Online Registration Services - How to Select the
Right One

by Bill Flagg

Published on this site: September 14th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

With dozens of online registration companies to choose from, selecting one is not an easy task. We recently went through several sites and found ourselves somewhat frustrated and confused.

We want it to be easier for you to select an online registration provider because you have a lot to gain from making the switch. In this paper we will help you understand what to look for and which questions to ask when selecting an online registration provider.

What do I look at first?

First impressions say a lot about a company. If it is easy to obtain and understand information about their service, then it is more likely that their product and company are easy to work with. If it takes too much up-front effort on your part, then it may be a sign of what's to come.

How responsive were their sales people to your calls or emails? Did it take hours or days to hear back? Did you like interacting with them? How clear were their features and pricing? Did you get straight answers, or need to really dig to get to the bottom line? As much as you are buying technology, you are buying the people who make the technology and their ability to make your life easier.

How do I determine which system will be easiest to use?

Most providers will talk about their ease of setup and use. Depending on your technical aptitude and the complexity of your event, you may or may not agree with their claims. Something to consider: the simpler a system seems at first, the less likely it is to have advanced functionality that you may quickly hunger for. When you look at a system, it's important to consider both simplicity and functionality. If you go with a very simple system for eases sake, you may miss out on some important functionality or vice versa.

The best way to truly understand ease-of-use is to play around with the system yourself. Most companies have a demo account where you can log into their system and setup or play with a registration form. When you do this, ask yourself. Is the interface intuitive? Can I figure out how to do most of what I want to do with it? Would my coworkers be able to understand and use this system? Sometimes you can also get a sense of the system through their live online demos. It's best to see the live application in use, versus a PowerPoint, to show you how the system works.

If you have relatively complex registration needs, you will need a system that is more robust and therefore may appear less simple. In this case you will want to pay greater attention to their training and support (which we will cover later).

What is the easiest way to figure out if they really have the functionality I need?

An easy way to check if their functionality fits your needs is to fax your current registration form to the salespeople. Make an additional list of your management and reporting needs and identify them as either "have to haves" or "would like to haves". Ask the salesperson to walk through it with you and tell you what their system can and cannot do.

A great way to confirm their claims is to ask for and call references that have events that are similar to yours. This way, you can talk through how they used it and compare it to your own needs. Ask the references what functionality is missing and how easy it is to use.

Most systems cover the basic functions like collecting information, sending confirmation, reminder, and notification emails, processing credit cards, and producing basic reports. However, it's the advanced features that are important to identify and compare. Some of these include wait listing, hotel blocks, custom reporting, mass emailing, surveying, and series meeting management. Within each one of these categories, there are a host of increasingly specific functions to consider.

If a provider is close, but doesn't have the exact functionality you need, some companies also offer customization services (for a fee). You tell the company what you need, and they'll tell you how much it would cost to customize their system to better meet your needs.

How do I know if the company will be there for me when I have questions or problems?

Support falls into three categories: online help, training, and one-on-one phone and email support.

If the online help is good, it will be the most efficient way for you to get quick answers 24/7. How easy is it to access? Is there context sensitive help that will give you help specific to the section you were in? How thorough and practical is the help? Do they offer how-to's, tips, and warnings? How often do they update the help? Updates are especially important with companies that are improving their technology on a weekly basis. Do they provide regular email updates on enhancements or changes? Some companies also offer flash mini-trainings that you can click on to watch at any time.

The next is training.

What trainings do they offer? How often? Is there a charge for training? Do they have flash trainings that you can take whenever you like? What do customers say about their trainings?

As well as some of the systems are built, you most likely will have questions or needs that require a live person on the other end (especially if you don't have time for online help or training). The important questions then become: What is the average response time to an email or phone call? How helpful and friendly are they? How many clients per dedicated support employee (non-programmer) do they have? Do they have restrictions on how you can use support (email only, $ per incident, etc.)? Try asking the support team directly for the answers to these questions. The way they respond will tell you something too.

With some providers, they will build the registration pages for you (for a fee). If you are in a pinch for time or find it a hassle, this can be a life-saver, so be sure they have it.

How do I figure out the real bottom-line cost?

Unfortunately, pricing is one of the most confusing aspects of this industry. This has come as a result of providers trying to tailor their pricing to too many different client needs. Small events, large events, frequent events, processing credit cards, etc.. Here are the categories of pricing: per event, per registrant, % of transaction, annual fees, up-front fees, flat rate licensing fees, and additional service fees.

Mix all this together with volume discounts and long-term contracts, and there are a lot of numbers to look at. To sort them all out, start with a most likely scenario of what your events will look like for the next year and get the prices for that.

Create a spreadsheet and input all the numbers from the different providers to come up with a bottom-line price for each. Then weigh the total cost against all the other criteria discussed here. Don't make the mistake of going with the cheapest at the expense of missing out on features, stability, or good service.

Also, be careful with entering long-term contracts, just to get a better price. It is important to do a test-run with a couple events before locking into the long term (if at all). Some agreements have auto-renewal clauses that, without you really knowing, lock you in year-to-year.

What do I need to know about processing credit cards online?

If you are using their merchant account, how does billing work? How quickly do they pay you? Do they hold back on any portion? If so, for how long? Can you view real-time transactions? How easy is it to do refunds?

If you are using your own merchant account, do they support your gateway? How long does it take to connect up? How do you do refunds?

Pricing for merchant services can be confusing as well. If you are trying to decide if it makes more sense to create you own merchant account or use the providers merchant account, consider the following: If you use your own merchant account you will pay monthly, per transaction, % of transaction (plus their hidden non-qualified rates), as well as monthly, and per transaction gateway fees, plus whatever fees the registration provider requires for integrated processing. All totaled, you may be able to save a percent over if you used the provider's merchant account. You need to weigh the potential savings with the hassles that go with setting up and managing your own merchant account, gateway, and all their fees.

How do I know which company I can count on to be around for years to come?

How long has the company been around? How many developers, support, and sales people? How long has it been profitable (if at all)? How is it funded? What is their employee turnover? What percentage of new business is from referrals?

A company that has a healthy percentage of referrals usually means they are investing well in their technology and people. As a result, they have a greater likelihood of being around for the long haul. Online registration has changed many people's lives for the better, and created some great testimonials. The question is what percentage of the customers are raving fans? How consistent is the company and its technology with making people happy? One good way to find that out is to ask. What percentage of new business is from referrals?

What aspects of security and stability are important?

Is your information safe? How secure are their servers? Who has access to your information? If you will have multiple users or administrators accessing the system on your end, do you have the ability to set different security access levels?

All systems have down time (including the Yahoo's and Amazon's of the world). The question is how much? There are several factors that cause this: the internet, the host, the hardware, and the software. Be sure to ask how many times in the past year has the system gone down, and for how long? No one has zero downtime. So, ask for specifics if they say rarely or not at all. What advanced notification do they give for downtime. What guarantees do they offer for uptime?

Will the technology grow with my needs?

A huge benefit of using an online registration provider, instead of hosting your own application, is the ability for the provider to make constant upgrades to improve the system. Which brings us to our next question, How committed is the company to improving their technology? How frequently are they making upgrades? Ask for the upgrades that were made in the past couple months and compare the amount of enhancements between systems.

How do I get my information out of these systems?

Reporting enables you to monitor ongoing progress of your registrations, plan for the event, and then manage the actualevent. How easy or difficult is it to access the information you need? Do the standard reports give you what you need? Can you produce your own custom reports? Can you sort the reports the way you want? Can you save and export reports? When you demo the system, check to see that the reports will give you what you want, the way you want it.

We hope you found this paper to be valuable in helping you select an online registration provider. No matter who you choose, it will make you and your staff's life easier and events more successful by taking and managing registrations online.

Bill Flagg: If you would like to receive more great tips on how to increase your registrations and decrease your workload, visit http://www.RegOnline.com/eTips