FAQs

Got Questions?


We've got answers. So many answers. We’ve tried to predict what you might be thinking. No, we haven’t hired a team of psychics to help write our FAQ’s...although that’s a really good idea. Darn it! Why didn’t we do that?

Anyway, hopefully you can find the answers to your questions here. If not, feel free to contact us.

Event Organiser Questions


Searching

Just enter the category of performer and the location of your event in the search bar at the top of the home page and then hit the search button. In a matter of milliseconds a team of well-paid flying monkeys will scan our database to identify all the awesome entertainers who match your criteria. They will then neatly present the profiles of these performers for your inspection.

Alternatively if you aren’t sure what category of entertainer you’re after, you can browse suggestions here.

We figure you’ll want to see the entertainers who are local to your event first, so the closer they’re located, the higher they’ll rank in your search results.

The entertainers who appear in your search results have indicated they are willing to travel to your event location, even if they’re based interstate. Keep in mind that if you’re planning to book an interstate act, you will most likely need to pay their travel costs.

There could be a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, you may want to check the spelling of either the category of performer or location you’ve entered, in case there was a teensy tiny error.

Secondly, there may be no entertainers in that category in the location you’ve searched. This is a shame, but new talent is joining CrowdPleaser every day so hopefully we’ll fill that gap soon. In the meantime, if you’re willing to be flexible you could search for a different category of performer. Or if you want to see all the different types of entertainers who perform in your area, just leave the category field blank and search again.

Sometimes it’s wrong to play favourites (such as with your collection of gnome statues) but on CrowdPleaser it’s so very right. Favouriting helps you keep track of entertainers that catch your eye while you're browsing, plus you can request a quote from all your favourites simultaneously. To add an entertainer to your favourites, click the heart icon at the top of their profile.

If you leave CrowdPleaser and return later on, you’ll find all your favourites waiting patiently for you. This is because we save them using a cookie. So don’t clear your cookies. And don’t feed cookies to the Mogwai after midnight...just don’t.


Quote Requests

There’s two ways you can do this:

  1. Click on the button that says “Get a Free Quote” on an entertainer’s profile. This will open a new quote request form which you populate with details of your event and send directly to the entertainer.
  2. Favourite a couple or a whole bunch of entertainers, then go to your favourites page and click on the button that says “Request Quotes From All”. This will open a new quote request form which you populate with details of your event and send to all the entertainers on your favourites list at the same time - like magic!

You saw the button right? The one that said “Go to Inbox”. You didn’t? That’s weird. Must have been it’s day off. Well all you need to do is log in to your CrowdPleaser account and go to your inbox, where you can view all your quote requests and their current status. By clicking on a quote request you can see the details of your event and the entertainer’s profile and you can send and receive messages.

Best thing is to send the entertainer a follow-up message. To send a message, log into your account and click on the quote request in your inbox. It you still don’t hear anything back, there may be nothing for it but to find a different entertainer for your event.

You can send a message to the entertainer on CrowdPleaser. To send a message, log into your account and click on the quote request in your inbox. The entertainer will be notified that they have received a new message from you. You can continue messaging the entertainer through CrowdPleaser even after the booking has been made. Your conversation history will all be saved, in case you need to refer to it later.

If your event details change prior to booking, you can update the quote request and re-send it to the same entertainers. Just go into one of the quote requests in your inbox and click the “Edit Event” button in the top right. This will take you to the Edit Event form where you can update your event details. If you sent the original quote request to multiple entertainers, you only need to edit the event details in one quote request and all entertainers will be notified. Once you submit the Edit Event form it will automatically cancel any existing quotes you’ve received for that event and notify the entertainers of the change, so they can submit new quotes.

When you sent your quote request you must have ticked the box that said “Should we get you quotes from five similar entertainers?” More quotes are a good thing, as it means you’ll have more choice.

Of course. If you’re not happy with a quote you could send the entertainer a message advising what your budget is and asking if there's scope to accommodate it. If your expectations can be met, the entertainer may offer to send you a new quote. When negotiating about price please remember that everyone on CrowdPleaser is trying to make a livelihood through their craft and their quoted fee is usually reflection of the investment they've made in refining their talent.

No they don’t, but like Grampa Simpson they become somewhat unreliable with age. Entertainers’ schedules are always filling up, so it’s best not to procrastinate for too long after you receive a quote. If it’s been a few weeks between receiving a quote and deciding to book, we recommend that you send the entertainer a message to confirm they are still available.

Deleting just seems so severe and final. At CrowdPleaser we prefer archiving. To archive a quote request in your inbox, click on the little check box at the left end of the quote request then click on the “Archive” button. The quote request will shuffle off into your archive folder, where it will spend the rest of its days in retirement sipping tea, doing puzzles and complaining about “kids these days”.


Booking

So you’ve found the perfect performer, you’re happy with their quote and now you want to secure their services - how marvellous! All you need to do is pay the booking deposit via CrowdPleaser’s secure payment platform and the entertainer is booked for your event. Easy peasy.

For peace of mind and convenience, we strongly recommend you do. Bookings made outside CrowdPleaser are not eligible for our Booking Guarantee, dispute resolution, secure booking payments or reviews.

If an entertainer contacts you outside CrowdPleaser or suggests you contact them through other channels, we encourage you to ask them to send you an official quote through CrowdPleaser.

Our Booking Guarantee is like being wrapped in the silky cloak of a superhero, safe in the knowledge you'll receive a full no-hassle refund of your deposit if the entertainer cancels or leaves you hanging.

Booking through CrowdPleaser also ensures your payments are secure, you are eligible for dispute resolution if necessary and you get to leave a review.

You bet. Rather than storing your credit card details on CrowdPleaser, we use a payment platform called Zai to take care of our transactions. Zai stores your payment information in a PCI DSS compliant vault, use 2048 Bit SSL asymmetric encryption and conduct ongoing internal and external security scans to ensure a safe, secure and impenetrable payments engine. We’re talking military grade security here.

You should have received a receipt via email when you made the booking. You didn't get it? That's odd. Must be Gary's fault. Please let us know here and we'll have one sent out to you faster than you can say “Gary, you're fired!” (Only kidding, we'd never fire Gary. We couldn't live without his red velvet cupcakes).

If you require a tax invoice for the deposit payment you can download it anytime via the performer's quote in your CrowdPleaser inbox. Just look for the big "Get Invoice" button. If you're still unsure where to find this, please contact us here.

You’ll host a magnificent event, that's what! We’ll also send you a confirmation email with a receipt and additional contact information for the entertainer you've booked. You’ll liaise with the entertainer as needed to finalise any last-minute details and pay them the remaining balance as per their Payment Terms. After the event we’ll send you a notification asking you to review the entertainer.

While we’re happy to accept compliments, CrowdPleaser doesn’t accept balance payments. The remaining balance is usually paid to the entertainer by bank deposit in the days leading up to the event, or in cash on the day. The entertainer should specify in the Payment Terms section of their quote how and when the balance is to be paid to them. If they haven't, we encourage you to send them a message to clarify.

This is extremely unlikely, but then everyone said Kevin Rudd would never be Prime Minister a second time, so we guess you can't rule anything out. If an entertainer needs to cancel, you’ve got the protection of CrowdPleaser’s Booking Guarantee, so you'll receive a full refund of the deposit you paid. We’ll also do everything we can to help. Contact us here.

If you have to cancel a booking, you should notify the entertainer immediately. Please also let us know here. As per CrowdPleaser’s Terms of Use, you will forfeit the booking deposit paid. If you're cancelling shortly before the event date and have already paid the remaining balance, you should check the Cancellation Terms on the quote as you may forfeit some or all of the balance paid.


Reviews

Our ratings and reviews system is thoroughly trustworthy as we only allow people who have booked entertainers through CrowdPleaser to leave reviews. No dodgy fake testimonials here, no sirree.

After your event we’ll send you an email requesting you to leave a review. You can either follow the link in the email or log in to your CrowdPleaser inbox to access the review form. You’ll give a rating out of five and a short message, then your review will automatically go live on the entertainer’s profile.

Absolutely not. You could be anyone, including their mum or their mortal enemy. The only way we can maintain the integrity of our ratings and reviews system is by only allowing reviews from people who have booked an entertainer through CrowdPleaser.

Address, phone number, tax file number, photos of you putting out your rubbish...just kidding. We only show your first name, the type of event, the town/suburb of your event and the date e.g. Ralph's Wedding in Bendigo, Jan 16.


General

We do not. CrowdPleaser is an online marketplace, not an agency, which means anyone is free to create a profile. Like any marketplace, it's a good idea to do your research by browsing and comparing entertainers’ profiles, checking out their video and audio clips and considering their reviews. In the unlikely event an entertainer doesn't live up to your expectations then let them, and other event organisers know by leaving a less-than-glowing review, and of course please let us know here.

Where entertainers interact with children we suggest they include details of their working with children registration on their profile.

We don’t require entertainers to have public liability insurance to create a profile on CrowdPleaser, however we provide a section for them to include details on their profile of any insurance they have. We call this section “Insurance or Permits”. It will only appear on their profile if they fill this section out, so if they don’t mention insurance you can ask them about it when sending the quote request.

It’s probably because your email service has blocked our emails as spam. Not cool. To fix this you could try writing a sternly worded letter to your local ombudsman OR you can add the email address support@crowdpleaser.com.au to your contact list at the following:

  • Apple - select “Contacts” > “New Contact”
  • Gmail - select “Contacts” > “New Contact”
  • Hotmail or MSN - select “Save Address(es)”
  • Outlook or Outlook Express - select “Add To Address Book”
  • Yahoo! Mail - select “Add To Address Book”

Performer Questions


General

Well for starters, CrowdPleaser is a marketplace designed to help you get more gigs. We’re on a mission to make live arts more accessible to people organising all kinds of events and generate greater opportunities for performing artists to earn income.

CrowdPleaser connects you with event organisers. Our user-friendly platform streamlines communication, quoting and booking. You can create your own profile instantly and change it any time. Your CrowdPleaser Profile acts as your website if you don't have one, and is another string to your bow if you do. Bookings you get through CrowdPleaser will garner you genuine reviews, which allows you to build and develop your reputation. We take care of deposit payments and marketing, so you can focus on what you do best.

We are not. Unlike an agency we don't represent or vet the performers who appear on the site. CrowdPleaser is an online community marketplace which allows all genres of performers nationwide to promote their talents and engage with people seeking to book entertainment for all types of events and all budgets.

It's been said that there's more than one way to peel an orange. Your goal is to get more gigs, and CrowdPleaser provides you with an additional way to do that. You can create and manage your own profile on CrowdPleaser, or you can ask your manager to do it. Either way, you won’t miss out on the action.

Certainly. The only hitch is that our platform currently requires you to create a separate account for each act you represent. This just means you'll need to use a separate email address for each account you create. If you use gmail there’s a pro tip for doing that here.

Managing multiple profiles within one account is something we may consider building into the site, so please let us know if you would like us to add this feature.

We don’t require you to have public liability insurance to create a Profile on CrowdPleaser, however we provide a section for you to include details on your Profile of any insurance you have.

It's not mandatory for performers to have public liability insurance for events. You could even be covered by the event organiser's policy. However, if you accidentally damage their property, they or their insurer may seek reimbursement for the damage and possibly loss of income. If an audience member is injured as a result of your performance, they may seek damages for their injury from the event organiser, but may also decide to include you as a party to the claim. For more information we recommend that you talk to Duck for Cover.

Firstly, let us congratulate you on discovering this little snafu. This means you were trying to show the love to your fellow artists and we respect that. We have different profiles for our entertainers and our event organisers for some technical database reason that only our developers understand or care about. The solution as far as you're concerned is simple: just create a new profile as an event organiser using a different email address.

It’s probably because your email service has blocked our emails as spam. Not cool. To fix this you could try writing a sternly worded letter to your local ombudsman OR you can add the email address support@crowdpleaser.com.au to your contact list at the following:

  • Apple - select “Contacts” > “New Contact”
  • Gmail - select “Contacts” > “New Contact”
  • Hotmail or MSN - select “Save Address(es)”
  • Outlook or Outlook Express - select “Add To Address Book”
  • Yahoo! Mail - select “Add To Address Book”


Profiles

Get started by going to this page. It’s free to create a Profile and you’ll be done before you’ve finished your morning macchiato and Vegemite toast.

To edit your Profile, just log in and click on the “Edit Profile” tab in your control panel. Any changes you save while in the Profile editor will automatically update your public Profile. You can view your Profile any time by accessing the drop-down menu in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

The percentage is just an indication of how many features you’ve completed on your Profile. If you don’t wish to complete all the sections or don’t think that they apply to you, that’s no problem. It won’t disadvantage you when it comes to appearing in event organisers’ searches.

Event organisers search on CrowdPleaser by location and category of entertainer. If their search matches your Category, Act Location and Distance Willing To Travel details, your Profile will appear in their search results. For example, if an event organiser searches for a “magician” in “Devonport” and you’re a magician in Launceston but you’ve indicated that you’re willing to travel “Up to 200km”, you will appear in their search results.

We also have a "Find similar act" feature which a User can opt into when they send a quote request on the platform. In these cases even if a User didn't see your profile, we can manually allocate a quote request to you if we feel you match the Users request for another artist in your location/category.

Currently Profiles on the Search Results pages are ranked by location first i.e. the closer to the User's search location you're based, the higher you'll rank. Then if there are multiple artists/acts in the same location (e.g. Brisbane) those with more bookings and reviews will rank higher. This means that there is significant value in getting bookings and reviews on CrowdPleaser because it provides greater exposure and more leads. Positive reviews trump bookings though, so we recommend following up clients who haven't left a review for you yet.

We’ve attempted to make CrowdPleaser as user-friendly as possible by creating some broader categories, rather than being obsessively granular. We think this makes it easier for event organisers to find you. But we value your feedback so please let us know if you believe we’ve made a grave oversight in the categories we've made available and we’ll certainly consider including it.

Good question. This is sort of like the difference between the Mona Lisa and that painting with all the dogs playing cards. Like the Mona Lisa, your Profile image is petite which makes it perfect for use as your CrowdPleaser avatar. It’s what event organisers will see when you send them a message or a quote. It will also be used on your public Profile page. However, if you really want to make an impact (like a big painting of a bunch of dogs playing cards), we suggest uploading a hero image as well. This will fill the entire banner on your Profile page and will really showcase your act.

No. As per our Terms of Use, we do not allow you to display contact information on your Profile or on the photos, video and audio files you upload. For the avoidance of doubt, contact information includes website URLs, email addresses, telephone numbers etc.

Not currently, however we realise this crazy little thing called the internet is constantly evolving and awesome new hosting services could emerge at any time. Please let us know if you think we should add support for another platform.

Log in and go to your account page and you can update these any time.

Noooooooooo! Say it ain’t so? Well if that’s the way it’s gotta be, just let us know here and we'll make it happen. Please note however that if you choose to do this we will delete your entire CrowdPleaser account, which means there’s no possibility of a John Farnham-style comeback.


Quotes

You’ll receive an instant notification email from us letting you know.

Log in to CrowdPleaser, go to your inbox and click on the quote request. Once you’ve checked the event details, you can respond by sending a quote straight away, declining the quote request or sending the event organiser a message seeking further information if necessary.

You can send the event organiser a message requesting further information from within the quote request page. You can send a message any time, regardless of whether you’ve sent a quote yet or not. You can even continue messaging the event organiser through CrowdPleaser after the booking has been made. Your conversation history will all be saved, in case you need to refer to it later.

When an event organiser sends you a quote request through CrowdPleaser, they expect to receive a response through CrowdPleaser. We therefore don’t provide additional contact details until after a booking has been made. CrowdPleaser keeps all communication between you and the event organiser in a thread on the event page so you can both refer back to it any time.

Just factor these costs into your total fee. You can provide details of how much you’re charging for these expenses in the message you send with the quote.

Unlike a cheap bottle of Beaujolais, quote requests do not improve with age. It’s obviously best to get in there and respond ASAP, keeping in mind that you may not be the only performer quoting for the event.

Nope. You can fire off as many quotes as it takes to book those juicy gigs.

If you've sent a quote but then realise you need to change it prior to being booked you can cancel the quote from within the event page, amend the details and submit a new one. The event organiser will be notified as soon as you do.

If the event organiser has already accepted the quote and paid the deposit, the gig is booked and you cannot adjust your fee or the services you have agreed to provide without the event organiser’s consent.

Deleting just seems so severe and final. At CrowdPleaser we prefer archiving. To archive a quote request in your inbox, click on the little check box at the left end of the quote request then click on the “Archive” button. The quote request will shuffle off into your archive folder, where it will spend the rest of its days in retirement sipping tea, doing puzzles and complaining about “kids these days”.

CrowdPleaser sends Bonus Leads when event organisers ask us to select acts for them, which happens in two ways. Some event organisers send a quote request to an act, and then opt-in to our feature that sends their quote request to a selection of similar acts of CrowdPleaser’s choosing. And then there’s event organisers who don't know what they want, so they ask CrowdPleaser to select some acts for them, based on their search criteria.

Your eligibility to receive Bonus Leads is primarily based on the following criteria:

  1. Responsiveness to clients - we like to see acts responding to quote requests and messages from clients within 24 hours wherever possible.
  2. Adherence to our Terms of Use - any behaviour that breaches our Terms may automatically take you out of the running for Bonus Leads. This includes using any sort of tactics that we perceive as an attempt to encourage users to contact you outside of CrowdPleaser before booking.
  3. CrowdPleaser Profile - we generally put forward acts who have put some effort into their CrowdPleaser profiles. You don’t need to be at 100% complete, but we like you to have at least one video plus photos and/or audio clips.

You can see whether you’re currently eligible for Bonus Leads at the top of your Inbox. If you're not currently eligible, but you would like to be, please contact us here. Likewise, please get in touch with us if you’d rather not receive Bonus Leads.


Bookings

Event organisers book you by accepting the terms of your quote and paying the deposit you specify through CrowdPleaser.

CrowdPleaser charges a 10% service fee on bookings, which is calculated on your fee and deducted from the deposit. This helps cover the costs of maintaining, improving and promoting the platform.

When you send a quote you’ll be asked to specify your fee and the amount you want the event organiser to pay as a deposit. CrowdPleaser allows deposit payments of between 10% and 30% of your fee.

When the event organiser accepts your quote they’ll pay the deposit to confirm the booking. The deposit, less CrowdPleaser’s service fee, will be processed by our secure payment platform Zai and released to your nominated bank account. To facilitate this please provide your bank details in the account page within your control panel. If you get booked for a gig but haven’t yet provided bank details, the deposit payment will be held by Zai and released once you provide these details.

Payment of the deposit into your bank account will take place approximately ten days after the booking is made. If the booking is made within ten days of the event date, the deposit will be released approximately 24 hours after the event.

If an event organiser cancels a booking they will forfeit their deposit. If they cancel shortly before the event date and have already paid the remaining balance, depending on the Cancellation Terms specified in your quote the event organiser may forfeit some or all of the balance paid.

If you need to cancel a booking we ask that you contact both the event organiser and CrowdPleaser immediately to advise. We recommend giving the client a call, rather than relying on email or messaging on the website particularly if cancelling close to the event date. Let us know if you need the client's phone number. We would also encourage you to recommend a replacement act if possible.

If you have been paid a deposit we can automatically refund this to the event organiser from your connected bank account. We will also refund our Service Fee.

If cancellation occurs within fourteen days of the event, we will allow the event organiser to post a review.

If we or the client receives an inadequate response from you when cancelling a gig, if you are a no-show without any notice or if you cancel gigs too often, CrowdPleaser reserves the right to suspend or terminate your account.

Event organisers should pay the remaining balance to you by bank deposit in the days leading up to the event, or in cash on the day. It’s important you specify in the Payment Terms section of your quotes how and when you want the balance of your fee paid to you.

CrowdPleaser currently only facilitates deposit payments. If you would like CrowdPleaser to start accepting balance payments, please let us know.

If you earn more than $75,000 per year plying your craft you are required to register for GST. You can learn more about your tax obligations on the Australian Tax Office website. CrowdPleaser does not collect or report GST on your behalf.

CrowdPleaser sends the event organiser a receipt for the deposit when a booking is made. If the event organiser requires an invoice for the deposit payment prior to booking let us know and we'll send one to them. If requested you should also provide them with a full tax invoice reflecting your payment terms.


Reviews

By booking gigs through CrowdPleaser of course. We’ll send the event organiser an email 24 hours after the event asking them to provide a review. We’ll notify you by email when they’ve posted the review. Positive reviews will help your Profile appear higher in our search results...so that ain't too shabby.

No. It's only possible to receive a review from someone who has booked you through CrowdPleaser. We understand that you may have many happy clients who have booked you through other channels, however the only way we can maintain the integrity of our ratings and reviews system is by only allowing reviews from people who have booked entertainers through CrowdPleaser.

We will only consider removing a review from your profile if it’s obscene, abusive or fraudulent. If you receive a review that satisfies one of these criteria, let us know. We’ll investigate and may contact the reviewer to get their side of the story. If we determine the review is inappropriate, we’ll remove it.

Of course things can always go wrong at a live gig, for example your transport breaks down, your equipment malfunctions or a member of your act is crook on the day. It can happen to the best of us. It’s up to you to ensure that you make amends with the event organiser on the day to mitigate any bad feedback you might receive in their review.