Looking for a good way to send thank you and birthday cards

[fun2drum]

My account says the Legacy package. Not sure what it includes but I pay 0.39 per point and a two panel card is 5 points. So about $2. Plus postage.

So i guess it'll start costing me $100 month. I know I've never spent that much before tho.

Hmmm. I didn't see Legacy anywhere on their site for new business. Maybe they've got you grandfathered. Given the difference in cost, it would certainly make sense for them to grandfather their existing business from a retention point of view.

 

[russelltw]

As far as I know the old programs were discontinued at the end of 2018. I thought I was notified in an email in December, but cannot seem to find it.

 

[Newby]

I used SOC for years and was real happy with them. But I went to send my Christmas cards out through them last month and they could not have been a more confusing and horrible experience. They have mad a lot of changes. For the worse.

That type of system is great. And cost is not a big deal. But I will have to look at their competitors before I try them again.

 

[fun2drum]

I used SOC for years and was real happy with them. But I went to send my Christmas cards out through them last month and they could not have been a more confusing and horrible experience. They have mad a lot of changes. For the worse.

That type of system is great. And cost is not a big deal. But I will have to look at their competitors before I try them again.

Can you elaborate? I had just come to the conclusion that the benefit would be worth the cost, but I'd like to hear about your experience in using the service. Thanks

 

[pfg1]

^^^must be due to the changes. Who are the competitors?

 

[fun2drum]

^^^must be due to the changes. Who are the competitors?

No competitors that I can see, especially with signature and automatic scheduled sends. I figure that if it could influence several of my clients to call me instead of letting another agent in the door, then it would pay for itself at some level. After watching the tutorials I discovered that importing excel client birthdays might be a PITA for me. All of mine have the year last, but SOC apparently requires formatting with the year first. I've got close to 1,000 to correct one at a time if I do this. I just don't want this to be something I have to spend a week out of every month dealing with. It needs to be basically set-it-and-forget-it once I enter the client info, or else it quits being a good deal in a hurry.
Anyway, I was leaning toward going with Enterprise and Elite Plus packages if I do this because I would probably max out their numbers. The cost per card looks relatively low with the volume factored in.

 

[sshafran]

After watching the tutorials I discovered that importing excel client birthdays might be a PITA for me. All of mine have the year last, but SOC apparently requires formatting with the year first. I've got close to 1,000 to correct one at a time if I do this.

There is probably an easy way to change the DOB format in excel. Excel is incredibly flexible and if you have any data in it it can normally be manipulated and reformatted with formulas - then the formulas copied all at once to reformat all cells.

How exactly is the DOB entered in right now in the cell? May be an easy fix...

 

[Chazm]

I used SOC for years and was real happy with them. But I went to send my Christmas cards out through them last month and they could not have been a more confusing and horrible experience. They have mad a lot of changes. For the worse.

That type of system is great. And cost is not a big deal. But I will have to look at their competitors before I try them again.

The only issue I had was when I needed to make a new 2019 bday card. It wouldn't just let me add my photo. I had to pick a template that made your photo huge up top. You can decrease the size of the photo but the blocked off area stayed big and I couldn't type as much info as I wanted below it.

They had a nice discount until early January where cards were 2 points. I wonder what each month will cost me now.

 

[Newby]

The only issue I had was when I needed to make a new 2019 bday card. It wouldn't just let me add my photo. I had to pick a template that made your photo huge up top. You can decrease the size of the photo but the blocked off area stayed big and I couldn't type as much info as I wanted below it.

They had a nice discount until early January where cards were 2 points. I wonder what each month will cost me now.

Importing the list and mailing out to that list used to be VERY simple but now it makes me want to go to Hallmark and lick stamps like the cave men did.

 

[fun2drum]

There is probably an easy way to change the DOB format in excel. Excel is incredibly flexible and if you have any data in it it can normally be manipulated and reformatted with formulas - then the formulas copied all at once to reformat all cells.

How exactly is the DOB entered in right now in the cell? May be an easy fix...

Examples:
11/20/1940
2/1/1950

BTW I should tell you I had already signed up for the free no frills package on someone else's link before starting this thread, so I'll need to keep that account. I wish I had waited before committing now, but it is what it is. Sorry about that.