Here is how it works from the beginning of the customers point of view. This assumes that the Print Upgrade plugin has been enabled by OHT and the Print Upgrade membership has been properly configured with the custom Print Upgrade Payment Gateway and a price of $0.01 of higher.
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1. Adjust the Print Upgrade Settings
Navigate to Memberpress -> Print Upgrade Settings
Default Area Code is used to help in situations where a customer tries to claim the upgrade but enters a phone number without an area code. It will automatically use the “Default Area Code” to try to verify the number.
Number of Header Lines determines how many lines to skip at the top of the file the customer imports. In most cases, the customer will just have one row at the top of the csv spreadsheet with the titles of the columns, so the number of header lines should be set to “1.”
API Key for Automatic User Creation is a feature that is not used.
Select Verification Type: There is a select box where you choose which verification method you are going to use. You can use just Phone Number, just Street Address, or both Email Address and Phone Number.
2. Create Your Spreadsheet (CSV):
The spreadsheet needs to be formatted with either 2 columns or 3 columns depending which verification method you chose.
If using just Phone Number or Street Address, your spreadsheet should contain a column with the subscribers “ID Number” followed by a column with the subscribers Phone Number/Street Address.
If using the “E-mail Address, Phone Number” option, then your spreadsheet must have three columns: a column with the subscribers “ID Number”, followed by a column with the subscribers E-mail Address, followed by a column with the Subscribers Phone Number. It is okay if you do not have both e-mails and phone numbers entered for every subscriber — but every subscriber does have to have one of them.
The file must be saved as a .CSV file, named as today’s date, for example: 11242020.csv
3. Upload the Spreadsheet:
Import the spreadsheet from the Memberpress -> Import Print Users tab. Select the appropriately named .csv and click upload. Verify that the confirmation message you see indicates the proper amount of users were imported.
“Imported 1137 print subscribers “
This will also display a message indicating any users that had their access revoked upon import, due to no longer being included in the list of active print subscribers:
“Could not find identifier(7167900072 for 627. Please check print subscription record.
Removed online access for user id 627, subscriber number: 99999.”
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At this point, the latest print subscribers are uploaded to the site. Although we are not able to go in and visually see a list anywhere, think of it as they are in a queue waiting to be claimed when a customer submits their Print Upgrade request.
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4. Customer Claims Print Upgrade by selecting the Print Upgrade Membership option from the subscribe page or clicking the appropriate button to access the print upgrade request page.
They will be taken to a registration page where they enter their Name, Address, and Phone Number. If the customer is not logged in, and is therefor creating a new account, they will also be asked to enter an E-mail Address and Password. If the user already has an account, they should log in before claiming the Print Upgrade.
When the customer submits their request, the information they are entered is crosschecked with the .csv that was uploaded based on the selections you made earlier in Step 1. If you selected just Phone Number, then it will use the Phone Number field. If you selected just Street Address, it will attempt to verify using the Address field. And if you chose the E-mail Address, Phone Number option, it will scan the .csv for a match for either Phone Number of E-mail Address.
If there is a match, the customer is immediately granted the Print Upgrade Membership. The system automatically creates a Completed transaction for the user for the Print Upgrade Membership, and the expiration date will be “Lifetime” or “No Expiration.” This is because these memberships do not expire based on date — they expire based on whether or not they (still) exist on the latest .CSV that was uploaded.
It is important to upload an updated .csv regularly so that customers whos offline print subscriptions have expired are no longer on the list, and therefor will have their Print Upgrade Membership revoked if one exists for them.
If the system fails to find a match for a user, then the customer will see an error message, and unfortunately, it will also create a Pending transaction in the system. You should not update these pending transaction to Complete — these are failed attempts to verify. If you do manually set them to complete, their access will be revoked the next time a .CSV is uploaded because the system will still not recognize the match.
When a customer gets an error message and asks for help, the only real possibilities are that the info they entered does not match the uploaded .CSV exactly, so it the onus is on your staff to make sure the information is accurate.
NOTES:
- When possible, we recommend NOT using Street Address for verification because the street address needs to match exactly. “Reed Street” is not the same as “Reed St” or “Reed St.” which will frustrate readers more than they already are. Also apartment numbers and such can be difficult.
- For any customer who gets an errror message saying their e-mail is already associated with an account: This simply means they already have an account on the website, and need to login to that account before claiming the print subscription. Reset their password, etc, if necessary until they are able to log in.
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In order to allow your offline print subscribers to claim a free online subscription by verifying their print subscription, you must first ask us to set up a Print Upgrade Membership on your website.
Once this membership is setup, your staff will need to upload a list of current print subscribers each week.
1. Create a CSV file with the columns you’d like to use for your print subscriber upgrade.
There are three choices for customers to upgrade their accounts. You can verify their subscription by matching their Phone Number, their Street Address, or their Email and Phone Number.
The CSV file should have matching columns based on your choice above. The address/billing id is the unique number associated with their print subscription.
There are the CSV file formats:
Phone Number: “address/billing ID,phone”
Email + Phone Number: “address/billing ID,email, phone”
Street Address: “address/billing ID,street address”
Name the file today’s date in the “mmddyy” format. Example: 021420.csv
2. Once you have the file named properly, send it to ops@our-hometown.com so they can test the file and make sure the format is working correctly.
We’ll confirm that you have the format correct and upload your initial list. From then on, you can upload the list yourself.
3. Upload updated lists regularly
In order for new print subscribers to be added to the site you must regularly upload a log into the admin section of your site and click on “Memberpress -> Import Print Users.” This is because your offline print subscribers are not connected with website, and we do not have expiration dates for these subscribers (and even if we did have expiration dates, updating them as users renew offline would be painstaking).
Instead, you’ll upload a list of active print subscribers to the website as described above. There will be a “Print Upgrade” button on your website and subscribe page that an offline print subscriber can use to create an account and access online content. They’ll be asked to verify their account using whichever option you’ve selected above — address, phone number, or email and phone number. If the value they enter matches an entry on the list that was uploaded, that user will be granted a Print Upgrade Membership that has no expiration date.
Each time you upload a list of active print subscribers, the system cross checks that list with users who already have an active Print Upgrade Membership. If there is a user with an active membership who no longer appears on the new list you’ve uploaded, their membership will be expired and their access revoked. This is why it is important to upload a new list regularly: to ensure new offline subscribers can access content online, and to ensure offline subscribers cannot continue accessing online content after their print subscription has expired.