How to Redeem an Adoption Bundle | Sharing the Love Pet Adoption Programs

How to Redeem an Adoption Bundle | Sharing the Love Pet Adoption Programs



Rewarding a Pet Adoption Bundle to a New Pet Owner

If you are a pro and want to jump ahead to the How-Tos, follow this link.

Otherwise, let's begin with a recap of what exactly a "Pet Adoption Bundle" is comprised of. 

What is a Pet Adoption Bundle?

Both the Categories and the Contents of the Bundles that your new pet owner customers will be able to redeem depend on the Pet Adoption Programs that you are currently enrolled in. For more info on how to enroll, please refer to this article.

Let's say Astro published a dozen or so Adoption Programs, each belonging to a preset  Category.
A Category can be Kibble, Cans/Wet Diets, Freeze-Dried/Raw Diets, Hay, Treats, Toys, Supplements, Supplies, Toys, etc.- or depending on the volume of programs, they may become more specific and include Toppers, Litter, Bedding, etc. 

Some of these programs are for New Dog Owners, others are for New Cat Owners, and so on. 
A program can include items for more than one Species (Dog, Cat, Rabbit, Unicorn, Chinchilla, Gerbil, Rat, Mouse, Guinea Pig).

You scroll through the list of Available Adoption Programs and enroll in 5 of them. Four of them contain items for New Dog Owners, and four of them contain items for New Cat Owners. Of the Dog Programs, two are for Kibble Items, one is for Treats, and the last is for Supplements. Of the Cat Programs, two are for Can/Wet Diet Items, one is for Supplements, and one is for Litter. 

So when you have a New Dog Owner come into your store, they can redeem a New Dog Adoption Bundle that contains: One Free Kibble Item, One Free Treat Item, and One Free Supplement Item. For their Kibble item, they can choose between 3 different brands and their food options; for Treats, they can choose from 1 brand's options; and for Supplements, they can choose from 1 brand's options. 

When a New Cat Owner comes into your store, they can redeem a New Cat Adoption Bundle that contains: One Free Can/Wet Diet Item and One Free Supplement Item. For their Can/Wet Diet item, they can choose between 2 different brands of food and the options they offer; for Supplements, they can choose from 1 brand's options; and for their Litter, they can choose from 1 brand's options.

New Pet Customers also have the option to omit or pass on a Category of their Bundle completely. So if your New Cat Owners do not want the Supplement offered, then they can opt to just redeem their Bundle for Can/Wet Diet and Litter. 

How to Introduce your Adoption Bundle to a New Pet Owner

First, it will be up to you to determine whether the customer qualifies as a New Pet Parent. You are welcome to apply your own guidelines. Our general advice is to say you are welcome to offer these programs to all of your existing or new customers who have adopted a new pet in the year 2020. You are also permitted to apply your own definition of what counts as an Adoption. We feel that anyone who has welcomed a pet permanently into their home that did not live there before qualifies as a New Pet Parent. 

Start by congratulating your customer on their new pet! How exciting. If the pet is there with them- pets, cuddles, treats, and belly rubs are most definitely called for if the owner permits and the pet is accepting of them. It's a happy day! 

Now that everyone is friends, you can start telling them about the Free options available to them pertaining to your store's Adoption Bundle for their specific pet type. Remember, the one you are offering could be very different than the one offered at another shop in your town. You can walk your customer around your store (whether in-person or on FaceTime/Skype/Zoom) and show them the different products and answer any questions they have. While you are at it you can take this opportunity to see if they need any additional essentials like a collar, leash, name tag, food/water bowls, placemat, crate, bed, etc. This is the super fun part!

OK! Now that you helped them collect everything they need like a Boss, it's time to bring them up to the register. 

Checkout Time! How to Ring up and Redeem an Adoption Bundle for a New Pet Owner

If you are using POS Integration, you will need to ring up the Adoption Bundle manually in Astro, independent of your POS. I have added an additional section here with advice on how to ring up these Bundles in Astro and in your POS without interfering with your Frequent Buyer integration.

In this demo, we are just going to focus on ringing up the Bundle in Astro. We are not going to ring up Frequent Buyer or Offers.

Since the launch of Sharing the Love, we have added several new categories, so now the Bundles are even bigger! Originally there were 4 categories:  Food, Treats, Supplements, and Supplies - which is why you will see a Food category represented in the following demo. Food has been replaced by Kibble, and several new categories have been added. The new, full list of Categories are Kibble, Can/Wet Diets, Freeze-Dried/Raw Diets, Hay, Treats, Supplements, Supplies, and Toys. 

Start by looking up the customer under Checkout. If you determine they are a new customer at your store, you can add them by selecting Add Customer at the top of the Lookup Customer screen. 



Once you are under the Customer's Pet Owner Checkout screen, you can type the word "astro" followed by the Species of the animal they have adopted. For example, if they adopted a Dog, you would type " astrodog." If they adopted a Rabbit, it would be "astrorabbit." And so on.

For now, the list of AstroPets includes: AstroDog, AstroCat, AstroRabbit, AstroChinchilla, AstroRat, AstroMouse, AstroGuineaPig, AstroGerbil

If your search bar is grey (the Keystroke Capture is ON), then you can simply start typing, and the characters will show up on the search bar- no need to place a cursor. 



Adoption / New Pet Form

Once you have your code word typed out on the search bar, hit the Enter or Return button on your computer keypad. Now you will see the following pop-up. 


Choosing an Item for Each Bundle Category

Depending on how many  Bundle Categories you have, you may have only one drop-down to select an item from, or you may have multiples. In the instance below, we have two drop-downs, one for  Food and one for  Supplements for our New Dog Owner customer. Start with the first drop-down menu and select the Food item your customer wants. 



Depending on how many Dog Food Adoption Programs you are enrolled in, you may see one Brand and its items listed here, or you may see multiple Brands and their items listed. Remember , your customer can only choose one item from each Category regardless of how many programs you are enrolled in belonging to that Category. So if you are enrolled in a Best Breed Dog Food Adoption Program and a Monster Naturals Dog Food Adoption Program, your customer will need to choose either the Best Breed or a Monster Naturals food item; they cannot pick one of each. 

Now move to the next Categories drop-down menu (if there is one) and select the item they want from that Category.


For each drop-down menu, your customer has the option to choose an item or to choose none from that Category. If they do not want an item from that Category, make sure to select "No Free Item Desired for this Category" from the drop-down.

Repeat this until all Categories either have an item selected or "No Free Item Desired for this Category" selected for each drop-down.

Enter Pet Name

Now you can record the Pet's Name on the field provided. 



As with any instance where you are collecting info from a customer, just do your best. The manufacturer just wants to know the name of their new pet just in case they want to send them a "thank you" for choosing their product or a Bounce Back Coupon as an even bigger "thank you" that can only be redeemed at your store. 

Nothing is set in stone when it comes to your Customer's Pet Owner Info on Astro. You can edit their Pet Owner Account if the name they gave you initially changes later. (Storytime- Both of my cats have different names now than what I initially named them. One was named Lestat de Lioncourt (yup, as in Anne Rice). Now his name is MeNOW because it's all about Him right NOW. Things change; we get it!)

TIPS:
  1. If the family still needs to vote on the name, then add a name choice that the family member in front of you wants. They will love that because you know they want to win!
  2. What is the name of the pet currently? What is the name the foster or shelter gave him or her?
  3. What name were they thinking of? What is their favorite name?
  4. Who knows! You may help them name their pet right there! (OMG! What if they name their pet after you! LOL)

If you have the Marketing Suite enabled, there will be a box you can check below the Enter Pet Name field that will allow you to add the Pet's Name and the Pet's Species to your customer's Pet Owner Account details. I strongly recommend that you check this box each time.



Bonus: If you want to add the Pet's Birth/Adoption Month and Birth Year, you can do so later by clicking the Pawprint Icon below the Pet Owner's Name and then selecting Edit Pet Owner. Once inside the Pet Owner Account Edit Pop-up, you will see a Pencil Icon beside the new pet's name. Click the Pencil to add more info. Then Save and Update Pet Owner. 

Enter Adoption Agency

Select the type of agency the Pet Owner is adoption from. 




In this field, you can type the name of the Adoption Agency, Shelter, Rescue, Person, etc, from whom your customer adopted their new pet. 


Additional Notes

Here you can add any additional info you think these brand manufacturers would like to know. 


For instance, if the pet was adopted prior to today, then it may be a good idea to add the actual Adoption Date to this field. Otherwise, the manufacturer will assume the adoption occurred today. 

If the New Pet Parent adopted more than one animal that day, then you could mention this and add the name of the other pet to this field. You may see this if rescues encourage their adopters to adopt bonded pairs. (It also may be a good idea to update the Customer's Pet Owner Account and add their second pet, or any other pets they may have, to their account at this time). Remember, a New Pet Parent cannot redeem a Bundle for the same species more than once a year. So if they adopted multiples of the same species in one go, it would be a good idea to let them know their new pets can share the Bundle. 

If there is no Additional Info that you can think of, feel free to leave it blank. 

Save Pet Form

Once you are happy with all your fields, you can click where it says Save Pet Form. 

Redeem Pet Adoption Bundle Sections

After saving your New Pet Form, you will see a screen similar to mine. At the top of your screen, you will see the Unredeemed Reward Alerts for the Bundle Categories you just selected. Below that will be Today's Purchases and where the New Pet - __ will be mentioned. In this case, we see New Pet - Dog. 



If we scroll down further, we see the Program Cards for each Bundle Category showing that they are redeemable. 


Click Checkout

To Redeem these cards, all we need to do is click where it says Checkout. This will take us to the following screen, where all redemptions take place.



Here we will be greeted with the first portion of the Redemption Process. 

Enter your Customer's Email Address

There are several Manufacturers that will be distributing follow-up rewards called Bounce Back Coupons to your customers who choose their brand's products as a part of their Adoption Bundle. This Coupon will function just like an MFG Sponsored Coupon and can only be used at your store by a customer that redeems a New Pet Adoption Bundle. Your customer will be alerted to the Bounce Back Coupon via email- so this is why their email address is being collected. 



Only some of the Adoption Programs have Bounce Back Coupons associated with them at this time- but more may be added at a later date. So the best thing to tell your customer if they ask why their email address is being collected is that,
"There is a chance you may be sent an additional coupon via email for one of the brands whose items you chose to be a part of your Bundle today. We also send out periodic emails to our customers to let them know about specials that may interest them."
If they ask you can tell them that they can also unsubscribe if they decide they do not want to be a part of a mailing list.

Once you have entered their email address click Confirm Information. 

Reward Redemption

Now all you need to do is check the box beside each item to redeem it for the customer. Make sure you check all the boxes. Then click Redeem Selected Items. 


Finalize the Redemption & the Transaction in Astro

Your screen should now look very similar to mine.



First check the Rewards Earned / Redeemed This Visit section. This section will always be the most important section on an account where a Redemption just took place. Below each of the Rewards it should say This reward was redeemed this visit in neon green letters. This means that the Free Good Reward was successfully redeemed and that this item is now safe to give to your customer for free. It also means that your distributor is able to see a redemption took place so they know they will need to send you a reimbursement credit. 

Make sure each of the items listed there matches the item the customer chose. If you notice an item doesn't match click the Undo Redemption button beside it and click Remove and Reselect. This will let you pick a different item from that drop-down for that Category. 

If you are satisfied that your Bundle has been properly redeemed and reported in Astro you can click where it says Finished to finalize the Astro transaction. 



A New Pet Owner cannot redeem more than one New Pet Adoption Bundle for the Same Species within 365-days of redemption.
Example: If a customer redeems a Dog Adoption Bundle on Oct 1st, 2022 they will not be able to redeem another Dog Adoption bundle until 365 days have passed from that redemption date. 

Ring Up Customer in your POS System & Discount their Sale Accordingly

Please refer to the section of best matches your store's situation.
  1. Using Astro as a Standalone system (you ring up the customer's qualifying purchases in Astro then you ring up their entire sale in your POS). 
  2. Using POS Integration with Astro (you're POS System is linked to Astro in such a way that allows you to import your customer's sale to Astro). 

Using Astro as a Standalone System - How to Ring Up Sale in POS

We'll start with you guys since you have it the simplest. Everything you need to do in Astro has already been done.

So all that is left to do is ring up everything your customer has brought to the counter (purchases and rewards) and add them to a sale in your POS.

Now you can go ahead and discount the items that qualify as Free Good Rewards. 

And lastly, finalize your POS Sale and collect their payment and thank them for coming by! (If their pet is there see if you can fit in some more pets and ear scratches!)

Using POS Integration with Astro - How to Ring up Sale in POS

There are two main ways to integrate with Astro, Fully or Partially.
  1. A Fully-Integrated System does not require you to enter Astro to do things like Redeem Items or Record Sales. Your POS handles all of this for you without you ever having to leave the sale in your POS. 
  2. A Partially-Integrated System requires you to click a button or menu item in your POS in order to perform an import to Astro. In some cases you have to enter Astro and go through the Astro checkout process before re-entering your POS to finalize the sale. 
Both  Partially-Integrated System and  Fully-Integrated Systems will need to use Adoption Programs manually in Astro. The methods in which they do this may be a little different though. 

Partially Integrated System

Look up the customer in your POS, if they are not there yet Add them as a New Customer.

Do NOT ring up any of their purchases yet. Instead click the button or menu item that will take you into Astro. This will help you create the New Customer Account in Astro, or help you link to an existing account. 

Now you will ring up the Adoption Bundle exactly as described in the Checking Out section above. The items they are getting for free from the Bundle will not count as purchases towards Frequent Buyer. So unless they are Purchasing other items that are part of a Frequent Buyer Program you do not have to worry about adding any items to Frequent Buyer cards. If they are buying other items you can add them to the Frequent Buyer card they belong on manually at this point. 

Once you are finished click Finished to return to your POS Sale. 

Now you can ring up all of their items, and apply the discounts to the items they are getting for free. 

Then collect payment and finish out the sale. 

Fully Integrated System

Since you never enter Astro from your POS you will need to log into Astro directly in order to ring up a Bundle for your customer. Remember, these kinds of redemptions are special occasions and your customer is going to get a bunch of free things, so I'm sure they have no problem waiting a couple extra moments for you to complete the transaction. 

Start by logging into Astro directly and then follow the instructions as explained in the section above about how to Checkout in Astro. 

Once the Astro sale in finalized look up the customer in your POS and ring up their complete purchase.

Apply the discount to the Free Goods they earned in their Adoption Bundle. Since you zeroed these items out they should not import to Astro when you collect payment. (If they do import as Purchases you will need to remove them from the Astro Pet Owner account later). 

Collect payment and conclude the sale. 

How to Remove Pet Adoption Bundle 

If a customer does not want to give out their email to redeem the bundle or the bundle was selected incorrectly, you can remove that bundle from the customer's open cards. Go to Checkout and Look up the Customer. 



Find the Adoption bundle card and select the check mark punch. 


A pop up window will appear. Select Remove Transaction . Another pop up will appear to confirm the removal of this item. Select "Ok". 


That will remove the transaction off the account. Then Select Checkout. 


Select Finished. This will save the changes made to the account.