Building A Membership Program – Agile Ticketing Solutions

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1. Log In to Administration.

2. Click the Corporate Organization / House icon, and then open the blue Sales Organization folder where you will be building your Membership. If you need to build a new sales folder for your Membership, see Creating a Sales Organization Folder in Administration for more instructions.

3. Open the Membership folder and click the Membership icon.

4. In the Membership field, right-click and select New. The Membership: New window will appear.

5. In the General tab, fill out the following information:

A) Internal Name: (required) Name of the membership that will appear internally, such as on reports, the AMS Sales Screen, etc. The Internal Name can be a shortened version of the official name of the program.

B) External Name: (required) Title of the membership program that will appear in customer-facing places, such as online, in emails, on membership cards, etc.

C) Sales Line Type: (required) Defines whether this program is a Membership, Pass, or other type of item under the Membership sales line. (You'll most likely select Membership as the Sales Line Type unless your organization needs to categorize this program in a different way.)

D) Specify Renewal Grace Period: Allows expired members to renew a certain amount of days after their membership has expired.

E) Prompt For Renewal: When checked, will notify the customer online and box office staff in AMS or POS a certain number of days before a membership is due to expire.

F) Project Code: This can be a customized code used for internal reporting.

G) Enable: (required) This needs to be checked to make sure the membership program is active.

H) Membership ID must be input at time of purchase: Requires that you enter the member number in for every order.

I) Approval is required for membership activation: Will not allow a customer to access their benefits until a staff member has approved and activated the membership.

J) Expiration Type:

Static Expiration: All memberships will expire on the same day, no matter when they were purchased. Best used for film festivals, fairs, and other organizations that operate within one set of dates each year.
Sliding Expiration: No matter when a membership is purchased it will expire a specific number of months later. Best used for theatres, museums, and other organizations that operate continuously throughout the year.

K) End of Month Expiration: Allows the membership to expire at the end of the month instead of the exact date that the membership was purchased. This is only available for Sliding Expiration memberships.

6. Click the Sales Channels tab to place the on-sale dates and times for the membership. Note: By default, Agile will set the End Date to 50 years in the future. If you want this membership to be on-sale for more or less time, adjust the year and date in the End Date textbox for each sales channel.

7. The Delivery tab allows you to choose how your members will receive their member cards or PDFs. Check the box next to the appropriate delivery method(s). Note: If your organization has hired Agile to process and fulfill your memberships, please make sure to check the appropriate Agile Fulfilled delivery options and enter the date when fulfillment should begin. You can also enter any notes for our fulfillment team. For instructions on how to do this, please see this article on the Agile Fulfillment Delivery Switch.

8. Access Buyer Types allows you to choose the different Buyer Types that this membership will be able to access for signing in and benefit redemption. This is a required function. If you do not add any Buyer Types, then members cannot use this membership. In most cases, it is best to add all your active Buyer Types here.

a. If there is more than one corporate organization available within your domain, select the correct Organization from the drop-down list.

b. Select the Buyer Type from the drop-down.

c. Click the Green Plus Sign to add the Buyer Type to the list below.

Repeat steps a - c until you've added all the necessary Buyer Types.

9. The Short Descriptives tab is where you may put a short synopsis or description of what is available through this membership.

10. The Description tab is where you may place a long description about the membership. This information will be nested under a (More Info) link on the Membership page online.

11. The Extra HTML tab allows you to add more descriptive information for this membership.

12. The Confirmation tab is where you can add any information that you would like the customer to know when they complete the order (i.e. Thank you for purchasing this Membership. You should receive your membership in the mail within 5 to 10 business days from purchase, etc.)

13. Click the Image tab to upload any marketing images for the Membership.

14. Click Apply to save your changes and OK to close the window.

Note: The next step in building a membership program is to build your Member Benefit Groups. Do not build any membership prices until you have created your Benefit Groups.

Want to learn more about Benefits? Sign up today for our ATSU Learning Webinar: All Access Benefit Management For Memberships and Passes

Setting up Member Benefit Groups

15. In your Membership folder, select Benefit Group.

16. Right-click in the Benefit Group area and select New.

17. Name the Benefit Group. This is usually the same name as the membership type or level. If your benefits change from year to year, we strongly suggest adding the year to the benefit name (i.e. 2017 Flex Season Benefit).

18. Add a description for this Benefit Group that includes a list of the benefits that this level receives. This can be used for internal reference as well as a way to merge Member Benefit information onto your Member Welcome Letters.

19. Click Apply and OK. Then, repeat steps 15 - 19 if you need more than one Benefit Group for this Membership Program.

Building a Benefit

20. Select the Benefit Group icon. Select the first Benefit Group you created.

21. In the Benefit area, right-click and select New.

22. Select the type of benefit you'd like to create:

A) Event/Showing Benefit: Gives access to a Showing or Event ticket type (This is the most commonly used type of benefit, as it can be used to create event ticket discounts for members).

B) Catalog Benefit: Gives access to a Product and/or SKU price type. (This is commonly used to create concessions or merchandise discounts.)

C) Membership Benefit: Gives access to a Membership or Pass price type (This is used if members get special access to another kind of membership price. For example, if members at your year-round theatre get a discount on passes to a festival, then you would build a Membership Benefit for that pass's price type).

D) Package Benefit: Gives access to a Package Type. (For example, a member discounted price on a series or season package.)

E) Show Benefit: Gives access to a particular Show ticket type. (For example, Greatest Movie is showing 10 times in the week, but the member is only allowed to select a single date for the entire run. Once they have selected a date in that run, they will not be able to choose another showing. This is not a commonly used type of benefit.)

23. Once you are in the Benefit window, fill out the following information. Pay special attention to make sure the fields and names specified on the benefit match the actual names of your items. If a benefit does not give access the way it should, then a good first step for troubleshooting is to check whether the Sales Line Type and Ticket/Price Type on the benefit are set correctly.

A. Benefit Name: Name the Benefit. (i.e. Member Discount). This name will only appear internally.

B. Organization: Select the Corporate Organization where this benefit should be valid. (Note: most clients only have one corporate organization in their domain, so you will likely not need to adjust this.)

C. Sales Line Type: This points to the Sales Line Type on the event/show/membership/etc. that the benefit should be redeemed on. (i.e. Admission, Streaming, Membership, Concessions, etc.)

D. Sales Folder: Select All to make this benefit valid for items built in all of your sales folders, or choose the specific folder of items where you would like this benefit to be redeemed. For example, if you have event folders separating Daily Admission from Special Events, and this should be a discount for daily admission events only, then you would select your "Daily Admission" folder here.

E. Specific Event/Showing: If this benefit is only valid for a specific event/showing, click the Magnifying Glass icon to select it from a sales folder.

F. Specify Tier: Select the inventory tier for which this benefit should be redeemed. If you keep this blank, it will point to all available Tiers.

G. Specify Ticket Type: Select the ticket type built onto the item/events where this benefit should be redeemed.

H. Specify Max Per Item: Specify how many times the member may use this benefit per item. For example, if a member may buy two tickets per event/show at the membership price, then you would specify the Max Per Item as 2.

I. Specify Max Per Membership: Specify how many times the member may use this benefit per membership. For example, if members receive three complimentary guest passes to use at any time before their membership expires, then you would specify the Max Per Membership as 3.

J. Specify Start Time Window: Enter in the amount of time that must occur between showings in order for a member to use the benefit on both showings. (For example, if a customer uses this benefit to buy a ticket to The Good Movie at 11:30 AM, and the Start Time Window is specified as 30 minutes, then they will not be able to use the benefit on The Best Movie at 11:45 AM on the same day.)

K. Brief Description: Describe the uses and redemptions of this benefit in the textbox. This description will appear on the customer's My Benefits page in their online account. You can use the following elements:

%maxitem% will show the maximum number of redemptions per item that is allowed through this benefit.
%maxtotal% will show the maximum number of redemptions per membership that is allowed through the benefit.
%ordered% will show the number of redemptions that have already been used.
%remain% will show the number of benefits that the member has left to use before their membership expires.
%window% will show the number of minutes specified in the Start Time Window number box.

24. Click Apply and OK. Repeat steps 21 - 24 for every benefit this benefit group should have.

*PLEASE DOUBLE-CHECK THESE STEPS, AS YOUR BENEFITS WILL NOT WORK CORRECTLY IF YOU HAVE POINTED TO THE INCORRECT TICKET TYPE. It is recommended that you test all benefits online and in-house with sample membership levels prior to selling memberships to customers.

Building Your Membership Prices

25. In the Membership folder, select the new membership program in the Membership area where the membership prices will be built.

26. In the Membership Prices area, right-click and select New.

27. In the Membership Price: New window, right-click in the Price box and select New Price.

28. The Price: New window will appear.

A. Choose the applicable Sales Line (most likely Membership) and Sales Line Type (most likely Membership or Pass).

B. Enter in the Name of the price. This will not be seen by the customer, but it should be easily identifiable for accounting purposes. We recommend being very detailed in the price name (i.e. Individual NEW, Gold Member RENEW, etc.).

C. The Notes tab is for internal use only and will not be seen by the customer.

29. Click Apply and then OK.

30. In the Price Distribution: New window, right-click and select New.

Price Category: Select Price from the drop-down menu.

Amount: Enter in the price of the item being sold.

Tax Rate: Select the correct tax rate, if applicable. (If you do not use the Tax Rate switch, then this option won't appear in the window.)

Unredeemed/Redeemed Account: Choose the appropriate Revenue Payment Accounts here from the drop-down.

Select Apply and then OK.

NOTE: If the price also includes a fee, repeat the above steps but choose Fee in the Price Category.

Effective Sale Date: Choose the date when this price should be effective. If this is the only Price Date you need for this price, then you should set it to the current date or an earlier time. If the Effective Sale Date is set to a future date, then this price will only begin to be valid on that date.
Fair Market Value: Enter in the fair market value of the item being sold.

31. Click Apply and then OK once all the pricing information has been created.

A) Select the Sales Channel where this price will be available for purchase.

B) Set the Price Type. Customers will see this name, so make sure to choose something that is clear and descriptive. If this is a Renewal price, we recommend putting Renewal somewhere in the Price Type name.

C) Set the Level. Agile recommends that organizations group all their memberships by level. For example, a student membership and a student complimentary membership would both use "Student" for the Level.

D) Select the Functional Area. Select Level 1 - Restricted Price for any price that should not be for sale to the general public.

E) Select the Card Format.

F) Choose Card Per Member if the membership type allows for multiple cards to be printed OR Single Card if only one card per membership will be printed.

G) Set your Expiration Date: This determines the duration of the membership. For Static Expiration memberships, choose the exact date that the membership is due to expire (i.e. Festival Passes expire on Jan 1, 2020). For Sliding Expiration memberships, choose the number of months the membership period should last (i.e. 12 months for a yearly Membership).

H) Set your Display Sequence: The display sequence determines in what order the memberships will be displayed online and in AMS. The closer to 0, the higher up this membership price will appear in a list.

I) Select your Quantity Restriction: Min and Max: This limits how many memberships may be bought at a time.

J) Select your Multiple Customers: Min and Max: This limits how many customers may be listed on a membership (i.e. for dual memberships, set the min and the max to 2).

K) Make sure your Price is Enabled so that this price is active and able to be used.

L) If you would like to include a Service Fee, make sure the Include Service Fee box is checked.

M) If this is a renewal price, make sure to check the box next to Membership Renewal.

N) Allow 12-Month Pledge: Checking this box allows customers to pay for the membership in monthly installments. This option is for DonorPerfect clients only and must have a SafeSave merchant account.

32. The Description tab allows you to add a description to this Membership Price. Patrons will be able to read this description online.

33. Under the Card Image tab, you can add an image you want to show up on the card.

34. If this price should only be accessed via a promotion code, add that code under the Promotion tab. See Promotional Codes: Creating and Attaching Codes to Prices for more information.

35. The Questions tab allows you to add order questions for customers to answer before completing checkout. See Creating Order Questions for more information. Move the question from the Available Questions column to the Selected Questions column to activate the questions for this price.

36. The Membership Benefits tab is where you will attach the benefits for this membership level. This step cannot be skipped. If you do not add a Benefit Group to the price, members will not be able to access their benefits online or at the box office. Follow the steps below:

A. Right-click in the window and select New.

B. Select the correct benefit from the Benefit Group drop-down.

C. For a Static Expiration Membership, choose the Effective Start Date and the Effective End Date for the exact dates you want the benefits to be valid for. For a Sliding Expiration Membership, set the Effective End Offset to the number of months the membership benefits should be available.

37. Account Benefits Tab - It is not very likely that you will need to add account benefits to a membership price. Account Benefits will be attached to the customer record of the purchaser, rather than to the membership created by a membership purchase. This can make account benefits harder to deal with globally than membership benefits, as their properties will have to be managed on individual member records instead of in the Benefit Group area. That being said, if you do need to attach an account benefit via this membership price, follow the steps below:

A. Right-click in the window and select New Static or New Sliding.

B. Select the correct benefit from the Benefit Group drop-down.

C. For a Static Account Benefit, choose the Effective Start Date and the Effective End Date for the exact dates you want the benefits to be valid. For a Sliding Account Benefit, set the Effective End Offset to the number of months the account benefit should be available.

D. Check Attach to Membership if all members on the membership should have access to this benefit. If this is unchecked, this benefit will only give the purchaser access to this account benefit.

E. Check Require Active Membership if the customer's membership must be active for them to receive this account benefit.

38. The Donor Management Tab: This is only available for DonorPerfect clients. Select the appropriate items from the dropdowns. See these articles for more details on this tab: Gift Properties and Other Item Properties.

39. The Auto-Renewal Tab: here you can set up this membership price to be available for automatic renewal. Make sure that the Allow Auto Renewal box is checked. Select the renewal price from the drop-down as well as a delivery method. Finally, define the how many days before the renewal the customer will be notified. Note: In order for the auto-renewal setup to work, credit card vaulting must be turned on for your domain, which is something only Agile representatives can do. Reach out to our Client Success representatives to learn more.

40. Click Apply and then OK. To add multiple sales channels, click Add New and change the sales channel on the General Tab.

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