Making Things Easier for Customers

Video tutorial series: Paying for Asides Online

One of my goals for the new year is to (re)document common tasks for both staff and customers. Perhaps the most important of these is paying for asides.

We use the term ‘aside’ for any pre-order item like a subscription comic or a special-order widget like a T-shirt or omnibus. It’s ‘aside’ for you. Not yours. Not yet.

Paying online for asides reduces friction between the store and customer. They can choose to have their order shipped or held for pickup at a later date. The best part is no emails or phone calls to remind you about late payments!

Our process is simple. Once new books are put into inventory and pre-orders set aside, those pre-order customers receive an email with a link to pay for their items. But the process is slightly different depending on if the customer is already logged in or not. The best way to show the difference is with a video.

This took only a couple of minutes to make and it already inspired a customer to pay online for the first time. Future videos will focus on managing subscriptions, applying for our various programs and reserving space at events. You can watch the video below.

Let me know how you make things easier for your customers or (if you’re on the customer side) what tutorial video you’d like to see next.