This story — and others like it — illustrates the race retention problem timers face.
Races don’t leave because of bad timing. They leave because a key contact moved on, a competitor made a more compelling case, or a relationship was never deep enough to survive a change in personnel. The good news: all of this is within your control. But getting ahead of it requires thinking about your business differently — not just as a timing company, but as a race services partner that happens to be great at timing.
That’s exactly what the Timers Keep Your Races series is about. Each session is designed to help timers expand and level up what they offer, deepen their relationship with races, and make their value visible — so you’re never the best-kept secret.
The Competitive Landscape Has Changed
Price pressure that timers feel is real. Newer entrants are undercutting to break into markets, and budget-conscious race directors are listening. But competing on price is a race you can’t win — there’s always someone willing to go lower.
The answer is to make price comparisons irrelevant. When one timer offers chip timing and results and another offers timing, live tracking, integrated photos, announcer services, and a custom race website, those aren’t comparable proposals. The more you offer, the less apples-to-apples any comparison becomes.
The other competitive threat is subtler: a competitor walks in offering something you already provide — or could — and the race director doesn’t know it. Timers who keep building on what they offer, and who make sure their races know the full picture, are far better positioned when someone comes knocking.
The Risk of Depending on a Single Relationship
Even a great relationship with a race director is with a person — not the race. Race directors retire, take other jobs, or hand things off to a family member who wants to bring in their own timer. New leadership wants to start fresh. Any of it can put a race you’ve held for years back into play overnight.
The timers who survive these transitions are woven into the race at multiple levels — known to the committee, the sponsors, the volunteers. Their absence creates real problems, not just inconvenience.
Ask yourself honestly: if your primary contact at your three most important races left tomorrow, would the organization have a compelling reason to keep you?
Every additional service you provide is one more reason they stay.
Three Ways to Level Up
Leveling up isn’t just about adding new services. There are three distinct moves timers can implement:
1. Add New Services
In addition to the standard add-on services timers provide, such as equipment rentals, timers can take advantage of free features and functions available on RunSignup’s platform. The investment for timers is time and training. Before deciding which new services to offer the race, evaluate what would bring the most value to that particular race. What are their goals? Where do they struggle? Then take the initiative to bring something new to the table, whether that’s building their race website, managing their check-in/packet pickup, delivering real-time participant tracking, or implementing tools to support their fundraising efforts. Some services you may offer as part of your package to stay competitive; others are worth charging for. Either way, bringing a capability the race didn’t have before is noticed — it shows you’re a forward-thinking partner, not just a vendor who shows up on race day.
There are numerous ways you can take things to the next level with RunSignup’s technology and each race is different. So, understanding their goals and the areas the race could really use help with is key. And the more you know about RunSignup’s technology, the more you can bring to the race — solidifying you as a partner they don’t want to do the race without.
2. Improve What You Already Provide
Sometimes the biggest gains come not from adding something new, but from doing what you already do at a higher level. Consider what you are currently providing. Is there a way to take it to the next level to show you are raising the bar and differentiate yourself?
All of these are available on RunSignup today and at no extra cost to you. Showing you are always bringing something new to the table, even incrementally, is what can differentiate you from the rest.
In addition, timers are doing some very creative applications with results, data, and video feeds especially with all the new AI applications possible. Offering a selfie station that captures the results QR code is a recent example of a timer applying technology in a visible and relevant way. Take the time to explore new creative ways you can show you are engaged and bringing new life to the race.
3. Make Your Value Visible
When deciding which feature to add, consider those that will provide the most visible difference — the one that gives you and the race something to talk about. Then, make sure you take the time to provide a post-race report of the value you brought. Without a tangible record of what you delivered, it’s easy for a race director to mentally summarize your entire contribution as “they scored the race.” Everything else — the equipment you hauled in, the technology you set up, the features that touched hundreds of participants — disappears.
A post-race report changes that. List out the equipment you provided and supported: tablets, timing mats, Wi-Fi, generators. Then back every service with usage numbers. Photos taken, uploaded, and viewed. Number of finishers scored. RaceJoy progress alerts and cheers sent. RaceDay CheckIn stats. These numbers don’t just prove you did the work — they show the race that the work was valued, used, and noticed by participants. Tools like AI make it easy to turn raw data from the RunSignup timer dashboard into a polished, branded report in minutes.
When a race director can visually see the full scope of what you brought to their event, the conversation shifts from “what do we pay for timing” to “look at everything we get from our timer”. Plus, you can use the post-race report to list out potential services and upgrades they could consider adding in for next year’s race further demonstrating your partner approach to their race.
Webinar coming up: Join us July 28 as we dive deeper on this topic.
Timer Certification Is a Competitive Moat
RunSignup’s Timer Certification Program does two things: it teaches you the platform at depth, and it signals to race directors that you’ve done the work and know the technology. Timers who hold all four certifications appear first in RunSignup’s timer search results, and those badges communicate your ability to do more than timing.
The certification courses are designed for timers to do on their own. Once the timer completes and passes the short certification quiz, their status on RunSignup reflects their certification and they are sent an official certification badge to use in their materials.
>Access Timer Certifications Here
Timers Keep Your Races: The Bottom Line
The timers who will still be growing five years from now are the ones who made themselves indispensable — building relationships deeper than a single contact, offering services that can’t be easily replicated, and communicating their value so clearly that race directors never think to look elsewhere.
This summer’s Keep Your Races webinar series goes deep on exactly that — one dimension of timers’ race retention at a time.
Keep Your Races: Level Up Your Services Webinar
This webinar kicks off the Keep Your Races series and provides some practical guidance on ways timers can take advantage of RunSignup’s platform to level up their services to stay competitive and keep their races for years to come.