A rant written last year about the problems with modern-day RSVP tools ended with this:
“Those days are gone along with the simple, straightforward RSVP. For this reason, Allcal chose not to include RSVP in our event-planning system.”
Bold words. And soon to be incorrect, when Allcal releases Version 2.2 (any day now!).
The upcoming release will include many awesome updates, such as an attendee grouping feature and improved mapping view. But the most significant change will be the release of Allcal’s innovative RSVP tool – something I claimed would never, ever happen.
I was wrong.
Now I’m here to concede not only that our unique, free calendaring system will indeed include RSVP features, but also that I’m surprisingly okay with it – here’s why.
RSVP is dead needs an upgrade
One of the main problems with traditional RSVP tools is they’re incredibly one-sided. An organizer sends them out, whether as a physical card or attached to an email invite, then must sit and wait for the response.
RELATED POST: RSVP is Dead: How Modern Technology Killed the Meaning of RSVP
In some cases, that’s just a part of throwing an event. No matter how much time and effort you spend planning, party-throwers must wait to see who can come.
However, in many other cases, you already know who’s coming. By the time you’ve picked a date for your Lake House Summer Bash, you’ve probably talked to several friends and family to make sure they can attend.
But traditional RSVP tools only let invitees say whether or not they’re attending, which often simply depends on whether a person logged into their email or Facebook account that day – not whether they can actually go to your event.
That means organizers are stuck with inaccurate information, without any ways to fix it.
RSVP that actually works
Founder and CEO Daniel Cocanougher knew that we needed to give users a way to track who was coming to their events – but he wanted it to be much better than current solutions.
He wanted something that was intuitive, fast, and gave everyone information they could really use. The result: two-way RSVP.
With two-way RSVP, event and party organizers can not only invite anyone through email or their free Allcal account, but can even decide invitees’ RSVP status. After creating an event, the organizer can request RSVP from people he or she isn’t sure about, then mark every person he or she knows is coming as ‘attending’.
By RSVP-ing someone to your event, he or she will get the invitation and a notice that you’ve marked them as attending. This puts the user as attending on your event list, as well as guarantees they’ll get notified of any crucial changes to the event.
Why is this better?
Allcal’s solution fixes the core problems with RSVP.
First, forgetful invitees are less likely to be a burden since organizers and users with Edit permissions can quickly RSVP for them. Second, the tool helps organizers keep track of who’s coming right from the beginning, instead of waiting around for invitees to respond.
Finally, to help get organizers the information they need, Allcal’s RSVP feature includes an “Ask RSVP” button that will send a notice right to the person you invited. This encourages invitees to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an invitation (not ‘maybe’…’maybe’ is never an option).
Other RSVP solutions simply focus on the person invited to the event, completely cutting out the person who knows more about attendance than anyone – the organizer. Allcal’s two-way RSVP is built with the organizer in mind, by giving them control over their own event.
It’s Your Turn
Allcal’s two-way RSVP feature will make its debut any day now in Version 2.2.
Once it’s available, we hope you get the chance to try it out for yourself and let us know what you think. This is just Phase 1 of our plans to build amazing RSVP and attendance tools, and we need your feedback to make them better than anything else on the market.
We take user feedback very seriously, so any comments, thoughts, problems, or suggestions are greatly welcome. Email us directly at team@allcal.com and we guarantee someone will get back to you within 24 hours.
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