Best Practices
Seniors and Technology: How to Make Class Registration More Accessible to All
If you want to get more class registrations and boost your bottom line, it’s time to start thinking about older adults. Census projections show that by 2035, people over 65 will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history. That means seniors are likely to be a growing audience for your nonprofit education program. Even programs primarily aimed at children should consider the needs of parents and grandparents who are completing the registration process.
Meeting the needs of seniors does not mean avoiding technology. Many older adults are capable of using online registration systems as long as those systems are simple and straightforward.
After 10+ years dedicated to class registration and payment systems, we’ve learned that designing for seniors improves the registration experience for everyone.
Class Registration Myths About Seniors
Myth: Seniors aren’t a big audience for us.
Reality: Many seniors are committed to lifelong learning for themselves. They also register children and grandchildren for classes.
If you’re not already marketing classes to seniors, you may be missing a major opportunity. People aged 50 and older account for 51% of consumer spending although they represent just 45% of all adults. In short, this audience is spending more per capita than younger shoppers. Some portion of that spending is going to classes.
Many seniors are interested in lifelong learning. According to the Seniorlist, 19% of older adults say they have taken an academic course in the last six months. That word, “academic,” may be artificially limiting this result. According to AARP, 55% of Americans age 45 and older are actively learning new things either through classes or independent study.
Even if your education program primarily provides classes for kids, seniors are still a key audience. Consider the grandmother who enrolls her young granddaughter in a drawing class. The class may be for the little girl, but Grandma is the one navigating your registration system.
Myth: Seniors won’t use online registration options.
Reality: Seniors will use online options as long as you make them simple and straightforward.
Seniors may be more tech savvy than you realize. A Pew survey found that 61% of adults 65 and older own a smartphone and 75% use the internet. Making purchases is the second-most popular online activity among people age 50+ (email holds the top spot).
During and since the pandemic, seniors have learned to use technology to do everything from buy groceries to book doctor’s appointments. About 24% of respondents in a survey on aging in place said that they use grocery and food delivery apps. There’s clearly openness among older people to engage with more digital experiences—the key is to make sure those experiences are simple and seamless.
Since the pandemic, seniors can and do use technology to buy groceries online, book doctor’s appointments, and more.
Myth: Seniors are uncomfortable with online payments.
Reality: If it’s easy and safe, seniors will pay online.
Many seniors have spent a lifetime paying with checks or cash. Some are more comfortable with these methods, but others welcome the convenience of online payments. In recent years, more seniors learned how to pay for products and services online as a result of the pandemic.
But seniors are concerned about the security and privacy of online payments. A 2020 survey by Lightico found that people over 65 were more likely to say that they don’t feel online transactions are secure. Nonprofit class providers will see the best results if they show seniors that their payment systems are dependable and secure. Post links to privacy and security details on your payment pages so they’re easy to find.
How to Make Course Registration Easy for Seniors (And Everyone Else)
It’s not just seniors who benefit when you simplify your online registration process. Easy registration helps everyone. Apply these tips to improve the registration experience for people of all ages.
1. Remove extra steps and complexity
Seniors may get frustrated if asked to enter information in multiple places or complete a long series of steps. One 72-year-old told AP news that she has no problem shopping at Amazon or Target.com but that the grocery store app has too many steps and she often ends up starting over.
Map your registration process to understand how many steps it includes. Does the user need to access more than one website or service to complete registration? If you’re asking people to fill out a form in one place, but make a payment somewhere else, they’re likely to get confused.
The best class registration systems seamlessly guide the user from the course catalog through registration, to payment. With CourseStorm, registration and payment is one seamless process that starts with a button on your course catalog. We don’t even ask registrants to create a user profile first. Instead, they have the opportunity to automatically create a profile as part of the registration process.
2. Prioritize accessibility
Older adults are more likely to have vision or motor challenges that can impede accessibility. About a quarter of adults 71 years old and older have visual impairments. These could prevent seniors from using online systems unless accessibility tools are in place.
Simple design changes, like creating high-contrast color schemes and including alt text for graphics can improve accessibility. Check with your website designer and class registration software provider to make sure accessibility options are in place.
CourseStorm course registration and payment processing software complies with Level AA guidelines set by the Web Accessibility Initiative. That means we’ve put the work in to ensure that our registration software is as accessible as possible for people with disabilities.
3. Share safety and privacy information
Some seniors are hesitant to use technology for safety or privacy reasons. They may have heard of or experienced scams where older people have been taken advantage of. In fact, seniors lose more than $3 billion each year to financial scams, both online and offline.
Help your senior registrants feel secure by posting your privacy policies prominently on your website. Let them know how their information will be used and let them opt out of storing payment information.
At CourseStorm, we take security seriously. Our credit card information handling process is PCI compliant and all stored cards are safely encrypted. Our servers are located at state-of-the-art data centers with multi-tiered security systems.
4. Market beyond social media
Social media is a powerful way to reach potential students. But it may not be as effective in reaching older adults. Only 45% of adults age 65 and older use social media. Programs may have better luck reaching seniors through search ads and email marketing. Our State of the Arts Report found that email accounted for the highest percentage of visitors to our customer’s class registration websites. Traditional direct mail campaigns may also be more attractive to seniors.
As a CourseStorm customer, you get personal automated marketing tools that will send personalized email recommendations to students based on past registration history. We keep an eye on marketing trends and best practices, sharing them with customers on our blog.
The Class Registration Solution for All Ages
By now we hope you see that what’s good for seniors is good for registrants of all ages. When you simplify processes, prioritize accessibility, ensure privacy, and market beyond social media, you make registration easier for everyone. And improving the student experience is ultimately what’ll help you fill classes and extend your program’s impact in your community.
Whether you offer classes specifically for seniors, or primarily for children, CourseStorm can help attract this growing and motivated audience of older adults to boost your bottom line.
To see the impact of this simplicity in action check out this case study featuring American Stage. Integrating CourseStorm with their ticketing software helped this nonprofit theatre education program improve the customer experience and save staff time.
Abigail Green
Abby has overseen content development for higher education degree programs related to education, technology, business, and healthcare. One of her first jobs after college was working with children’s programs for the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She is an experienced and versatile writer and editor whose work has been published by Johns Hopkins, the University of Baltimore Alumni Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune.