Best Camp Software!
With hundreds of event management systems on the market, finding the best camp registration software for your day camp is a significant challenge. It is important to find a registration service that is secure, has constant uptime and one that is easy for your staff to manage, day by day. One thing that is in short supply at day camps, is clerical staff!
Personally, I think that it is essential to find an online camp registration and payment service that is dedicated to constantly improving itself. Constant innovation guarantees that you are able to take advantage of the best practices that are developed over time in the field of online registration software.
Online Registration Software FREE.
Here’s something to consider. What does “free” mean? I think that there are two significant meanings. There is the good “free” and a bad “free”.
Bad Free Registration Software.
Online event registration software that has recently been developed that is, within the last few years, will not have the track record or experience that older and wiser packages have obtained over the years. In this area, experience is King! Free event registration software can be buggy, be void of a customer support staff, and can quickly become PCI non-compliant without continual updates. These things really matter!
Also, included in the bad free software bucket is, in-house developed software. In-house efforts often are too customized for a specific event and lack the depth needed to handle a wide variety of events that may come up in the future. These in-house efforts required a lot of one-time startup costs, like, a secure certificate, PCI certification, etc.
Good Free Registration Software.
Here is an example of an online registration service that offers the good “free” software.
Consider this scenario:
A large day camp pays the online event registration software vendor : $7000 /year for an unlimited package. That is, an unlimited number of transactions and registrants.
Suppose, that that large day camp allows campers to cancel or switch between weeks or sessions all the way up to just before the camp begins.
Here’s what I mean:
Step 1: Johnny signs up for hockey camp in week 1
Step 2: Johnny cancels hockey camp in week 1
Step 3: Johnny signs up for hockey camp in week 2
The typical online camp registration and payment software package would subject Johnny’s parents to three VISA/MC transactions. That is, the initial purchase, then the refund, then the purchase of week 2.
With respect to the camp’s visa/mc merchant account, that is three credit card transactions with fees charged three times.
Now suppose, the online registration service has a feature called, the “Electronic Wallet”. In steps 2 to 3, the visa/mc merchant discount fees would be avoided. In summary, what’s apparent is that this electronic wallet feature has the potential of dramatically reducing the visa/mc transaction fees charged to the camp by the merchant card acquirer. In my example above, the merchant fees to the credit card company would be reduced by 67%.
Here is a worked example:
A) Large Day Camp
For a recent year, we ran the numbers on a large day camp and discovered that this camp issued 501 refunds totalling $185,000.
We estimate that the maximum savings possible with the CAMP WALLET might be
$185,000 * 2.5% = $4,625 (CAMP would save the fees to visa/mc @ 2.5% from steps 2-3,)
$4,625 * 0.5 = $2,313 (assume half the cancelations, result in new signups)
Estimated Savings = $6,938/year
WOW, that IS what I mean by the good “free” software.
So the camp pays:
$7000 per year for the registration software package
-$6938 per year in savings thanks to the CAMP WALLET feature within the registration service
That is $62 per year, and to me that is practically free camp software.
In addition, you get a feature rich camp registration software package for only $62 /year that is considerably better than something your in-house tech staff or local web design company could whip up.
Read more on the CAMP WALLET feature.
Camp Online Registration.
Picking the best camp registration software can pay dividends in other ways. Consider having the registration software, help advertise and grow your camp’s attendance.
To grow your enrolment you need advocates pushing your camp to their friends. Stated another way, you need online camp registration software which has social media smoothly integrated into the process. One of the most advanced companies in the world in this field, which offers a superior experience in social media is, www.InGo.me.
e-RegisterNow.com and InGo.me have partnered up to provide an outstanding integrated registration solution which involves using your registrants as advocates for your camp, while they perform their yearly registration.
Event Registration Software.
Camp registration is best implemented using a Portal Approach. The portal approach allows the family to login first before beginning the registration process.
Read more:
e-RegisterNow and InGo Offering
Demo of the e-RegisterNow / InGo Affect when buying an event.
(note: the InGo plug-in works for any kind of registration, including summer camp registration)