Opiniones de Silent Auction Pro

Excellent Event Planning Software!

Comentarios: We are a hypothermia shelter that houses 12 guests during the coldest months of the year, and have a fundraising gala every 2-3 years. At the beginning of our planning process for our February 2020 gala, we wrestled with the question “Do we really need an auction and event planning package for our little event?” At the end, there was no question that Silent Auction Pro was a HUGE reason why our event went so smoothly and exceeded our fundraising goals!

Puntos a favor:

I cannot say enough good things about our experience using Silent Auction Pro. Some of the key things that we liked: Event Coach. From the beginning, we were assigned an event coach ([SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]), and she proved incredibly helpful in both understanding Silent Auction Pro as well as anticipating what other issues might come up before, during, and after our event. She checked in regularly, and was available even on weekends. Training Videos. Silent Auction Pro has a large number of training videos on YouTube that were very helpful. Admittedly, they seemed difficult to understand when I viewed them before we actually signed up, but once I was on Silent Auction Pro and able to play around, they made much more sense, and proved very helpful. Pricing Structure. At first, it seemed expensive to pay $800 and still give up 2% of our proceeds to Silent Auction Pro. However, the 2% is only out of auction proceeds, and not things like tickets or sponsorships. That kept the 2% cost down to under $300, for a total cost of $1,100. Comparing that to the many, many hours of time saved, the ability to start the auction before the event, ability to easily sell tickets, and all the communications tools made it worth the money many times over! Usability. While I would not call Silent Auction Pro the most user-friendly website in existence, it is user-friendly, and with a minimal amount of practice it becomes very easy to get around. The reports are also very useful and easy to generate.

Contras:

There were a few very minor bugs, but that was it. I didn't care at all for WorldPay, which is one of the two credit card processors that Silent Auction Pro works with. They had horrible customer service and wanted to know WAY to much personal information about me in order to open an account. But that isn't Silent Auction Pro's fault ...

3rd times is the charm!

Comentarios: Great! I will use SAP again next year for our Auction.

Puntos a favor:

This is my 3rd year using Silent Auction Pro for my kids school Auction. The program is great and the staff are wonderful and very helpful.

Contras:

I wish I could run a report the way we need it for item distribution after the auction. Instead of going into a large report and sorting it in Excel. Would be great if it just sorted by winners names all the items they won.

Review

Puntos a favor:

Not a million screens amongst which to navigate.

Contras:

There is a lot of repeat info on each screen. Would be great if information could be streamlined a bit.

Easy to Use

Comentarios: Support staff is great. We have used for three+ years now. Very easy to enter items last minute. Check out is a breeze.

Puntos a favor:

Super easy for admin side. Can create lots of reports.

Contras:

I do not like having to approve bidders each time they join the auction.

Silent Auction Pro is Very-User Friendly

Comentarios: Overall, I love using this software as they made it so easy for me using it for my first time. It is very user-friendly and the tech support team is amazing and was always available to help! They basically held my hand through it all! That is what I appreciated the most. You guys rock!

Puntos a favor:

In my second time using the software for new online auction event, I love that software recognizes previous donors and if you want to add a donation you can select donation from previous year and update details like value, expiration dates, etc. without having to duplicate the work, and you don't have to upload photos - just use the same ones you had before. That was a huge time saver for me.

Contras:

One sections you go in to Manage Online Bidding, you can see all of your auction items (and the ones that are bundled) with their assigned #, you click on the auction item number and can see all the photos of bundled items and total value and starting bid. There were times I wanted to know what is value of each or even the description of each bundled item while in that section but there was no option to click on while in there. The nice thing is for what I wanted to know was in a different section so I had to exit that section and go to another area to get the info I wanted then go back to Manage Online Bidding.

Overall Excellent Experience with Software and Support

Comentarios: We were overall very pleased. It provided a greater reach than we would have ever been able to achieve with an in-person silent auction. We loved the versatility, the ease of use (after learning), and the support. We'd absolutely recommend this to another organization and will be using it again.

Puntos a favor:

Easy to use: The software is very easy to use after spending a little bit of time familiarizing yourself with it. They have numerous help pages and even some youtube videos that help you learn the software. Additionally the technical support was out of this world (see Tech Support is Outstanding). We also loved that numerous people can enter donation items so that the cumbersome task of entering items is not tasked to one person. Reasonably priced: It is reasonably priced, relative to other similar softwares, and the support alone was worth the money. Originally, we thought the fees were slightly high, but after investigating other software pricing, and after our experience with this software and their support, the annual fee (which allows for as many auctions/events as you'd like within a year) and the 2.0% taken from high bids were nothing, and we would absolutely do it again. Tech Support is Outstanding: The event coaches are very friendly and incredibly helpful. They help you get started, make suggestions along the way, and they are there to wrap up afterwards as well. We had an IT problem at 9:00pm CST. I called in, my event coach answered me, and she had tech support looking into my problem immediately. Every tech call was answered or gotten back to within an hour. Overall Great Features: The user pages looked stunning, most features you'd want are available. We really enjoyed our use of the software and are looking forward to our next auction.

Contras:

Takes Time to Learn: The administrative pages are slightly cumbersome to navigate in the beginning. They take time to learn, although that is probably true of every auction software. Some Features Not Available: There were a few features that were not available that we would have liked to have seen, such as an option for the public to view all bids placed on an item with bidders names or without, similar to an in-person silent auction. The Donate Button (Fund-a-need) was not intuitive for our users and confused them. Administrative Pages: Looked a bit dated. For a new software, we would have expected everything to be a bit more up-to-date looking. However, the user pages were very nice looking for the actual auction. Additionally, it would be great if there was a "view as user" option to be able to see what your changes look like once you've made them in the administrative account. It was cumbersome to have a user account and an administrative account and have to switch between the two constantly to be able to view things we were changing in the administrative account. Also the software won't let you have two logins open at the same time.

Children's Miracle Network Topgolf fundraiser

Comentarios: Nothing but good. I did not get help from my event team so had to do things much on my own. If not for the Silent Auction platform, I would be in rehab now.

Puntos a favor:

Everything I needed plus outstanding customer service. I had a couple of needy moments and when I reached out to support, I received answers very quickly.

Contras:

When creating an auction item from a donation, the system did not advise me what the next auction item number would be in the sequence. However when I entered a number that was already used, I was presented with an error messaage stating it was a used number. If I was more dilligent, I would have kept a list of numbers as I used them, but for us lazy folks it would be nice if the sytem displayed the last used number.

We love Silent Auction Pro!

Comentarios: SAP has been fabulous for us! It is very easy to navigate. Entering and editing our silent auction items is very easy and actually fun! The personal support from a couple of SAP teammates has been invaluable. Highly recommend.

Puntos a favor:

We have used Silent Auction Pro (SAP) for three years for our small-ish nonprofit. Donations to our organization go through SAP and we use them for our annual silent auction.

Contras:

Can't think of anything. I have never had a glitch with SAP.

Family Promise of Montgomery County Loves Silent Auction Pro

Comentarios: The Staff does an excellent job coaching you throughout the entire event process; from setting up the event, creating tickets, posting auction items and ultimately closing out the event. A very patient, professional and knowledgeable staff that is excited to help at all times...

Puntos a favor:

Silent Auction Pro helps make your event stay on track. The software does a wonderful job keeping up with your money and donors which is extremely important in the non profit word.

Contras:

Need an export to QuickBooks tool (which I hear is in the works)!

Church of the Little Flower

Comentarios: Easy to use and nice, professional end result

Puntos a favor:

Misty and customer service were with me throughout the Auction even over the weekend and in the evenings.

Contras:

Reconciling accounts! Many of the donors are also bidders.

Great Experience

Comentarios: Staff is great to work with and Silent Auction Pro is a great resource to improve revenues into your accounts

Puntos a favor:

Easy to operate, simple and carefree, the program is flexible to accommodate your wishes.

Contras:

Without alot of emails or Facebook contacts its difficult with out buying into names list.

the most user-friendly software ever used

Puntos a favor:

Silent Auction Pro is an incredibly user-friendly software with a website that's easy to navigate. Over the years, I've continuously learned and become more familiar with its extensive features, such as donation reports, contact history, and mobile online bidding. The customer support is exceptional, and their comprehensive reports can be easily downloaded for event wrap-ups. The Bidsheet Pro option has revolutionized our planning process, offering a seamless experience from donation entry to checkout. The software's extras, like logos and communication tools, were invaluable in enhancing our auction.

Contras:

Silent Auction Pro has its challenges, requiring research and self-starting to fully utilize its functions. Customer support was helpful, but the software's interface can be cumbersome with excessive clicking. While some features need improvement, the developers actively work on updates based on user feedback. Learning the system was a worthwhile endeavor, despite a few quirks.

Software is Extremely Easy to Use

Comentarios: I loved working with Silent Auction Pro. Their support is phenomenal. Most of the people you talk to were involved with a PTO which is how they got started working with Silent Auction Pro so they were extremely helpful especially since I am using this software to raise money for our PTO.

Puntos a favor:

I loved that the bidding, sign up, and communication was extremely easy to use. It was as easy as providing a link or QR code to get families signed up for the online bidding. Then the bidding itself was easy and engaging because you will get notified on items you are actively bidding on to tell you if you have been outbid which keeps you actively engaged in the auction! You can also set a max. bid and bid increment and the system will bid on an item for you. In the set up process Silent Auction Pro makes it extremely easy to communicate with your bidders. You can set up email and text notifications in advance so you don't have to worry about sending the day of or before your event. You can schedule out these notifications for the month, etc. leading up to your event.

Contras:

It was a little difficult making sure everything looked ok when you switched donor items over to auction items. It usually pulls over details you have in your donor item, but you need to go through and make sure fonts and everything look the same so when people are viewing your auction items everything looks consistent.

Wonderful Product!

Comentarios: We have increased our profit every year using Silent Auction Pro. The Auction setup is wonderful. I cannot imagine using any other product! 10 out of 10!

Puntos a favor:

I love the changes that were made this year. The site looks great on mobile use. It was SO easy to get help when needed and Becca made a sheet for me that I needed that saved me SO much time!!!

Contras:

I wasn't a big fan of the seating chart feature. I think it could be helpful for some people but there were just too many variables for us to use it. This wasn't a big deal to us at all.

Awesome fundraising tool for our organization!

Comentarios: Our non-profit arts education organization has had a very positive experience with Silent Auction Pro. We look forward to using this great software and all of its features/capabilities even more as we move forward in 2020!

Puntos a favor:

1. Excellent training and support by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and his Silent Auction Pro team! 2. This quality software system really did its job from initial communications, to auction set-up, right through event night and beyond with solid reporting! 3. Its affordable price, combined with superior customer service and tech support, made the decision to purchase a no-brainer-- especially for a committee of nervous new users!

Contras:

There *is* a learning curve for newbies, as with any other software package. However, the online tutorials as well as ample documentation with clear procedures made it as painless as humanly possible to get up to speed and functional with it.

Silent Auction Pro Thought of Everything!

Comentarios: Overall, I am extremely pleased with this software. I was totally immersed in it, learning every possible feature and application, to ensure that we got the maximum use.
Pro's:
1. The Help section is extremely well documented, and the customer support is amazing. The You Tube videos were very helpful for training both me and my volunteers. Any time of the day or night when I sent an email, I had an immediate response.
2. The options available were extremely comprehensive and knowledgeable about the mechanics of a benefit fundraiser. I cannot think of anything that I wanted to do that I couldn't do. From donor setup, to bidding styles (purchase of ticket parties for Teacher Experiences, to Silent Auction bidding, setting different minimum bids etc) to performance tracking, exporting info, everything was there.
3. The buzz that we created with the auction was definitely a boost to our event. We doubled our attendance vs. last year, just by starting the auction 4 weeks before the event, and creating excitement about the items that we offered early.
4. I am now set up for next year, with over 50% of the input work established already (donors, pictures and logos, bidders, etc). Next year should be a lot easier!
5. Auction Day section is powerful and easy to use - The check in was easy, online bidding was easy, and checkout was VERY easy, especially for those who had already registered their credit cards online. I could just click "auto process" for a batch of auction items, and with a click of the button, 20 people were checked out at once. Then I just looked up the auction number, passed out the gift envelopes or baskets, and done! "Be Awares" - I won't say Con's!
1. The upfront setup in the first year takes some time. Start early, and I strongly encourage you to read all of the "Help" sections before you start. Even then, tread carefully as you craft your setup, and re-read some of the Help sections. I ended up re-doing a few of my entries as I thought about the structure, and crafted it for maximum efficiency and reporting.
2. Engage team members to do their own data entry as they gather donations. This will save you a lot in data entry time, especially if you have a lot of auction items, and especially in the first year.
3. Train your "auction assistants" well, before event day. This includes check in, auction bidding assistance, and check out, but is especially true for Check in.
Overall, very pleased!

Altoona Athletic Boosters Final Four Event

Comentarios: Silent Auction Pro has been a great experience for our major fundraising event. Their customer service and responsiveness on top of a program that was overall easy to use.

Puntos a favor:

I love the ability to present the items donated however we choose with pictures and descriptions. The batch processing and reports on the event and tracking mechanisms help us a lot with running the event and checking our progress. The new look of the software was very professional.

Contras:

The bundling process is sometimes a bit clunky though it works.

Auction software - JUST PERFECT FOR US!

Comentarios: Three years ago was the first time we used SilentAuctionPro. And we used it again for this year's event. SAP handled our 450+ donations with five users, 200 auction items, online bidding by 225+ guests and the raffle ticket feature. We were able to train our volunteers on the AuctionDay features, and questions were quickly answered by the support staff via phone or email! The extensive help section allowed users to familiarize themselves with the various features, too. Tips for future users: start on soliciting donation early & use SAP to keep track of it all! We plan to use it again for our next silent auction event in two years. Great program, Silent Auction Pro. Leaps & bounds better than the days of paper bidding!

Puntos a favor:

Add donor, add donation item, save! The extras are great:logos & pictures for displays, the communication tool saved us & we were able to message our bidders with auction highlights.

Contras:

After our 2nd event, the system usage seemed more intuitive. We didn't realize how many features we could have used that first time! Would love the system to accept AmEx, not just Visa/MasterCard.

Great auction software, outstanding customer support

Comentarios: I would definitely recommend using this software to others and will use again myself. There is no doubt that we brought in more money using Silent Auction Pro. Pay attention to detail on the front side and the event will run seamlessly.

Puntos a favor:

I had seen this software used as a guest at another event and sitting at our table, the excitement around driving the bids higher was impressive. So when it came for me to organize an event, I pushed for using Silent Auction Pro mobile bidding though we were uncertain that our clientele would be receptive. Post the event, the response was almost all positive, they loved bidding on their mobile devices and we made much more money from our silent auction. We particularly loved the automated winner text notification and giving them the opportunity to self check-out/pay, making it all so much faster and easier. From the point of view of the auction administrator, it made my life much easier with no last minute pulling an all nighter to produce bidding sheets, etc. The customer service was superb and personalized. Someone always answered my calls, no matter the hour and helped resolve the issue(s) I was having or if they couldn’t, they referred it to the developer who is the owner and soon afterwards all was resolved. I loved the reminders ahead of the event to ensure all was moving along smoothly and the personal calls to check in were very much appreciated. I felt fully supported at every step.

Contras:

It was definitely challenging learning a new system but it was worth the time and effort. There were a few little quirks that need resolving and these I have shared with the developer.

We have used Silent Auction Pro for the past three years to manage our school auction.

Puntos a favor:

The biggest pro for our organization is the customer support. It's superb. Being a rotating group of volunteers, we don't always have the technical know-how to manage the software right out of the gate each year, but the team at SAP really helps get us there by being available, knowledgeable, and clear with their guidance. Other pros: the functionality is robust, allowing us to do everything we need (set up online, silent, and live components of our auction, plus sell raffle tickets and track a fund-a-need). The platform is well organized and easy to navigate.

Contras:

It does take some time up-front to learn the software and all that it can do. Sometimes we worried that we weren't using it at its full capacity or were taking more steps than necessary to complete a task. However, I think this is particular to our situation, because our group changes every year.

Look no further. You have found a terrific solution to your online, silent and live auction headache

Comentarios: This is our fifth year of using Silent Auction Pro for our annual fundraising auction for our public schools and we can highly recommend it. We looked at several competing products before deciding it offered the most-bang-for-the-buck for an Internet-based cloud solution (important for the ability to share access with many users). With only a few weeks to prepare, we were able to import the bidder and donor lists from previous auctions, set up all the new donation and auction items, export all the content for our printed program, run our auction smoothly and efficiently (the check-in and check-out process was MUCH improved from the previous years using spreadsheets), generate all reports needed to review and reconcile the results and easily print thank you letters directly from the software. Our bidders were all very impressed with how much better the auction ran that year and we raised over $41,000. Our experience was so positive with Silent Auction Pro, that we decided to try to take advantage of almost all of its many features. We added the online bidding and mobile bidding options after again reviewing competing solutions, including those that cost thousands of dollars. With more time to prepare, we had almost 300 items listed for bidding online, complete with pictures and links to donor web sites, and collected bids totaling more than $30,000 before our live event even started! I cannot begin to describe how excited our hardworking volunteers were to literally see the fruits of their labor increasing on their computer screens with larger and larger bid results every day of that online auction. We also took advantage of the integrated credit card processing feature, which allowed us to easily pre-register bidders and sell tickets online. We even had volunteers using iPads to check people in and enter bid results during the auction. And within minutes of the completion of final bidding at our live auction, I checked the results on my phone's browser and realized we had just raised over $56,000. Wow! THANK YOU SILENT AUCTION PRO! And a special thank you to your tech support for all the emails and phone calls you supported us with throughout the whole process. Look no further. You have found a terrific solution to your online, silent and live auction headaches. We'll certainly be back again next year!"

First experience with Silent Auction Pro

Comentarios: Managing a remote, virtual auction isn't easy but Silent Auction Pro made it as easy as I can imagine!

Puntos a favor:

I had the distinct pleasure of working with Silent Auction Pro’s auction software and “coach” [SENSITIVE CONTENT]. Initially they were to support a live event with both a silent and a live auction, but Covid had other ideas and put us into a virtual Silent Auction. I am not a software wizard by any stretch of the imagination but found I was able to navigate Silent Auction Pro well with some brief instruction from [SENSITIVE CONTENT]. The “help” function was also truly “help”ful. When obvious that it would take longer to explain it me than to just do it, [SENSITIVE CONTENT] often stepped in and just took care of it for me! Suffice it to say I became somewhat proficient in managing our auction through a successful close! I have worked with several SaaS providers for other purposes, and none has been as easy to learn and navigate as Silent Auction Pro. Thank you C[SENSITIVE CONTENT] and Silent Auction Pro!

Contras:

It worked for me without a hitch. Occasionally I had to try multiple tabs to find what I was looking for.

This software has made our silent auction events so organized.

Puntos a favor:

I like that it keeps up with event records, prints off info sheets, bid sheets, and anything else I need for our silent auctions. I also like that we can sell event tickets through this site and the purchaser's credit card number is saved for express checkout from the auction.

Contras:

The great thing about this software is that any time I find something that I don't like about it or I feel there is a way it could be improved I am able to contact them and they make improvements based on my feedback.

Very Responsive Customer Service & Support

Comentarios: We started using SilentAuction Pro during covid for our annual art auction fundraiser. This year we made it a hybrid event (online bidding but viewing the art in person). This helped us keep the supporters we picked up when we were fully online and allow folks to view the auction items in person. It turned out great and we learned a lot on how to do it even better next time.

Puntos a favor:

The instant log in link. The messaging module. The ability to have multiple photos and video.

Contras:

The menu can be challenging to get used to/navigate.

A happy client!

Comentarios: Very good to excellent.

Puntos a favor:

First and foremost, we were thrilled to raise more than $10,000 from our previous online auction. I was super impressed by the customer service and support before, during and after running our auction. The software is easy to use from both the administrative side and bidder side. The software is aesthetically appealing. It attracted our usual bidders as well as those (of an older generation) that were hestitant with using eBay. We received many comments from our bidders that they liked this software.

Contras:

Would like features added to the software that deal with shipping items. For example, would like to be able to assign shipping charges to an auction item that the bidder can view when bidding. Also, would like ability to add multiple photos for an item.