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Coming Soon: More Accurate Logistics Reports08/28/2012 This week Farmigo will be releasing an system update that will add some Oomph! to your Logistics reports. PLEASE NOTE: You will no longer be able to generate the Member Pick-up Details report for past delivery dates! Early Bird Catches the Worm!08/23/2012  As the summer starts to wind down, some of you may have already begun planning for the next season. For those of you who manage deliveries year-round, we encourage you to take this opportunity to update your delivery schedules from your Farmigo Dashboard. For those of you who offer your members seasonal shares, please email support@farmigo.com so that we set up your next season. There are a lot of benefits to setting up your next season now. For starters, you can begin promoting sign-ups for your next season among your current share members. You can also begin collecting revenue to help with all the expenses that are required when preparing for your next season. Update Delivery Schedules for Ongoing DeliveriesIf your members have signed up for a continuous subscription to your CSA, please remember to regularly add dates to your delivery schedules. To edit or add dates to your delivery schedules, go to the Settings link at the top of your Dashboard. Then click on the dates so that they turn blue in order to schedule a delivery for that date.
Good Year? Set up a Fall or Winter SeasonSome of you may have been promoting a Fall or Winter share already. But some of you may have only recently determined that you are prepared to offer a Fall or Winter this year. If you do not have any sign-ups yet for your Fall or Winter shares, please email support@farmigo.com so that we can set up a unique sign-up page for those seasons. The new link will allow current and new members to sign up for the share at any time and provide you with a unique link for marketing the Fall or Winter season. Jump Start Sign-ups for Next SeasonAs your members have gushed over the beautiful produce that they’ve received all season, this is the perfect time to ask them to sign up for your next season! Please email support@farmigo.com when you are ready to set up your next season. If you could include answers to the following questions, it will allow us to set up your season very quickly:
After we have set up your new season, we will ask you to review your new season and set up any schedules, shares, or locations that we couldn’t copy from a previous season. To review the settings for the new season, you will need make sure that you switch seasons when working in each part of your Dashboard. Switching seasons in the Routes manager Switching seasons in the Items manager Once you have tested your new sign-up link and verified all settings, you will be ready to start taking sign-ups! After your current season has ended, you will then email support@farmigo.com so that we activate your new season and you can begin managing deliveries. Managing Rejected Payments08/09/2012 Today’s tip aims to help you understand and manage rejected payments. If a member is set up with an automatic form of payment including credit card, electronic check, or paypal, it is possible that at some point their payment will be rejected. First, let’s understand why a payment might be rejected. Then, let’s go through how to manage a rejected payment. How do I know a member’s payment was rejected? The first indication a member’s payment was rejected is an automated email called “Payment Failure.” This email is sent to your member when a payment fails, and if you are CC’d, it will send to you as well. When you receive this email, you should go to your dashboard and open the member’s card.  In the member’s card look for the payment with the orange warning triangle and the status rejected. Also, look for a note that should provide insight as to why the payment failed (ie: credit card has expired).  What should I do? Step 1: Figure out why the payment was rejected. First, identify if the payment was made with a credit card, e-check, or paypal. Credit Card (Authorize.net)Authorize.net provides helpful support resources to help you understand why a payment was rejected. Click here to learn more about how to manage a rejected credit card in authorize.net. Also, check out these helpful videos to learn more about authorize.net. E-Check (Check Gateway) Login to your account at Checkgateway.com. Find the member log with the rejected payment. You will see a BO Exceptions (a code entered by the bank) or a Return Reason Codes. There are links in your check gateway account for two PDF’s that help you decipher these codes, or, you can download them here:
PaypalWhen you login to paypal, you will see one of the following messages if a payment failed:
Step 2: Now that you understand why the payment was rejected, contact the member to agree upon how to charge them for their order. Click on the contact tab of their member card, pick up the phone, and give your member a ring. Depending on what the issue was, you will either need to edit the member’s bank account information or just try to chare their account again. Update account information Open the member’s card in the dashboard and click the manage button. Here, you can re-enter the member’s credit card/bank account information. Farmigo does not allow you to see the member’s info that is on file for their own safety. Once you have update the member’s information, press save.  Charge the member: The next step is to charge the member. Click on the charge button. 1. Enter the amount you would like to charge the member 2. Select the preferred payment method 3. Charge the member If the transaction worked, you will see a message that says the transaction was completed successfully and the payment will be recorded in the member’s card. If the transaction does not go through, ask the customer if there is another account/credit card you could try.  Common reasons a member’s payment would be rejected:
How Filters Help You to Take Action08/03/2012 Uh oh! Johny didn’t secure the blueberry harvest last night. In the morning you discover that the animals have raided several boxes. Now you only have enough blueberries harvested to meet the demands of a only few pick-up locations. You will not be able to deliver blueberries to members who pick up at Brooklyn Beet ... Farmigo is here to help you manage this crisis! Today’s tip focuses on how the filters featured in multiple parts of the Dashboard can help you to quickly pull together the information that you need and take action. Perform Repeated Actions Faster In unique circumstances, you may need to make changes to the accounts for a large group of members. Filters help you to quickly identify and display the relevant group of members that you need to adjust. For example, you’ve decided that you will remove blueberries from the orders of members who are picking up at Brooklyn Beet. First you go to the Orders module (found under the Members menu). Then you set to Location filter to “Brooklyn Beet” and Items filter to “Blueberries”. This will narrow the group of members with orders from 14 to 5. Before filter  After filter Now you may click on the first member in this filtered list and look under the Order tab of her member card. You remove blueberries from her order and save changes. Then, looking in the upper right-hand corner of the member’s card, you see 2 back-to-back blue arrows. When you click on the one on the right, you flip immediately to the Order tab of the next member so that you may quickly make the same adjustment.  You then go to the Payment tab of the first member in the filtered list and $5 of Farmigo Credit. Again, you use the 2 back-to-back blue arrows to quickly flip through the Payment tab for all members in the filtered list. Target Group Emails When you would like to send the same message to a specific segment of your membership, you may use filters to identify the segment and then use the Email button found in the upper right-hand corner of the Accounts, Subscriptions, Orders, or Waitlist modules of your Dashboard. To create a more personalized message, you may start by creating a template in the Connect module and inserting dynamic field in your message. To respond to the “Blueberry Situation”, for example, you can go to the Connect module (found under the Market menu) and click the green plus sign in the upper right-hand corner to create a new template. Then you may add dynamic fields, such as [First Name], to personalize the message.  Return to the Orders module (found under the Members menu) and set the Location filter to “Brooklyn Beet” and the Items filter to “Blueberries”. Then click on the Email button in the upper right corner of the Orders module. The “To:” field will indicate which segment of your membership will receive the message. Then you may select the template that you just created and click SEND.  How to Manage Delivery Schedules08/02/2012 Your Schedules are the most integral part of your Farmigo system. The goal of this week's tip is to illustrate how your Schedules interact with each part of your system. Charging for Your Shares YEAR-ROUND CSAs: Whether you make deliveries year-round or on an ongoing basis, a share's assigned schedule determines when your members are charged for that share. SEASONAL CSAs: If your Farmigo system is defined by finite seasons, the total price of a share for the season is determined by the number of distributions in its assigned schedule. For example, let's say that you deliver a produce box for 16 weeks each summer. You estimate that the average price of your share is $15 per delivery. To calculate the total price of the share for the season, you take the number of weeks scheduled times the per delivery price of the share to get $240 for the season.  Managing Share prices on a per delivery basis offer you and your members more flexibility in managing your shares. If you deliver your shares on an ongoing basis, members may conveniently put their deliveries on hold instead of canceling their subscription. If you manage seasonal deliveries, this logic helps you to automatically pro-rate the seasonal price of your share for late signups. Planning Your Delivery Routes When one of your pick-up locations is assigned to a Route, it is assigned to the same delivery day as that Route. For a share to be available at that pick-up location, the share's assigned schedule must include the same delivery day as that pick-up location. For example, the Full Share above is assigned to the Weekly schedule. The only delivery days selected in the Weekly schedule are Wednesday and Thursday. Now you want offer pick-up for the Full Share on Sundays at the farm. Below are the steps that you would take to add a delivery day to a Schedule and Route:  STEP 1 Click on the Settings link at the top of the Dashboard. From the drop-down box that appears under the Schedule tab, select the Schedule where you would like to add the additional day. (You may need to follow steps 1 and 2 for multiple schedules.)  STEP 2 Add the new day to the existing schedule by clicking on the relevant dates in the calendar. The day will turn blue in the calendar in order to indicate that it has been selected. In our example, we selected all of the Sundays for the same weeks that we are making deliveries on Wednesday and Thursday. Then SAVE CHANGES and close the Settings box.  STEP 3 Go to the Routes module, under the Status Menu. Click on the green plus sign in the upper right-hand corner in order to create a new Route. Assign the new route to the delivery day that you just created. In our example, we added a Route for Sunday. Then click on the button to "Save & Close."  STEP 4 From the Routes module, click on the green balloon symbol in the upper right-hand corner in order to create a new location. Assign the new location to the appropriate Route and Save Changes. In our example, we assigned the new Farm Pickup option to the new Sunday Route. Now when a new member selects this option to pick up at the Farm on Sundays, they will be able to select the Full Share in the next step of the signup process. This is because the Weekly schedule is assigned to the Full Share.  What if I don't know how many distributions I will have? Plan conservatively. For those of you that manage your deliveries seasonally, it is sometimes difficult to predict how many deliveries you can squeeze into a season. I recommend minimizing expectations and scheduling the minimum number of deliveries that you believe is reasonable for the season. If you find at the end of the season that you may offer additional produce, advertise this surplus as a BONUS for your members at a reduced price per delivery or at no additional cost. To offer bonus deliveries to your members, take the following steps:
To learn more, visit the Farmigo Help Site. What tips can you share about planning deliveries? Do you find pro-rating shares to be a good strategy for increasing membership? | |||||||||
