Outlet Orders at Shows: Can Customers Order Online During a Show?

[BethanyN]

I had my first show this week, and I have a customer who must've pre-shopped online before she came to the show, because she added an item to her list that is in the outlet and isn't in the catalog (the nylon knife). P3 has a red dot next to her order and it took me at least half an hour to figure out why. Can they order outlet orders through a show, or would she have to order it seperately? Also, I don't even have a personal website yet (so I don't know how she even found the knife), so can she still order the knife as an individual order without the website?

 

[AJPratt]

She probably previewed on the PC website. We can't send them in with a show. I have no idea why you can input them on an order. It got me last month. She would have to order online.

 

[Becca_in_MD]

I'm going to e-mail HO b/c I am consistently getting people who want to order from the outlet at my shows or on outside orders. Even worse, the new people on my team are getting these as well. Like you, they have no clue what these items are and they don't have PWSs so the people can't place the order there. HO needs to do a better job of making it clear on each item description for the outlet that the items are not available with a show. I had a guest bring an outside order with only item #s. She was going nuts going through the catalog trying to find the item. Only by calling her friend did she find out it was an outlet item. It just doesn't make us look good having to explain it all of the time.

 

[AJPratt]

I had a host with an outside order with $100 in Outlet stuff. I hated to see her lose those sales.

 

[Sheila]

I just had a guest go to my web page, click the "HWC" link, which means she bypassed the host box. She placed her entire $61 order with HWC & outlet stuff, then forwarded the e-mail confirmation to the host so that the host could get credit for the purchase. I explained why that doesn't work to both of them. The guest tried to cancel the order, but the "cancel" button was gone, the order had already been processed & shipped by HO. She opted to just use it as a learning experience and leave it as is. She didn't want to re-order and refuse the original purchase since all the items that she REALLY wanted couldn't be used on a show. I still get the commissionable sales, but felt bad for the host. She's not very happy. She ignored ALL my host coaching. Refused to send out invitations because she felt that word of mouth and announcing the time/date on her facebook page was sufficient. She ended up with three confirmed RSVP's who were ALL no-shows the night of the show. So she's scrambling to come up with enough orders to at least make a catalog show and get a 15% discount. That would have helped her reach that goal.