Cogran

Cogran is one of the best camp/registration softwares out there!

Pros:

The customer service has been absolutely top notch. The onboarding process was great, the team did a lot to get us up and running and went above and beyond. Every time we’ve had a question or suggestion the team listened and did their best to implement any changes as they were possible. Customer service is very knowledgeable and has always been very quick to respond to any questions or issues. We’ve found the system to be very customizable.The system itself has been fairly easy to learn, both from the admin side as well as the customer side.It has been easy for customers to register and I love that it’s easy to register multiple people and is a fairly short process for the customer.We have primarily used the system for our camps. I love that it’s easy to sign up for a membership and we can easily offer discounts for memberships, scholarships, and a variety of other options.There are excellent rosters and attendance sheet options. There’s a function that allows us to print the weeks’ worth of rosters/attendance for multiple camps in just a few minutes and this is such a huge time saver! There’s also a huge variety of reports and charts that help us track different sets of data.We’ve also used the site for ticket sales and rentals and both went very smoothly and were easy to navigate. I could see us using the site to help with other programs we offer.

Cons:

None that I can think of! I've truly loved all aspects of this software and it's been such a huge improvment and time saver.

Wonderful customer service!

Comments: It been a great learning experience. Customer service, for me has been a huge help. Always willing to try most suggestions for improvement.

Pros:

The adaptability to our organization, which took many months preparing data migration, program set up, membership and facility set up to implementation. We're still making adjustments and improvements to better serve our customers and staff.

Cons:

Training in how to use the software was difficult for me. For someone who learns faster with a "hands-on" training, trying to do it remotely from videos was hard to follow. Some of the demonstrations moved along too fast to understand.

Cogran is the Perfect Software for Classes, Events and Camps

Comments: The business problems we were having was efficiency, accuracy and time management. I love that it is user friendly- automated registration, payment collection and camp/class management tools makes it worth it. Cogran is like having another person on staff who is a detailed and super-efficient. I have a lot on my plate to juggle, so learning a new software was something I was hesitant about. The software is intuitive and pretty easy to follow. Cogran set us up super-fast and the one-on-one training is golden. I know there is so much more the software can do . Our Cogran representative is great about showing us how to get more out of the software.

Pros:

We are a slim staff and Cogran software is like having added people to manage camp and class registration from soup to nuts. Before Cogran, we used excel to manage our camps and class registrations. It was labor intensive and open to human error. Collecting payments from parents was another challenge. This is now automated with Cogran. I have been able to add more camps and classes. I was anxious about making the change, worried that I had to be an IT expert. I was blown away at how fast it was for Cogran to get us set up. I am grateful for the expertise of Cogran's team in taking the time to show me how to navigate the software.

Cons:

I am a visual person and would like to see instruction videos ie., how to set up class, what is the diffence between camp and class and how to set up each. There are some steps I don't do often and a video would be helpful to review.

Good Sales Pitch, Terrible User Interface

Comments: The sales side (one person) was great. She really sold us. She was also very available in training us on the system. But the system is cumbersome and not intuitive at all. After spending two weeks setting up our class registration, the link we put in our email blast was a dead end. They quickly suggested another link, also a dead end. We did not email through Cogran -- we couldn't figure out how to import our data. We planned to do that on another day. But after the failed class registration launch, we switched back to Eventbrite (registration was set up in hours not weeks) -- not an all-in-one solution, but at least our students can register for classes. We called them immediately and told them that the product did not work for us, and requested a refund. It has been a month and they have not returned calls, emails....or our money.

Pros:

Nothing about the product worked for us. The one-person sales team was responsive, until we asked for our money back.

Cons:

Failed link, customers couldn't reach our site: It took us two weeks to set up our class registration for fall classes. When it was ready to launch, the link that we put into our email blast did not work. Cogran quickly responded and suggested a different web address. This one also did not work. Cumbersome back end interface: It took way too much time to set up class registration. It was very cumbersome. Lots of back and forth within the site. We were able to set up our classes in a few hours on another event platform. We spent two weeks setting up classes in Cogran, which our customers weren't even able to reach. No easy dashboard or calendar: We weren't able to see all of our classes in one easy place. If that feature is available, it is very well hidden. The "snapshot" page they directed us to was not an easy overview of classes.

Great product - going 5 years strong!

Comments: If you're in a community center, you can't find a better partner who understands what your needs.

Pros:

There are three important factors to us for a registration system; family-centric, support, & cost. Cogran has exceeded in all those areas. The system has great functionality for families, one family = one account & one login. This made switching to Cogran really easy for us and our clients. Cogran, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], are some of the best in this business. Anytime over the past five years if I have had questions or suggestions they have been there to help, just an email or text away. Finally, they worked with us to implement pricing that worked for our market environment.

Cons:

Nothing. Every system has quirks and a learning curve. Anytime I have found something I didn't like the team at Cogran has worked with me to find a solution.