The Swamp of Event Registration
Wading through the event registration swamp is nasty business. There is quicksand and alligators just waiting to bite or pull the unsuspecting association person under the water at a moment’s notice, taking with them a large chunk of potential revenue.
Instead of mosquitos, conference planners find that they keep getting bitten by per-registrant fees, credit card fees, and service fees. You look at some of this stuff and wonder if the registration companies are copying the business model of the airlines.
Cost is the main reason I was speaking with a new client a few weeks ago. The board of this small association was at wits end. They could no longer afford to pay the $5.00 per registration that their now ex-registration company wanted them to pay. They thought the cost was too high and honestly, I had to agree. Here is how the math was working out:
- 450 registrants x $5 per registrant x Credit Card Fees x Weird Makes no Sense Fee = Insane Amount of Money.
That weird fee was basically charging my client a fee to use their own credit card processor (what???). In my mind, that is a penalty… Not a fee. All of this money is for simply gathering (easy) data and using the client’s Stripe account.
A “New” Event Registration Alternative
That is when I started doing some digging and looking for options. This client can’t use WordPress so an easy, inexpensive plugin was out of the question. I looked, and I looked, and I looked. I am not sure how I found them without falling into the dark waters of Swamp Reg but I came across what I am calling a newcomer (even though they have been around a while)… RegFox.
RegFox has a simple cost structure. $.99 a registration + the standard 2.99% credit card processing fee (or you can use Stripe, we always use Stripe). That’s it. Nothing more. No weird fees, no hidden pits of liquid sand, no chomping alligators encouraging you to “pass along” fees to your attendees.
For this little fee, you get all of this (from their site)
RealView™ TechnologyBuild amazing forms without tech knowledge. With the drag and drop interface you can build your form and see exactly what it will look like with our live preview. Effortlessly capture all the data you want.Design CustomizationYour brand and your design without limit. Start from scratch or use one of our professionally designed themes. You get total control over branding, colors, fonts, images, and even the entire CSS.Conditional LogicRe-imagine possibilities with conditional logic. Using triggers and actions, capture additional data for certain attendees and even override visibility, pricing, requirements, and more.Multi-RegIncrease conversion rates and reduce abandonment with Multi-Reg, our proprietary technology architecture that guides each participant through your registration form seamlessly.DepositsCapture a deposit payment up-front and then the balance payment before the event. Automate the entire process and never chase balance payments again.Social Media IntegrationPowerful tools and integrations to make every registrant and every visitor is an opportunity to extend your audience like never before.Instant ExportsAll your data in your hands within seconds. View gorgeous status reports, graphs, and charts instantly. Download it all to Excel in 3 clicks.E-CommerceUpsell products and merchandise natively within the registration experience. Track and control product inventory and more.
Not bad. And we know that this product is NOT for everyone. RegFox is just north of “simple event registration”. Kinda like moving from a Honda Civic to a Honda Accord. You know, a huge step up but you are not getting and Infiniti or Acura. I wish they had a YouTube video to show off the product but I can’t find anything recent. We are into our second wave of conference registrations and so far, everything has been great… No issues, no hiccups, just registrations. Simple.
FYI, we are a RegFox affiliate now so if you make a purchase, we get a small percentage. We only recommend products we use or love and RegFox had no editorial input on this post.
