Do You CSA?

Friday, March 07, 2008  by Lynn Wendyger
Category: Technology, sales, customers, CSA, follow-up

Meaning, do you track your customers using the Customer Sales Activity Tool, also known as the CSA?

The CSA, originally developed to allow you to record customer sales from inventory, was user-tested by a group of  IBOs.  They told us what worked and what didn’t work, and from there improvements and enhancements have been made. It’s still not perfect, but it does have some bells and whistles you may be interested in, even if you don't sell from inventory. 

Here are a few:

• You can view all your customer orders in one place, whether placed through Quixtar, your Personal Website, or reported on the CSA
• You can search for or sort your customer orders by customer name or date. This makes it easier to follow-up with your customers on re-orders
• You can see the total retail profit, PV, and BV for your customer sales for that month and the previous 11 months. 
• You can create professional looking receipts for your customers

What has your experience with the CSA been like? Is it easy to use, or not so easy?
What did you use it for?

And in a related set of questions, how often do you sell to a customer from out of inventory?  When you do, how do customers like to pay you? By cash or check?

Technology should make our lives easier. We need your input to insure that online tools like the CSA help you be more efficient and productive in your business.

So if you haven’t used it yet, check out the CSA. It’s in the Manage Your Business section of Quixtar.com.

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Comments

# Jeffrey said on March 7, 2008 4:54 PM:

OK, you asked, so I'll tell you what I think of CSA: it is a mess. I don't like it at all. Here's why: The customer HAS to be registered. Maybe some people just don't want to be registered, especially the older people that don't want to order online or via the 800 number. They just want to call us and have us deliver it like the old days. This requirement needs to be removed.

Secondly, we cannot sell to a business. At least, we cannot sell to a business NAME. It requires the name of an individual. That's a bunch of baloney.

Thirdly (a real sore spot with me): We cannot break down case lot pricing. It just simply won't let us do it like the old Amware Gold software did. This is especially important with the new event selling allowed. What if someone wants 3 cans of XS? Can't give them a receipt, even though we're required to.

4th: The font size is waaaaay too small. It needs to be bumped up about 2 or 3 sizes.

5th: We cannot customize our business name and contact information. I only give out my home phone number to people I know real well, otherwise I give people my voice mail bumber. Nope, not with the receipt function.

6th: No A/Q logo at the top. It just says "Customer Sales Activity and Receipt." Get rid of the "Customer Sales Activity." Put the logo to the left of "Receipt." Without a logo and with the CSA phrase, it looks rinky-dink.

7th: Every time I make a recipt, the CSA activity goes into the PV/BV Inquiry summary, even if I make a mistake and have to do it over. There is no need for that to show up there. The totals at the top are all we need. The way it is now, it looks like the corporation is tracking every single move we make. Most people already have a boss breathing down their neck. Get rid of the CSA activity showing.

There is so much I dislike about the receipt function, I have gone back to printing the old receipts and writing in everything by hand.

# Lynn Wendyger said on March 10, 2008 9:55 AM:

Jeffrey

We thank you for your comments. These are definitely

issues we must address. Some will be easier fixes than others. We need to hear from you and others on this so we know what to prioritize. The long term goal is to give you a tool that will help you keep track of all your customers.

But we know if the tool isn't easy to use, this does not matter.

I encourage others to join in and give us honest feedack on this. Some fixes are in the works, and I'll give you an update from the CSA team when I can.  

# Sammy S said on March 10, 2008 11:44 AM:

CSA has been an important tool in my business, but I agree with Jeffrey when he states a lot of changes should be made. It is very inconvenient when you have to register each and every customers. What if they don't want to regsiter? I share a lot of the Artistry products with clients and while I would love if every single one of my clients order with a credit card and give me their shipping address, I do get older clients who would like me to hand deliver their products and who want to pay by cash/credit. And while I would love to be optimistic and say that every single one of my clients will be loyal and repeating customers - the truth is, some people are reluctant right away to commit to registering as a customer. What do I do when I have a one time purchase? Also, yes a purchase of 2 cans of XS, etc etc.

Also, another thing that bothers me is that that the format of the page of printing a receipt is too big for the standard printing page. I don't know if it is just my naivete about computers, but is there a way that I can format the receipt to print it properly so that everything fits in the margin of the page? [I would definitely appreciate the help with that one =)]

I definitely appreciate this tool in keeping the recorded transactions of our businesses. It is a tool like this that allows one to keep up-to-date records of our business and track our sales.

In answering some of your other questions, I actually tend to sell from my personal inventory pretty regularly. I don't keep a storage of products, but since I love representing Artistry and Personal Accents, I do keep an extra one or two skin care systems, lip glosses, or jewelry pieces on hand because when I meet clients, sometimes I am able to make the sale very successful if my clients know they are receiving the product right away. [This especially works with the baby boomers, since they aren't as used to shopping online and waiting for the shipment, as the younger consumers].

And again, online tools like CSA make it easier to keep track of all this. I look forward to the improvements~

# Lynn Wendyger said on March 10, 2008 1:31 PM:

Thanks Sammy, for more great feedback. I'll work on getting an answer posted aobut your question on receipts.Both you and Jeffrey mentioned that some customers don't want to be registered. Do you ever register customers just for your benefit--so that you can keep track of their contact information in your LOS tree, and what they bought and when (data that can be tracked in the CSA), even if they don't plan to purchase directly from Quixtar?

# Jeffrey said on March 10, 2008 5:17 PM:

Yes, in the past I have registered customers on my own with a "dummy" e-mail address that I have set up, but I don't feel comfortable doing it, so I'm not going to do it anymore. I don't like doing anything with customer information without their consent. Please understand that all my gripes are with the receipt function of CSA. As under-Platinums, we HAVE TO report our customer volume so we get our bonus. I have no beef with reporting customer volume and I think all IBOs, regardless of pin level, should have to meet at least the customer volume requirements to get their bonuses. Another thing that should be added to the receipt: "Thank You for your order!"

# Sammy S said on March 11, 2008 9:25 AM:

I agree with Jeffrey.

# Lynn Wendyger said on March 13, 2008 10:05 AM:

You are of course correct. Insuring your customer's privacy is critical. There will always be some customers who choose not to save their “profile” (shipping address and contact information) on an online site. For those who are open to this, transparency as to your relationship with the Quixtar site is key (it’s where you place your orders, keep your customer information, and track order history). Perhaps Quixtar needs to do a better job providing benefits you can offer your customers for saving their profile online. One benefit, of course, is an increased ability to service them by being able to easily access their order history.  

One thing to note: Quixtar does not require a customer email when setting up a profile (registering). It does require either an email or a phone number, however.  

And while we are on this subject, what, if any, additional tools and features would be helpful to you in being able to manage your customer relationships?

# Jeffrey said on March 13, 2008 7:48 PM:

I was a heavy user of the old Customer Record Cards when they were available. Now I use the Customer Profile from the downloadable print files. I have to print them in Landscape so they fit on a sheet of paper. I punch holes in them and keep them in a notebook. I would like to be able to keep them online and type the info in and save it. I give out a lot of samples and I show a lot of products. I have to keep track of it all so I don't show or give out the same things twice.

A couple of things that I think are critical to have is on the Customer version of quixtar.com, as soon as the customers log in, at the top of the home page it needs to say, "Your A/Q Business Owner is (name)" with the contact info that we want them to have. I think we should make it as easy as possible for our customers to contact us.

The other things we need very soon are the receipt functions fixed that were mentioned above, a customizable personal homepage that is the "front door" to quixtar.com instead of the personal retail sites, and a customizable compensation plan presentation for prospects in which we pick the format (6-4-2, 9-4-2, 6-4-4 or whatever) and the PV amount in the circles. We need to be able to show our online business ONLINE.

# NormaConnolly said on March 14, 2008 5:56 AM:

This is a question I have been pondering.  My internet providerAt&T is rather expensive.  Do you have any suggestions?

# YankeeIBO said on March 14, 2008 5:51 PM:

Lynn, I agree with the receipt issues. We should be able to record a sale just using a customer's name. Setting up a category for "non-registered customers" would be a big help, or even a dummy customer number issued to each IBO to be used with all non-registered sales, the same way Event sales have a "customer number" to record those sales. I also would like to see the Customer information section expanded. We should be able to keep all our customer information online, including notes about samples, follow up, etc. This would sort of tie in to the integrated platform question raised in Code Review. It would be great to be able to tie our customer files to Outlook, or give them the same management capabilities--like setting appointments and dates for follow-up calls, etc. It would also be fantastic to be able to create a "check this out" list for each customer that they would see when they logged in. We could tailor product suggestions for them, and know that they would see them when they log in. Our customers would know we were looking out for them even when we don't have a chance for personal contact before they access the site for their next order.

# Jeffrey said on March 17, 2008 3:32 PM:

Those are great ideas, YankeeIBO. I posted a comment in CodeReview about the receipt functions and they never printed it. Maybe its still awaiting moderating. Norma, you have two choices through the business for an ISP: Quixnet for dial-up and Earthlink for high speed. I currently have MSN through Qwest because I live in an apartment without a high speed line coming into the complex and I am not happy with it at all. As soon as I get a house bought, I'm getting Earthlink.

# Canadian IBO 2 said on March 22, 2008 5:30 PM:

I have had nothing but bad experiences with the CSA.  I've had printing problems (font way too large creating a receipt of multiple pages for just 2 items).  Also, when I printed without the images, all of the text bumped to the left and the numbers were not in column format.  Very sloppy!  I agree with Jeffrey about the business name and contact info.  We should be able to customize it.  I too have older customers who do not shop online and prefer to order through us and have us personally deliver their products.  It just does not make sense to have to register them as customers.  Just allow us to enter their information into the database without registering them.  If Quixtar wants to verify the existence of that customer, the contact info is there.  I really like Yankee IBO's suggestion about a "check this out" list.  And finally, not being able to sell to a business (list them as the customer) upsets me too.  Doesn't that become an accountability problem (tax reporting) for the business owner?  How does he prove that he just didn't buy those products for himself when the business owner is listed as the Quixtar customer and not his business, yet the products were for the business and not himself?  If he's audited, he has no proof.  My wife is an accountant and she sees that issue as a problem.

# Lynn Wendyger said on March 22, 2008 9:40 PM:

Canadian IBO 2, thanks for joining the discussion. I'll do a follow up on this topic, after I explore further with the CSA team. So others, feel free to join in. I can't promise any quick solutions, but I can promise we'll listen.  

# Karen said on May 3, 2008 10:35 AM:

I realize this is an older post-- but I just wanted to voice my frustration with one CSA issue.  

Yesterday one of my customers purchased an Arrival gift album and 6 bottles of Perfect Water.  These are items I had on hand and she wrote me a check.  Creating a receipt for her with the CSA is impossible.  We still are not able to report a partial case sale.  I believe this to be critically important.  IBOs are selling hand-to-hand very often and should be able to report their sale in this manner.  We have an IBO who sells XS by the can out of his backpack at college.  How in the world is he supposed to report this?  What is the hold up in having this necessary feature added?  Could you just give us a space to "add a product" to the receipt and type in product name and price ourselves?

With the incredibly fast growth our organization is experiencing, we really need the user-friendly features to keep up!

Thanks for listening!

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