The launch of new programs and activities can be one of the busiest days of the year for parks and recreation agencies.

While the release of new courses is exciting for the entire community, the heavy influx of visitors to both your front desk and website can lead to certain challenges, including frustrated customers and stressed-out staff. But with the right prep work and proper tools, you can make registration day a smooth and successful experience for everyone involved!

In this article, we’ll cover four tips that can help your agency better prepare for program registration launches, so that your staff—and customers—can feel more at ease when new courses go live.

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4 Ways to Improve Your Program Registration Launches

If members of your community—from your staff to your customers—are finding your registration launches stressful or frustrating, read on to learn more about how you can make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

#1: Communicate the Launch to Your Customers

Letting your community members know well in advance about the details of your registration day can empower your customers to plan ahead—and worry less. There are a number of different ways that you can communicate info about your upcoming programs to your community, including:

📧 Emails or Newsletters: Send an e-communication to your customers notifying them of your upcoming program registration launch several weeks in advance.

📣 Social Media Posts: In the days and weeks leading up to your courses going live, you can also share posts on your social accounts with info about the programs.

🖥️ Website Banners: Place graphics with your launch details on your homepage to announce when your new courses will become available and share how your community members can learn more.

💻 Online Portal Listings: Publish info about your upcoming programs directly on your online registration portal, so that customers can browse and learn more ahead of time.

📰 Blog Articles: Create a round-up of your new courses and include details about when the programs will go live and how people can register.

📄 Flyers or Posters: Hang signage around your centers promoting your upcoming launch with details about the date, types of courses, and how to register.

👋 On-Site Staff: Ensure that your team is aware of the details surrounding registration day, so they can answer any in-person questions or queries that come in by phone. 

Regardless of how you decide to spread the word about your next launch, there are a few key details that you should include. Below are the most important pieces of information to consider when creating any of your communications.

⏰ The Date and Time of Launch

Provide the exact day and time that your upcoming courses will become available to book so that your customers know when they can register.

📣 Upcoming Program Details  

Make sure you include course descriptions, class length, time and location, and any other relevant info that enables your community members to browse your offerings beforehand and choose which courses work best for them.

✅ How to Register

Whether you offer online, in-person, or over the phone bookings, share how your customers can register for your programs. For online registrations, ensure that you provide your community members with a QR code or url, so that they can easily find the right link.

💡 Did You Know?

Xplor Recreation’s online registration portal allows you to publish courses before they’re open for registration, so that your customers can browse upcoming programs and easily find info about activities they’re interested in—prior to launch.

Our software also offers robust marketing automation tools to help you seamlessly connect with your customers about your programs. From new class promotions to payment reminders, your team can “set it and forget it” with automated emails that efficiently communicate with your community members. 

#2: Offer an Easy-to-Navigate Online Registration Portal

One of the most impactful ways to streamline your program registration launches is to offer online registration. This self-serve option empowers your customers to register from the comfort of their homes, without needing support from your staff. Using their customer accounts, online visitors can book courses for themselves and their family members with just a few clicks.

For best success, you’ll want to ensure that your online registration portal is: 

📱 Mobile Friendly 

There are four times as many people accessing the internet on their phones compared to those using desktop computers. For this reason alone, it’s very important that your online experience is mobile optimized.

Having a mobile-friendly website—and online portal—means that your customers will be able to browse and register for your programs without needing to zoom in on tiny text or hard-to-click links. By removing points of friction like this, you can help ensure that visitors to your website have a much easier time finding what they need, regardless of their device of choice.

🙌 Easy to Use and Intuitive

If your online registration experience is confusing, 50% of your visitors are likely to give up and leave your website. This is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to make sure that your website and portal are set up in a way that guides your customers seamlessly through the purchasing journey. For example, your registration portal should include things like filters for course dates, times, and keywords, as well as call-to-action buttons like “Book Now”. 

🖥️ Embedded on Your Site 

Keeping your registration experience entirely on your website helps offer your customers a much easier-to-navigate experience.

Without ever leaving your site, your community members can find, register and pay for the programs they want to book, offering peace of mind when completing their transactions. This is especially true now, with scams being the second highest crime concern in the United States.  

By keeping your entire sign-up experience—including payment—on your website, you can help alleviate any fears your customers may have regarding cybersecurity during the registration process. 

💡 Did You Know?

Xplor Recreation’s online registration widget is mobile optimized, easy to use from any device, and integrates directly into your website. Customers can browse, register and pay for your programs from their smartphones, tablets or computers—all without ever leaving your website.  

We also offer the first white-label, native mobile app of its kind in the industry. Our custom-branded app is helping agencies like the Town of Caledon, which has an 80%-online-registration rate and 65% of their customers accessing the town's platform via mobile. Learn more about How Caledon Is Driving Innovation with Xplor Recreation’s Mobile App.

#3: Check Your Past Registration Numbers

Another way to help ensure that your team is prepared for the release of new activities is to review the data from past program registration launches. Specifically, you’ll want to determine the number of people who typically sign up for new courses as soon as registration opens.

If you expect to have a high volume of people book programs as soon as your agency launches new courses, below are a couple ways your team can prepare.

📞 Tips for High In-Person and Phone Registrations 

If you’ve historically had a large number of people register in-person or over the phone, the most obvious thing you can do to prepare is increase the number of staff working at your front desk that day.  

However, another step you can take to try and reduce bottlenecks at your reception area during a launch is to promote your online registration portal! This goes back to our first tip on communicating details about your new courses to your customers ahead of registration opening up. In particular, it's important to share the link to your online registration portal and encourage community members to download your mobile app if you have one.

💻 Tips for High Online Registrations

If your team is expecting a lot of traffic to your online portal for the launch of your new courses, you’ll want to make sure that your site is ready for the influx of visitors. 

One of the most important things to do in advance of a spike in traffic to your website is to conduct a stress test, which simulates the amount of visitors you're expecting. This test gives your team the opportunity to uncover and fix any bugs, as well as verify that your payment processing is all set for the big day.

#4: Integrate a Digital Queue System for Extreme Web Traffic

If you expect to have a substantial amount of traffic to your site on launch day, you may want to consider taking additional precautions to the ones noted above. Adding a digital queue system like Queue-it to your program launch process is one of the most seamless ways to help your agency handle extreme website traffic.  

Queue-it is a virtual waiting room solution that creates a digital line for users before they gain access to your registration pages during peak load times. It helps manage heavy traffic by providing your customers with equitable access to your programs.

Here’s how it works: 

⏰ Pre-Queue: Community members can enter a digital waiting room by logging into their customer account before registration officially opens.

🙋 Digital Queue: When registration becomes available, visitors are placed in a virtual line at random and are then served in order. Visitors who join the queue after launch are served on a first-come, first-serve basis.

✅ Registration: Once they reach the front of the queue, your customers automatically gain access to your registration pages, where they can book courses without disruption. 

💡 Did You Know?

Queue-it integrates seamlessly with Xplor Recreation, helping our customers manage extreme website traffic during peak registration events. It supports our customers in reducing the need for costly server upgrades and providing each of their communities with a stress-free and equitable registration experience. Learn more about Queue-it. 

Lean on Tech for a Better Launch Experience

Program registration day doesn’t have to be chaotic. With early communication and the right tools and technology, your agency can deliver a streamlined, stress-free process that benefits everyone. Leveraging tools like Xplor Recreation and Queue-it can help you tackle challenges head-on and set your community up for success.

Ready to Streamline Your Registration Process? 

Book a demo to learn more about how Xplor Recreation can help support your registration experience for staff and customers.