Managing Swaps
In no time we will have the email/messaging system live and you can message each other and manage your swaps real-time. Until then, to keep swaps clean and not confusing, we request that you do the following:
Email cs@cropchocolate.com with your first name, last name--if you know your CropChocolate.com Customer ID please include that too--and the product you would like to have removed from your la Carte. Then include the name of the individual who you would like to share your item(s) with.
Please follow this protocol:
Jon Nelson - ID 534
Remove - Glazed Brads 2.0
Add to - McCall Nelson
That's all you'll need to include in the email. This will be the cleanest and quickest way for us to swap product.
In kind, the individual you're swapping with will email us with the same protocol:
McCall Nelson - ID 628
Remove - 12x12 Nerdy Bird Paper Pack
Add to - Jon Nelson
That way it's clean and easy.
Right now we're getting over 100 requested swaps per day--which we LOVE to do--but they're pretty convoluted. Until our "swap" and email/messaging systems are live it will make things much easier and cleaner.
Deal?
Thanks for all YOU do! It's been fun to see these swaps and deals get legs!
Best,
The CropChocolate.com Team
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Some Retreat Ideas
So one of the reasons we did this retreat was to try to come up with some new ideas. After consulting with Chris, here are some new things coming to a CropChocolate.com site near you.
Rather than spending money to travel to Chicago to go to CHA, we decided to put our resources into more development on the site. Since we're already engaged in developing new relationships with 14 manufactures, we thought money would be better spent upgrading a few things for YOU rather than eating expensive steaks at The Capital Grill. So here's what's to come:
1 - Update the My Account page to include an Order History with live order status updates, USPS tracking numbers, items that you purchased in each order and more. We will also streamline your billing and shipping address info and more.
2 - An internal email or messaging system that will allow you to email back and forth within CropChocolate.com. Where this becomes really cool is all product swaps will be controlled through this system. One will invite another to swap and the other will simply confirm. *As a note on this matter, the number of days you have left to check out a product, the same number of days will be forwarded on.
3 - Cleaning up SweetTALK. We are still working on the best formula but we've seen some great threads fall by the way-side as the get deeper and deeper in the SweetTALK thread history. We will also tie threads to your pages with the ability for customers to see "Sweet or Sour" comments and "SweetTALK" comments you've made over time. This will help make profile more interesting and interactive.
There's more to come as Chris works and we bounce more ideas off each other.
Thank YOU all for letting us take a few days to relax together and enjoy a Utah holiday weekend!
Best,
The CropChocolate.com Team... and Huck.
and Beamer.
So one of the reasons we did this retreat was to try to come up with some new ideas. After consulting with Chris, here are some new things coming to a CropChocolate.com site near you.
Rather than spending money to travel to Chicago to go to CHA, we decided to put our resources into more development on the site. Since we're already engaged in developing new relationships with 14 manufactures, we thought money would be better spent upgrading a few things for YOU rather than eating expensive steaks at The Capital Grill. So here's what's to come:
1 - Update the My Account page to include an Order History with live order status updates, USPS tracking numbers, items that you purchased in each order and more. We will also streamline your billing and shipping address info and more.
2 - An internal email or messaging system that will allow you to email back and forth within CropChocolate.com. Where this becomes really cool is all product swaps will be controlled through this system. One will invite another to swap and the other will simply confirm. *As a note on this matter, the number of days you have left to check out a product, the same number of days will be forwarded on.
3 - Cleaning up SweetTALK. We are still working on the best formula but we've seen some great threads fall by the way-side as the get deeper and deeper in the SweetTALK thread history. We will also tie threads to your pages with the ability for customers to see "Sweet or Sour" comments and "SweetTALK" comments you've made over time. This will help make profile more interesting and interactive.
There's more to come as Chris works and we bounce more ideas off each other.
Thank YOU all for letting us take a few days to relax together and enjoy a Utah holiday weekend!
Best,
The CropChocolate.com Team... and Huck.
and Beamer.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
A Small Reward
For the past month our peeps at CropChocolate.com have worked overtime to keep things running while Leti was out of town. We know we weren't mistake-free but we did get most orders out sans error.
So as a reward, and to show our appreciation, we are taking the whole team on a retreat. We took off tonight to a lake on the Idaho, Wyoming, Utah boarder where we will spend a few days training, talking strategies, and mostly playing on the lake.
Leti and Janet are holding down the fort at the warehouse--they both took pretty significant vacations this summer--and since Leti's been back, we've totally organized and streamlined the processes so things are running smooth. We're now shipping la Cartes on the next day or in two days at the latest so we felt good about offering this reward.
We will still be offering new sweets all weekend and answering customer service emails but there may be a delay in responding to your questions as we will be enjoying the lake and mountains.
One more thing, so that we don't duplicate product transfers, please email all product transfers to cs@cropchocolate.com.
Thanks for all YOU do for CropChocolate.com! We couldn't do this for our employees without you.
Best,
Jon N.
For the past month our peeps at CropChocolate.com have worked overtime to keep things running while Leti was out of town. We know we weren't mistake-free but we did get most orders out sans error.
So as a reward, and to show our appreciation, we are taking the whole team on a retreat. We took off tonight to a lake on the Idaho, Wyoming, Utah boarder where we will spend a few days training, talking strategies, and mostly playing on the lake.
Leti and Janet are holding down the fort at the warehouse--they both took pretty significant vacations this summer--and since Leti's been back, we've totally organized and streamlined the processes so things are running smooth. We're now shipping la Cartes on the next day or in two days at the latest so we felt good about offering this reward.
We will still be offering new sweets all weekend and answering customer service emails but there may be a delay in responding to your questions as we will be enjoying the lake and mountains.
One more thing, so that we don't duplicate product transfers, please email all product transfers to cs@cropchocolate.com.
Thanks for all YOU do for CropChocolate.com! We couldn't do this for our employees without you.
Best,
Jon N.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Some Weight off our Shoulders
Great news--Leti is BACK! We were at the warehouse all morning meeting with the warehouse staff. Leti had a great trip and is grateful that she was able to take 3 weeks to visit her grandparents. Again, it's thanks to all of you who make it possible for us to make decisions like this that enrich our employees lives.
So she's back and we didn't get too beat up while she was gone. Phew...
OK so here's a new direction idea for the HOTchocolate. While working in the warehouse the past several weeks we have come up with some added efficiencies and new ideas. Until today we have not been able to implement the ideas part but we think you'll really like them.
HOTchocolate was once a thriving part of the CropChocolate.com business model but as we've increased the number of offered products/day, HOTchocolate has fallen by the wayside. We're resurrecting it. Here's how. Once a product sells out, about 10% of the product is discarded from customer's carts and put back into our inventories. When we purchase product we generally purchase in quantities of 200 to 500 so we see anywhere from 20 to 50 items put back in our inventories. Once we have enough to resell we'll feature the product again--that's usually 15 or more. Then, once it gets down to less than 10, we stop selling the item completely so we have 8 of this, 4 of that and so on.
This excess inventory is going to be our new HOTchocolate deal. We will set the price at $2.49 for HOTchocolate but it will be a grab-bag type offering--if you order the HOTchocolate, we'll randomly add something sweet to your order. No matter what, the value of the item(s) will exceed $5.00 in value. So for example, may have requested that we feature some of the collection packs by BasicGrey, in many cases we only have 5-10 remaining. Since we don't want to over-sell--we know it's been a problem in the past--we'll sit on the product or wait until somebody asks for a donation. This by no means well limit our ability to donate--we do that a lot--but it will help us deplete those last remaining items.
This new program will roll out on July 14th.
Thank YOU for being so patient while Leti was out with her grandparents. We believe that business exists to make the lives of many happy and this is perfect example of how business can bless the life of one.
Best,
Jon N.
Great news--Leti is BACK! We were at the warehouse all morning meeting with the warehouse staff. Leti had a great trip and is grateful that she was able to take 3 weeks to visit her grandparents. Again, it's thanks to all of you who make it possible for us to make decisions like this that enrich our employees lives.
So she's back and we didn't get too beat up while she was gone. Phew...
OK so here's a new direction idea for the HOTchocolate. While working in the warehouse the past several weeks we have come up with some added efficiencies and new ideas. Until today we have not been able to implement the ideas part but we think you'll really like them.
HOTchocolate was once a thriving part of the CropChocolate.com business model but as we've increased the number of offered products/day, HOTchocolate has fallen by the wayside. We're resurrecting it. Here's how. Once a product sells out, about 10% of the product is discarded from customer's carts and put back into our inventories. When we purchase product we generally purchase in quantities of 200 to 500 so we see anywhere from 20 to 50 items put back in our inventories. Once we have enough to resell we'll feature the product again--that's usually 15 or more. Then, once it gets down to less than 10, we stop selling the item completely so we have 8 of this, 4 of that and so on.
This excess inventory is going to be our new HOTchocolate deal. We will set the price at $2.49 for HOTchocolate but it will be a grab-bag type offering--if you order the HOTchocolate, we'll randomly add something sweet to your order. No matter what, the value of the item(s) will exceed $5.00 in value. So for example, may have requested that we feature some of the collection packs by BasicGrey, in many cases we only have 5-10 remaining. Since we don't want to over-sell--we know it's been a problem in the past--we'll sit on the product or wait until somebody asks for a donation. This by no means well limit our ability to donate--we do that a lot--but it will help us deplete those last remaining items.
This new program will roll out on July 14th.
Thank YOU for being so patient while Leti was out with her grandparents. We believe that business exists to make the lives of many happy and this is perfect example of how business can bless the life of one.
Best,
Jon N.
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