February 2008 - Posts
I see a lot of PEO sites out there that still use the canned error messages whenever something goes wrong. If I buy concert tickets for my wife's birthday and see an error that just says "L1029 - Credit Card Payment Transaction Failed" I will give up right there and either come back the next day, call the box office, or go to another website and buy her a different gift. People who have used PEO for a couple of years may think, "PCCharge must have frozen. I'll go restart it and everything will be fine". But keep in mind the patron has no idea what PCCharge or PEO are; they just know your organization.
Usability is key
Website usability is essential for driving online sales. And just as your site should be usable, so too should your error messages. When something goes wrong, you want a patron to understand two things to keep him from calling the box office (or abandoning the purchase altogether). He needs to know:
- What happened - The patron needs to know if the error that occurred was a system error or his own fault. People will admit their mistakes a lot more easily when nobody is looking. Include the error code at the beginning or end of the message so that, in the event of a system error, you know what to do internally.
- How to fix it - Tell the patron that the phone number field is filled out incorrectly or that the show just went off sale.
Some errors in PEO are not the patron's fault, but you can still put a message out telling him to contact the box office. This has a twofold advantage - it allows you to save the sale and alerts you that something is wrong with the site. Be sure to include a phone number in the message!
Let's do a quick example. Take the following error message:
L1020-Invalid Password
It gets the job done, but it's not really helpful. You could change it to something like:
Your password is invalid. Please try again. Remember that passwords are case sensitive.
If you have lost your password, enter your email address in the Login field and click Forgot Password to have it sent to you.
L1020
This message has several things going for it:
- It tells the patron what went wrong without being accusatory
- It offers clear steps to fix the problem
- It contains the error code in case a support call is needed
Care to share your own error messages? Leave a note in the comments.
PEO 3.2.5 introduced a Protocol feature that is pretty handy and great for site performance. Everyone knows that HTTPS is the protocol to use for sending information securely, but it's also slower than regular HTTP. That’s why a lot of commercial sites don’t switch to HTTPS until a user is on a page where sensitive information is entered or personal details are displayed.
You can now do this in your PEO site through Site Design. Simply open any screen that you would like to secure and change the Protocol field from HTTP to HTTPS. Notice that there is a third option here called Any. It means that when this screen loads, it will follow the same protocol the previous screen was using.
I recommend securing the following screens at minimum:
- user_data.asp
- submit_basket.asp
- any screen that starts with ‘crm’
Of course you can secure the entire site by way of certain IIS tricks or the link you use to send patrons to your PEO site, but why slow the site down when you don’t have to?
Are you currently using this feature? Do you feel it is helping your patrons’ user experience? Leave a note in the comments.
Imagine the following scenario: Body Worlds is coming to town and you will be hosting their exhibit for a while. There is a movie theater nearby that is hoping to capitalize on the interest this exhibit will generate and has decided to show a second run of Casino Royale, which features a scene at a Body Worlds exhibit. The theater owner calls to discuss cross-promotion and he wants you to advertise his theater during this run in return for a sum of money. Obviously there are opportunities for you to put advertising on ticket or receipt stock, but that only works for walk-up sales. What about people who are buying tickets online? With one of the features in PEO, that's no problem.
There has always been the ability to have promotional material on your PEO confirmation emails, but it was generic; everyone received the same email. As of version 3.2.5, you can take advantage of the ability to have a unique confirmation email for any show you would like. You can put an ad for the movie theater on the confirmation email for patrons who purchase Body Worlds, and do something totally different for those who are buying a different show. When creating your confirmation email simply choose the show you would like to associate it with using the Show drop-down, and then continue designing the email normally.
Keep in mind that a show-specific email is only sent to patrons who purchase that show exclusively; otherwise they receive the generic email. If you wanted to take it a step farther and you're using Print at Home, you can get around this by putting the promotional material on each Print at Home ticket (but that's another post for another day).
I hope this scenario gave you some good ideas to get creative with your emails and unlock a little bit more of the potential of PEO. Are you currently using this feature on your site? Have you had experience with advertising opportunities using confirmation emails or Print at Home tickets? Leave a message in the comments.
Welcome to The Spotlight. This is Nicholai, and if you have The Patron Edge or The Patron Edge Online, I'm sure we've spoken at least once or twice. I'm currently the Product Lead at Blackbaud for all things PE-related and I've supported this program through 16 major versions.
First off, this blog is for you. It is for all of the people who use The Patron Edge to run their back offices and want to squeeze a little more out of it, whether to increase your audience, improve relationships with your patrons or just make running the back office a little easier. I've gained a lot of knowledge in my experience working with this product over the last three years and now we finally have a method to spread that knowledge.
That being said, some of the information I want to share isn't always officially "supported" but if you have a certain amount of technical savvy and a willingness to do some homework you'll be able to do most things without too much trouble.
My hope is to post two or three times a week with advice about PE, PEO, and anything else that's on my mind. I supported The Raiser's Edge for a year so I may occasionally throw something in from that side of the world. I'm still feeling out the blogging thing, so things may be a little rocky at first. Just bear with me and I promise you'll learn something useful.
So enjoy your stay, leave some comments and let's get started!