Online registration is the front door through which both newbies and vets enter our sport. Or fail to enter. It's the entry portal to triathlon. Literally. What does that say to the prospective registrant if he feels the race director, along with the registration company he chooses, conspire to make the process expensive, risky and painful? (Or do nothing to make the process less painful, when the process could be pain-free and, ideally, pleasant.)
Below are reasonable expectations at this entry portal. Bear in mind that if what you read below is not your experience when you register for a race, you shouldn't automatically blame the registration company. There are companies right now offering all the protections and conveniences listed below and if the RD decides to pass these companies by in favor of another, it's on the RD. Furthermore, there are options registration companies offer the RD, and the RD can choose to make the process better or worse for you as a customer.
Finally, I'm willing to give our sport's RDs a break. They are in my view our heroes, above the media, the pro athletes, governing bodies and anyone else. Without them, we have no sport. They've chosen their registration companies for the year, and these companies have their processes in place. So 2015 is set. But for the 2016 season I don't see any reason why the behaviors below shouldn't be enshrined into reasonable expectations.
Security: PCI DSS Compliance + Tokenization (for companies archiving information) – I can't find a registration company that isn't PCI compliant (PCI DSS = Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). In fact, I think it's now a matter of law. So it's not a big ask for a company to be PCI compliant. The levels of compliance – 1 is the highest, 4 the lowest – are not what they seem at first blush. Level 1 does offer somewhat more oversight in the form of auditing, but the safety requirements are the same for all levels of PCI compliance. Levels 2 through 4 simply refer to the number of transactions processed in a year. Tokenization is a means by which personal information, such as a credit card number, is exchanged for a non-sensitive value. It's a big safety plus and tokenization does a lot to help a company achieve PCI compliance. I can't find a registration company that does not employ tokenization except for those (e.g., RaceRoster) that do not even engage in the set-up of a user account. For such a company every registrant is a "guest". No information is stored, hence no token is necessary.
Opt-in or 1-click Opt-out – It is by now a well-established behavior among entities on the internet that inclusion on emailing lists should require the affirmative act taken by the eventual recipient of such emails. Even so, the online registration community hasn't gotten that memo. At least a lot of them haven't. So we at Slowtwitch are going to lighen up, and offer a second opportunity to do the right thing: 1-click opt-out, that is to say, 1 click depopulates all pre-checked boxes for mailing lists. Mind, registration companies are not alone in this. I end up on all kinds of email lists, such as on hotel companies' lists if I want an email confirmation of my reservation. But that is not my industry. This is. And we are not a mandatory industry, as are hotels. We are an elective industry, so we must do better.
Checkboxes that don't repopulate – If the single opt-out checkbox motif (explained just above) is used, boxes should not repopulate if the registrant is asked to cure a registration error during the sign-up process.
Paid memberships or membership trials that convert to paid should be opt-in – Any check-box that will or might eventually cause a charge on the customer's credit card should be opt-in, that is to say, the 1-click opt-out, which is the bare minimum standard for any reputable registration company, is for email lists only. Any paid membership must require the affirmative act of the registrant, rather than the reliance on that registrant's affirmative act to opt out of a paid membership. This isn't simply for memberships offered by the registration provider, but the renewal of annual federation memberships, or any membership or purchase that may result in a charge.
Registrants should not be required to answer questions beyond what's needed for registration – The process of registration should not require answering questions not germane to the race. Payment info, gender, age, t-shirt size are all fair game. Maybe dietary restrictions or preferences if food is served. Maybe athletic qualifications or medical questions for an event that requires a threshold of skill or health. How much you earn, or your purchase habits, are not germane. These questions may be asked, but they should not be requirements for registration. Note: The registration company is not the usual culprit. Almost all registration companies allow the RD to add questions of his own, because the reg company can't contemplate every question the RD may need to ask. If mandatory superfluous questions are asked during race registration, email the RD and register your complaint.
The registration fee charged should not exceed registration company's company's stated rates – At the very end of this series we'll publish a fee schedule. All of these registration companies have a formalized fee schedule. What happens underneath the fee is up to the RD and the reg company, that is, if the fee is 3.75% + $5 for each registrant, there's gross profit in there and if the RD feels his race has enough bargaining power to demand a kick-back, or that the reg company donate part of that fee for a race sponsorship, or a break on timing services, that's up to the two parties. But no race company should charge more than the "rate card" fee published by the registration company. Registration is not like a wetsuit, to be resold at a mark-up. If the RD wants to raise more money, let him increase the entry fee, rather than marking up the registration fee and taking a margin. to mark up the registration fee is to hide an increase in the entry fee, disguising it as a fee charged by the registration company. Sneaky. We would not have included this in the Bill of Rights were it not happening. Calculate the registration charge based on the entry fee and the fee schedule we'll publish. If the registration fee is higher, you have a righteous complaint.
Registration fee should be included in the entry fee, or if not the fee should be known prior to entering payment info – It is bad form to invite a registrant to enter all the fields, perhaps set up an account, to only at the very end spring on him or her the final total price for that transaction, which now includes the registration fee. No self-respecting etailer would do that and expect to remain in business long. Of Slowtwitchers polled – several hundred answering – 94 percent preferred just having one fee, with the registration fee a part of that fee. But 84 percent of almost 50 RDs polled say they want the fee split out. This is a circle our industry must square, and it's the RD's gap to close. He or she must explain the choice of a motif that their own customers overwhelmingly say they dislike. Or, he or she must conform to the wishes of the market. Newsflash to RDs: It's the same total price whether you split it out or not, and if you split it out and the fee is high, you're going to be criticized even more for choosing an overcharging registration company than if you'd just included the fee in the entry. Nevertheless, for the purpose of our Bill of Rights, the RD has 2 options: Either bury the fee in the entry; or show the entire cost of the transaction early in the registration process. Yes, it's true, by springing the surprise fee late you're more likely to end up with a weary customer acceding to the price and completing the transaction. He just might decide not to come back and do you race next time.
