Technology seems to find its way into every business, like it or not. Mobile bidding at auction events has brought with it a mixed bag of reactions. There are some pros and cons that should be carefully weighed before your organization implements this bidding option at your next event. Let’s take a quick look at the good and the bad associated with mobile bidding.
Pros
- The checkout process is much more streamlined. All of your guests have everything right in front of them to get through the checkout process, headache-free.
- Mobile bidding will ensure that your guests cannot back out of their bids once they are placed.
- This technology can easily capture information from your guests. Mobile bidding technology quickly organizes detailed information in a way that is easy to view and understand (a great benefit for those organizing the event).
Cons
- It can limit your audience. If your guests didn’t sign up ahead of time, there is no room for last-minute sign ups (And we all know how valuable those last-minute sign ups can be).
- The older generations don’t always take to new technology due to trust issues or usability. This reluctance may reduce your sign ups, or you may find some frustrated guests who may be unwilling to come back to future events.
- Technology always seems to malfunction at the most inconvenient of times. Technology can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Just be ready to troubleshoot if something goes wrong.
- There tends to be a lack of emotion when it comes to bidding. The human element is missing when bidding takes place on a cell phone.
- Like most technology, it can be a bit expensive. Make sure to do your research to ensure mobile bidding fits in with your budget.
- It can cause more distractions than you might expect. Your guests will be constantly glued to their phones (more so than usual). Even when they are looking at the phone for bidding purposes, there’s a good chance a text, email or social media update will bring on further distractions.
Just by looking at the quantity of cons listed above, you can make a pretty safe assumption about AmFund’s take on mobile bidding. From our experience working with hundreds of organizations, we have found that the number of bids may go up with mobile bidding, but the amount raised per item does not necessarily increase. That’s not to say this technology doesn’t have its place — there are large organizations with large events that rely on this type of technology to stay on top of everything, but take a close look at your event and see if the added expense, potential distraction, and possible limitation of your audience is worth it.
Check in with us at AmFund to see if mobile bidding is a good fit for your next event.
Does your organization use mobile bidding, Yes or No?