Open Registration On
Time

When you’re planning an event, timing is of essence and one
deadline after another makes its mark on the calendar. Getting registration
started is an early priority as people may lose interest if they can’t register
when they want to or they may have made other commitments by the time
registration begins.

If you’re using online registration, a simple online form can take as little as
a day to set up, but numerous factors can extend that timeline.

Recently, a client presented us with a simple online form which she wanted live
by the end of the week. We started the setup with some preliminary details but
when the deadline came and went and we still didn’t have the final details, we
discovered that the event planner was having a hard time nailing down her hard
to reach client. Another client set up a merchant account during the
summer when work is often interrupted by vacations. As a result of these
interruptions, registration was at a standstill until signatures were obtained
and the merchant account was
set up.

To help ensure that you’re going to get the most out of your registration, we’ve
outlined some of the most common causes for delay that we’ve seen our clients
experience.

Deciding on a supplier – If you are using online registration for the
first time, you will need time to decide on a supplier. If a client or other
members of your organization or committee are involved in the decision making
process, allow some time for proposals to be presented and for a consensus to be
reached.

Signing a contract – Often, a contract will need to be signed and if you
aren’t the authorized signor, consider that the individual that is may not be
immediately available.

Committees – If you’ve worked with committees in the past, you know that
they can accomplish great things but can also present the greatest bottleneck.
First, consider how frequently the committee meets. You may be waiting a week or
more before the next meeting convenes and even then, key people might be absent.
Allow time for discussion and time to compile the feedback from the committee
members before presenting it to the online registration provider.

Clients – If you are a hired event planner and are presenting the job to
a client, you’ll need to allow them to review the form and to give their
approval. As demands and priorities always change, even if the client wanted to
be live yesterday, you can’t always count on an immediate response.

Event details – All of the event details aren’t
always available at once. There will often be enough detail to start setting up
the online form, but you won’t be able to go live until those last few details
are finalized. And just when you think that you’ve covered everything, remember
that when you’re setting up online registration, there may be some details that
aren’t part of your normal procedure such as deciding which fields should be
required and writing the text for the confirmation email.

Reviewing and testing – Once your online form is set up, you’ll want some
time to review the form and to test it so that you’re sure that every detail is
perfect before you start accepting registrations. You may also need to involve
committees or clients in this process.

To ensure that you don’t miss any of the important details while you’re
reviewing and testing, download the
Form
Review Checklist and the
Registration Form
Testing Procedure.

Full or self-service set up – If your online registration provider takes
care of all of the setup, find out how long it will take to get your job done
once you have all of your details. If you are doing your own setup using the
registration supplier’s
interface, give yourself enough time to learn a new system and anticipate that
it will take longer than you expect.

Merchant Account – If you are processing credit cards, you will need to
use either your registration supplier’s merchant account or your own. If you are
using your supplier’s
merchant account, allow a day or two for approval. Alternatively, if you want to
establish your own merchant account, remember that you’re dealing with the banks
and allow up to a few weeks while your account is approved and set up. Your
online registration provider will also need some time to integrate with your
gateway.

Setting up links – Setting up a link from the event website
to the registration form takes mere moments.
However, nailing down your webmaster or IT
department might take a whole lot longer. As we
often see clients waiting on this final detail, arrange
a time for the link to be set up.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any
questions or comments about this article.

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