AMEX Merchant Fees

For the last few years we have been able to offer a competitive merchant fee of 2.65% which included accepting American Express cards. As some of you know, if you have had your own merchant account in the past, AMEX usually charges a lot more than other card types. In fact, most merchant solutions will have a wide range of fees for visa, MC, Visa Debit, World MC etc. etc. and most are a lot more expensive to process that the basic rate that is quoted.

We have so far been able to keep to a single flat rate for all card types to keep it simple and affordable for you.

Unfortunately, AMEX is putting a wrench in the works by raising their fees dramatically in October of this year. We would like to keep a simple flat rate; we would like to continue to accept AMEX; and we would like to keep it affordable, but something has to change or we will be losing money every month!

When it comes to the crunch, it is you, our customers, who will notice the impact of whatever we do, so please give us your feedback. There is a poll top right of the blog with the options we are considering, so let us know your preference.

Thanks,

Gerry & the SimplySignUp Team

Unbalanced accounts - Those red AR links

The latest YV release makes it easier to see and fix accounts with scheduled payments that do not match what the customer owes (unbalanced accounts). This can happen when you use the "Make Adjustment" button, or when a customer overpays and then enrolls again.

The family list now has a link direct to the family accounts receivable (AR) page with all their transactions, and if this link is red (AR) it means they are unbalanced.

On their AR page there is another link to the Modify Payments page where you can easily set up the scheduled payments so that they match the AR balance owed.

Adding Those Kindermusik Widgets

Thanks to Nancy Hehemann for documenting her strategy and instructions for adding the KI widgets and videos to her YourVirtuoso website. This does take a little "web savvy", as it involves the web language HTML, but it is doable if you just want to follow the instructions carefully. Here are Nancy's words of wisdom...

Check out my website: www.nancy.kindermusik.net.

First I selected a different look/feel. I was using the original/default page and I think there was not enough room in the box on the home page to add a widget, movie clip, etc. There, I have added a facebook widget "Kindermusik with Nancy - Become a Fan" and also the scrolling widget of music quotes from KI.

On "About Kindermusik" I embedded the "Can't decide whether to Enroll" video. On the "Classes" page I embedded the general "Follow Me to Kindermusik" video and then listed links to specific age group videos.

I will try to put all the steps here:

1. Copy the widget script from KM Teacher's lounge
2. In YV, Click on Content, Inline editor. Select the page/place you want to put the widget. Open the edit box by clicking on the highlighted text there
3. Click on the <> tool at the top of the editor which allows you to see and/or add html scripts.
4. Paste the script where you want it to be. Click OK and then you should see your revision/insert pop up.
5. You will then need to close the window and back in YV admin, click Content and Apply Changes.

You do the same process for embedding a video clip.

1. Go to the clip you want on youtube.
2. You will see the option of URL or Embed. There is a little symbol next to Embed. Click on that. It will give you an option to pick a border to place around the video and below that it gives you a size to select. I would select the smallest size so it doesn't take up your whole webpage. Once you have selected if you want a border and the size, click on the embed box and it will be highlighted. Right click on it and copy it.
3. In YV, Inline editor, go to the page you want to put the video. Click on the box to edit. Click on <> so you can see codes. Paste the video embedding where you want. Click OK. You should see what it will look like. Then make sure to apply changes.

Note From Gerry: This is quite complex stuff, so just remember that if you try it, and it messes your page up, you just need to go to "Apply Changes" in YV and discard what you did rather than accept it.

While you are in the inline editor, you are playing in your own private sandbox, and until you accept the changes, nobody else will see them.

Kindermusik Class Locator

In collaboration with KI, we have created the following instructions to have your class schedule, as in YourVirtuoso, show on the Kindermusik class locator. Only Kindermusik classes will be sent from YV to KI, and the current method of identifying these is by analysis of the curriculum name to recognize the standard KM names ("Our Time" for example). NOTE: If you rename KM curricula, they may not be sent. If you have a custom curriculum (eg. "Your Time") it may be confused and sent as a KM class.

1. Login to Your Virtuoso.
   
2. Go To the Setup-> My Info menu.
   
3. Click Edit for the Web Services section
   
4. Click on Enable for the Kindermusik.com web service. 
   
5. Select the option for returning Registration information to KI and click Save
   
6. The My Info page will now display each of your locations with the associated Location ID that must be entered in the Kindermusik.com system. Keep this window open, or make a note of the location id(s)
   
7. Login to Kindermusik.com and go to the Teacher’s Lounge.
   
8. Under “My Program” click on the “Profile” link.
   
9. Then click on the “Contact” tab.
   
10. Next to “Class Schedules Source” click on drop down box and choose the system you are using (YourVirtuoso).
    
11. Click on “Studios” tab.
    
12. For each of your studios enter your “YourVirtuoso Location ID”. This ID is the one from the YourVirtuoso My Info page.
    
13. If you would like the Enroll Now button displayed for each studio location on the locator you will need to enter your web address in the Enroll Now URL field.
    
14. Click “Update” and then when parents use the Kindermusik Class locator your schedule will be pulled from Your Virtuoso and displayed on the Kindermusik locator.
    
15. We recommend checking the locator immediately to make sure everything’s correct

Getting on Google Searches

Getting listed on Google is usually just a matter of time (a few months sometimes) but there are things you can do to speed it up and get listed higher. 

First, submit your website URL (address) at http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl .

Then make sure you have the "Serving" text in YV (Setup/MyInfo) set to include the names of the areas parents might search for in google. You can even check your status with google at https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/sitestatus .

Good luck!

Gerry

Time to Vote!

SimplySignUp is looking to make YourVirtuoso not only the best deal in studio administration, but also the most complete and relevant suite of services available.

To this end we want to hear from YOU. 

Please go to our User Voice website and browse the list of features you and your peers have suggested on this blog or on the feedback site.

Once you have looked them over create an account and make your own suggestions, comment on others, and VOTE! 

Several new features have already been added. More to come - based on your feedback...

Make sure your voice is heard!

Gerry

Sending Names for the KI Loyalty Survey

If you want to participate in the KI loyalty survey, here are the steps to create a file to send to KI.

Thanks to Kathy Morrison for helping prepare this...

1. Login to YourVirtuoso
   
2. Click on “Reporting” in the top right hand corner and choose “Custom Reporting” at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
   
3. Click on the “Create a Family Report” link.
   
4. On the next screen, click on “Select Families by Enrollment”
   
5. From the next pop-up window, choose the first option to select “has a child enrolled in” anything during “Fall 2008” session. You must choose your “Fall 2008” session from the drop-down list.
   
6. Click OK on the pop-up window, then click Done on the YourVirtuoso screen. This will take you to the next screen.
   
7. Click “Edit Columns” on the next screen which says “Custom Family Report: New Report”
   
8. The next screen provides a list of possible report columns. Click on the “x” to delete the extra columns. Be sure to keep: Family Name, Caregiver Name, Caregiver Email Address. When finished deleting the extra columns, click OK at the bottom of the pop-up window.
9. Click “Generate Report” to see the list of families enrolled in Fall 2008 session.
10. Click on “CSV” link at the bottom of the screen to create an excel spreadsheet on your desktop.
    
11. Once saved, open this file up (excel works best) and review the data for accuracy. If any family has not submitted an email address, then the family should be deleted from this file.
    
12. Add column for your educator number and add to each row in the list. (Note that if you have multiple educators, you can pick them one by one in step 5 and repeat the process)
    
13. Add a title at the top of the file that includes Educator Name, Semester (ie Fall 2008), Semester Start and End Dates
    
14. Save these changes and close the file.
    
15. Email this .csv file to Kindermusik International