone one of these funny designs on a printed page or on a piece of paper. The customer can snap a photo of it on their own phone, and then it can lead them to a website link in their mobile web browser. This is the same link as above, it just makes it easier to get to, especially if it is longer and has class specific information at the end of it. If you are only using the Default link you could certainly print out this QR code, or if you are repeatedly using the same Pickup Group you could also print those out. But class specific QR codes will change for each instance of the class. For this reason we have tried to make it easy to pull up this QR code on an instructor or staff’s mobile phone, and have students snap it directly from the screen without the need to print it out.
Three different kinds of collection links/QR codes:
- Default
If you click on Manage Pickups > Collect Pieces, it will use the default link and QR code. This means it will not be specific to any kind of Group or Event. Most of the time we recommend using a Pickup Group or class instead unless this is an ongoing need such as Paint Your Own Pottery that happens every day. - Pickup Group
Pickup Groups are a flexible way to group Pickups together based on an event. You can create new Pickup Groups easily. When you create a new Group you will need to choose a Pickup Type, and then name the Group. Once you have done that you will see the link and QR code that can be shown to students or downloaded. - Kiln Fire Class
If you are using Kiln Fire Classes functionality, then there is no need to create multiple Pickup Groups for each class. Instead, once configured, each Class can have its own Pickups within it on the Manage Class page. You will instead go to the Classes > Manage Classes and locate the particular session of the class that you want to collect pieces for. Now at the bottom of the page it will say Class Pieces, and below that is a button for Collect Pieces. Upon clicking that you will see the specific link and QR code for this session of the class. The nice thing here is that we may already have attendee contact information here that was collected at Registration, so we can allow them to choose their name and not have to re-type their name, email, and phone number.
Once a participant arrives at the page, there are four steps:
- Basic Information
They will fill in their basic details such as name, email, and phone. In addition they will need to choose their preferences on how they want to be contacted when their pieces are ready. - Review Basic Information
Since we see so many people making mistakes as they fill in their basic information, we ask them to review it before they move on. Hopefully this means more work off of your shelves! - Add Pieces
They will be asked to describe their piece, snap a photo of it with their mobile phone, and then add any notes. Some studios choose to rename the notes field as “Glaze Preferences” in order to collect students preferences for finishing. - Payment (Optional)
If there are any charges for this pickup (this could be per piece charges, or shipping charges) then they are collected at the end depending on configuration of the Pickup Type that is in use.
Once a Pickup is added to the system you can review them on the Manage Pickups screen, or within the Group or Class that they belong to.