This is the second article in a five part series on processing a club batch in Offset Commerce.
We summarized the entire workflow in a webinar on 8/6/24 which can be viewed here!
Table Of Contents
Before you start processing your Club orders, these essential tasks will help ensure you are prepared to accommodate any special customer requests. Sometimes members want to skip an upcoming shipment. Perhaps they have a specific shipping service or location where they want to send their next order. There are settings within their membership you can use to accommodate these requests on a one-time or recurring request.
A. Pause any members who will skip the upcoming shipment
Members often need to skip shipments for personal reasons such as an unexpected financial obligation, or moving to a new home. There are also cases when members request a cancellation, but you may be able to retain them longer by allowing them to skip a shipment or two. Rather than canceling their club, if your policies allow members to skip a shipment, you can set this request in their membership under the Pause Membership Until setting. The Pause Membership Until setting allows you to exclude a member from the upcoming club batch processing. You can set the date as far out as is consistent with your Club policies.
To set your pause date, click on the Clubs tab
Click on the ellipses •••
Select the option to View Club Members
Click on the name of the member you want to update or select the ellipses ••• to the right of the customer and choose Edit Member in the dropdown
On the right side of the screen under Pause Membership Until, click the date picker to select your date
Choose your desired date to pause the membership until the date has been reached
NOTE: If you want the member to skip an upcoming processing batch, make sure to set the date after the scheduled processing.
EXAMPLE: If you are processing clubs on September 1st, set your Pause date until September 2nd
Click on the Save button
IMPORTANT: Make sure to pause any members before creating the Club Order batch. After the order has been started, anyone skipping the upcoming batch will need to be manually excluded from the batch.
B. Review and Update Your Member's Preferred Fulfillment Methods
In some cases, members can select their preferred shipping method when they join your club via your online signup form. Others may communicate their preference through one of your communication channels. Rather than adding the preference to their notes or adjusting their order, you can set their preference in the Member details. This preference will override your default Shipping Method during batch processing and instead ship via their preferred Fulfillment Method.
Option 1: Updating the default Fulfillment Method directly in Offset
Click on the Clubs tab
Click on the ellipses ••• next to the right of the club
Choose View Club Members
Click on the ellipses ••• to the right of the member you want to edit
Choose Edit Member
Scroll down to the Club Order Details header
Select the Fulfillment dropdown
Choose your preferred Fulfillment Method from the available options
Click Save
Option 2: Updating the default Fulfillment Method via Spreadsheet Import
Click on the Clubs tab
Select the Actions dropdown
Choose Export All Members to download the .csv
In Column P(shipping_method) you can see if there are folks who selected standard methods that you would need to update, or folks you would like to remove their preference and the method will be the default selected when setting up the batch.
NOTE: Before you make changes, save a backup of the original export so you can refer to their original choice if needed
Once you have your list of people to update, create a two-column, MS-DOS.csv formatted spreadsheet:
Column A = id
id is "Club Member Id" which can be viewed in the CLUBS > Actions > Export All Members file
Column B = method_id
method_id is the number on the left of the shipping method on the SETTINGS > Shipping page
NOTE: If you want to delete the preference altogether, you can leave the data in the "method_id" column blank and it will delete the preference from the customer's club. This way, people will default to the method you choose in the batch. Make sure to reassign pickups or people who want a different carrier before importing the file.
When you are ready to import go to the Clubs tab
Select the Actions dropdown
Choose Bulk Shipping Method Update
Select Choose File
Attach your file
Select the Upload button
NOTE: Try importing one or two updates before doing a mass update to all your member preferences.
C. Add or Review any Special Requests logged in your Club Admin Notes
Customers will reach out with special requests or instructions for their shipments. Some of these settings can be selected at signup and other requests can be added internally by your team. For requests that don't have a specific setting, like a pause date or a default Fulfillment Method, those notes should be collected in the member's Club Admin Notes added to the club membership details page.
To view the notes for all members in an export, click on the Clubs tab
Select the Actions dropdown
Choose Export All Members to download the .csv
Review the data in Column AF(admin_comments)
Check for any things that need to be addressed before you start the club batch
NOTE: These comments are also visible within the club batch and you can view the notes and adjust orders as needed. We will cover this in greater detail in the next section.
IMPORTANT: These notes are transferred to the Special Instructions of your club orders when you process the batch. You may want to remove these notes from the order before processing the batch if they are not intended to be used as shipping instructions.
D. Identify Members with Expired Credit Cards
Identifying members with expired cards ahead of processing your Club Batch is a very important step. While a certain percentage of cards may decline during processing due to unforeseen issues, this one is the most predictable. Focusing energy on members whose payment methods are already known to be invalid could offer you some quick wins ahead of your batch processing.
To view the members with expired cards, click on the Clubs tab
Select the Actions dropdown
Choose Export All Members to download the .csv
Review the data in Column AC(expired)
NOTE: You can use this info to start a call campaign, send some personal emails, or even send out a targeted marketing email encouraging folks to update their card which we will discuss in the next section.
E. Update Your Club Order Receipt Email
When a Club order is successfully processed, Offset will automatically send out a Club Order Receipt email. Make sure and update the verbiage in this email with any essential info about the shipment.
Go to Settings
Select the Transactional Emails tab
Scroll down to Club > Club Order Receipt (Sent after Club Order is processed)
Edit the Subject Line
Edit the Message
Select the Save Changes button