Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Where you can find stuff.

Re: cvoinescu

Postby Zat German » Wed Mar 06, 2013 2:26 am

cvoinescu wrote:I haven't figured out how to set up the store so that either he or I can reply to emails, so I'm not aware when someone has tried to contact Harry and he hasn't responded.

Look in your hosting provider setup for something called "mail aliases", "mail boxes" or "distribution lists". It should be called a mail alias but hosting companies like to come up with their own, confusing, terminology for standard Internet things. You create a new alias called like "store" or "contact" and then you add local users or external emails to it.
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Re: Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Postby Fred » Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:27 am

Stonycraft - I think you may be misunderstanding the whole point of this forum and the "products" on here. The ShapeOko and 2.x Laser are not intended to be off the shelf products. They're open source projects for people who would rather source parts and tinker with stuff so that they can say "I built that (with some help)". You won't get your mill/printer/laser any quicker this way. It won't be easier. Sometimes it may even end up costing you more. We don't care. It's fun. If you need a working CNC mill, 3D printer or laser cutter in a hurry then your best option is still to buy one.

Personally I got a lot of useful information from this forum. However, I decided I wanted to pay around with a laser cutter now rather than spend ages sourcing parts and building one. So I bought an eBay cheapie to tweak and improve. I may well build a 2.x later but it was obvious that I'd have a half-built machine for months if I went that route.

People like Bart and Harry have devoted time and effort sharing what they've done. The stuff that's sold isn't done to run a hugely profitable business. It's done to help people source some stuff they don't want to or can't make themselves.
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Re: Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Postby stonycraft » Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:42 pm

Fred,
I think I explained why I wasn't able to make myself. Similarly all I was eluding to was that its disappointing to find a Web Store only to find it aint really easy to get hold of or complete an order after all. What bart has done is tremendous. The goals to have stuff available in UK is great for everyone too.
As mentioned, I will draw a line under this now.
Thanks for caring; appreciated ;-)
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Re: cvoinescu

Postby cvoinescu » Wed Mar 06, 2013 4:59 pm

Zat German wrote:
cvoinescu wrote:I haven't figured out how to set up the store so that either he or I can reply to emails, so I'm not aware when someone has tried to contact Harry and he hasn't responded.

Look in your hosting provider setup for something called "mail aliases", "mail boxes" or "distribution lists". It should be called a mail alias but hosting companies like to come up with their own, confusing, terminology for standard Internet things. You create a new alias called like "store" or "contact" and then you add local users or external emails to it.

Thank you -- I thought of that, but I still wouldn't see whether Harry has replied or not, or what response he got. An actual separate mailbox that we both have access to, rather than an alias, would be more useful -- maybe that's what I should do. However, that's not the only issue with using email for customer service and support. It's time consuming for me to keep track of what emails pertain to which orders. I get many requests for custom kits, or things like "can I add four limit switches to my eShapeOko order?". I don't mind them -- in fact, I like being able to accommodate them -- but it's hard to keep track of them. What I really need, but lack the time to set up and get used to, is some form of CRM.
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Re: Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Postby orcinus » Wed Mar 06, 2013 5:20 pm

If you can justify it (financially), try this: http://www.desk.com/
The (three-person) startup i'm working for uses it for CRM and it does what you want while requiring a very flat learning curve - everyone has access to the same mailbox and each case can be assigned and reassigned to different people by anyone. The only downside i've seen so far is that there is no mobile app and the mobile web version is atrocious.
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Re: Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Postby stonycraft » Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:15 pm

I personally wouldnt waste money on the Desk software. Some Javascript based forms on the web site, and classified for different uses would work well. Unstructured emails coming in wont really be better automated via CRM (rubbish in/rubbish out scenario). The forms could be ModifyOrder, Checkorder and that type of stuff. In this way the structured emails will be able to be dropped in to folders via the use of approaches like 'Labels&Rules' within the mail tool. Pier notification of 'sends' can also be done using similar methods. If you want to sizzle up notification further you can uses tools like ifttt.com ;-)
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Re: Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Postby cvoinescu » Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:00 pm

Thank you for the suggestions.

I have no problem sorting mail into folders by type of task myself. The volume is relatively low. Where I have trouble is, days or weeks later, gathering all emails that relate to one or several orders placed by the same customer, and quickly scanning them to see what needs to be done. It sort of works if people always email me from the same address, but it breaks down when they use work, home, gmail, forum PM... I almost want to have one folder for each customer, with all their emails there, and I want to be able to add my own notes, and their orders should be there too. So, instead of breaking them down by request type, I'd rather break them down by customer in the first instance. Still, structured emails help with this, if the search function is good enough.

The store software isn't terribly helpful either: it takes a good few clicks to locate an order, and there's no good way to see all the orders placed by the same person (it's there, but not easily accessible were you'd expect it). The store supports no queries besides the limited views it already has. For instance, it's impossible to ask "who ordered a stepper shield?", let alone "who ordered a stepper shield? Let's send them an email".

In addition, I would like all the emails, or "tasks", or "tickets", or "bugs", or whatever, as well as the follow-up conversation and notes, to be accessible to both Harry and I, although clearly assigned to one of us at a given time.

Finally, it would be great to be able to easily manage lists of customers who need to be notified about particular events. Or, more generally, to be able tag requests, orders and/or customers with tags that are related to expected events, so that when the event occurs, I know what I have to do. For instance, when I get the 18MXL 0.25" bore pulleys from the supplier, I want to email the half dozen people who asked about them specifically, and the ones who asked about NEMA23 upgrade kits, and send invoices to the three people who wanted to add those kits to their orders but couldn't because the weren't in stock yet. This could be as simple as creating a "When pulleys arrive" issue, and adding stuff to it as I get requests for them; but it could also be that I could tag an open issue "on pulley arrival" and then I could conveniently display all open issues with that tag.

I spent some time researching, and it seems that bug tracking software, or a ticket/issue tracking system, would most closely fit the bill. That, with a well-designed search function, a minimum of discipline, and some hooks into the ticket system from the store software, would fit the bill almost perfectly.
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Re: Sourcing Wheels and carriages

Postby stonycraft » Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:14 pm

Take a look at Rapportive for gmail; and with gmail as a mail hub. Also look at Zoho Software's. All keep cost outgoings minimized
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