Keeping People Honest With Member Rates On Your Event Registration Forms

Online event registration forms often have member and non-member rates and we get asked about how to prevent a non-member from selecting the member rate.

The conversation usually starts out with our client thinking that they will need to integrate their membership database with the registration system or upload lists of members. While this is all possible, we always start out by suggesting some easy to implement options before calling in the geeks.

Option #1 – Do nothing

Registering for an event is different than purchasing merchandise online. With an event registration, you need to show up in person to get what you paid for. This means that most people won’t try to cheat by paying the lower rate when they aren’t members because they know that the event planner could be monitoring the data and they could easily be caught.

We like this solution because there is nothing extra to set up and it doesn’t make registering any more complicated. Lots of our clients use this option and we’ve never had any reports of people cheating.

Option #2 – Add some text

If you think that you might have a few opportunists in your group, add a bit of text to the form just to make it clear such as “If you choose the member rate, but are not a member in good standing, you will be required to pay the difference before entering the event”.

This option is still easy to set up and doesn’t require the registrant to do any extra work.

Option #3 – Add a field on the form to collect a member number

If you have less faith that your registrants are going to do the right thing, you can add a field that requires people selecting the member rate to enter their member number. The field can be set up to accept any number or you can add a high level validation to check that the number entered matches a specified format. For example, if your member numbers are all six digits long and start with a two, the system won’t accept the registration if the number entered doesn’t match those criteria.

This is a little more work to set up, but still on the easy side. However, this option will require that your members know their member number, so there could be some potential for frustration or a delay in registering if they don’t know their number or have to go hunting for it. It could also generate some calls or emails to you from people needing to be reminded of their number.

Option #4 – Call in the geeks

If you are really concerned or have some other reason for needing to fully verify members, it can be possible to do some integration work, but it will cost you some programming time and you may need to have someone technical on your end too.

With this option, when you factor in the cost of the programming and time to get set up, compare that to the potential lost revenue if the odd person does cheat and pays a lower rate. You’ll probably find that the numbers favour the honour system.

Remember, you are always able to run a report of everyone paying the member rate and do a bit of manual checking against your member list. It’s not the most technologically advanced option, but it works and just costs a bit of time.