5 Ways to Ease Group Event Registration

A recent study shows that more than 35% of event attendees register through some kind of group registration process. Yet group registration is one of the most overlooked parts of event management. In fact, most group registration processes are difficult to maneuver for registrants and difficult to manage for event planners.

After an extensive usability study, "The Five Keys to Easier Group Registration" were identified to reduce registration headaches for event planners and attendees.

Key #1: Handle group registration in normal registration process. It's all too common for event registration systems to handle group registration with a separate, often confusing process. This technique requires special instructions on the front page that are often ignored, leading to frustration for registrants and organizers. Group registration should be handled using the same track as standard registration. Though, it is very important to make sure users are made aware how and when to enter multiple users.

Key #2: Orient your registrants throughout the process. When a registrant gets lost in your registration system it leads to frustration, dissatisfaction and abandoned registrations. To better orient your customers you should display a progress bar at the top of every registration screen, letting them know how many steps they've completed and how many are still to come. In addition, a good group registration platform will always display the name of the person currently being registered by the user. These simple additions will reduce anxiety for your registrants, and you'll reduce errors that lead to confusion for your event planners.

Key #3: Always populate standard information before and event. In most cases, group registrants share contact information like company name, address and phone number. Yet most registration systems require the registrant to re-enter that information for every attendee. Our studies found that registrants are much happier when their organizations information can be pre-populated after the first registrant. Again, it saves time for your registrants and reduces the amount of errors that event organizers have to deal with.

Key #4: Provide simple, flexible merchandising options. When providing up-sell options, registration systems often require registrants to check out after each registration or they only provide an option to order items that must be applied to every registrant. So, in the second scenario you would have to order 10 t-shirts if you had 10 registrants. Registrants are happier -- and therefore spend more money -- when they can use the merchandising section like a catalogue shopping cart, selecting quantities once for the whole order.

Key #5: Provide follow-up communication to all attendees: While group registrations are better handled by one person you should always communicate with attendees as individuals. Don't rely on the group leader to communicate to each attendee. Make sure your confirmations and reminders are sent to everyone on the list. To be most effective in your communication, personalize your emails with first name, too.

Regardless of the type of event by following the steps above you can reduce the time and stress involved in group registration.