I've sent out my surveys..now what?

Pledge Manager Flow After Smoke Test

Once surveys are sent, you will notice that your dashboard changed and a "Take Action" timeline has appeared on the left hand sidebar.

Lock Orders

As backers begin completing their surveys, you will start to see these backers move into the Lock Orders stage. In this stage, you can lock orders to prevent backers from making any additional changes or edits to their order. We recommend locking down for the first time as you get closer to manufacturing to ensure that all of your backers have enough time to respond to the survey. When you are ready to lock, you will have the ability to 'Lock with Final Notice' or immediately lock.

'Lock with Final Notice' will send a notification to all backers with completed surveys, that surveys will be locked within 48 hours (recommended). This is also a great opportunity to post a Project Update letting backers know they have 48 hours to make any last minute additions to their survey, maybe highlighting a popular add-on. After 48 hours, all orders in the Lock Orders bucket will automatically be locked. Any pre-order backers will lock immediately as they do not receive surveys.

Note: When you lock orders, any backer who hasn’t filled out their survey can still do so, but backers who have already responded won’t be able to make changes to their orders. Keep in mind, however, that backers will still be able to update their shipping address even after orders are locked.

Charge Cards

Once your orders are locked, your backers will move into the Charge Cards stage. In this stage you will charge the cards on file for any funds raised in BackerKit. This is generally done when you are getting close to shipping out your rewards. Backers will receive an email when successfully charged. If the credit card is declined, backers are reminded to update their card. The new card will be charged as soon as they are updated.

Lock Addresses

Once cards are charged, backers will move into the Lock Addresses stage. Locking addresses prevents backers from making further changes to their shipping addresses. This stage is generally completed when you are getting ready to ship your rewards. Similar to the Lock Orders stage, you will have the ability to lock with final notice or immediately lock. Locking with final notice will alert backers with a 48 hour notice to make any last minute changes to their address (recommended). Again, posting a Project Update in tandem with the Lock Address with Final Notice action is best practice. After 48 hours, all addresses will automatically be locked. You can preview what this final notice email will look like here.

Please Note: Backer’s shipping Country and State fields are locked after initial input because shipping fees may vary from country to country and state to state (if state based shipping fees are set up).

Start Shipping- Ready for Fulfillment

When you are ready to start fulfilling rewards, you can begin marking backers as fulfilled within the Start Shipping stage. Depending on your fulfillment method, you can mark backers as fulfilled through manual exports, fulfillment integrations or by using BackerKit postage. Backers can also be marked fulfilled individually if needed. Whatever fulfillment method you choose will be displayed in this stage. You can switch your fulfillment method within the Fulfillment section on the left had sidebar, clicking the help menu in the upper right hand corner.

When backers are marked as fulfilled, they will move into the Shipped Stage, where you can send out your tracking notifications. This is the final stage to let your backers know that their rewards have shipped. You can preview what this tracking notification email will look like here.

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