How to explain User Choice to Club Members

We are attempting to use user choice for the first time for our March clubs. What is the best way to explain this new process to club members? In the past, they would have to call or email us with any changes to bottles, shipping address, credit cards. We want reduce the amount of calls and emails and make it so club members are confortable doing it themselves.

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Some ideas:

  1. Make a landing page that explains how to do everything once they log in.

  2. Host instructions like these guys do.

  3. Post a video.

  4. Write to WineDirect and explain that itā€™s 2018 and that there is no reason a tool with so much potential should be so crippled and clunky.

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We are also embarking on a change to User Choice Club. How can the club member see a ā€œrunning totalā€ before s/he commits to the selection? Thank you!

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Unfortunately, thereā€™s not any pricing built into the user choice tool from the Club Memberā€™s end. Itā€™s just a selection of items as text, and quantities. We format our wine entries with the pricing included on the User Choice Season (For example ā€œ2015 Chardonnay - $21.50ā€) so a club member can get an idea, but shipping/tax/total arenā€™t displayed for them anywhere.

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Bummerā€¦

I do a similar thing, Iā€™ll include the regular price too so it will read ā€œ2012 Pinot Noir - $22.50 (Reg. $30)ā€

Also, while I agree that the user choice can be clunky, I donā€™t have people contacting me to find out what their total will be. Including in September, when I forgot to include the prices in the item selection.

One suggestion I can make is to create a link that points directly to: www.yourdomain.com/index.cfm?method=memberClubs.clubList

Through this link, they will be asked to log in and once they log in they will land on the Edit Club page and should be pretty intuitive from here on out.

If you are planning on sending out a reminder email prior to the cut-off date of your User Choice Club, itā€™s a good time to include this link.

I did a feature request recently to display a bottle/item total count any place where order entry is happening - web orders, club choice, admin order entry or editing, etc. You can make the same request:

https://documentation.vin65.com/Feature-Request

'Tis better to suffer the slings and arrows of calls and emails then to lose them completely in a confusing interface.

Be sure to encourage them to call or email if they are confused. Be prepared to continue to field those for a while until you get the knots out and get them used to it.

We include a link in the in the pre-shipment notification, which directs members to a ā€œhow toā€ guide in a pdf format. Of course, we provide our direct club line in the email, as well as a point of contact, for personal assistance. We also do as Carisen suggested and include a link in the pre-shipment email that takes members directly to the ā€œedit clubā€ selections once they log in to their account. When members are on the edit club page, we have the club member price listed next to the wine description. Even though it doesnā€™t provide a total, I havenā€™t received any emails from members asking for the total. We do include the subtotal for the pre-selected bottles in the pre-shipment notice, but note that charges will adjust accordingly for modified or additional bottles.

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One other point I forgot to mentionā€¦be sure set a deadline for members to submit their additional/modified bottles prior to the date you charge the club (usually a day before). Then, the day you charge the club, go to your user choice set up, uncheck the box for that season to be removed from the web display, so members canā€™t make changes when youā€™re running the club batch.

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Youā€™d think that was the case.

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This is a pretty big one for my club. At my most recent club run I didnā€™t turn that off for a day or so after I ran clubs. I give them lots of notice, and then when they get the customized email receipt they go in and make selections after the fact. So no, they canā€™t make changes but they kind of act like if they go in and do it after you already ran it and notified them it will just turn back time and switch them around.

But, the system lets them do it. I donā€™t care if they go in every day until I process their club and make changes, they should be able to. But after I ran it, and somebody logs in to make changes, the interface really should tell them that their club has been processed.

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Us too. A running total should be present as the customer makes their selections. I have put a feature request in for this. I suggest everyone else does as well.

We send out an email about 1-2 weeks prior to shipping with our suggested selections. The email has a link directing them to the CLUB LIST account page where, once they login, they can review and make their changes. Give them a deadline to do this otherwise their order will default to your pre-selection. Make sure it points to the CLUB LIST page otherwise they will end up signing up again for another club membership. Also, when you set this up, make sure you only have one season activated otherwise they will get errors you donā€™t want to have to deal with. Youā€™ll know what I mean when you get into it. As far as Iā€™m aware, there is no way to know when or if they ā€˜validateā€™ /change their order before the deadline so we can start processing it.

Great advice, so true.

I am a glutton for notifications, so I am set up to get an email notification for EVERYTHING. I like knowing when my customers have made their club selections.

In the email letting them know clubs will run in a couple weeks I say that once they submit their selections, I will process & ship right away. Not only do people seem to like getting their wine first, but as soon as I process the inventory is docked accordingly. Iā€™ve been known to sell the last few cases of something this way and switch to something else. And I get to ship my most ā€œuniqueā€ orders ahead of the main the club run.

me too but how do you know theyā€™ve updated it? i get notification that they edited their account but I canā€™t tell what they edited. if the selection is the same as our pre-selection, how do I know they looked at it? If you have an in on that it would be soooo helpful

Are you getting ā€œCustomer Edit Clubā€ email notifications? If you have an active club season the wines they chose are listed in the email. The email will be triggered even if they didnā€™t change the default wines but do click Submit, which happens a lot. I guess you should know they scrolled past it to click Submit and trigger the email, not that you know they really looked at it.

Do you know why the Marketing URL that gets created when you make a user choice club active (in our case the club existed previously to our activation of the user choice option and has numerous members) leads to a page that is not the Edit Club page - makes the built in feature of the URL that is created COMPLETELY USELESS to us. If sent out it allows existing club members to create multiple orders rather than edit the club choices in one place. I will have to use the link idea you provided to send to our existing club members instead: www.yourdomain.com/index.cfm?method=memberClubs.clubList
Is there plans to fix this problem? It must come up for so many users of Wine Direct?!

@JennyGarlini - sorry for the delay in my response. The Marketing URL that gets generated points to the Club Signup page for that Club. Itā€™s generally used for marketing emails when you are trying to encourage potential club members to sign up. For existing Club Members, you do want to use the URL outlined above.

Iā€™ll certainly communicate this interaction to our product team and inform them that the Marketing URLs are being interpreted differently in different scenarios and causing confusion for clients. Thanks for your feedback!