Simplify renewal process for members [5309]

• 10-31-2008, 11:57 PM

  10077

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223

  Simplify renewal process for members [5309] I've uploaded all my members into the WA database and put renewals on auto-pilot.  Some members are doing fine - others just don't get it.  I think members would have an easier time renewing if the box said "view profile / renew" instead of just "view profile" Currently, they get to the "sign in page" (either the members area landing page or the home page if they have lapsed) and don't see any obvious place to go to renew.

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• 11-01-2008, 12:08 PM

  10082 in reply to 10077

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,265	Re: View Profile / Renew This is a good idea. I think a way to do it is for lapsed members to prominently display some messaging and redirect to renewal after they log in. What do you think? Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-01-2008, 1:39 PM

  10084 in reply to 10082

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223	Re: View Profile / Renew Sounds good on the lapsed.  The change in wording will also help those that haven't lapsed though.  People are looking for "renew" and not seeing it.  Adding it will make it more intutitive for people.
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• 11-21-2008, 1:04 AM

  10306 in reply to 10084

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223	Re: View Profile / Renew Any chance of just changing the HTML code / text to read "View Profile / Renew" in the next update?  The message/redirect is not as important as that one little word.  It just is not at all intuitive for people right now . . .
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• 11-21-2008, 8:51 AM

  10309 in reply to 10306

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,265	Re: View Profile / Renew Frankly, I am very doubtful this will be desirable for many clients. Renewal is a relatively rarely used aspect of profile so adding it to the link does not seem right. I would love to hear what other users think - any opinions? Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-21-2008, 11:11 AM

  10310 in reply to 10309

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223

  Re: View Profile / Renew Renewal is a relatively rarely used aspect of profile Re your statement - maybe I'm missing something, but how do people renew?  Or are you saying that most organizations don't have annual renewal periods? The only way I can see that people can renew is to go to profile?  That is the most used aspect of profile as far as I can see, since most people are not changing addresses and other information very often. I've gone in to the members area and added text telling people that renew is under profile.  I realize I can go into the renewal letters for every level/date period and tell people that renewal is under profile and I'll have to do that also. When I set things up, I pretty much just used the language that was there, about signing in to renew.  I didn't realize that renewal was so hidden at the time.  When they just sign in there is nothing obvious to point them to where to go to renew - unless I'm just missing it?

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• 11-21-2008, 11:17 AM

  10311 in reply to 10310

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,265	Re: View Profile / Renew I meant that profile page itself is accessed quite often - while its renewal function is only accessed once a year or so. Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-21-2008, 6:25 PM

  10318 in reply to 10311

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223

  Re: View Profile / Renew Well, that in itself is an argument for helping people find the renweal page - if they only use it once per year it is harder for them to remember where to look and it should be more obvious.  I'm not sure what else people do on their profile pages.  We seem to have a relatively stable group.  Very few address changes, email changes, etc . . . . We've been up on WA about a month and a half now??  I'm still getting emails about people not being able to get passwords (forgot password link that was recommended for people to get a password as we added them to the system), people can't get into the members areas, and people can't figure out where to go to renew.  I wish they would all shoot me screen shots.  Some of these people are rookies and others are quite pc literate.  I just don't get it but know that everything I can do to make it more kiss means less emails I have to answer.

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• 11-21-2008, 6:40 PM

  10319 in reply to 10318

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223	Re: View Profile / Renew I went through each membership levels - 5 emails per level - and added this info - Once you are signed in, click "view profile" in the upper right corner.  Then look for the white "renew" box part way down in the right margin.  Click on that and you can renew and pay via PayPal.  Hopefully that will stop some of the emails . . .
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• 11-21-2008, 8:08 PM

  10320 in reply to 10319

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,265	Re: View Profile / Renew I will discuss with my team - maybe what we need to do is make the member menu stand out much more after login. Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-21-2008, 8:39 PM

  10323 in reply to 10320

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223	Re: View Profile / Renew member menu? not sure what you are referring to . . . the "view profile" "change password" options in the login box? they see this - they just don't associate viewing their profile with renewing.
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• 11-21-2008, 10:20 PM

  10325 in reply to 10323

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,265	Re: View Profile / Renew Yes, we are considering a "real" menu to highlight them (and for future additions) Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-24-2008, 10:33 PM

  10353 in reply to 10077

  James Kerich Joined about 3 years ago Posts 80

  Re: View Profile / Renew I agree that it would be great to have a renew function or link build into the pages.  Currently our layout on the left hand side after logging in looks like this (but they are stacked top to bottom):  James Kerich View Profile Change Password LOGOUT It would be great if you could have a layout like this (stacked top to bottom): James Kerich Renew Membership View Profile Change Password LOGOUT   This way if someone logs in as instructed in the e-mail they receive, they will see a easy link to click on to renew their membership.  I agree with this writer that unless you know wild apricot and have worked in it for a while you will have no idea how to renew your membership just by logging in.  Obviously, both the Renew Membership and View Profile link both will go to the exact same page, but if someone is just trying to renew and they don't care about their profile, they would be totally lost with the delivered layout as I won't think to click on view profile to renew my membership.

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• 11-24-2008, 11:04 PM

  10355 in reply to 10077

  James Kerich Joined about 3 years ago Posts 80

  Re: View Profile / Renew Just wanted to pass on that we came up with a solution to the RENEW issue.  We edited the Member's Only Section home page that looks like this.  As you can see we created a link in the second sentence via a "link" which when clicked will automatically transfer the individual to the member profile page.  Since this Members-only section home page is the first page they see after logging in we made it really easy for them to renew.  Just a suggestion you can use on your site:   Members-only section Private website section for members These pages are available to Members Only.  Feel free to view this valuable content at your leisure.  Click here to renew your membership or edit your personal profile information!   Your comments regarding this area of the website are alway welcome.

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• 11-25-2008, 5:10 PM

  10364 in reply to 10355

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223	Re: View Profile / Renew A note for those of us that have moved the login box to the header - the member menu being discussed should not impact the height of the header!!  Anything done should fit within the existing dimensions of the box.
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• 12-29-2008, 5:30 PM

  10711 in reply to 10364

  bbishins Joined about 3 years ago Posts 1	Re: View Profile / Renew I completely agree with having a Renew link or button easily viewable on the site home page. This is a must have item. Burying the renew function on the profile page is a real problem. PLEASE change the HTML coding so that we can immediately have "View Profile/Renew" ... then, at the next update, please add an actual "Renew" link to the login box.
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• 12-29-2008, 8:27 PM

  10716 in reply to 10711

  Gordon Joined about 4 years ago Posts 186

  Re: View Profile / Renew I think that a lot of the problem here is the use of the word "Profile".  This is one of those words (like "Properties") that had developed a very specific meaning to technical folk but does not have the same meaning to the rest of the world.  The phrase "View Profile" does not say to me "Click here to manage your account". A phrase like "Manage my Account" or just "My Account" would be a big improvement.   It would also be a big improvement if we had the ability to link to what is currently the "View Profile" area.  We could then create our own link that says "Click here to renew" and we'd jump to the user's profile.  This would allow us to use any wording that is meaningful to our population and place the "Manage Account/Renew" instructions anywhere on our site using any wording we want.

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• 12-29-2008, 9:44 PM

  10723 in reply to 10716

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223

  Re: View Profile / Renew Gordon:  It would also be a big improvement if we had the ability to link to what is currently the "View Profile" area.  We could then create our own link that says "Click here to renew" and we'd jump to the user's profile.  This would allow us to use any wording that is meaningful to our population and place the "Manage Account/Renew" instructions anywhere on our site using any wording we want.  try - http://YOUR_URL/Content/Members/MemberProfile.aspx (changing YOUR_URL to appropriate info of course)

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• 12-30-2008, 2:04 AM

  10725 in reply to 10723

  Gordon Joined about 4 years ago Posts 186	Re: View Profile / Renew Excellent, thank you.  I tried it first from a public page where where I was not logged in and I got an error but when linked from a member's only page after a login it works fine.
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• 01-25-2009, 6:03 PM

  11042 in reply to 10711

  rmillstein Joined about 4 years ago Posts 83	Re: View Profile / Renew I agree that this is a "must have" item.  We're still getting going, and I've already had a significant percentage of people write to me and say that they can't figure out how to renew.  I agree that "renew" is something my members will do more often that "view profile" -- I imagine that most will only remember to update their contact info when they are renewing.
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• 01-25-2009, 7:08 PM

  11045 in reply to 11042

  Gordon Joined about 4 years ago Posts 186

  Re: View Profile / Renew There is a way to set up a "Click here to renew" button on your member only page.   As Gypse commented above, you can create a "Renew Here" and link it to: http://YOUR URL/Content/Members/MemberProfile.aspx where YOUR URL  is something like yourgroup.memberlodge.com   Note that this only works if the user is already logged in so you'll have to place it on a member only page.

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• 01-25-2009, 9:29 PM

  11046 in reply to 11045

  rmillstein Joined about 4 years ago Posts 83	Re: View Profile / Renew Yes, I've done that in the meantime, thank you.  But I'd still like to see it as a dedicated link so that I can use the member-only page for other things, without it being cluttered, and so that if people navigate away, they still can figure out how to renew.
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• 02-05-2009, 8:56 PM

  11143 in reply to 12134

  rmillstein Joined about 4 years ago Posts 83

  Duplicate members I am constantly fighting a problem with duplicate memberships when existing members create new membership records using a new email address instead of renewing.  Does anyone else have this problem and have a good way to handle it?  It would be nice if Wild Apricot could send an email to the administrator, flagging duplicate names as possible duplicates, so I wouldn't have to watch my new subscriptions like a hawk.

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• 02-06-2009, 2:30 PM

  11156 in reply to 12134

  gypse Joined about 4 years ago Posts 223

  Re: Duplicate members I've also had the problem of existing members creating new memberships instead of renewing.  From the feedback I've had I believe it has to do with members just not being able to figure out how to renew.  The renewal process doesn't seem to be intuitive.  I've added all sorts of note/links that tell people to use "view profile" to renew (one prominately at the top of the members areas page) and it has helped to reduce the problem. The other issue seems to be with people not getting an email if they have forgotten their password.  I'm not sure what the problem is there, except they don't seem to be able to get their password so they just create a new id . . . they say they try the "forgot password" and it doesn't work, but when I've tried it it has been fine - unless perhaps they don't remember what email they used and they are trying to get a password for a new email instead of updating the info on their old email entry . . .

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• 02-06-2009, 8:16 PM

  11157 in reply to 12134

  rmillstein Joined about 4 years ago Posts 83

  Re: Duplicate members I agree that having trouble with the process is part of the problem, and like you, I've done what I can to make the process clearer.  And certainly that can be improved.  But I think the problem will always be there, no matter what we do.  From the user perspective, they might think, shoot, what was that old address?  Or, realize oh, I no longer have access to that old address.  Oh well, no matter, I'll just create a new one, what difference does it make?  In other words, they don't think as administrators, or what might make things difficult on our end, they are thinking about what is easiest from their end.  That's as it should be, but that means that we need the tools to be able to deal with their screw-ups.

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