Are customer accounts necessary for my website?

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Discussion Overview

The thread explores the necessity and implications of customer accounts for a new website feature. Participants express a range of concerns and experiences regarding customer account creation, its impact on user experience, and potential technical issues related to the website's functionality.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Opinion-based
  • Anecdotal
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses concern about requiring customers to create accounts, feeling it may be perceived as forcing them to do so.
  • Another participant notes that account creation is standard for online ordering and could streamline the process for returning customers.
  • Several users mention that while account creation may seem unnecessary to some customers, it could ultimately enhance their experience by saving their information.
  • One participant shares their experience of initially being upset about the changes but later recognizing potential benefits.
  • Another participant discusses the importance of being prepared for potential website issues, sharing concerns about system outages affecting order submissions.
  • Some participants reflect on their experiences with other companies' websites, noting that technical glitches are common but can be managed with proper planning.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Views differ on the necessity and impact of customer accounts, with some participants expressing concerns while others see potential benefits. No clear consensus emerges regarding the overall necessity of accounts.

Contextual Notes

Participants share personal experiences and concerns related to the transition to a new website feature, focusing on customer interactions and technical reliability.

Who May Find This Useful

Consultants considering the implications of customer accounts on their business practices and those interested in shared experiences regarding website functionality may find this discussion relevant.

phone number and address??? What?? I think it should only be by name.
 
ChefShalon said:
phone number and address??? What?? I think it should only be by name.

I think this is GREAT! I had two ladies at the LAST PARTY with the exact same name. Phone numbers should always be different.

Sandi
 
I to have had the problem where I can't change the shipping info to someone other than the host - thankfully no one at my party needed direct shipping.
But I also had the issue where even after her past host discount, a guest's order was over $60 and it wouldn't let me add the guest special.
I also can't get the Preview Show Page button to work.
Don't want to sound all negative, but I'm trying to type up all my issues before I e-mail HO - cause I still need to find that e-mail address - anyone have it?
The Migrate Contacts button shows up now, but I get an error message telling me to restart the program and try again and I still get the message.
 
Hmmmm....Since we will have to input the address and phone number to look someone up who is OUR contact, I am thinking that everyone's contacts are being made into a big PC address type book. And to pull up OURS we have to know this info so we won't get someone else's.

Like when all of us consultants enter all of our contacts into the PC web....they are being all put together and to access ours we have to know the correct information. Whereas P3 was consultant specific. We each had all our contact information at our finger tips by just going on our computers and pulling up P3. Now since it is web based we have to have more information inputed on our end to get our contacts.

So even if guests don't want to give more than just their name....like MANY do at parties etc...they will HAVE to now. Just have to be more diligent on getting the information I suppose.
 
Has anyone tryed to add "personal" news to their new web? I can put one in, but it does not come up. It is just like I never did it. It does let me add "their" news... so I am not sure what I am doing wrong!
 
  • Thread starter
  • #126
alidafrizzell said:
Has anyone tryed to add "personal" news to their new web? I can put one in, but it does not come up. It is just like I never did it. It does let me add "their" news... so I am not sure what I am doing wrong!

I tried too.... and failed... it won't let me...

Just got back from my first show using the new system... I obviously had to do the orders by hand (which stinks - can't wait for that app) and I explained to everyone when I went over the order form that we now need your email. Promised the only email they would get would be their receipt, nothing more. I got a few um, no I will not give you my email, and then the grandmothers who didn't have email at all.

I am hoping the app will make this transition more bearable. Cause now that I've already done all the math at my show, I get to sit at my desk for another hour and read crappy hand writing again to enter them all into the new web. I'm hoping it goes smoothly.
 
I was able to add mine. However, it's not on the front of the web. You have to click THEIR news article in order to get mine (it's like a "here's more news!") I do like the My Story since that was my first news article on my old website all the time.
 
If the story is too long it won't go in, but it doesn't say what the character limit is either.
 
Did several searched and on some my name came up, never 1st. Did not recognize several of the consultants. Looked at the profiles some actually had phone #, etc., but other profiles showed nothing. Wonder what that means...if nothing is on their page. I personally think hosts/customers/contacts should be identified w/name and address. I have too many customers that will not share their phone # or e-mail. Some have actually given a fictious e-mail, or one that has been suspended. I have even had people order from catalog shows with names as guest 1, guest 2. I have had a number of guests/customers say they will not give any extra info. but their name because they do not want bothered. I am nervous about this change, but change always makes me nervous... I guess only time will tell.
Also, are we able to log in as consultants at the new site? Didn't see a place for that
 
You can't log in as a consultant unless you are director or above for now.I agree about all the info that we currently aren't getting for outside orders or even some guests at shows. I just sent *another* email to [email protected] commenting on just these things. The more people they hear from the more likely they'll change things to work for us. I also recommend we give constructive suggestions along with our complaints and concerns.
 
Did I read that they are changing the email association already? Hope so. I was just thinking about how often ppl change their email. I have over 100 bad email addresses that were good at one time . . .
Sandi
 
I went in to find a Host in my area I put in 10 address all within 5 miles from my house INCLUDING my own street

MY name did NOT come up at all in any of the lists

What is the issue with that and I have 1250 or higher in sale every month

Thats 10 street names even my own WHATS UP WITH THAT
 
I'm just a consultant, so I haven't been able to see the Consultant side of the new web yet. But I did go to the new website as a customer to see what they're seeing. I found something that I haven't seen mentioned here yet so I wondered if anyone else had noticed it.

There's a section called something like "Find my consultant." The customer puts in their consultant's first name, last name and state and a result it returned. All three fields are required. My problem is, all my customers know me as "Shari", but all my PC stuff has my given name of "Sharyl". The only way the computer finds me is with the given name. But my customers won't know that so if they search for me, no consultant name will come up.

I can't be the only consultant that goes by a name other than what's on the HO paperwork. Have any of you noticed this issue and contacted HO about it already? Have you changed your name with HO so people can find you? Just wondering what others have done. I love this feature, but worry that my customers who haven't used me in a while might think that I'm not a consultant anymore and then they'll move on to the "Find a Consultant in my area" search and I'll lose business.

Shari in TX
 
One of the new features you'll be able to take advantage of is the fact that when you get in and set yourself up, they give you an option to be recgonized by your first name or a nickname. So, you'll be able to fix that once you're in.
 
They can also search by entering just the first three letters of your first and/or last name so if they don't find sharyl, they might find shari by entering sha.
 
This is probably an easy question for someone to answer: how do we get our contacts from our old website to our new one?
 
We should have synced the contacts between web and P3 before this. I wouldn't do it any more because of all the hinky stuff right now. Then when they have it working we'll migrate our contacts from P3 to the new web with the push of a button.
 
vanscootin said:
My concerns thus far:

Can't get my picture to look right on my PWS


To make your picture not look skewed, be sure the picture you upload is cropped square, not rectangularly...:balloon:
 
Ok ~ I hear the frustration about not finding ourselves! I tried to search via my street address to see if I came up ~ nope.....but I got my recruit's profile who by the way, is on a military base in Germany!Karen
 
I put in my parents address and I was upset to find that the consultant that lives 2 hours away was the one that popped up. The city is over 100 miles away!!!
 
Instead of getting upset guys, it is obvious their system isnt programmed correctly. email them and let them know what is happening.
 
  • Thread starter
  • #142
esavvymom said:
Instead of getting upset guys, it is obvious their system isnt programmed correctly. email them and let them know what is happening.

I got a response back last night to the email I sent the other day.... here's what it said.

"I just wanted to say thank you for sending in the issues you’re seeing. I really appreciate you taking the time to do that!

Just so you know, it is actually easier to find a Show than it appears. The tech team discovered that something wasn’t working as it should and are working to get it rectified.

Thanks for your patience!"

It didn't exaclty address anything I asked about.
 
vanscootin said:
I got a response back last night to the email I sent the other day.... here's what it said.

"I just wanted to say thank you for sending in the issues you’re seeing. I really appreciate you taking the time to do that!

Just so you know, it is actually easier to find a Show than it appears. The tech team discovered that something wasn’t working as it should and are working to get it rectified.

Thanks for your patience!"

It didn't exaclty address anything I asked about.

Yep. I got that exact response too. Twice since I sent more than one email with different issues. They are working on all of it. We still need to contact them when we find something just in case it's something they haven't seen yet.
 
With the barrage of emails I'm sure they are getting, having been on their side of the fence...you don't take the time to address each and every specific item at this point. you send out canned statements and get back to work. Personally, that's the way I would want it for now. Later, they'll be better able to be more specific I'm sure, but right now, they are probably working round the clock with little sleep and lots of caffeine! :D I feel their pain! Glad I'm not REALLY feeling it though.Be patient, keep notes of errors and keep letting them know. We knew this would happen.
 
esavvymom said:
With the barrage of emails I'm sure they are getting, having been on their side of the fence...you don't take the time to address each and every specific item at this point. you send out canned statements and get back to work. Personally, that's the way I would want it for now. Later, they'll be better able to be more specific I'm sure, but right now, they are probably working round the clock with little sleep and lots of caffeine! :D I feel their pain! Glad I'm not REALLY feeling it though.

Be patient, keep notes of errors and keep letting them know. We knew this would happen.

I totally agree. I have been talking to one of the tech support about a particular problem and he said just that. I called with an issue then he followed up with calls and emails to get the exact issue to get a fix. That problem and probably others were not visible on their end but he finally found it by using an external laptop. They are in 24/7 and are troubleshooting and fixing as fast as they can, then testing more. Some things are going back to the developers (like my issue). I don't want them to take time to address each email we send. These canned responses are just to let us know that they did get our messages and are working on them.

That being said, if you find an issue let them know. It may be something they can't see or something no one else had yet found. Telling them also lets them know it's an issue important to many consultants.
 
  • Thread starter
  • #146
I totally agree too! And as I'm adding more shows and playing around, I'm finding more things I like. I wish I had a show ready to close so I could see how the next step of submitting works.
 
When they developed something like this, they likely created "test plans" to cover every possible scenario, but as you can imagine, that is a monumental task in and of itself! My DH does that sort of thing as part of his job with Cisco. They have page after page after page of scenarios to test, but until it goes LIVE in a real network, some things never show up- or maybe rarely show up, so hard to test. That's where YOU guys are coming, and that's why they rolled it out to the upper levels who presumably have lots of experience already in the old system and way of doing things.So you guys are now part of the roll-out team. ;) Doing a fine job, fine job!
 
I'm thinking this is one "beta" test I'm glad to not be a part of! :-) Kudos to all you who are!
 
I sent an email off to the new web tech support about this: I had a gal signing today ~ she is in FL and I am in MN. She went through my personal website (and I don't have the new site yet) but since all new consultant agreements are now on the new web, she was re-directed to that. She said it would not allow her to sign under me but that she had to sign with someone more local to her! Told me that it directed her join in her area. Lost a recruit :(Anyone else have this problem???Karen
 
thehaleykitchen said:
I sent an email off to the new web tech support about this: I had a gal signing today ~ she is in FL and I am in MN. She went through my personal website (and I don't have the new site yet) but since all new consultant agreements are now on the new web, she was re-directed to that. She said it would not allow her to sign under me but that she had to sign with someone more local to her! Told me that it directed her join in her area. Lost a recruit :(Anyone else have this problem???Karen
Call consultant career solutions (opt 3) NOW. They will be able to change it under this circumstance. Also have the recruit call.ETA: also call your NED and your sales manager. It was smart to let newweb know about this but you also need to let those others know so she is moved under the correct recruiter ASAP.
 
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