Participant Management on RunSignup

Event Information

Reduce customer service and make your runners happier with seamless self-serve and director-activated participant management. This webinar reviews the options available to you, and best practices for handling your participant management.

This webinar covers:

• Goals for participant management
• Participant reports
• How to save time with self-serve
• Bulk participant management
• Refunds

View Slides

Summary

In this roughly 22-minute webinar, account managers Herman and Natalie walk through RunSignup’s participant management tools. They cover reporting, features participants can use themselves, and bulk actions for race directors. The main point throughout is that turning on self-service options keeps routine requests out of the race director’s inbox and keeps the data accurate.

1. Participant report (Participants > View Participants)

• This is the main place to manage registrants. The Edit Registration column handles giveaway sizes, custom question answers, event switches, race transfers, refunds, removals and add-ons.
• Search/Change Events and Search All Fields narrow the list. For example, the “registered since/until” dates show sign-ups for a period or build an email list of early-bird registrants.
• The Registration Status dropdown finds transferred or refunded participants.
• Report Options > Customize View adds columns from the full list, and you can save that layout as your default.
• Saved reports let you keep views for specific people, such as volunteer coordinators.
• View Imports breaks out each data import by date.
• Hidden fields include a “number of years” column that shows how many times each person has done the event.
• Any customized report can be exported to CSV.

2. Self-serve options participants can use

None of these are on by default. Each one can have a cutoff date.

• Participant data management: participants update their own details, such as phone or email. Allowing name changes isn’t recommended because people use it to hand off entries informally.
• Event transfers (between events in the same race, such as 10K to 5K):
  • You can charge a fee.
  • Moving to a more expensive event prompts payment. Moving to a cheaper one gives no refund.
  • Participant caps still apply.
  • You can block certain transfers, such as moving down to a shorter distance.
• Participant transfers (formerly bib exchange), where one person passes their entry to another:
  • Transfer for a refund: the new person pays and the original person is refunded.
  • Transfer as a gift: recommended. No money changes hands in RunSignup and the recipient registers for free.
  • A fee can be charged to either the sender or the recipient.
• Giveaway management: participants change their shirt size. Set the cutoff for your shirt order deadline.
• Add-on management: participants change add-on sizes or buy add-ons after registering, such as VIP, parking or extra shirts. Purchases show up in the check-in app. This also helps when you add an item after registration has opened.
• Edit custom questions: for example, updating an emergency contact.
• Deferrals:
  • Defer via race transfer is a newer feature. Deferred participants use a Complete Deferral link in their profile to re-register for next year. They update their info and sign a new waiver, which is why this is recommended over importing deferrals.
  • Defer via voucher gives a credit for the amount they paid.

3. Bulk participant management

• Import question responses: upload registration IDs plus a question column to update answers in bulk, such as parking lots or corrals. This also works for giveaway options, for example switching everyone to unisex shirts.
• Bulk refunds: refund a set of registration IDs with a maximum refund amount, such as $5 back to everyone, while leaving them registered.

4. Refund options

• Participant self-refunds: you can add a processing fee and tiered percentages, such as 100% at 100 days out, 50% at 50 days and 25% at 10 days.
• Registration insurance: this is an option if you don’t offer refunds. Participants make claims with the insurer, the race keeps its registration fees and gets a 20% kickback on policies sold.

5. Q&A: giveaways vs. add-ons

• A giveaway is the one free item included in the entry fee, usually a t-shirt. A price should only be added for upcharges like 3XL.
• Add-ons are optional extras sold for an additional price. You can offer several of them, such as VIP, parking or sweatshirts.