CartGenie Tip of the Week: E-Gift Cards part 2

March 11th, 2010

This is Part 2 of our E-Gift Cards Tip of the Week. You can read Part 1 here.

This Tip of the Week will teach you how to process an order when someone buys an E-gift Card, process an order when someone pays with an E-Gift Card, and check the balance of an E-Gift Card when a customer calls and asks.

Now that you’ve set up E-Gift Cards for purchase in your online store, let’s imagine a scenario: Say your customer John Doe has bought an E-Gift Card for his sister Jane. He’s added the product to his cart, paid with a credit card, and completed his order.

Here are your next steps:

First, you must process and close John’s order to activate the E-Gift Card he bought for his sister. It’s imperative that you do this, because if you don’t, John’s credit card will not be charged, the E-Gift Card won’t be activated, and Jane will never get her thoughtful gift from her brother, which might make the next family gathering a bit awkward.

Open up Desktop Engine and the Order Manager. Find John’s Pending Order by viewing all pending orders or by searching a date range or order number. Click once on John’s pending order and scroll down to “Order Actions.”
Click “Ship All – YES” and then the “Billing” button to process the credit card.

Once you’ve captured funds from the credit card, you must close the order to activate the E-Gift Card. In the “Order Status” box, click the drop down menu and change the order from “Pending” to “Closed.” Click “Update” to save changes.

Now you’re ready to notify the recipient — in this case, Jane. In the line item detail of the order, double click the check mark under the P/G column to open the E-Gift Card Order Manager.

The E-Gift Card Order Manager displays the details of the card, including the Gift Card Number, PIN, and Expiration. It shows who gave the E-Gift Card and the recipients name and e-mail, along with any message your customer sent to the recipient. Assuming all information is accurate, click the Send Email to send the E-Gift Card to the Recipient.

Once Jane gets the e-mail, she’ll shoot over to your store with money burning a hole in her pocket. She finds a few products she likes, adds them to her cart, and starts her checkout. On the first checkout page, Jane will enter her billing and shipping details as usual. Then she will enter the E-Gift Card number and PIN she received in the e-mail from us. She can check the balance first by clicking the “View E-Gift Card Value” link.

Jane completes the checkout process and the order is charged to her E-Gift Card balance. If Jane were to buy more than her E-Gift Card covers, she would be prompted for an additional form of payment, like a credit card, on the Payment Information page of the checkout process.

In our example here, Jane doesn’t use her whole gift card. She can check the balance herself on the first page of checkout as we previously mentioned, but Jane loves to call for help so she phones you to ask what her balance is.

We open up CartGenie Desktop Engine, click the Products menu, and “E-Gift Card Manager.” Down in the bottom left corner, click the “E-Gift Card Sales” button.

Find the E-Gift Card in question and double click the checkbox in the first column to view that E-Gift Card’s transactions.

Here you can see all transactions for this card as well as the balance at the bottom.

Great news Jane: you’ve got more money you can spend at our online store.

John gave a great gift, Jane got a great gift, and we grew our revenue.
Great job!

A tale of two cable companies

February 22nd, 2010

Recently, my family and I moved — not a big move but one city down the road.

Before we left our old place, we called and canceled the high-speed internet service (easy enough). Once we got settled in to the new place, we decided to shop internet providers looking for the best deal. We came across a company (we’ll call them Company 1) we had never gotten service from in the past and decided to give them a try.

Big mistake.

From day one, it was nothing but problems. First, the modem didn’t work. We had it properly plugged in — all cables, wires, cords, and power supplies connected — but no internet.

After not one, not two, but three calls to tech support taking over two hours in all, the company finally sent someone out to assess the problem. As it turns out they had to flip some switch. Mind you, this was an issue with the company, not the property (I know, because they didn’t charge us for the visit).

After two weeks of paying for service but not actually being able to use the internet, we finally were able to connect. Voila!

Well, actually not. Turns out, after all that, that this particular company’s “high speed” internet service wasn’t even fast enough to stream music, much less video (a critical need in our home).

So after nearly a month of dealing with this company, we had had enough — we canceled service and tried a different company, Company 2 (which just so happens to be the largest ISP in America).

To say the difference was night and day is being a bit too kind to Company 1 (which wasn’t worthy of shining Company 2’s shoes).

From the beginning, Company 2 was proactive, responsive, and prompt. The salesperson on the phone (Company 2’s first-impression) was friendly and amiable (even laughing at my corny jokes). He scheduled installation as close to the current date as possible. He offered specials and discounts without me having to turn the screws. He offered advice on reducing our next month’s bill, going so far as suggesting we call the billing department to get a negotiable fee waived.

The gentleman who came to install our service was friendly and professional. Before entering our house, he slipped covers over his shoes to avoid tracking in any debris (it’s worth noting that Company 1’s technician left dirty footprints on our hardwood — just like in the movies!). He replaced worn out cable along the outside of our house for free. He installed a speed-boosting device at no additional cost.

Within a couple days of first contacting Company 2, we had high-speed internet zooming into and out of our home at sixteen times the rate Company 1 could manage.

Both my wife and I were exceptionally pleased and got on with our music- and video-streaming lives. But the story doesn’t end there.

Yesterday, about two weeks after the initial installation, my wife got a knock at the door. It was a service technician from Company 2. Just so happened to be in the neighborhood, noticed we had recently started service with them, and thought she’d stop by and see how everything was going. Are we getting all the speed we paid for? Are we satisfied with the service so far? How was the technician who install service? Was he kind and professional? Is there anything else they could do for us at this time?

As my wife retold this story to me, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor (actually, I asked her if this was Bizarro-World where companies care about their customers before there is a problem). Not only had Company 2 exceeded our expectations on the front-end, they engaged in proactive customer service before there was any need for damage control. Refreshingly, they didn’t try to “upsell” us on any additional services during this follow-up check-in.

A couple lessons I gleaned from all this:

  • Often, a company is the market leader for a reason (proactive customer service comes to mind). Anyone can react to a customer complaint. Not just any company can keep that complaint from arising in the first place.
  • Sometimes companies require contracts because, if they didn’t, most customers wouldn’t stick around for more than a few weeks (to be fair, this is not always the case). But if a company is confident enough to say, “We won’t force you to stay any longer than you want to,” it’s worth standing up and taking notice.
  • It really is the little things. The shoe covers probably cost Company 2 all of 12 cents, but created a lasting impression that said, “I respect your home and your efforts to keep it clean” (Company 1 lost out on creating warm-fuzzies, probably because some analyst on the 51st floor at Corporate said, “Hey, we can save $200,000 bucks a year if we get rid of these stupid, overpriced slipper thingies.”).
  • Customer-focused follow-up is worth ten times in goodwill what it costs in time. The vast majority of companies do not follow up after a sale. This is shocking. Think of your last purchase over $50. Did the company accepting your hard-earned money follow up after the sale?  A good portion of the companies that do, lead with a self-serving sales pitch (“You know, most of our Anvil Product customers also buy Anvil Protection for only $19.95 a month!”). It is a surprisingly rare company that follows up simply to ensure the customer is happy.

It’s this new way of doing business (well, a traditional way, in many respects) that I believe will characterize successful companies in the present and future. Consumers simply have too many choices and too much information for companies to succeed by doing the minimum and making excuses.  Sure, all those penny-wise, pound-foolish policies will allow behemoths to survive with single-digit profit margins. But proactive customer service, responsiveness, professionalism, and yes, even humor, carry the day and win the lion’s share of the business.

What changes could your company make to improve your customer experience?

CartGenie Tip of the Week: Adding Users to CartGenie Desktop Engine

February 17th, 2010

CartGenie Tip of the Week is a weekly series in which we review ways to use a feature in CartGenie.  Be sure to check back each Wednesday and learn something new!

If you missed last week’s post on wholesale and preferred customer pricing, you can find it here.

To watch a video tutorial of this tip, click here.

Today we’re looking at using the Admin Manager to add users to CartGenie Desktop Engine. Say you want some help changing, updating, and adding stuff to your web site. You also have some valued employees who are willing to help you out; however, you don’t want to compromise your CartGenie account by passing out your user name and password.

We can use the Admin Manager to create new users with their own credentials. From CartGenie Desktop Engine click on the Company menu, then “Admin Manager,” then “New.”

Here’s where we can add a new user and you can add as many users as you need. So let’s say your valued employee Steve McNinja is ready and willing to help you out with your site. Type his first and last name in the appropriate fields, pick a user name for him, and a password.

Under “User Type,” we select what kind of privileges Steve will have.

The main difference between an Administrator and a User is that an Administrator can open up the Admin Manager where we are now and make changes, but a User can’t.

Under “Status” we can select “Active” or “Inactive.”

“Inactive” is a good choice if you have a seasonal employee who will be helping you out from time to time, but you don’t want them to always have access to change the site. For example, if you have an out of state college student who works for you during Summer break and Winter break, you can make their profile “active” when they’re home working for you, and switch it to “inactive” when they go back to school. This allows you to avoid the extra work of adding a new profile each time they start working for you again, but keeps them from having access while out of town at school.

Under “Access Rights,” we get to choose what Steve can do while logged in to Desktop Engine. If you’re not so sure about Steve’s math skills, you could keep him out of Price Manager, Price Level Manager, and Tax Manager (for example)…just to be safe.

Click “Add/Update”… and you’re done! Now e-mail Steve and tell him the good news.

CartGenie Tip of the Week: E-Gift Cards

February 3rd, 2010

CartGenie Tip of the Week is a weekly series in which we review ways to use a feature in CartGenie.  Be sure to check back each Wednesday and learn something new!

If you missed last week’s post on Increasing Sales with the Promotion Manager, you can find it here.

To watch a video tutorial of this tip, click here.

E-Gift Cards, gift cards, gift certificates — whatever you call them, they’re a great way to build your business and grow your revenue. You may already know that you have customers coming to your site to buy gifts, but what if they can’t choose which one of your products to give? That’s where E-Gift Cards come in.

The gift card industry is a $37 billion-dollar-a-year industry. CartGenie’s E-Gift Card Manager lets you get your piece of this growing pie. Today, we’ll look at how to set up E-Gift Cards for your customers to buy.

We’ll start, as usual, in CartGenie Desktop Engine. Click on “Products,” then “E-Gift Card Manager.”

E-GiftCards

Once the E-Gift Card Manager has opened, you can create your E-Gift Card product.

E-GiftCardMgr

In the “Product Name” field, decide what you want to call your E-Gift Card. You can choose any name you like: “E-Gift Card,” “Gift Certificate,” or something creative that fits your company or your product. Select your Category from the drop down list. (If you need to, you can add a new category first using Category Navigator).

CatNav

Back in the E-Gift Card Manager, select a Sub-Category if applicable. Choose a brand. (If you need to add a new brand, you can do so in Brand Manager which is also found in the Products menu). Choose whether or not you want the E-Gift Card to be displayed. We’ll choose “Yes.”

Next, you’ll choose when you’d like the gift card to expire. You can choose “Never” or from 1-5 years from the purchase date. Let’s choose 2 years from the date it’s bought.

E-GiftCardMgr

In the “Title Tag” field, you put whatever text you want to have displayed at the top of the web browser. The Meta Description is what will show up in search engine results and Meta Keywords are the keywords a search engine will attach to this page.

Lastly, in the Description field you’ll want to put in the actual description of this product talking about its key features, how awesome it is, and why your customers would want to buy it.

Now we’ll decide in what denominations to offer E-Gift Cards. Let’s choose $25, $50, $75, and $100 dollars.

E-GiftCardMgrPricing

Click “Add/Update” and you’re ready to start selling E-Gift Cards!

Join us next week to learn about processing orders when someone buys an E-Gift Card, processing orders when someone pays with an E-Gift Card, and managing E-Gift Card Balances.

CartGenie Tip of the Week: Increase Sales with Promotion Manager

January 28th, 2010

CartGenie Tip of the Week is a weekly series in which we review ways to use a feature in CartGenie.  Be sure to check back each Wednesday and learn something new!

If you missed last week’s post on Copying Multiple Rows of Data into CartGenie, you can find it here.

Today, we’re looking at increasing your sales using the Promotion Manager. Offering promotions to existing customers can be a great way to generate a repeat order or give you another chance to create a positive customer experience.

In the CartGenie Desktop Engine, click on “Commerce” and then hover over “Promotion Manager.” You’ll see two options: $ Discounts and % Discounts.

PromoMgr

We can set up a discount of a specific dollar amount or we can set up a percentage discount. For example, if you wanted to offer $10 dollars off an order of $50 dollars or more, this would be a “$ Discount.”

Start by clicking in the “Promo Code” column and type in the promo code you want to use. It’s a good idea to have some sort of naming convention when you come up with a promo code. For example, you might call the promo code for $10 dollars off an order of $50 dollars or more “10off50″ or something similar. We’ll use “10off50″ for our example.

PromoCode

Type in a description. This description will show up during checkout to show the customer which promo code they used, so you will want to make it something that will make sense to them. We’ll put “$10 off $50 or more.”

Description

Enter the Promo Amount. This is important: you must enter the promo amount as a negative number by putting the dollar amount in parentheses.
PromoAmount

Enter the Purchase Minimum.  In this case, the customer has to purchase a minimum of $50 dollars. Finally, choose the date you want the promo to expire. You might choose the end of the week, the end of the month, or any other date you choose.

PurchaseMinimum

Click “Add/Update” to save your changes.

If you click over to your live website, you can test the promo code. Find a product and add it to your cart. In the shopping cart, you’ll notice where you can enter a promo code.

EnterPromoCode

Enter your promo code (in this case “10off50″) and click “Update Cart.”
Notice how what we put in the description shows up now. Check that the proper discount has been applied.

PromoCodeDes
Now all you have to do is distribute the promo code to your customers using e-mail marketing, your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

CartGenie Launches New Order Exchange Add-On

January 27th, 2010

CartGenie is pleased to announce the release of our newest add-on module, CartGenie Order Exchange (OX). CartGenie OX is a SOAP based Web Service API that allows an application to retrieve all details about an online order. With this Web service merchants can retrieve orders from the CartGenie database and import the orders into another application.

After the order has been picked, merchants can then send the orders back to the CartGenie database in order to update the quantity shipped, charge the credit card, and send an email alert to the shopper indicating their orders has been filled. In summary, with CartGenie OX a merchant can process an order through another application, such as an in-store point-of-sale system, without ever needing to open CartGenie Desktop Engine.

Find out more here.

CartGenie Tip of the Week: Copying Multiple Rows of Data into CartGenie

January 20th, 2010

CartGenie Tip of the Week is a weekly series in which we review ways to use a feature in CartGenie.  Be sure to check back each Wednesday and learn something new!

If you missed last week’s post on beefing up your products with features, you can find it here.

If you’d like to watch a video tutorial of this tip, click here.

Say you’ve decided to add features to your product, but you’d like to save time and add a whole list of them all at once, instead of each individually.

First, we’ll log in to CartGenie Desktop Engine and click on “Product Navigator” to find the product we want to add features to. You can either search for the product or navigate to the product using the drop down menu.

CartGenie Product NavigatorClick on “Features” to open the Features Manager.

You may already have an Excel spreadsheet that lists the features of a product. You can also create a list of product features from scratch in a blank Excel spreadsheet. You’ll want to have a column of features, one feature per row.

Excel Features List

As was mentioned in our last post, you can also add HTML tags like <b>, <i>, and <u> to the list to format your text.  In Excel, click and drag to select the list of features and type “Ctrl+C” to copy the list. You know you’ve copied the list successfully if the selection has a scrolling marquee style border

Excel Copy List

Back in CartGenie Desktop Engine, click the “Features” column heading in the Features Manager so that the heading and the first row are highlighted black.

CartGenie Features Mgr highlighted

Type “Ctrl+V” to paste the list of features you just copied from Excel.

CartGenie Features Mgr with features

This part is important: Click the “Add/Update” button to save your changes.

If you click over to your live website, click the refresh button or type “F5,” you will see that CartGenie desktop engine made our changes instantly!

Features Updated

As always, we welcome your comments or questions — you can contact us here. Be sure to join us next Wednesday for another Tip of the Week!

Previously: CartGenie Tip of the Week: Using features to beef up your product descriptions

CartGenie Tip of the Week: Using features to beef up your product descriptions

January 13th, 2010

CartGenie Tip of the Week is a weekly series in which we review ways to use a feature in CartGenie.  Be sure to check back each Wednesday and learn something new!

Today we’ll be looking at the Feature Manager.

There are two ways to navigate to the Feature Manager.  If you’re looking at the details of a product in the Product Manager, click on the “Features” button at the bottom of the page:

Features Button in Product Manager

You can also get to the Feature Manager from the Product Navigator by clicking on “Features” in the drop-down list”

Features Button in Product Navigator

Once the Feature Manager opens, you’ll see the “Features” heading with a column of blank rows beneath it.

Feature Manager no features

Add product features by typing text into the blank rows.  Each row will show up as a separate bullet point in the features field on your website. You can also copy and paste features from a Word or Excel document which allows you to input multiple rows (bullets) of features all at one time. This is one benefit of using an installed program like CartGenie Desktop Engine vs. an online admin tool.

Advanced Tips

Say you want text to show up in the features field without a bullet point in front of it (like you would for a heading like “Key Specs:”) – simply add a forward-slash in front of the text:

Feature Manager forward slash

You can also add html tags to format your text bold (<b>), italics (<i>), or underline (<u>) like this:

Feature Manager html font tags

Finally, you can add pictures in the features field like you might want to if your product has multiple color options or fabric swatches using the html img tag:

Feature Manager html img tags

When all is said and done, it looks like this:

Features Live

See it live on our demo site here.

As always, we welcome your comments or questions — you can contact us here. Be sure to join us next Wednesday for another Tip of the Week!

Previously: CartGenie Tip of the Week: Title Tag, Meta Description, Meta Keywords

CartGenie Tip of the Week

January 7th, 2010

Welcome to a new feature on our blog: CartGenie Tip of the Week!  Each week will take a quick look at how to improve your CartGenie storefront and your overall business. Be sure to check back each Wednesday and learn something new!

This week we’re looking in the Product Manager at the Title Tag, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords. Let’s take them one at a time.

M1 Title Tag

The Title Tag is what will appear at the top of the Web browser window when someone visits a particular product page. If your customer is using tabbed browsing, the Title Tag will appear on the tab.  Most online merchants want customers to see the name of the product as shown above.

Once you’ve added the name of the product in the Title Tag field, it will look like this to customers:

Title Tag

You can view it live at our example site: www.cartgenie.com.

The Meta Description field the descriptions that will be stored by Internet search engines that visit your site.  Below is a picture of what you see if you search Google for “specialized m1 bike helmet” and the Meta Description is highlighted:

Title Tag and Meta Description on Google

To use the Meta Description field in CartGenie, enter a brief description of the product.  This description will be displayed in the results of a search engine. Also, notice that the title of the web page is the text we entered into the Title Tag. Google and other search engines weigh the content in the Title Tag very heavily in their search algorithms. As a result, the Title Tag is very important in how you appear in search results.

Example: Your business sells mountain bikes and related equipment.  Enter a description of the product in the Meta Description.

M1 Meta Description

Finally, you’ll want to put some keywords into the Meta Keywords field. The Meta Keywords are keywords that will be stored by Internet search engines that visit your site.  Use the Meta Keywords to help customers find your product when they enter keywords in a search engine.  It’s a good idea to put any keywords that a customer might use when they’re searching for that product, separating each keyword with a comma.

Example: Your business sells mountain bikes and related equipment, like the Specialized M1 Bike Helmet.  Enter the following in the Meta Keywords field: bike, helmet, mountain.

M1 Meta Keywords

Of course, you can add additional keywords as well; this is just a sample to give the idea.

If you have questions, you can contact us here. Be sure to join us next Wednesday for another Tip of the Week!