More on the CSA....and a new report!

Wednesday, April 02, 2008  by Lynn Wendyger
Category: customers, CSA, customer management

OK, you’ve told us what is wrong with the CSA and Receipt tool, and you’re right.
But fair is fair, and in order for us to improve, we need to ask you a few more questions.

First, I’d like to mention the newest addition to the CSA. It’s called the Customer Contact Purchase History report, and can be found as a link in the CSA, or in Manage My Business>View Business Reports.  This report displays all customer orders that Quixtar knows of, sorted in descending order by the number of days since the customer’s last purchase. The customer’s contact information and purchase history is also displayed.    
You can download it as a pdf for easy printing and save for future reference and follow up with customers. 

The Customer Contact Purchase Report is not perfect, but it does provide more customer information for you in one place. My view is that the primary reason for any of these tools being less than perfect for an IBO is because the website has been designed with the assumption that customers would create an account and buy from the website themselves. 100% self-serve. That means that the customer profile belongs to them, not the IBO. 

In reality, we know that many of your customers do not self-serve. As you said, there will always be some customers who want you to serve them. There are some customers who prefer to go directly to the web themselves, and some customers who might want both. And, there are those customers you may sell something to at a health & beauty event, who you may not see again.  

Tell us more about the types of customers you have. How do you deal with each of them? Do you try to evolve them from hi-touch to hi-tech? And even if they do move to hi-tech once they develop trust and loyalty, how do you keep in touch? After all, a customer who never hears from you probably is not very motivated to visit your website.   

I know others are doing more formal research to guide us on the development of future customer management tools, but if you haven’t been part of those studies, here’s your chance to let us know.

 

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Comments

# Joe Hilliker said on April 2, 2008 12:24 PM:

If I have a customer who doesnt have and account but just wants to order from me how am I going to get the increased PV on orders of $75 or more.

# michaelciotta said on April 2, 2008 12:44 PM:

i find one of the best ways to touch base with my customers is through email and text messaging.  phone calls can sometimes be very difficult,with people's busy schedules and strange work hours.  i think it might be cool if quixtar/amway could make one of those interactive gift cards that people can receive as customers.  maybe an ibo can just fill out a template, add a quick personal note, and have one of various themes to choose (LOC, ARTISTRY, XS) just to show that they took a little time to think of their customer in a way outside of taking business from them.  i belive that in today's high tech world, that little extra email, or extra 'whatever' goes a lot farther than we think. just personal opinion though.

# Lynn Wendyger said on April 2, 2008 1:32 PM:

Joe, if your customer gives you permission, you can create an account for them (again, I think "create an account" sounds better than register.) You might say something like “Would you like me to create an account with Quixtar for you, so you can order directly yourself, or would you prefer that I keep your name and contact information in my Quixtar online customer management tool and order for you?”.

Your customer management tool is the CSA and Customer Contact Report. At this time you would need to enter an address and phone number to set up an account (email address not required if a phone number is provided. If email address is not provided, your  customer will not get a Welcome email from Quixtar).

Others have suggested that Quixtar only require a customer name. That feedback has been provided to the CSA team.    

# Jeffrey said on April 2, 2008 1:45 PM:

Its a good start but what we really need is a stand-alone (not connected to the CSA), customizable receipt in which we can enter EACHES prices for the products that the company is refusing to sell individually. The way it is now, to do that, we have to download a customer receipt, print it, and fill in the info by hand. No big deal, it just doesn't look as professional.

# Joe Hanson said on April 2, 2008 1:55 PM:

The new report is a big help. To take it a step further if there was a way I could run an analysis on one customer at a time I could eliminate such a large report.

As far as having the mindset that a customer is a self-serve service is not very safe. There is no such thing as a self serve customer because soon they will be served by a competitor. It's just a matter of time. Plus they are my customer, not the websites.

I am of the mindset that our customers need to have a different experience buying from me than from Kroger or Meijer. As michaelciotta said above we need to touch base with our customer some way or other to say thanks and to see if there is anything else they may need. That doesn't mean to call and bug those that would rather not be called. It does mean to do something that would let them recognize you are conerned about thier needs though. Nobody else is doing that and that is a vital part in taking care of our customers.

All that being true it would be nice if the site sent us, the IBO, recommendations on when products are about to be used up. For example, a report that generated the items the customer should be scheduled to buy base on a consumption calculator like the one used to set up Ditto's.  That way at the begining of each month I could run a report that shows what products are due to be sold and to who they should be sold to. That would save us SOOOO much time.  That would open so many opportunities for us to set up Ditto's with our customers and suggest other products at the time we call so they can reach $75 and get free shipping.

The information is all there. We just need it. Bottom line set up the site with a mindset that the customer needs us 100% to make the order and let the IBO's train up the customer on the site so they can become a self serve customer but with our care.

# Samanta S said on April 2, 2008 4:43 PM:

A lot of my customers have preferred paying by cash/check and picking products up from me. Any advice on how to really stress the self-serve aspect of creating an account for themselves?

Especially when it comes to partner stores. There aren't additional savings sometimes for customers, so what should I offer as an incentive for them to shop through my web portal at the partner stores they are already shopping at?

Thanks for any advice~

# ajgannon said on April 2, 2008 9:16 PM:

I think I've seen Jeffrey's recommendation before on these blogs: to allow us to enter "eaches" on the customers receipts.  I second this idea.  I work at a large wholesale bakery, and every day my co-workers buy individual "Edibles" from me, primarily XS and Power Nutrition drinks and Simple Nutrilite products.  Most of the time I don't end up capturing this volume in the CSA or CVR reports because it's a lot of work to add up all the PV and cost.  Maybe in the meantime, before more changes are made to CSA, I should learn to use EXCELL and design my own reports.

# e.rod said on April 6, 2008 2:10 AM:

Hi Lynn,

This is the first time that I'm posting on here but I've mentioned the following ideas on other OZ blogs. One thing that I've mentioned before is that followup is key in order to get a repeat order. Most people who are outside of my 'warm' market (not friends or family) are uncomfortable giving their full phone # or address (unless they pay by credit card), but they are very comfortable giving their email addresses. In addition to a list of clients and their purchase history, what about an email contact system like Constant Contact where we would be able to send emails (such as the emails that you send to us- like the 3D Serum promo or what's new newsletter) that are embedded with our IBO information and will lead our customers directly to our personal website. The emails should be customizable and lead to a customized IBO website so that we can offer our own promos/specials/discounts. A 'send to a friend' link would also help expand our network or client base. We can send a followup thank you for their purchase and continue to keep them aware of upcoming specials just as any other online retailer does or reminders to order new product if they are not on ditto. Otherwise, out of site-out of mind. This would be great especially now that we are taking advantage of our ability to retail at certain events. Another issue I have personally is in teaching my downline to make actual sales, I have in some cases helped them to make the actual sales to their family and friends. When that IBO decides not to build the business actively anymore, they leave with that information and I think it is unfair that we've made the effort to help build their volume and then not have access to the customer contact information/customer orders that we helped them to create in the first place. A list of clients in that leg and email or mailing address would be great to retain so that we can at the very least continue to service them when an inactive downline decides to quit, rather than losing that business to a possible competitor or to another IBO. An example is an espring filter- we know that the client needs a new filter at least once every year, but if we don't have access to information to continue to service the client, the IBO loses that customer and if the customer makes an effort to contact the corp. for a replacement, they get directed to a local Platinum or above, rather than the LOS in which that sale was made. I think that type of followup or some type of tracking system will help us (the IBO and in turn the Corp-though the corp benefits either way) with consistent, repeat sales. Another feature I'd like to see is the personal websites updated to reflect the changes on the Quixtar site- they have not been updated except for the addition of the new product lines. In addition, it would be great if we could have more leeway in having a section on those personal websites to customize. For example, if I want to promote a particular product or give a discount just for my clients, perhaps a coupon code can be created and when that code is entered by a self-serving client, then it applies to the online order and it is fulfilled and delivered directly to the client. The case right now is that the only option is for a client to order directly through the IBO, the IBO has to apply the discount and fulfill the order. Why not take advantage of all the features of ecommerce technology and automation, providing these types of tools to help the actual IBO grow their sales to the end user-the client/customer. IBOs can take care of the high-touch service, but we need some help in the high-tech area. thanks for the opportunity to contribute.

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