5 Common Registration Traps And How To Avoid Them
We know sports registration can be a busy time of year, and let’s face it, a little stressful. Nothing slows your preseason prep down like accidental mistakes during registration. To help, we put together this quick list of the most common pitfalls of sports registration so your club or league can avoid them and launch registration smoothly!
Building Your Sports Registration Form(s) At the Last Minute
No one wants to be building registrations online at midnight the night before your registration is due to open. We can’t stress this enough, don’t leave your registration to the last minute, not only does that create a stressful situation for you or your admins, but it can also result in mistakes in your online forms. Allow for plenty of time to build your form (or forms) and test them to ensure they are working properly before launching. We recommend giving yourself at least two weeks to work on building your registration form online. A quick win in TeamSnap is to duplicate your previous season’s registration form and then make updates in the duplicated version to reflect your current season’s needs.
Not Sharing Registration Information In Advance
The more information you can provide your members about the upcoming registration ahead of time, the better. Let them know all the information they’ll need to register, including any documents they might need to upload to help expedite the process. Share information on when parents and players can expect to be placed on teams and hear from coaches. When your members have all the information in advance, administrators will have fewer questions to field from parents who want to stay in the loop.
Complicated Fee Structures & Discounts
Nothing makes a registrar or treasurer’s life more difficult than complicated fee structures, or a lack thereof altogether. Prior to setting up your registration, be sure to meet with your board to align on your fees for the upcoming season and what you will offer with each program. Don’t forget to talk through any registration discounts you plan to offer.
Identify roadblocks you might run into with these prices and adjustments and consider where you may need to be flexible in your current fee setup. Complicated discount structures can be difficult for administrators to set up online, and difficult for your members to understand. Don’t be afraid to move away from fee structures and discounts if they feel too complex. A straightforward fee structure will make the registration experience better for both you and your members.
How to Launch Registration in 7 Days or Less is one stop on the TeamSnap for Clubs & Leagues video tour.
Failing To Include Payment & Refund Terms
Clearly outlining your club or league’s payment options for registration, payment terms and your organization’s refund policy is essential to setting expectations with your members regarding finances. By adding your refund policy or payment terms as a waiver in TeamSnap’s registration solution, your payment terms are clearly visible and your registrants must acknowledge the terms to complete registration. This means no surprises for your members or treasurers down the road when questions arise about payment terms.
Forgetting To Test Your Sports Registration
Once you’ve built your form, don’t forget to test it out! Forgetting to test your form can result in errors during open registration. Using Preview Mode in TeamSnap allows you to preview your form as a registrant, so you can go through it the same way your members would. Previewing it as a registrant not only ensures you check your work but also puts you in the shoes of your members, seeing firsthand what they will experience during the registration process. This is a great time to test out your fee structures, sibling discounts and conditional logic you may have built into your form.
Registration season doesn’t need to be the most stressful event for your sports organization this year. Small improvements like these can help your organization stay on track and meet your registration deadlines with fewer hiccups along the way. If you’re in the market for a new registration system, you’ll love TeamSnap’s registration solution, which allows you to collect online payments, issue credits and much more!
