Coupon Codes

EntryEeze has long supported pre-payment discounts, in the form of shopping-cart credits. Essentially, they are identical in function -- both provide a way to subtract from the skater's charge-amount at the time of payment.

The key differences are convenience and flexibility. Shopping-cart credits must be applied to a skater's (already created) account. This requires additional steps and coordination during the registration process, as the chairperson must intercept the skater's account before payment is completed. A coupon code can be given to the skater in advance, which allows the skater to register for the competition - start to finish - unimpeded.

Coupon codes support more configuration options, and in some cases require much less effort to administer than cart-credits.

Coupon codes can be used anywhere you previously used a cart-credit, however cart-credits are limited in flexibility when compared to coupon codes. Coupon codes can be advertised and distributed even before you "go live" and begin accepting online entries.

A skater claims a coupon by using its 8-character code, which is randomly generated when you (the chairperson) creates a new coupon. A code consists of upper-case alphabetical letters (no digits, no symbols, and no lower-case letters). After you create the coupon(s), it is your responsibility to advertise and distribute the code(s).

The skater enters the code in the "Checkout" screen, the final summary page displayed just before the skater reaches the payment screen. When the skater clicks "Apply" to validate the code, EntryEeze checks to be sure the code is valid and has not yet been claimed, then applies the specified discount to the charge summary and shows the new amount-due.

For security purposes, the 8-character codes are encrypted in the EntryEeze database, and the skater's Checkout page is also secured with SSL.

The option to enter a coupon code is always displayed to every skater, even if you have no coupon codes available. Skaters who do not possess a coupon code may simply ignore the option.

Scenarios

Some possible uses of coupon codes include:

Competition grants for one or more of your club members
Reciprocal discounts - courtesy discount for members of a nearby skating club
Complimentary event fees for member teams - allow your team entrants to register without paying an event-entry-fee
Promotional discount - encourage registrations by providing an advertised discount, perhaps with an expiration to encourage early participation

Example #1

Your club member, Katie Jones, has earned a competition grant of $50.00 by performing additional volunteer work

This is a very straightforward scenario -- a simple dollar-value discount for one person. In this case, configure the coupon as shown, then contact Katie Jones (or her parent) and give her the code. If you send her the code in an email message, use the CC field carefully -- someone could possibly use the code before Katie is ablt to.

Example #2

You want to provide a cooperative / reciprocal discount to skaters from a nearby club

Perhaps you are the chairperson for a competition being held in the Dallas area. You have an agreement with Dallas FSC to discount $20.00 for its members to participate. Utilize the "unlimited entrants" option, so that you do not have to create a separate coupon code for each individual. Then, specify Dallas FSC as the club restriction -- this allows EntryEeze to ensure that skaters have self-reported their home club as Dallas FSC to assist in validating coupon codes. All skaters from Dallas FSC will use the same 8-character code. After you create the coupon, send the code to the membership chairperson (or other club official) for Dallas FSC to distribute to skaters.

Do you have reciprocal arrangements with another club? Simply create another coupon in much the same way as the first one.

Example #3

You are holding team events, and want YOUR club teams to be charged $0.00 for event entry

Suppose you are a chairperson for Colonial Skating Club of PA, in charge of running your annual competition. Your club sponsors several synchro teams and wishes to allow them to participate in the competition free of charge.

The key configuration item in this case is the club-restriction field. As in the previous example, it is used to restrict the coupon to skaters from a specific club, however in this case the specified club is YOUR CLUB. Send the code to the team-contact individual(s) for these teams.

Note: this type of coupon covers only EVENT entries, not practice-ice. Since many clubs depend heavily on practice-ice revenue, this coupon will exclude those fees.

Warning: EntryEeze will be unable to prevent individual skaters from using this particular coupon. Communicate this coupon very carefully, to only your teams. It may not be advisable to provide the code to a coach, as the coach may not understand (or not remember) that the code should only be used by team entrants, not individual skaters.

If you are charging your skaters a convenience-fee, the fee is calculated on the amount to be charged. A coupon will, of course, reduce the charge-amount, therefore reducing the convenience fee.

If you are charging your skaters a flat admin-fee, this fee will NOT be assessed if the final charge-amount is $0.00.

Skaters are not limited to a single coupon code. For added flexibility, you can give a skater more than one coupon code. For example, refer to example #3 above -- if you would like to provide your team with free event-entry AND one free practice-ice, create the coupon shown in the example and then create another similar coupon with a specific dollar value matching the price of the practice-ice. The team can claim both coupons.
Specific dollar-value coupons are maximum-based. Theoretically, you could create a $1000.00 coupon for a skater. Since it can only be redeemed once per skater, and can only reduce the amount-due to $0.00, any unused portion of the discount will be discarded. This provides a way for you to provide a discount without knowing the final charges in advance, and it could also be used as a way to provide a completely free and unlimited participation to a skater.
Advise skaters to use copy/paste when claiming codes. Hand-entering a coupon-code can be fraught with error - with some fonts, L's look like I's and vice-versa, O's look like zeroes, etc. Copy/paste eliminates these errors. In many cases, codes will be distributed by email, so this option will often be available.

EntryEeze cannot prevent code poaching. If you create a coupon for a specific person, ANYONE can use that code -- EntryEeze has no way of knowing who the coupon was intended for. Please be cautious about how you communicate codes.
Technically, EntryEeze cannot enforce the club-restriction option. In some of the above examples, coupons were configured to be offered only to skaters from specific clubs. This works only if skaters correctly self-identify their home club at the time of registration. It is very likely that the vast majority of skaters will do so, however it is still theoretically possible for a skater to identify ANY skating club as his/her home club. Even so, a skater may not change his/her home club after payment is complete. So, any attempt to "game" the system will expose the deception (accidental or otherwise). You should monitor these coupon claims as a safeguard.
Use "unlimited" coupons with caution. While single-use coupons are minimum-risk with regard to code leaks/poaching, an unlimited-use coupon could cause heavy losses if carelessly configured or distributed. If in doubt about how to configure your coupon(s), it may be best to err on the side of creating more single-use coupons (with more administrative work) to minimize risk.

...purchasing practice-ice FROM THE SCHEDULE. During practice-ice sales (AFTER the schedule is published, when skaters may buy sessions directly from your scheduled offerings), coupon codes may not be redeemed.
...paying a manually-entered "Amout Due". Occasionally, you may create an extra "amount due" for a skater (this is often used when a skater submits a paper-entry form and underpays). If a skater redeems a coupon code, only the purchases NOT including the extra-amount-due are aligible for coverage. If you want to release the skater from his/her extra-amount-due, you must delete it from the skater's account.
...refunds. Coupon codes are used ONLY to reduce a charge amount during checkout. If you wish to issue a refund, you must use the existing refund process.
...late fee. More specifically, a "cover all events entered" coupon will not cover the late fee, but a "specific dollar amount" coupon CAN cover the late fee. To cover both charges for a skater, issue that skater two separate coupon codes.

...event registration. In fact, this is the primary use-case for coupon codes. In the majority of cases, you'll use coupon codes to reduce or eliminate a skater's charge during event registration.
...merchandise. A coupon code configured as "specific dollar amount" can reduce the total skater charges by up to that dollar amount, regardless of the items in the shopping cart (except manually entered due-amounts -- see above). However, you cannot target a coupon code at a specific merchandise item.
...practice ice RESERVATIONS (pre-schedule). A "specific dollar amount" coupon can include practice-ice reservations as well as event-entry fees -- however, a "covers all events entered" coupon will exclude practice-ice reservations. Remember the difference between reservations and purchase from schedule with regard to practice-ice.