TAUG 2007 wrap-up

Well another TAUG has come and gone. It was great to see you all, and now I've got some new tips for my blog! There were lots of good sessions and thanks to all of you who participated.

Next year's TAUG (or will it be PAUG) will be held in Louisville, Kentucky. Paul G told me that we will be right next to Fourth street which looks pretty cool:

http://www.iglou.com/restaurants/4sl.shtml

I should caution you that many of these places are open until 4 am!

And not to mention an evening event at Churchill Downs.

I hope to see you all there!

Applies to: TIMSS5, TIMSS6, Personify

TIMSS 6: Held Line Status Code

The other day I received an email from a member in response to the web order confirmation that we automatically send when some one orders from our website. She was wondering why she had received the email confirmation since she had not ordered any books.

I sent her the ship address for the order (which wasn't her) and asked her if maybe that person had logged in as her and ordered books.

In the mean time, what do I with this order? I didn't want to fulfill it since it might not be legitimate, but I didn't want to cancel and refund since it might be valid.

So I changed the line status to Held (not the fulfill status). This way the order is still in the system, but won't get picked up by the fulfillment process.

When the member confirmed that her co-worker had used her account to order books, I changed the line status back to Active, and the order got picked up the next time the fulfillment process was done.

Applies: to TIMSS6 & Personify

Market, List & Key Codes

So what's the difference between a market code, a list code, and a key code?

A marketing code is associated with a particular marketing piece, for example a conference brochure or a pre-recorded phone call.

A list code would be a particular group of customers to which you send marketing materials.

A key code is a combination market and list codes for a particular effort.

Let's say I have a postcard that I want to sent out to promote my annual meeting. That piece would have a particular marketing code associated with it. In TIMSS, I create several lists: purchased prospects, members, previous attendees who aren't members, etc. , and I send them each this post card.

When I use Marketing Production Control in TIMSS, I will create different efforts for this post card to go to each one of those groups, and each would have a different key code.

Or I can have different marketing pieces (a postcard and a brochure) go to the same groups to see who responds best to different efforts.

The combination of marketing & list codes is a key code, so that when an order is entered, entering a key code is the same a entering both a list and a market code. Thus the key code is what should be printed on the piece and communicated to the CSR when the order is taken.

You might want to name them consistently, for example, key codes always start with the letter K, so that the CSR knows it's a key code.

Applies to TIMSS5, TIMSS6, & Personify

Credit Cards

Here are a couple articles I found about credit cards that you might find interesting.

How Credit Cards Work- gives a history of credit cards as well as how they work with the bank.

Anatomy of Credit Card Numbers- tells how the actual credit card number is made and how you can tell if a number is valid.

Credit Card Magic- more about card numbers.

Card Security Code- Info about the CVV2

Applies to: TIMSS5, TIMSS6, Personify