What are Offers?
Offers are similar to orders and carry with them the majority of the same information an order contains. To further reduce the overhead, in most cases, no pricing information is included in the offer. All other aspects of the offer are retained, such as performance and seating information allowing the customer to validate the contents of the order and see exactly what the eventual order will contain once the offer is accepted.
Offers contain the same inventory entities as orders such as admissions, bundles, miscellaneous items and donations. All performance and seat location information is stored in the offer for both regular admissions as well as bundles. Offers can be accepted or declined by the customer either through the AudienceView Desktop application or online. Offers are also created with a key that allows the customer to pass the offer on to another customer and allow them to accept and take ownership of the offer.
Offers can be managed online by customers in the same manner that orders are managed. Online users can accept and convert offers to orders or decline the offer online in the usual online screens. Each offer can be created with a manual access code associated to them. As such, customers are able to transfer the content of the offer to other customers if they want. By giving the customer his/her customer number and access code for the offer, the other customer is able to access and fulfill the offer as he/she wants.
Typically one offer is associated to a single order; however, it is possible to associate multiple offers to an order if needed.
By using lighter-weight offers, you can facilitate renewals online and in batches. Remember that offers hold no pricing information for the added inventory elements, except donation amounts. As well, like orders, offers cannot be turned off or removed from the application.
How Are Offers Used?
Offers for purchase items (e.g. admissions, bundles, donations) are created for the customer either manually or via a batch process. The customer is able to select the offer and examine the contents of it, all related information is available for the purchase items except the pricing information. Note that donation information is available in an offer.
By accepting an offer, the contents of the offer are converted to an order. A link is created between the offer and the order for the sake of tracking what offers have been converted to orders. Once an offer is converted to an order, all pricing information is available as per a typical order. Payment is made on the order and the offer status is marked as "Accepted".
By declining the offer, the contents of the offer are returned to inventory for general consumption by customers once again. No order is created, and the offer is emptied. The status of the offer is moved to "Declined". All items in the offer are returned to general inventory for purchase or other offer creation.
Upon its generation, the offer can have a manually entered individual access code that when used in combination with the customer number associated to the offer, the customer is able to give the two numbers to other customers, allowing them to access the offer. Once accessed, the customer in possession of the offer is able to accept or decline the offer. This can be performed not only on the AudienceView Desktop application but also in the online web sales UI screens.
Promotion codes can also be used to unlock particular offers in the same manner that promotion codes are used to access bundles, performances and more.
Notifications for offers are also available online, informing users that they have offers that must be dealt with before they expire.
Batch Creation of Offers
AudienceView also offers a batch creation tool for offers allowing your organization to facilitate renewals, using offers to catalogue the items that customers are able to purchase for the forthcoming new season. Offers for bundles, performances and other purchasables are created en masse for each customer in the renewal cycle. The access key can also be created by the user allowing the customer to accept or decline the offer online.