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Signing Up Members Who Already Have a Farmigo Account

2/21/2014

In Farmigo, only a single member account can be created per email address. This account can be used to sign-up for multiple programs. This means that when a member makes an account with a company that uses Farmigo to manage their signup process, that login information will be the information they should use when signing up for any other company that uses Farmigo.

When a member gets to the Contact Info step of the sign-up process and clicks "Create account with Email," if they have already created an account with another company that uses Farmigo they will see the message "Member with this email already exists."

In this case, the member should click the Back button and select "Already have an account? Login." They should then enter their email address. If they do not remember their password, they can click "Forgot Password," and we will email them instructions on how to reset their password. Once the member completes resetting their password, they can complete sign-up.

SYSTEM UPDATE - Improved Setting to Help with Store Inventory

8/30/2013

This week the software development team released a software update which will reduce the chance that a member will order an item that is out of stock from your web store. It has been observed that members may place items in their cart and take a long time to check out. When this happens, the items they placed in their cart might have already been sold to another member.

To show the member an updated store inventory, the member will be asked to refresh their current store session when the following conditions are met:

The member's store session has been open for more than 60 minutes.
There are items in the store with less than 20 orders available.

If a member meets these 2 conditions when editing their web store order, the following will happen:

This message will pop up: "Your session has timed out. Click OK to refresh the page and get up-to-date information."
When the member clicks "OK", the web store page will refresh and any changes that the member made to their order during that session will not be saved.

How to Manage Delivery Schedules

8/2/2012

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:

Create a unique schedule for the extra deliveries.
Create a share at the discounted delivery price or at a price of $0; assign the share to the unique schedule created in step 1.
Ask members to log into their accounts and add the Bonus Deliveries to their subscription. (Email [email protected] if the feature which allows members to add to their subscriptiontion is not currently turned on.)

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?

See What Your Members See

6/26/2012

Setting up dummy accounts for system administrators or non-member site hosts
Setting up a dummy account helps you to better understand how your customers interact with your system and allows you to test email templates. Also site hosts will benefit from having an account even if they don't have a subscription so that they can access reports that help them with distribution. Below we will show you how to manage different accounts in your Farmigo system that won't affect your subscription numbers or financials.

Take these steps to set up a dummy account:
1. Create a dummy share in the items module. Set the price at $0 and keep the item unpublished. In the Advanced settings, set the packing guidelines as "Not a box" to prevent this share from showing up in the box builder.

2. Create the dummy member account in the subscriptions module

Enter the subscriptions module
Click on the green plus sign to add a new Member
Enter the admin/site host contact info and press save
Click on the subscription tab and select a delivery location, then click add. Select the 'Dummy Share' you recently created, then click add. Save your changes.
A member who is added in the back end of the system is automatically assigned the temporary password farmfresh

Use dummy accounts to set up accounts for your admins to test email templates or get to see the customer side of the system. Dummy accounts are also the best way to create accounts for site hosts who do not actually have a share with you.

Test an email template:
Use your dummy account to test email templates. Once you create the template in the connect module, open your personal dummy account card and click the email button. Then select the template you would like to test and press send.

Not receiving an email template? Check your spam folder!
We have been hearing from some CSA's that their members are not receiving emails that are sent through farmigo. When we follow up with the members, we've learned for the most part this is because emails are being marked as spam. To ensure your members are receiving emails through the farmigo system, ask them to add farmigo.[your Farmigo URL]@farmigo-csa-hr.appspot.com as a trusted email address in their email accounts.

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:

[email protected]

EXAMPLE:
[email protected]

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 [email protected].

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 [email protected]

Reward Members for Referring New Customers

3/13/2012

Your current CSA members are one of your best marketing resources. Farmigo can help you utilize this marketing resource by helping you create a referral rewards program. The first step to setting up a referral program is to email [email protected] and let us know that you would like to change your sign up comment to something along the lines of "How did you hear about us? If somebody referred you to us, please tell us their name." This comment will appear in the last step of the sign-up process beneath the payment method.

When you view this new subscription in your dashboard, you can view the sign up comment under the Order tab of the contact card. Additionally, when you export the subscription list to excel, the comment can be viewed in the Sign-Up Comment column.

Now that you have identified the member who referred your new customer, it's time to reward them. Instead of giving the customer a discount or coupon code, we recommend providing them with Farmigo credit, a currency that may only be used in the Farmigo web store. If you do not have Farmigo credit enabled, email us and ask us to activate it for you.

How to add Farmigo Credit to a member's account:
To reward members for referrals, we decided to offer a $10 Farmigo Credit per signed up referred member. To add credit, go to the payment tab of the member's subscription card. In the drop down box next to Add Payment select Farmigo Credits. Then enter the amount, choose received, enter the date, and enter a note that mentions which customer was referred. Finally, click add.

When Miriam Mark logs into her account, she will see that she has $10 in Farmigo credit. The next time she goes to the web store, she can use this credit to complete her purchase.

How the member views Farmigo credits:

How the member spends credits in the web store:

If you are interested in setting up a referral rewards system, email us at [email protected] and we'll help you get started!

Enhanced User Sign-Up Experience

2/11/2012

Hello!
My name is Karli, and I am a new member to the Farmigo team. I will be bringing you tips of the week to update you on our new and improved features.

This week, I want to introduce you to our enhanced user sign-up experience. We have received feedback from your CSA members that some aspects of the sign-up process is unclear. We also received feedback from you, our farmers, that you would like the sign-up design to be more inline with your website. We've been listening and have made an effort to redesign the sign-up interface to make it a more attractive and enticing experience for users. Below are screenshots of the old and new interfaces so you can get a look at the changes we made. We hope you like it!

Signing Up Members Who Already Have a Farmigo Account

SYSTEM UPDATE - Improved Setting to Help with Store Inventory

How to Manage Delivery Schedules

See What Your Members See

Delivery Holds and Dummy Email Accounts

Dummy Email Accounts

Understanding Member Access Hours

Reward Members for Referring New Customers

Enhanced User Sign-Up Experience

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