Organizer guide
Surveys stay private. Reviews use confirmed email; Verified participant badge when roster match. Major starts in private B2B mode.
Post-race surveys vs verified reviews
Surveys answer what you ask. Verified reviews answer what the next athlete needs to see before they register.
Why post-race surveys stall
Most finishers are mentally done when they cross the line. A link in a results email has to compete with photos, recovery, and getting on with life. Response rates show it. You hear from the loudest athletes, not the field as a whole.
Surveys stay internal. Useful for your team, invisible to the athlete comparing your race to another on a registration page. Doubt grows in that gap.
What verified reviews add
Every published review has confirmed email. The Verified participant badge appears only when bib, email, and organizer roster match — that is the proof tier athletes trust at signup.
Confirmed-email reviews without the badge still collect feedback; on Major they stay private until you enable public mode. Organizers reply in public with context when reviews are published: course changes, weather, aid-station fixes.
Use both, different jobs
Keep short internal surveys for ops detail: aid placement, volunteer shifts. Use verified reviews for reputation, registration social proof, and summaries you can take to a board meeting.
Sporting Scouter nudges finishers in the weeks after results, while memory is still fresh. It works alongside RunSignup, Race Roster, or your timing partner. It does not replace them.
Response rates and who actually responds
For endurance events, a 10–15% survey response rate is normal. That leaves 85–90% of your field silent, including the quiet middle who had a fine day but are not sure they would come back. Your spreadsheet skews toward fierce fans and angry complainers. The persuadable majority barely shows up.
Ask for a review in the right window and you reach a wider slice of the field. The ask is simple: rate the race, not write an essay. Athletes know feedback may become public proof when you run public mode — on Major that is your choice, not automatic.
The visibility problem at the registration page
Even a well-run survey with a 20% response rate stays inside your team. The athlete on your registration page next October never sees that 91% rated aid stations excellent. That number never reaches the moment when someone is deciding whether to pay the entry fee.
On Major you start in private mode. When you enable public mode, eligible reviews pass a 72-hour window before they appear on the Sporting Scouter site. On self-serve plans, published reviews show confirmed email; only roster-matched reviews get the Verified participant badge. Embed published proof beside your registration link when public mode is on.
A feedback loop that actually builds
When an organizer replies to a critical verified review (late baggage call, course change, aid-station fix), that reply sits there for the next registrant. A star average does not show that a real person runs the event and reads feedback.
Over time, a solid public review set takes pressure off your internal survey numbers. Sixty public reviews with organizer replies beats an aggregate score from a form nine out of ten athletes ignored when you talk to sponsors or your board. Run both for one full season in parallel. You will quickly see which tool belongs where.
Put verified proof beside your registration stack
Start free on self-serve plans — confirmed email on every review; Verified participant badge when there's a roster match. Running 2,000+ finishers with roster privacy needs? Scouter Trust Layer on Major.