We were so excited to use the new add-on feature.
We experimented with it in a few ways this year, and loved it!:
- Now members pay for plastic membership cards, and we use add-ons to sell them
- Now members can add an adult, making our membership levels more flexible than ever. We use Add-on Adults to sell these
- Over the holidays, we gave the option to upgrade a gift membership to include wrapping and an ornament. We sold this as an add-on
HOWEVER, now we are running into issues.
Because add-ons never expire, the membership export file creates major issues. The Add-ons column in the membership card export file currently lists every single add-on purchased ever The export file's purpose is to inform and thank a member about their most recent membership purchase, and it is misleading to show them that a membership card was purchased, when really it was purchased 2 years ago.
It is also incredibly problematic, as we use the export file for fulfillment (we sort membership card process by whether a member has purchased a membership card add-on this term, so that we can print their letter on a membership card letterhead).
What should happen:
- Add-ons, when added to a membership program, should have the option to expire with the membership term.
- Add-ons should only appear in the membership card export file if they were purchased in a transaction connected with the membership in the export file
- In a 2 year-term membership, the add-on price should automatically adjust to the term
We discovered this as well. We realized that we had been sending out addons (based on the export file) to people who had not purchased one this year.
We changed the title of the add ons to all caps last year, so we can manually delete those that were from prior years by looking at that. This year we are going to tweak the title again so we can tell which ones to actually send. After a few years, it will get much harder to come up with new ways to say the same name!
Add-ons should also be included in the auto-renewal price