Client information auto-completion fields

[SDB]

Is there a module or plugin that captures a potential client's basic info (name and email), retains it in our DB, and then fills that info in automatically when our site takes them into WHMCS to complete their order?

[yggdrasil]

13 minutes ago, SDB said:

Is there a module or plugin that captures a potential client's basic info (name and email), retains it in our DB, and then fills that info in automatically when our site takes them into WHMCS to complete their order?

WHMCS does this already. The customer does not need to fill anything on the order if they are already logged into their customer account. Or what exactly are you looking for?

[SDB]

2 minutes ago, yggdrasil said:

WHMCS does this already. The customer does not need to fill anything on the order if they are already logged into their customer account. Or what exactly are you looking for?

I mean for a first-time client signing up, in case they fail to go through the entire process, then we'll have a way to contact them

Edited August 19, 2020 by SDB
fail

[yggdrasil]

1 minute ago, SDB said:

I mean for a first-time client signing up, in case they fail to go through the entire process, then we'll have a way to contact them

If someone is not a customer, how would you fill up the data on the order form? You don't know the data yet.

I think what you are looking for is saving the data for a potential new customer when they did not finish completing the order? Do you mean unfinished orders, like someone going to your site, completing the registration forms but then never registering?

[SDB]

Right, an unfinished order via WHMCS, since if they give up or fail to complete that initial page, then we've lost a potential contact (and micro-conversion). So starting the process with a very simple form on our site that steers them to WHMCS without forcing them to re-enter name and email.

[yggdrasil]

11 minutes ago, SDB said:

Right, an unfinished order via WHMCS, since if they give up or fail to complete that initial page, then we've lost a potential contact (and micro-conversion). So starting the process with a very simple form on our site that steers them to WHMCS without forcing them to re-enter name and email.

Since the customer has not yet hit the submit button, no data is transferred to your server and hence you are not saving it yet. This can be done easily with JavaScript and Ajax calls running in the background that save form input as the customers writes it. You would need a third-party plugin for this, or this can be done with other tools that are not WHMCS like analytics tools.

The problem with such systems is privacy. This might be even illegal in some jurisdictions, check your country. The reason is that you don't have the persons consents to do this yet, since he did not check to agree your terms of services as he did not finish the registration process. Unless you are making them stately express consent before entering your website.

How many people would agree to this? Assuming you are not getting consent and doing this without the person being aware, what would be the purpose? The data is useless since the person did not registered and as such is still not your customer. To contact them? For marketing and sales? If you do that, then you would get into all sort of problems. It would be nothing but spam because not only that person never agreed to being contacted but worse, by contacting them with thier personal data, now you are proving you took their data without their consent and people don't take it lightly being spied on a website. This would ruin your reputation and service. I will personally feel it's a s * if someone contacts me without giving them my data. Consider the person DID not gave you his data yet. You are trying to capture data before they finished the registration process. There is a reason they did not finish; you should honor and respect that. This is a very grey area. Therefore, WHMCS and other software don't do it, because it's a bad idea. It's useless for marketing or sales purposes. 

If you want to make the process simple and capture potential sales lead, then do it another way. Simplify the registration. Just ask for the email and name. Once they completed that, they have already initiated the registration procedure, send them the link to the full registration form. That way even if they don't order or finish the registration process, they already started the process.

You can also enable the social network to sign up options that make it easier to quickly register on WHMCS.

[brian!]

2 hours ago, SDB said:

Right, an unfinished order via WHMCS, since if they give up or fail to complete that initial page, then we've lost a potential contact (and micro-conversion).

there was an Abandoned Cart addon years ago - but it got removed from Marketplace and whilst I think it can still be ordered from the developers site, i'm not sure if development of it got, ironically, abandoned.... google for the product name and you should find a link to it if you want to.

2 hours ago, SDB said:

So starting the process with a very simple form on our site that steers them to WHMCS without forcing them to re-enter name and email.

or make it so only logged in clients can visit the cart and purchase, e.g they have to register first before ordering - that's virtually a one line hook (already posted).... although, i'd personally make it easier for them to order, rather than making it harder by having to register first.

I suppose another option would be a modal window on exit addon that displays a message when they leave, e.g offering a promo code to complete the order etc...

• Exit Offers
• Exit Popup

... there might be other solutions in Marketplace too.

[yggdrasil]

1 hour ago, brian! said:

there was an Abandoned Cart addon years ago - but it got removed from Marketplace and whilst I think it can still be ordered from the developers site, i'm not sure if development of it got, ironically, abandoned.... google for the product name and you should find a link to it if you want to.

or make it so only logged in clients can visit the cart and purchase, e.g they have to register first before ordering - that's virtually a one line hook (already posted).... although, i'd personally make it easier for them to order, rather than making it harder by having to register first.

I suppose another option would be a modal window on exit addon that displays a message when they leave, e.g offering a promo code to complete the order etc...

• Exit Offers
• Exit Popup

... there might be other solutions in Marketplace too.

 

 

 

Having to register before ordering defeats what he is trying to accomplish. He is after lost sales or people that start the ordering/registration process but never complete it. He wants to contact them to help them finish the order or complete the sale. The best approach is just to ask 1 or 2 fields, like name and email, also the checkbox which accepts the terms of services. Simple and takes a second. Once they fill that out, he redirects them to the order page on which they must complete all details.

More than one service does it that way. They only ask for the rest of the details or to finish completing the profile later. But this might not even work depending on what he is selling. Most people that sell services with WHMCS require full details for antifraud reasons. The simpler the registration/purchase process is, the more its open to fake accounts and fraudulent orders.

Personally, my opinion is, that if someone does not bother to fill up a 2-minute form, that person is not worth as a customer as he shows little interest.

[brian!]

Just now, yggdrasil said:

Having to register before ordering defeats what he is trying to accomplish.

to quote the OP...

6 hours ago, SDB said:

So starting the process with a very simple form on our site that steers them to WHMCS without forcing them to re-enter name and email.

that's registering in my eyes - either in WHMCS or externally.... mind you, I wouldn't fill in a form just so the host can spam (sorry pester) me at a later point.... I don't even like receiving those "you've left some items in your cart" emails from retailers.

2 minutes ago, yggdrasil said:

The best approach is just to ask 1 or 2 fields, like name and email, also the checkbox which accepts the terms of services. Simple and takes a second. Once they fill that out, he redirects them to the order page on which they must complete all details.

then modify the register page to just those limited fields... basic details on the reg page, full details entered in the cart.

12 minutes ago, yggdrasil said:

Personally, my opinion is, that if someone does not bother to fill up a 2-minute form, that person is not worth as a customer as he shows little interest.

I would agree.

[Kian]

Last year for marketing campaigns I was pre-registering potential customers on WHMCS just with name and email via AddClient API from a non-WHMCS page. The key is that you have to:

• Use skipvalidation = true this way WHMCS accepts the registration even with missing fields (eg. firstname, lastname etc.).
• Such pre-registered customers must be assigned to a dedicated client group, let's call it "Potential customers" - more on that later
• You also have to issue the login via AutoAuth - more on that later

Once the customer is pre-registered and automatically logged in via AutoAuth, he can proceed to the purchase as normal just providing email and name. In my case I was placing the order still using API skipping WHMCS cart but that's another story. At this point it is important that you do the following:

• When the customer sends the first payment, you must redirect him to My Details page and force him to complete his registration otherwise you can't even issue the invoice. This can be done pretty easily based on the following condition:  If current customer is in "Potential customers" group and his balance is greater than zero, trigger the redirect and force him to fill in required details. I was also showing an alert on screen with explanations. Moreover I was using an additional condition to trigger this redirect 3 days after the sale so that customers can start playing with the service hassle-free for a couple of days. As soon as all required fileds have been provided, turn off the redirect by removing the customer in question from "Potential customers" group. If he didn't buy anything you can easily contact him with "Buy or die!" marketing stuff by simply filtering customers by "Potential customers" client group
• You can't allow customers to pre-register more than once with the same email so before you AddClient via API you must detect if the email is already in use. If so, use UpdateClient instead to update his name, hostname and IP (if changed) and of course NOT the email
• Here comes the bad news. AutoAuth (I quote) «is deprecated as of v7.10 will be removed in v8.1. Please utilize the CreateSsoToken API which utilises WHMCS Single Sign-On» so the game is over for me. It took me 2 weeks to code this solution. I hate reinventing the wheel so good luck. I stop here but hopefully, I've given you some ideas

1 hour ago, brian! said:

Personally, my opinion is, that if someone does not bother to fill up a 2-minute form, that person is not worth as a customer as he shows little interest.

"What's the difference between blue and red?", "Blue is blue, red is red". "That's confusing, bye" 😦 welcome to my life.

 

[beeshma123]

An incomplete request by means of WHMCS, since on the off chance that they surrender or neglect to finish that underlying page, at that point we've lost an expected contact (and miniature change). So start the cycle with an exceptionally straightforward structure on our site that steers them to WHMCS without compelling them to reappear name and email.