Preparing your platform for the camp registration rush

Preparing your platform for the summer camp registration rush

By Carla Erlick, Senior Vice President, ISV Channel, Paysafe

Summer is just around the corner and that means parents are beginning to research which are the right summer camps to keep their kids busy for the coming months. According to the American Camp Association Business Operations Report, camp is currently an $18 billion industry and enrollments are continuing to grow every year. Camp popularity is even spreading across the globe, with more and more countries adopting the American-style summer camp experience.

Due to the rapid industry growth, more developers are creating camp management software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms to assist camps in managing their expanding registration lists and to facilitate scale, so competition for market share is increasing. And when your platform is just one of many in a competitive space, upgrading your product suite in order to stand out from the crowd needs to be strongly considered.

Now is a great time to take a look at any limitations that may exist within your platform, causing potential camp customers to seek out competitors. Check out the tips below to enhance your platform and get ready for the summertime rush of camp registrations.

1. Accept payments within your camp platform

Integrated payments are becoming a core component of SaaS platforms. When camp administrators are looking for a platform, this is one of their key considerations. They want payment functionality consolidated with all software features, making everything easily accessible within one single platform.=

Consumer expectations are increasing also. Parents expect to pay for camp through your platform – similar to how they pay for other products and services online. Integrated payments allow parents to pay for camp registration fees or ancillary products and services directly through your software without having to mail-in checks or fax over payment information. It also saves camp organizations time by eliminating administrative tasks such as tracking down payments, doing reconciliation in multiple systems and dealing with bounced checks.

2. Provide payment flexibility

There are numerous payment provider options, but the right payments partner is the one who will meet your different payment needs. Camp fees vary due to different camp structures, activities and even family schedules. For example, some kids only attend a one-week camp whereas others sign up for the entire summer. Then there are exceptions where kids won’t be attending camp for a week to go on a family vacation. To accommodate these various scenarios and billing cycles, you need a partner who can provide payment flexibility by helping you manage your payment plans, recurring billing cycles, installment payments and who will store card data in a safe, secure, PCI compliant fashion. Omnichannel payments capabilities are also essential so that parents can easily pay their kids’ camp fees however they prefer – whether it’s online, via a mobile app, through a smartphone browser, or in person.

3. Simplify onboarding for your camps

Customization is key to an easy onboarding process. A good payments provider can build a personalized, white label onboarding experience integrated directly into your platform. It should gather the necessary information to easily set up your camps and their customers payment accounts all while providing one consistent brand experience. This allows you to provide a seamless user experience and keep your brand top of mind across your entire platform – from viewing camp schedules to submitting registration payments.

Having a customized onboarding process allows you to streamline the application, eliminating the lengthy manual work traditionally involved with merchant onboarding. Your customers can provide their required account information and the back-end compliance reviews are automated, so your customers can start accepting payments immediately.

4. Make camp registration easy

Parents want things to be fast and simple, especially since they are juggling hectic schedules between work, kids’ activities, appointments, and day to day hustle. Difficult or lengthy online registration processes may cause parents to abandon a form, potentially preventing them from enrolling their kids in camp. That’s why it’s important to evaluate your platform’s current registration functionality before the summer rush hits.

There’s a lot to consider with registration and camp management needs, such as various payment methods, repeat camper information, and registering multiple kids. Simplify your platform’s registration with customizable form fields, a mobile-friendly design and accepted payment methods displayed. This will give you camps the flexibility to customize it to their needs, so they can provide an easy camp registration process that is relevant for them.

It’s important to evaluate your platform and make any required enhancements to stay ahead of your competition. Summer is almost here, so find a payments partner with customized onboarding and payment flexibility before the camp registration rush begins.