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    Telephone order entry enhancements

    While we discourage telephone orders, we still have a portion of our customer base which insists on ordering by telephone. We enter these orders using the native features built into the admin (Manage Orders--New Order). Although this process is miles above previous versions, there are two features which would significantly improve this process for us.

    First, when we have a customer who orders regularly it would be beneficial if we had a feature to add them as a customer from the order screen so their shipping/billing information is auto-populated the next time they call in an order.

    The second feature regards the ability to duplicate an order. We regularly receive calls saying "I want the same thing as last time". It would be incredible if we had the ability to look up their order and simply copy it, thereby creating a new order for the same thing. This seems like something that would be popular for anybody who did use order entry through the admin, and is a standard feature of order processing applications like Quickbooks.

    Thank you for the consideration.
    Best regards, Charlie
    Charlie Morrison
    www.MCRmedical.com

    #2
    Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

    If you are simply taking their order, I don't know why you wouldn't just use your web site? (hint: if you say its hard, maybe that's where additional work should be focused :)

    As for the second, if you did the first, you could use the Order History feature in Merchant to make it somewhat faster.

    Also hint: we have a module called Easy Account. It allows you to create a custom account, by simply entering a password. This option appears to the customer (or in this case, you) on the Invoice screen.
    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: Telephone order entry enhancements

      The First one is supported today, just create an account with their info.

      The second one is coming.
      Thanks,

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

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

        That's great news about the upcoming ability to copy an order, thanks! I suspect it will be a huge time saver for many people.

        Thanks also for the suggestion about creating a customer account manually. We do this currently by means of copy/paste between the order and the add customer account screens. Unfortunately, for us the determination that a telephone customer is a "regular" always comes after the customer actually places an order or two and we rarely have the opportunity to create an account before processing their order. But when we find out they've placed an order before we open up their old order and copy/paste. Thanks for letting me share that it would be helpful if we were able create an account from an existing order. I'll keep my eye out for a module as well.

        Best regards,
        Charlie

        Originally posted by Rick Wilson View Post
        The First one is supported today, just create an account with their info.

        The second one is coming.
        Charlie Morrison
        www.MCRmedical.com

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

          Thank you for the suggestions. However, we use the admin to enter orders for flexibility, not necessarily ease (although it's pretty easy too). A wide array of possibilities open up when you enter an order through the admin, such as including free samples, adding notes for the warehouse, including customer concessions (price matching, shipping discounts), spreading charges across multiple payment methods, etc.

          Thanks again for the suggestions,
          Charlie

          Originally posted by Bruce - PhosphorMedia View Post
          If you are simply taking their order, I don't know why you wouldn't just use your web site? (hint: if you say its hard, maybe that's where additional work should be focused :)

          As for the second, if you did the first, you could use the Order History feature in Merchant to make it somewhat faster.

          Also hint: we have a module called Easy Account. It allows you to create a custom account, by simply entering a password. This option appears to the customer (or in this case, you) on the Invoice screen.
          Charlie Morrison
          www.MCRmedical.com

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

            understand. yes, some function are ONLY going to be available from within the admin (at least for now). For many of the others, and this is a case by case situation, there are work arounds that generally also make business practice sense. For example, in many cases, its better to use a coupon discount for an order than just change the price of an item as this makes it easier to track why the price (and therefore profit) is different than expected.

            but, i repeat, it's definitely a case by case senerio.
            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


              #7
              Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

              Hope it's ok to just add to this older thread rather then start a new one. For the admin order entry screen, is it possible to have it send the order confirmation emails to the merchant and customer by default? Right now it has to be done manually in the "Order Emails" tab doing the checkbox and submit action.

              Thanks.
              Joe McDonald
              patrickwebby.com

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

                Hey Joe -

                Not currently. The main reason being, when do we send them (and which emails do we send)? And order in the admin is meant to be fluid, meaning you can add, remove and change things as needed.

                The obvious answer would be to send the emails when the order is charged which makes sense, but what if you go in and issue a new charge on the same order - Should it resend the emails again? Or what about a refunds/voids?

                Every business has their own business rules, and some may want to send the emails and others may not which why we choose to leave it up to the store owner to choose when they get sent.

                However, I do see the case for a setting which you could turn on to allow the order charged action to trigger the confirmation emails automatically.
                Last edited by Brennan; 10-28-14, 02:40 PM.
                Brennan Heyde
                VP Product
                Miva, Inc.
                [email protected]
                https://www.miva.com

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

                  Ok that makes sense. I think we were just hoping to streamline a workflow and reduce forgetting things from repetitive steps, but as you said, there are too many variables. Thanks for the quick reply!
                  Joe McDonald
                  patrickwebby.com

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

                    Brennan,

                    One comprimise (and maybe a better overall idea) would be a change in the UI. Since 'fulfillment' is a MAJOR component of any order, perhaps having the fulfillment email list exposed along WITH the order details instead of hiding behind another tab.

                    This would mean a simple "CLICK" to include the Customer Notification email for example. (And, as you mentioned, the last setting for these check boxes could be remember--aka become the default.)
                    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


                      #11
                      Re: Telephone order entry enhancements

                      That would be very helpful. Customer service reps often forget the tabs at the top.
                      Joe McDonald
                      patrickwebby.com

                      Comment

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