Pre-Launch

When a new website launches there are ALWAYS little issues and items to tweak. You will also still be learning the system.  This is not the best time to plan a huge promotion and invite the world to visit your new website.

We recommend starting with a soft launch to iron out the bugs and get to know how customers will use your website  This can be a very eye opening experience as customers will see some things you won’t and might not read what they should. You can tell just a few customers to try out the website or let them trickle in on their own.  Then plan an official launch for a few weeks later when the system has been tried and tested in real conditions.

Website hacking is a full-time business and you need to keep your website and your customers’ information safe.

The Content Management System (CMS) used by your website, WordPress, has strengthened the default password requirements. This is NOT something we can  modify, nor would we want to. If you have ever had to recover from a breached website you would understand the lengthy process, costly efforts and unnecessary stress involved in trying to restore your brand’s reputation, lost revenues and customer trust.

Some of your customers will get confused and frustrated by the increased security requirements, but most will be fine.

All customers creating an account will need to set up their password during their first visit to the website. To prepare for this, we recommend the following:

• If your customer accounts were imported from another website, send out emails explaining they will need to reset their passwords and it is likely their previous passwords won’t be strong enough.
• We recommend customers try using a repeated version of their favorite password.  If it is a very short and simple password (For Shame!) they may need to enter the password three times.  For example, if their password was Crazyone   they could use   CrazyoneCrazyone, however it might make for a stronger password to repeat just part of the password.  eg.  CrazyoneCraz
• If the password is longer than 10 characters they won’t need to include special characters, capital letters, etc. The length will alleviate the other password requirements.
• Passwords cannot include the name of the website or the customer’s name.
• Try creating a few test customer accounts yourself so that you understand what your customers are experiencing.

Once your website is live customers will place orders for products and downloads. It’s important that you understand how these processes work from the customer’s point of view.

Complete EACH INDIVIDUAL step separately.

1. Create a new account as a customer (not as shop owner).
2. Purchase a test-product using PayPal or the payment processor installed on your new website. We create a temporary $.50 Test Product for such purposes. You were probably emailed the link to the Test Product. (You will not be able to test the PayPal piece with the same email associated with your PayPal account that we used when setting up the PayPal integration on your website. Try using a different email for the test order from the website.)
3. Purchase and download a FREE download/video. Make sure you have tried to view the download.  This is a different product than the Test Product we create for you.  (Problems viewing your download? Check the FAQ about downloads on our Dealer Resources.)
4. Purchase products from the Beginner category and pay via Check (for testing purposes).  We use Check as a payment option for testing only. This allows you to see how taxes and shipping are applied.

The above steps are typically what a customer does and understanding these steps will help you answer customer’s questions.

Please check the Dealer Resources FAQ for answers to your questions before contacting QMS. There is a link to Dealer Resourcess on your website dashboard under Resources.