Too many form fields can overwhelm your attendees/registrants. Shorter forms perform better than longer forms so only ask for information that you actually need.
The minimum information that Event Espresso 4 needs to complete a registration is a first name, last name (now optional), and an email address. That means that just two fields are required for a registrant/attendee to register for an event.
Review your Registration Forms and Remove Bloat
Generally speaking, if you do not need to collect a piece of information then don’t. This will lead to a quicker registration process for your registrants/attendees.
Registration forms for Event Espresso 4 are managed through the Registrations Forms screen which can be found in WP-admin (WP dashboard) –> Event Espresso –> Registration Forms.
Once on that screen, you’ll be viewing the Questions overview screen. You can click on the Question Groups tab and then click on a specific question group. Review the questions that are being collected for that question group as ask yourself if every question is actually needed. Then uncheck questions that you do not need and then save changes by clicking on the Save and Close button. This will take you to the Question Groups overview screen and you can click on another Question Group and make similar changes. Repeat these steps for all of your question groups.
These changes will affect new registrations and existing registrations will not lose any existing answers.
Tips on Additional Changes that can be made
The information that you collect will vary based on the type of events that you are organizing and here are some recommendations that may help.
- Registration forms for Event Espresso 4 are enabled on a per-event basis. This means that you can ask for personal information such as a name and email for one event and personal information + additional information for another event.
- Hosting events in a city / town (e.g. a local art studio)? The personal question group which includes a first name, last name, and email address is a good place to start. However, collecting a full address (e.g. address, address 2, city, state / province, country, zip / postal code) may not be needed.
- Can’t decide if a question will be needed? Set that question to optional (i.e. not required).
This is available for all custom questions and system questions except for the first name system question and the email address system question. Go to Event Espresso –> Registration Form. Then click on a question and set it to optional and then save changes by clicking on the Save and Close button.
Tomorrow you will learn how simply asking for an email confirmation can reduce errors such as typos.