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All About the Subscription Renewal Tool: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1208648
It's that time again! In this article, you'll get an overview of PatronManager's Subscription Renewal Tool before you use it to process your renewals.
Specifically, we'll go over:
- What the Subscription Renewal Tool does
- Who can use the Subscription Renewal Tool
- When to use the Subscription Renewal Tool
- Why the Subscription Renewal Tool is helpful
- Some commonly used terms
- How the Subscription Renewal Tool works
- How to get started with the Subscription Renewal Tool
Ready to learn about the Subscription Renewal Tool? Let's get started!
This article goes into our Subscription Renewal Tool, which requires some knowledge on building events and subscriptions. If you need a refresher on that process, check out this Learning Path.
What does the Subscription Renewal Tool do?
The Subscription Renewal Tool automatically generates subscription orders for existing subscribers with a Pending Renewal status.
So, instead of you needing to manually create a new subscription order by hand for your subscribers, the Subscription Renewal Tool will create an order for them. In addition, if a subscriber has Subscription Seat Assignments saved, the tool can also automatically fulfill their subscriptions and give them the same seats for your upcoming season.
If you use PatronPortal too, when you renew subscriptions using the Subscription Renewal Tool, the newly generated orders will have a status of "Pending Renewal." This status also allows your Portal users to renew their subscription online using the Subscription renewal tab in their account.
Want to learn more about how PatronPortal users can renew their subscriptions online? Look no further than this article!
In short, the Subscription Renewal Tool saves you time by creating new subscription orders for your existing subscribers. On top of that, the tool can save you even more time by trying to automatically fulfill some subscriptions and by letting Portal users renew online.
Who can use the Subscription Renewal Tool?
The Subscription Renewal Tool is a handy way to save you time when processing your renewals. But the Subscription Renewal tool can only be used in certain situations.
More specifically, the Subscription Renewal Tool can only be used for Fixed Subscriptions that remain similar from one season to the next.
When we say that a subscription needs to remain similar from one season to the next, that means that the subscriptions must remain similar in structure.
So, for example, if last year you had a subscription that was for the First Fridays of each of your events with allocations for the Orchestra, Mezzanine, and Balcony and you plan to have a subscription for next year that gives subscribers seats to the First Fridays of your upcoming events in those same allocations, those subscriptions are similar.
But if you previously had a subscription for the First Thursdays for each of your events and for this upcoming season you're planning to only run performances Friday through Sunday, those subscriptions would not be similar.
In addition, the Subscription Renewal Tool won't be useful if this is your first season selling subscriptions in PatronManager.
Since the Subscription Renewal Tool needs a previous season to use as a template to renew from, called an Inaugural Season, you'll only be able to use the Subscription Renewal Tool after you've sold at least one season of subscriptions in PatronManager.
When should we use the Subscription Renewal Tool?
As you can guess, the Subscription Renewal Tool is used when you're processing your subscription renewals for your upcoming season!
More specifically, you should make sure to have the following pre-requisites done before you use the Subscription Renewal Tool:
- Get any Venue Edits completed: Before you can run the Subscription Renewal Tool, make sure any edits you need to your Venues are complete; this can take 10-12 weeks and you can start a Venue Edit paid project with our team here
- Build your Ticketable Events, Event Instances, Subscriptions, and Subscription Packages: In order for the Subscription Renewal Tool to run, you'll need to first build your season and subscriptions
If you need a refresher on building events, check out this article. Then you can build your Fixed Subscription using these steps.
You should also give enough time to run the Subscription Renewal Tool and manually fulfill any subscriptions necessary.
In general, we recommend running the Subscription Renewal Tool at least one week before you plan to have your subscribers purchase their new subscriptions.
You can find a recommended timeline for processing renewals here.
Why should I use the Subscription Renewal Tool?
The Subscription Renewal Tool saves you time in three big ways:
- It creates Pending Renewal subscription orders in bulk so you don't have to manually create new subscription orders for your patrons
- It can automatically seat renewing subscribers in their preferred seats so you don't have to manually fulfill their subscription if a patron's seating assignment remains in tact
- It allows subscribers who are also PatronPortal users to renew online so patrons don't have to call in to pay for their subscriptions, and you only have to let your Portal users know that their subscriptions are available
Before we learn how it works, let’s define a few terms you’ll see
As you use the Subscription Renewal Tool, you'll see some new vocabulary that the tool uses. To help, let's get familiar with those new terms now!
Pending Renewal is a status on a subscription order that indicates that the order has been created, but hasn't been paid for and renewed yet.
If a patron purchases their Pending Renewal subscription, the order will then go to a status of Complete.
If the patron decides not to renew their subscription by purchasing it, you will be able to mark the order as "Did Not Renew." This will indicate that this subscriber lapsed and not create a Pending Renewal order for them next season.
A subscription season is a specific season or year for a specific series. Subscription seasons usually correspond with your event season, like an artistic year.
A subscription series is a container for multiple subscription price levels that are used for the same performances or dates.
In other words, a series helps to make sure that you don't try to sit two subscribers in the same seats.
For more on series and an in-depth example, check out this article.
Subscription price levels are the price levels at the subscription-level that make up your season.
Usually subscription price levels are named something like "Regular," "Adult," "Senior," or "Student."
Subscription Seat Assignments link a patron's Contact with the seats they are assigned for their subscription series.
These help the Subscription Renewal Tool generate a Pending Renewal subscription order with the correct price level, in the correct series, and with the correct seats for automatic fulfillment.
How does the Subscription Renewal Tool work?
In broad strokes, here's how the Subscription Renewal Tool works:
- If it's your first time using the tool, you'll build your series and designate an Inaugural Season
- If it's your first time, you'll manage Seat Assignments for your Inaugural Season
- You'll build your new season to map your subscriptions
- You'll process renewals to create Pending Renewal orders in bulk
- You'll manually seat subscribers who couldn't be automatically fulfilled
- You'll build your Pending Renewal list for a mail merge or email campaign to let your subscribers know you're ready for them to renew
Don't worry, we've got a step-by-step guide to help you through the process!
I'm ready, let's get started with the Subscription Renewal Tool!
All right, if you're ready, get started with the Subscription Renewal Tool, get started with the first step, building your series, here.