Connecting PB Backdrops

The PB Backdrops connection lets your customers choose their own backdrop from inside their client portal, and saves that choice against the booking so your team knows what to bring.

Open your Profile at the bottom left, go to Settings, then Connected accounts, then the backdrops tab.

What you need

An API key from your PB Backdrops account. You will find it in the API section of your account there.

Paste it into the connection here and save.

https://widget.pbbackdrops.com/

Search

Turn search on to give customers a search bar above the backdrops.

Useful when you are showing a large library. Less useful when you are showing a short preselected list, where a search bar over a dozen options tends to look odd rather than helpful.

Show all backdrops

This is the setting that decides which backdrops a customer can pick from, and it is worth thinking about properly rather than leaving on a default.

Turned off, customers only see the backdrops you own and have preselected inside your PB Backdrops widget. What they choose, you already have.

Turned on, customers see every backdrop in the library whether you own it or not.

That second option sounds reckless until you look at the pricing. If you sell the backdrop as a paid upsell, and the upsell price covers you buying the backdrop, then showing the full library costs you nothing and gives the customer a proper choice. They pay for the backdrop, you buy it, and it joins your stock for every booking afterwards.

So the rule of thumb is that showing all backdrops works when the customer is paying for the choice. If the backdrop is included free in a package, keep this off and show only what you own, or you will be buying backdrops out of your own margin.

Client portal visibility

This controls who sees the backdrop chooser in their client portal.

You have two options. Show it to all customers, or show it only to customers who have purchased specific products.

If you choose specific products, you then select which products qualify below.

Setting it up as a paid upsell

The specific products option is what makes this work as an upsell. Here is how the pieces fit together.

Enable the connection, add your API key and save it.

Create a product called something like Backdrop, priced at whatever you charge, and sell it through your booking form or anywhere else in the system.

Come back to this connection, set client portal visibility to specific products, and select your Backdrop product.

From then on, any customer who buys that product gets the backdrop chooser in their portal automatically. Any customer who does not buy it never sees it.

What the customer sees

Once the chooser is enabled for them, an extra icon labelled Backdrop appears in their client portal.

Opening it shows the PB Backdrops widget, filtered according to your show all backdrops setting. They browse, they pick one, and their choice is saved.

The selection is written to the data tab on their booking, so your team can see what was chosen without asking anyone.

Customers can only choose once

Once a customer has made their selection, they cannot change it themselves. The icon stops offering a new choice.

This is deliberate. A backdrop that can be swapped the night before is a backdrop you cannot reliably pack.

Letting a customer choose again

If a customer needs to change their mind, you can reset it for them.

Open the booking, go to the data tab, and delete the PB Backdrops selection.

That re-enables the icon in their portal and lets them make a new choice.

Worth having a quiet rule about how late you will do this. The setting exists so you can be helpful when somebody changes their mind early, not so you can be rearranging the van on the morning of the event.