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    Account & History Consolidation

    Customers tend to make multiple accounts. On occasion they forget all of them, contact us and we discover the duplication.

    It would be convenient and a excellent customer service to take all accounts and consolidate the order history into one then delete the others.

    #2
    Re: Account & History Consolidation

    We actually have a proposal to add this feature to our Easy Account module. The pending issue is "what are the rules". For example, should we only look for billing email as the match, what if those billing accounts have different shipping? In a B2B environment, that is quite common. So, do they get a single account or multiple accounts. Should it try to match billing addresses? (Which would have to first be 'normalized' so that 1234 4th Street and 1234 forth st.) get matched?
    Bruce Golub
    Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

    Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
    phosphormedia.com

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      #3
      Re: Account & History Consolidation

      I'd love to see this feature added to the Easy Account module. I don't think it can be automated. Could you allow us to search by customer's last name and then specify which accounts should be consolidated via a check box and which account will be master?
      Bronson Design Studio, LLC
      Website: bronsondesign.com
      Facebook: facebook.com/bronsondesign

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        #4
        Re: Account & History Consolidation

        I was thinking of it as a fairly manual process:

        1. We find that a duplicate account situation exists.
        2. Determine which account will be the account to be primary - address, email, and password included.
        3. Select other accounts and flag they to be removed.
        4. System moves history from the flagged accounts over to the primary and deletes flagged accounts.

        This is not as elegant but it gets the job done. An automated system that tries to match database fields, sytax and case would seem to be quite complex indeed.

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          #5
          Re: Account & History Consolidation

          Yes, there are two issues. The criteria to find possible matches, and the mechanisms for associating them. What Drew proposes would be easy enough to code and present, but I would worry that it would become quite tedious with larger businesses.

          One in between method (and the one I've been thinking of) would be:
          1) Enter the filter you want to use Billing email, shipping email, phone number, etc (I don't think name would be good Mr.Smith<g>).
          2) Show matches.
          3) Allow for checking off those you DON'T want in the account.
          4) If multiple accounts, check the one you want to use.
          5) System combines orders and accounts, sends an email to account holder (with a password reset request if their Merchant version supports it.)

          Still could be tedious for large organizations or those that have a fair amount of orders, but only one or two duplicates. Perhaps part of the filtering would be for: a) number or orders associated b) number of multiple accounts. So, if you have hundreds of multiple accounts, but only one order each but dozens of multiple accounts with dozens of orders each, you could focus on the later first.
          Bruce Golub
          Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

          Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
          phosphormedia.com

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

            I like your concept, Bruce. We process a fair amount of orders and have 50k+ customers in Miva. We normally figure out a customer has more than one account when they call and are having trouble logging in. A search by email address or phone number usually pulls up all of their accounts. Our customers tend to use all sorts of user names from email addresses to full names complete with caps and spaces. We encourage them to use email addresses for user names when we find and pick one account to keep. We use rewards points and they are easy enough to look up and put onto the master account.

            My company would happily pay $100+ for this capability because of the positive customer service experience it offers.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

              We use NetSuite as our ERP. The 5 steps that Bruce listed above is pretty much how they do it.

              I would definitely find value in Easy Account if it could merge accounts. And ditto for us on redriverpaper on when we find out. Sometimes they have crated 3 accounts in Miva. This is a real nightmare managing this issue. I also would pay $100+ for this feature.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                We actually have must of that already...for sites with 1, 2, 4K...would be unyeildy for your 70K plus. Ever thought of taking an Export from your ERP (assuming it has singular accounts) and then grabbing a matching customer account in Merchant, clearing the Merchant Customer account and reloading with the matched up ERP+cust id and passwords?

                The main problem with automating is "intent". Did the customer WANT two accounts? Which account is the one the Want to keep.

                It could be done on a case by case basis...customer signs in, see's EVERY matching order...then selects which ones to combine. The main problem is privacy. For a B2B...no problem...but Jill may not want Henry to see that Rolex watch she bought....which he didn't get.
                Bruce Golub
                Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

                Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
                phosphormedia.com

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                  This thread has includes discussion of a Miva Module that consolidates user accounts.

                  http://extranet.mivamerchant.com/for...l-login-issues
                  Last edited by Keitho; 09-28-13, 11:41 PM.
                  Keith Oratz
                  PrepareSmart, LLC - Emergency Preparedness Supplies and Professional Grade Search and Rescue Gear
                  www.preparesmart.com

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                    #10
                    Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                    Yes we have a module that does consolidate accounts.
                    Thanks,

                    Rick Wilson
                    CEO
                    Miva, Inc.
                    [email protected]
                    https://www.miva.com

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                      I may be a little late to the party, but I just started looking at Miva's Consolidate Customers module. I really like the the steps it takes in how it merges accounts, however it appears you cannot view or select only specific accounts to consolidate.. it just hits the entire customer database and merges all duplicates. Any chance a future version might allow for the consolidation of only select accounts?
                      Psydde Delicious
                      Delicious Boutique & Corseterie
                      Philadelphia, PA
                      www.DeliciousBoutique.com
                      www.DeliciousCorsets.com

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                        What is the use case where you only need to merge certain accounts. Why would you not want to do it for your whole customer list?
                        Brennan Heyde
                        VP Product
                        Miva, Inc.
                        [email protected]
                        https://www.miva.com

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                          The situation arose late Friday night.. I was getting ready to leave the office but a customer emailed that she was having trouble placing a large order she needed to get quickly. I saw in admin that she had multiple accounts and I wanted to be able to assist her by merging them all so she could get her order placed in her most recent account. I did not want to consolidate the entire customer list at that time because there were so many (almost 2000 duplicates) and not enough time for me to test on dev site.
                          Psydde Delicious
                          Delicious Boutique & Corseterie
                          Philadelphia, PA
                          www.DeliciousBoutique.com
                          www.DeliciousCorsets.com

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Account &amp; History Consolidation

                            Got it. For now, you would have to manually delete one account. I'll talk with development and see if this is something that can be added.
                            Brennan Heyde
                            VP Product
                            Miva, Inc.
                            [email protected]
                            https://www.miva.com

                            Comment

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