Category:

Delivery Holds and Dummy Email Accounts

6/19/2012

Check out the new interface for managing member delivery holds! Read below to understand the new features:

How to place a member on an indefinite hold:

Open member card and click on admin tab.
Select the hold delivery button.
Member will not receive deliveries again until you go back into the member card and click the activate delivery button.

How to place a member on short term hold:

Select a date range from the drop down menus below Temporary Hold area.
Press Save
During the selected dates, a member will not be scheduled for delivery.
To remove a short term hold, click the x to the right of it and press save.

Delivery holds due to sign up delays:
The system will automatically put a member on hold at sign up if they sign up after the sign up delay has passed. The system will indicate if a hold is due to a sign up delay. If you decide that you would actually like to deliver to this member for the upcoming delivery, you can remove the temporary hold by clicking the x to the right of the dates.

***Remember, use caution before removing the delivery hold! As soon as the new member signed up, they may have received an automated email indicating when they may expect their first delivery. If you remove the hold for that coming week's delivery, remember to email them and notify them that their first delivery date has changed. Also, if you pro-rate you shares, please be aware that the new member will not have paid for this extra delivery.

Dummy Email Accounts

When you come across a member who does not have an email address or whose email address you do not know, we recommend creating a dummy email address for them using the following guidelines:

FIRSTNAMELASTNAME@BUSINESSNAME.COM

EXAMPLE:
LUKELOCAL@OLDMACDONALDFARM.COM

Here, the dummy email address is formulated by taking the members full name, then "@", and then the name of your business plus ".com".

Understanding Member Access Hours

6/13/2012

Today, we want to explain how member access hours function. There are two parts to controlling member access hours.

1. Sign-Up: New Member Sign Up Cut Off
The number of days before delivery a new member must sign up by or their first delivery date will be pushed to the following week

2. Store: Upcoming Order Hours
The time members can login and make changes to their upcoming order i.e. change a pick up site/add items in the webstore

How do I know what my current member access hours are?
If you are unsure of your current member access hour settings, you can check them in the settings area of the dashboard.

How Does it Work?

New Member Sign-Up Cut-Off
The new member sign-up timeframe is controlled by setting a fixed number of days to cut off sign-ups before that coming week's delivery. For example, above, the new member sign-up delay is set to 1 day before delivery. This means that for a new member to receive that coming Sunday's delivery, the new member must sign up by Saturday at midnight. If a member signs up once the cut-off time has passed their first delivery will not be scheduled for the upcoming delivery. Instead, the member's account will be put on a temporary hold for that week's delivery and then they will be schedule to receive their first delivery for the following Sunday.

If you decide that you actually do want to deliver to the new member for the upcoming delivery, you can go into their member card and activate their delivery as shown below. But use caution before removing the delivery hold! As soon as the new member signed up, they may have received an automated email indicating when they may expect their first delivery. If you remove the hold for that coming week's delivery, remember to email them and notify them that their first delivery date has changed. Also, if you pro-rate you shares, please be aware that the new member will not have paid for this extra delivery.

Ask Yourself: How many days in advance do you need to know about a new member sign-up in order to prepare their share for the upcoming delivery? One day, two days, three days? Maybe you need an entire week. If you need your sign-up delay changed, please let us know by emailing support@farmigo.com.

Upcoming Order Hours
You may control times during which a member may adjust their upcoming order based on the delivery day. For each of your delivery days, we can set a opening hour and closing hour for members to log into their account and make the following changes for upcoming orders:

1. Put their upcoming delivery on hold*
2. Change their pick up location*
3. Update their subscription*
4. Add items to their delivery from the Web Store
5. Customize their share (for CSA's doing customized boxes)

*Members can only take these actions if you allow them to. These settings may be changed by a Farmigo support team member.

Opening Hour
The earliest members can access their accounts for an upcoming delivery is the day after their most recent delivery. For example, if they receive a delivery on Wednesday, they will be able to begin making changes for the upcoming order on Thursday morning. If you want time to update the web store, we can set the open hour to a later time to allow for changes in inventory/item availability.

Closing Hour
Again, you want to ask yourself, "How many days in advance do I need to know about things like delivery holds/change in delivery location, as well as total orders placed in the web store in order to prepare an upcoming delivery?"

Closing hours can be set to a different time for each delivery day. Therefore, each delivery day can have a different closing time or alternatively, they can each have the same closing time.

Same closing time:

Different Closing Times/Days:

BEST PRACTICE!
Make sure that you communicate your hours with members clearly. Here are some of the best ways to keep your members informed:

1. List hours in your policy and on your website.

2. Mention hours in the instructions tab for each pick up site (Routes Module) so members will see them when they login to their account.

3. Set up an email alert that sends out the final day that members must make changes for their upcoming order reminding them that they must log in and make the necessary changes.

Remember, if you have any questions or need changes to be made to your member access hours, please email us at support@farmigo.com

Educate and Entice Members with Newsletters

4/24/2012

In the connect module, Farmigo presets automated emails to help message members when they take an action in their account (ie sign up, send a payment, etc). Along with these automated emails, CSA members we've interviewed say they enjoy receiving weekly or monthly newsletters from their farms that educate them about the items in their boxes and update them about what is going on at the farm.

Today's Tip of the Week is about how to format newsletters so they represent your farm brand and become a dynamic message that encourage members to visit your farm website, social media, make additional purchases in your web store, and more. Below is an example of a newsletter built as a Farmigo template for Old MacDonald's Farm. To learn how to build a template with images, hyperlinks and formated text, continue reading!

How to Build Your Own Newsletter

The Formatting Bar

The formatting bar allows you to edit the font style, insert hyperlinks, and insert images.

Edit font style: Select bold, italic, or underlined. Then select font and font size. To edit the color of specific text, highlight it then click on the color box and select the color you prefer.
Insert Hyperlink: To insert a hyperlink, select the text you would like to hyperlink. Then click the insert hyperlink button and enter the web URL. The text should become underlined when you do this.
Insert Image: Edit your images using a photo editing software or upload them to photobucket and edit online. Once the photo is uploaded to your web album go back to the email template you are formatting and place the cursor where you would like the image to appear. Click on the insert image link and paste the image link and press ok. To remove an image, place your cursor in front of it and press delete.

Creative Formatting Tips

Creating a Header and Footer
To create a header, first select an image that you feel represents your farm. I chose this one of ripe cherry tomatoes. Upload the image to photobucket or edit it in an offline photo editing software. I cropped this image to make it thinner, then resized to make it fit the width of the email. After finding the proper size, I wanted to add my farm name and the season to the top. To do this in photobucket, switch to the photobucket advanced editor. Here, you can add a box on top of the image and add text.

The process for creating a footer is the same. This is a good place to enter contact details for the farm like a phone number and address.

Optimal Width: 850

Dynamic Fields Customize Emails
Give newsletters a personal touch by using dynamic fields to automatically fill in member information. In the example above, I used the dynamic field [First Name] to address each member personally. To learn how to insert dynamic fields and understand what each dynamic field represents, click here.

Hyperlinked Text Helps Educate Members
Changing the color and font of section titles will help them stand out. Many times members come across new produce in their box that they are not familiar with. By hyperlinking each item back to your website that provides an item picture, description, and possibly recipe, you will help your members to make the most of their CSA.

Provide Links to Webstore to Entice Members to Shop!
Newsletters are a great place to advertise newly available produce and other add-ons from the web store. Include the dynamic field [Link to Web Store] to entice members to make additional purchases in your web store.

There are so many creative ways to use your newsletter to educate members. Some more of our ideas include:

- Encourage your members to interact with your social media sites by hyperlinking text
- Insert links to your sign up wizard and ask members to invite their friends to sign up
- Separate into manageable sections by using dashes

These are a few of the many creative things you can do in a newsletter. What are some things that you do in your newsletter? Comment below to share!

Email Alerts Help You Remind Your Members

4/19/2012

One of the goals that we share as champions of the local food movement is to reduce as much waste as possible. While your members want to support this goal as well, they can be forgetful at times. Email Alerts are a useful tool in Farmigo to set up automatic reminders for your members to pick up their share that week. They can also help you remind your members to visit the web store or make an additional payment.

Today’s Tip of the Week discusses how Email Alerts can increase the efficiency for managing subscriptions. For more information about how to create an Email Alert, visit our Help Site.

“Delivery Date” Email Alerts
To send an automatic email to a member based on a specific number of days before their next delivery, use the “Delivery Date” Email Alert type and enter the number of days before the member’s delivery date that you want the member to receive this alert. This automatic alert will not be sent to members whose account is on hold.

Use the “Delivery Date” Email Alert to ...

Remind Members About their Next Delivery: This especially helpful for members who may not be receiving their subscription order every week. When creating the Email Alert template, consider using the dynamic field for [Link to Account] and encourage your members to review their pick-up site directions and check their account balance.

Encourage Members to Check Out the Web Store: Create an Email Alert so that it will be delivered 6 days before the member’s next delivery and remind them to check out the web store. Add the dynamic field for [Link to Web Store]. This automatic alert will encourage members to select more add-ons for their next delivery.

“Balance” Email Alerts
To send an automatic email to a member when their balance falls into a specific range, use the “Balance” Email Alert type and enter the lower limit of the balance range in the first box and the upper limit in the second box. This alert email is sent once per week as long as the member’s balance falls within the defined range. This alert type is only available for CSAs that have been set up in Farmigo for ongoing deliveries; this alert is not available for CSAs that manage finite seasons.

Create “Balance” Alerts for multiple ranges to …

Warn members that their balance is running low: If you do not have automatic payments set up for all of your members, create a “Balance” alert email with a range between your least expensive share and your most expensive share. When you member’s balance falls within this range, it is very likely that after their next delivery their balance will be zero or become negative. Include the dynamic field for [Link to Payment] so that they may make a payment. These alerts WILL be sent to members that have the recurring payment token on their accounts. You may want to include a sentence like "If you have signed up for automatic payments, this is just a courtesy notice that an automatic payment will soon be charged."

Alert members that their balance is negative: For example, set the condition to "Sends email when member's balance is greater than or equals to: $ -50 and lower than or equals to: $ 0.” In the “CC:” field, insert the email address for the person responsible for late payments. Please note, however, that these alerts will NOT be sent to members with an echeck payment in process.

How do YOU use Email Alerts?
Please share a comment about how you currently use Email Alerts in Farmigo. Do you have any great tips for your fellow CSA administrators? Do you have any ideas about how Farmigo may improve Email Alerts?

For more information about how Email Alerts work, please visit our Help Site.

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Delivery Holds and Dummy Email Accounts

Dummy Email Accounts

Understanding Member Access Hours

Educate and Entice Members with Newsletters

How to Build Your Own Newsletter

Creative Formatting Tips

Email Alerts Help You Remind Your Members

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Delivery Holds and Dummy Email Accounts

Dummy Email Accounts

Understanding Member Access Hours

Educate and Entice Members with Newsletters

How to Build Your Own Newsletter

Creative Formatting Tips

Email Alerts Help You Remind Your Members

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