Trust us. This stuff matters

Tournaments, , ,

If you have spent any time online lately, you’ve probably noticed that there have been some issues of some companies and their privacy agreements. Google has come out with a new policy that combines ALL their properties under one agreement. That means if you have a YouTube account, a G+ page, a Gmail account, a Google Calendar, etc. all of this now is swept under one identity. And if you have multiple accounts, all of those accounts are tied together under you as one user.

More recently, some apps were caught uploading your entire phone book from your iPhone or Android smart phone — without telling you — when you installed their app. They apologize and claim to have removed all users’ data from their servers, but who really knows.

And of course, everyone’s favorite — Facebook — has a long history of deserving our mistrust with their ever-changing privacy policy and moving the settings around so we can’t find and change them easily.

Our Advice: It has taken a long time for people to trust the Internet. As the ability for services to sell services and goods erodes in the wake of alternative free services, there will always be a temptation to monetize customer data to advertisers and sponsors. In fact, you may have already been approached by sponsors asking for your list of teams, players and coaches.

The trust your teams gives you to keep their data away from marketers is not easily gained and can be lost in moments. Once you release data out, it can never be gotten back. Ever. You will be putting those coaches on mailing lists for years to come as the list get sold over and over and over.

At TourneyCentral, we won’t ever rent, sell, lend, lease or otherwise give out email addresses. In fact, every tournament we host agrees to that privacy policy as part of their use agreement.

Trust us. It’s not just something we say to get your business. It’s how we do business.

Credit cards at the fields just got easier – Square

Tournaments, ,

Square credit card reader

A few weeks ago, we signed up for a Square account to test with a small consumer product line we have that is mobile.

Wow, were we impressed.

The sign up process was easy. We simply needed an EIN number, a verifiable bank account and we were set up to accept credit cards (on site only, no phone or Internet sales.) Within a week, Square shipped a credit card swipe reader which gets plugged into an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone. Download the app, log in and you are taking credit cards. You can even take a picture of the customer holding up the product they bought as part of the receipt!

There are no set up fees, no equipment to buy. Square sends the small reader free of charge. The fee is 2.75% per swipe for all cards (higher for manual entry) The funds are transferred into our account later that night and available the next business day.

Our Advice: Sign up with Square and start taking credit cards at the fields for t-shirts and other concessions. Be sure to control the sign up process at the treasurer level and above and make sure the account is set up under the tournament’s brand. Square sends out one free reader as part of the account, but I think they will send out more if needed for multiple locations. We will send them an email and follow up when they reply. Answer is online at this page.

Control the card readers as you would any other financially sensitive equipment. Establish as few points of purchase as possible and only with trusted staff. You may even want to purchase iPads for use by the concessions staff only so your login credentials and accounts are not compromised. Change the passwords immediately after the event or shift change.

You will need an internet connection or smartphone (iPhone, Android) with 3G at the fields.

2012 is the year soccer tournaments will become mobile very quickly. Technology and services like Square will help us get there.

Early bird pricing specials

Tournaments

We generally get a lot of questions around this time from spring soccer tournaments regarding how to set things like early brid pricing or multiple team pricing, etc. The short answer is: The pricing is controlled in the Team Applications>Set Up Applications Groups/Fees>Go! Just set your pricing lower there for the divisions and on the deadline, set them back up.

The long, more substantive answer is we’ve never seen early bird or multiple discount pricing actually move the needle on attracting teams to a tournament. Teams who want to come play at your event will come because it is a great experience that fulfills the needs of their team development, not because it is a few bucks cheaper. Everyone SAYS that price determines their participation, but their actual behavior really doesn’t reflect that. For the few teams that it does, you will never be cheap enough anyway…

Generally, though, the teams are all applying later and later to the deadline. I think it is mostly because our culture is moving to a Just In Time mentality where everything is delivered next day, downloadable immediately, etc, etc. Soccer tournaments are just one more thing a coach can apply to today for a tomorrow deadline,.

Our Advice: Instead of giving an early bird pricing break, why not do a guarantee on something teams really value, like custom scheduling? For example, the first three teams to apply in each division guarantee a late Sat start or a multiple-coach schedule with no conflict,.. something like that? Then you have a legit “Sorry, we can’t accommodate your multiple team coach because you applied the day before the deadline” rationale.

The early bird gets the worm. So too should the early bird to apply to your soccer tournament.