tanTALK - View Single Post

Andy · 09-05-2002, 08:06 AM

OK, lets clarify the following, and outline the topics for discussion when you call:

1. Is your "GOLD" Membership the only membership you sell? If NO, this could impact everything I am suggesting below, I am going to carry on assuming YES.

2. Do your clients pay the $30 initiation fee again in 6 months or only once. I am assuming they pay it every 6 months, slight modifications well be required below if that is not the case.

3. What I am going to recommend below may be impacted by whatever terms and conditions you stated (verbal or written) to your clients when they purchased this membership, but the approach of "F9-Discounting" the late fee surcharge should get you around any issue and allow you to provide good Customer Service as you define it.

4. You have the "GOLD" membership on each applicable client now with the expiry date 6 months out, right? Lets let that be related to the Initiation Fee only and thereby we do not have to change anything. If we are starting from scratch I would make this membership VIP GOLD or just VIP - but it is only a word. On that existing code which charges the $30 init fee, set the Membership Variable - Days Valid to 183, thus getting rid of one of the Variable dates.

5. OK now we have to pick a name of the Monthly Membership, I am going to use "GOLD MTH" in this outline. If this whole approach is desirable for you you can pick the real membership name you wish to use and substitute it for "GOLD MTH" (max 10 chars)

So we need 2 codes here to handle this, first GOLDM - GOLD Monthly Dues, $33.00 - this code will add (Brought) 30 days to the existing GOLD MTH expiry date and REQUIRES the GOLD MTH membership currently be in FORCE (Used) to allow it to be sold. In this situation the additional 30 days will keep adding onto the existing expiry date which will stay close to the existing expiry day of the month.

The second, GOLDML - GOLD Monthly Dues, LATE, $38.00 (or $34. or whatever) this code will reestablish (brought) the 30 days GOLD MTH membership and will require (used) that the "GOLD" (the iniation fee) membership is still in force. This will have the affect of allowing at a slight premium the reestablishing of the GOLD MTH membership as long as it is within the 6 month timeframe. The expiry date will move away from the end of the month but does that really matter, if YES see next paragraph.

In any situation that you wish you could process either of the above code onto the clients account and record the method of payment as "In-House Charge", thus recording the sale and "flagging" the client as owing a balance, thus ensuring you get the whole 6 months of payments. In this situation set the Due Date to yesterday and it will immediately be Past Due and PREVENT the client from Tanning (ANY TANNING) until amount due is paid. If you do this be sure you have a "POA" Paid on Account sales code in the system to allow you to record the payment on the account later when the client does pay.

Initially I was going to suggest using the "GOLDML" late code above for the first month and just discount the price back to $33. BUT I think the following may be simplier and easier to follow on a clients account history. Set up another code "GOLDMF" GOLD Monthly Dues - FIRST. It will be exactly the same as GOLDM except the Used membership will be GOLD not GOLD MTH.

Do you know how to COPY a Sales Code in Helios. Bring up the like sales code that you wish to copy, in this case GOLDM - change the Sales Code field ONLY from GOLDM to GOLDMF - DO NOT LEAVE THE SALES CODE FIELD, if you did everything will have gone blank - start over. OK so you changed the Sales Code, without leaving the sales code field - Press F10-Save on the keyboard (DO NOT use the Mouse). Helios will Save your new sales code - change the description and anything else that needs to change, in this case on the Pkg/Mem Tab the Used Membership changes from GOLD MTH to GOLD - F10-Save again.

To handle those little wierd challenges that will occur and/or customer service issues, I would also create a Sales Code to allow for the adjustment of the Expiry Date for whatever reason. GOLDMA - Gold Month Mbrshp Adjust. You could copy this from GOLDM, then remove the price (you could actually set the Price Type here to Variable, thus allowing you to also charge a calculated and entered amount for this Adjustment - would handle your end of 6 month Prorates that you will have to clean up) and also remove the Used Membership Name (if you wish to allow this Adjust Code to also establish a GOLD MTH membership - if not leave GOLD MTH as the Used membership as well) and change the Membership Variable from Constant 30 to Variable. This will allow the entry of a new expiry date for whatever reason. Put a password on this Sales Code if you do not want to allow staff members to use this code and/or Flag the transaction under Operations Options to highlight that it was used on the Daily Sales Detail report.

WARNING: you will get an Helios error message using the Variable Membership Expiry Date option IF you have your Date structure set in Windows-Regional Settings to MM/DD/YYYY. Helios creates a Description for a Variable Membership transaction of "Expiration Date MM/DD/YYYY" - count the characters "26" hard to fit into a 25 character field - thus the 3163 error - DOES NOT FIT. I have repeated suggested to Helios they change that message to "Expiry Date MM/DD/YYYY" eliminating the problem but I guess that is too difficult to do!! Setting your date format to MM/DD/YY eliminates the problem and also has the added advantage of being able to see the whole date string on a number of Reporting definition screen, but I digress - back to it.

You can also use this GOLDMA to establish the GOLD MTH membership on each of your existing members with the approriate expiry date. In this case the Used would have to be GOLD or blank to allow the GOLD MTH to be established.

One last function to consider here. Do you allow members to "FREEZE" this type of membership (this need could also apply to the base 6 month GOLD initation fee membership). If YES, here you go --- copy GOLDM to GOLDMFZ - Gold Month Mbrshp FREEZE. Change the description and price (you could charge a onetime fee for this freeze service) Membership Brought and Used both stay as GOLD MTH, change Days Valid from 30 to "-1" AND set the Membership Flexible Start to YES and you must enter a Max Flex Days 7 if you will allow up to a 7 day freeze, 14 if you will allow up to a 14 day freeze, 30 if you will allow up to a 30 day freeze (this must be a value and CAN NOT be variable - most common is a 14 day freeze). Now this is not REALLY a FREEZE inside Helios, it is putting the Membership BACK on Flex Start - you do not need a code to UNFREEZE (like you would on a EFT Membership). When the client next Tans the membership will automatically reactivate. CAUTION, do not sell a client on this type of FREEZE an additional month until after the "freeze" is removed. Can provide more details on this is you wish BUT this post is already getting long enough.

You will also have to adjust the Tanning Sales Code to Use GOLD MTH rather than GOLD.

Summary of Sales Codes outlined above (all may not be required or desirable):

GOLD - GOLD Initiation Fee
GOLDA - GOLD Init Fee Adjust
GOLDFZ - GOLD Init Fee FREEZE

GOLDM - GOLD Monthly Dues
GOLDMA - GOLD Month Mbrshp ADJUST
GOLDMF - GOLD Monthly Dues - FIRST
GOLDMFZ - GOLD Month Mbrship FREEZE
GOLDML - GOLD Monthly Dues - LATE

Nicole, with this approach the following happens:

1. The responsibility for renewing at the preferred price rests with the Client.

2. They pay a higher price if they do not renew on time.

3. You can enforce the full 6 payments by putting arrears on "InHouse Charge" with a Past Due Date thus ensuring they do not tan until the balance is paid.

4. You will have some work to do to establish the GOLD MTH membership on each applicable client, with the appropriate expiry date, but once done this should be much easier to maintain and for the employees to handle.

We should talk about your desired approach to handle the transition between tanning on GOLD to tanning on GOLD MTH.

Now, not that you would EVER want to do this but how would you handle a situtation where a GOOD client (if they can be called that) has a past due balance (and therefore Helios is prohibiting them from tanning) and they promise to bring in the money next time - how do you let them tan AND reflect that transaction on THEIR Client Profile - no, not tanning them as yourself.

Hope this helps ... looking forward to your call

_________________

Andy Thompson
ACT Business Solutions
Toll-Free 877-777-6717
andy@atso.ca
ACT Help Center [ This Message was edited by: Andy @ ATSO.ca on 2002-09-05 09:08 ]

09-05-2002, 08:06 AM	#4 (permalink)
Andy Join Date: Jan 25 2000 Location: CT Posts: 1,760 Rep Power: 9	OK, lets clarify the following, and outline the topics for discussion when you call: 1. Is your "GOLD" Membership the only membership you sell? If NO, this could impact everything I am suggesting below, I am going to carry on assuming YES. 2. Do your clients pay the $30 initiation fee again in 6 months or only once. I am assuming they pay it every 6 months, slight modifications well be required below if that is not the case. 3. What I am going to recommend below may be impacted by whatever terms and conditions you stated (verbal or written) to your clients when they purchased this membership, but the approach of "F9-Discounting" the late fee surcharge should get you around any issue and allow you to provide good Customer Service as you define it. 4. You have the "GOLD" membership on each applicable client now with the expiry date 6 months out, right? Lets let that be related to the Initiation Fee only and thereby we do not have to change anything. If we are starting from scratch I would make this membership VIP GOLD or just VIP - but it is only a word. On that existing code which charges the $30 init fee, set the Membership Variable - Days Valid to 183, thus getting rid of one of the Variable dates. 5. OK now we have to pick a name of the Monthly Membership, I am going to use "GOLD MTH" in this outline. If this whole approach is desirable for you you can pick the real membership name you wish to use and substitute it for "GOLD MTH" (max 10 chars) So we need 2 codes here to handle this, first GOLDM - GOLD Monthly Dues, $33.00 - this code will add (Brought) 30 days to the existing GOLD MTH expiry date and REQUIRES the GOLD MTH membership currently be in FORCE (Used) to allow it to be sold. In this situation the additional 30 days will keep adding onto the existing expiry date which will stay close to the existing expiry day of the month. The second, GOLDML - GOLD Monthly Dues, LATE, $38.00 (or $34. or whatever) this code will reestablish (brought) the 30 days GOLD MTH membership and will require (used) that the "GOLD" (the iniation fee) membership is still in force. This will have the affect of allowing at a slight premium the reestablishing of the GOLD MTH membership as long as it is within the 6 month timeframe. The expiry date will move away from the end of the month but does that really matter, if YES see next paragraph. In any situation that you wish you could process either of the above code onto the clients account and record the method of payment as "In-House Charge", thus recording the sale and "flagging" the client as owing a balance, thus ensuring you get the whole 6 months of payments. In this situation set the Due Date to yesterday and it will immediately be Past Due and PREVENT the client from Tanning (ANY TANNING) until amount due is paid. If you do this be sure you have a "POA" Paid on Account sales code in the system to allow you to record the payment on the account later when the client does pay. Initially I was going to suggest using the "GOLDML" late code above for the first month and just discount the price back to $33. BUT I think the following may be simplier and easier to follow on a clients account history. Set up another code "GOLDMF" GOLD Monthly Dues - FIRST. It will be exactly the same as GOLDM except the Used membership will be GOLD not GOLD MTH. Do you know how to COPY a Sales Code in Helios. Bring up the like sales code that you wish to copy, in this case GOLDM - change the Sales Code field ONLY from GOLDM to GOLDMF - DO NOT LEAVE THE SALES CODE FIELD, if you did everything will have gone blank - start over. OK so you changed the Sales Code, without leaving the sales code field - Press F10-Save on the keyboard (DO NOT use the Mouse). Helios will Save your new sales code - change the description and anything else that needs to change, in this case on the Pkg/Mem Tab the Used Membership changes from GOLD MTH to GOLD - F10-Save again. To handle those little wierd challenges that will occur and/or customer service issues, I would also create a Sales Code to allow for the adjustment of the Expiry Date for whatever reason. GOLDMA - Gold Month Mbrshp Adjust. You could copy this from GOLDM, then remove the price (you could actually set the Price Type here to Variable, thus allowing you to also charge a calculated and entered amount for this Adjustment - would handle your end of 6 month Prorates that you will have to clean up) and also remove the Used Membership Name (if you wish to allow this Adjust Code to also establish a GOLD MTH membership - if not leave GOLD MTH as the Used membership as well) and change the Membership Variable from Constant 30 to Variable. This will allow the entry of a new expiry date for whatever reason. Put a password on this Sales Code if you do not want to allow staff members to use this code and/or Flag the transaction under Operations Options to highlight that it was used on the Daily Sales Detail report. WARNING: you will get an Helios error message using the Variable Membership Expiry Date option IF you have your Date structure set in Windows-Regional Settings to MM/DD/YYYY. Helios creates a Description for a Variable Membership transaction of "Expiration Date MM/DD/YYYY" - count the characters "26" hard to fit into a 25 character field - thus the 3163 error - DOES NOT FIT. I have repeated suggested to Helios they change that message to "Expiry Date MM/DD/YYYY" eliminating the problem but I guess that is too difficult to do!! Setting your date format to MM/DD/YY eliminates the problem and also has the added advantage of being able to see the whole date string on a number of Reporting definition screen, but I digress - back to it. You can also use this GOLDMA to establish the GOLD MTH membership on each of your existing members with the approriate expiry date. In this case the Used would have to be GOLD or blank to allow the GOLD MTH to be established. One last function to consider here. Do you allow members to "FREEZE" this type of membership (this need could also apply to the base 6 month GOLD initation fee membership). If YES, here you go --- copy GOLDM to GOLDMFZ - Gold Month Mbrshp FREEZE. Change the description and price (you could charge a onetime fee for this freeze service) Membership Brought and Used both stay as GOLD MTH, change Days Valid from 30 to "-1" AND set the Membership Flexible Start to YES and you must enter a Max Flex Days 7 if you will allow up to a 7 day freeze, 14 if you will allow up to a 14 day freeze, 30 if you will allow up to a 30 day freeze (this must be a value and CAN NOT be variable - most common is a 14 day freeze). Now this is not REALLY a FREEZE inside Helios, it is putting the Membership BACK on Flex Start - you do not need a code to UNFREEZE (like you would on a EFT Membership). When the client next Tans the membership will automatically reactivate. CAUTION, do not sell a client on this type of FREEZE an additional month until after the "freeze" is removed. Can provide more details on this is you wish BUT this post is already getting long enough. You will also have to adjust the Tanning Sales Code to Use GOLD MTH rather than GOLD. Summary of Sales Codes outlined above (all may not be required or desirable): GOLD - GOLD Initiation Fee GOLDA - GOLD Init Fee Adjust GOLDFZ - GOLD Init Fee FREEZE GOLDM - GOLD Monthly Dues GOLDMA - GOLD Month Mbrshp ADJUST GOLDMF - GOLD Monthly Dues - FIRST GOLDMFZ - GOLD Month Mbrship FREEZE GOLDML - GOLD Monthly Dues - LATE Nicole, with this approach the following happens: 1. The responsibility for renewing at the preferred price rests with the Client. 2. They pay a higher price if they do not renew on time. 3. You can enforce the full 6 payments by putting arrears on "InHouse Charge" with a Past Due Date thus ensuring they do not tan until the balance is paid. 4. You will have some work to do to establish the GOLD MTH membership on each applicable client, with the appropriate expiry date, but once done this should be much easier to maintain and for the employees to handle. We should talk about your desired approach to handle the transition between tanning on GOLD to tanning on GOLD MTH. Now, not that you would EVER want to do this but how would you handle a situtation where a GOOD client (if they can be called that) has a past due balance (and therefore Helios is prohibiting them from tanning) and they promise to bring in the money next time - how do you let them tan AND reflect that transaction on THEIR Client Profile - no, not tanning them as yourself. Hope this helps ... looking forward to your call _________________ Andy Thompson ACT Business Solutions Toll-Free 877-777-6717 andy@atso.ca ACT Help Center [ This Message was edited by: Andy @ ATSO.ca on 2002-09-05 09:08 ]