Overview: What are we talking about?

This article will walk you through what to expect, and how to plan and prepare to go live with the New Customer Portal 2.0 for your business and your customers.

The Customer Portal 2.0 will give your customers an optimized experience when interacting with your business on the Gingr Portal. Improvements with the new Customer Portal include optimized booking workflows, better organization of information, improved error messaging, additional customization, and more.

This article includes:

• Set it Up: Let's get started 
• Test it: Let's make sure everything looks right!  
• Enabling the Customer Portal 2.0: Let's make it active!   
• Notifying your Customers: Let's invite them to their New Portal!  
• FAQ: Common Questions

Related Articles:

• Customer Portal Overview
• Using the Customer Portal
• Customer Portal Interaction Settings
• Location Custom Text
• Service Request Links
• Customer Portal Links

Helpful Hints: Before you begin.

• Enabling the new Customer Portal will be an opt-in experience. You will be able to choose when you would like to enable the new Customer Portal for your customers via a setting in your app so that you can decide when the best time will be for you and your customers.

Set it Up: Let's get started.  

Before enabling the Customer Portal 2.0 to your customers, there are a few settings that you might want to review and update if needed due to layout changes and the new booking workflow of the new Customer Portal. 

Step 1: Review your Request Links 

When requesting bookings, customers will first need to select a booking category asking them if they want to request a reservation, appointment, or group class. You can customize which of those three options appear, and how they are worded, depending on the services you offer. If you started offering new services recently and didn't know to update these, now is a great time to do so. 

Service Request Links can link to three places:

• • New Reservation Page: this page is used for multi-day or single-day reservations that are not appointment-based (e.g. boarding and daycare).
    
    
  • New Appointment Page: this page is used for single-day reservations that are appointment-based (e.g. grooming and training).
    
    
  • Group Class Enrollment Page: this page is used to show all of your group classes and to allow customers to enroll.

To review and update your request links, follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
2. Use the pencil icon to edit any of your Request Links that need to be updated. You will only need to make updates to the Titles, as the links will automatically redirect once the new Customer Portal is enabled. 
3. For more information on updating Request Links, click here.

Step 2: Review Reservation, Appointment, Services, and Deposit Custom Text 

The new layout of the Customer Portal 2.0 brings more emphasis to your Custom Text options in Gingr. You can add custom text to a variety of different places to notify customers of important information and really promote your business and services! 

To review and update the various custom text options for the Customer Portal, follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation and Appointment Requests.
   
   
2. Review Reservation Request Text. This text will appear on the left-hand side of the booking page for your customers to review before selecting the type of reservation they are looking to book. 
   
   
   
   
3. Review Appointment Custom Text. This text will appear on the left-hand side of the appointment booking page for your customers to review before selecting the type of appointment they are looking to book. 
   
   
   
   
4. Review Reservation Request Services Text.  This text will appear in a pop-up if a customer requests a reservation, but does not select any additional services for their pet during their stay. This is a great place to try and upsell the customer some of the amazing services that you offer. Leave it blank if you do not want a pop-up message to appear. 
   
   
5. Review Deposit Policies Custom Text. This text will appear as your customers go to submit payment for any deposits. 

Step 3: Review New Portal Customization Settings 

With the Customer Portal 2.0, there are new options for customization that were not available before. These new settings will allow you to enable or disable certain pages and actions on the Customer Portal 2.0 like the ability to show Webcams, Rewards Points, and more. 

Take a moment to think about which of these features you use for your business, and whether or not you want your customers to be able to view or complete these actions through their online Portal. 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
2. Enable or disable the following settings depending on your business: 

• Allow Package Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Packages page from the new portal if you don’t allow customers to purchase any prepaid packages online.
  
  
• Allow Retail Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Retail page from the new portal if you don’t allow customers to purchase any retail online for in-store pickup.
  
  
• Allow Subscription Purchases from the portal? This will hide the Shop Subscriptions page from the new portal if you don’t allow customers to start their own package subscriptions online.
  
  
• Show Rates section on the portal? This will hide the View Rates page from the new portal if you don’t want customers to see any of their rates for reservation types and services in the portal.
  
  
• Show Reward Points balance on the portal? This will hide the Reward Points page from the new portal if you don’t use the Gingr Loyalty Rewards feature.
  
  
• Show Webcams link on the portal? This will hide the Live Webcams page from the new portal if you don't use webcams with Gingr. 

Test it: Let's make sure everything looks right!  

Before enabling the Customer Portal for all of your pet parents, it is recommended that you log in with one of the test accounts in your app to review your portal and make sure that any adjustments that you just made look correct! 

To access your Customer Portal 2.0 before enabling it for all of your customers, you will want to update this link to your unique subdomain and log in with a test pet parent account: subdomain.portal.gingrapp.com. 

(e.g. businessname.gingrapp.com = businessname.portal.gingrapp.com)

Enabling the Customer Portal 2.0: Let's make it active!   

Once you are ready to enable the Customer Portal 2.0, making the switch is simple. You will want to follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.
   
   
2. Enable the 'Enable New Pet Parent Portal' setting.
   
   
3. Once enabled, email/SMS links will begin redirecting to the Customer Portal 2.0 automatically. 
   
   

Notifying your Customers: Let's invite them to their New Portal!  

Once you are ready to enable the Customer Portal 2.0, you will want to have a plan to let your customers know about the new portal. All log-in information will remain the same, so you will just need to provide them with your new portal link and some basic information about the new portal. Here are a few ideas for how to make this transition as smooth as possible for your customers. 

1. Update your business website and social media. 

If you have the current Customer Portal linked on your business website, social media pages, or anywhere else, you will need to make sure to update those links to your new Customer Portal URL. This will allow your current and future customers to easily find the correct site for them to log in. 

You can easily find your link for the Customer Portal 2.0 by navigating to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization.

This is also where you can locate a unique invite code that will allow your customers to access your portal using the free Gingr for Pet Parents mobile app which is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

The correct URL and mobile app invite code for the new portal will only display here after the 'Enable New Pet Parent Portal' setting has been enabled. If this setting is still disabled, the 'old' Customer Portal link will be listed here. 

2. Send a Marketing Email Campaign with Details on the New Portal.

You can use the Gingr Email Marketing Campaign feature to reach out to your customers in bulk and provide them with the link to access your new portal.

We have created an Email Marketing Campaign template that you can customize to make it easy for you to reach out to your customers. This template will include your new portal link and unique invite code for the free Gingr for Pet Parents mobile app, a link to a help article for pet parents on how to use the new portal, and this brief tutorial video:

If you do not wish to promote the use of the mobile app with your pet parents, you are welcome to exclude that portion from your marketing campaign prior to sending to your customers. For more information about the mobile app, click here.

To import the marketing campaign template into your Gingr app, follow these steps: 

1. Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Owners and Pets » Marketing.
2. Click 'Manage Campaign Templates' in the top right-hand corner. 
3. Click 'Import Campaign Template' at the top. 
4. Provide your Template with a name like 'Customer Portal 2.0 Release.' (The name of the template will be for internal purposes only, and will not be visible to your customers).
5. Open the file attached to the bottom of this article called "Customer Portal 2.0 Marketing Template Code." Copy and paste the entire string of code into the Data field on the Import Campaign Template screen in Gingr.
6. Click Import Template! 
7. Once you receive the success message, return to Left-hand Navigation: Owners and Pets » Marketing and click 'Create a New Email Campaign.'
8. Under Pick a Template, select the newly imported template from the dropdown.
9. *Important: Customize the content to include your unique Customer Portal link, remove any portions that you may not want to include, and add any other additional information, images, or notes as you choose. 
10. Finalize and send the email marketing campaign following the standard process. For more information on editing and sending Email Marketing Campaigns, click here. 

3. Share a quick 1-page sheet with your clients that contains your new portal details. 

Posting a flyer with your new portal information on the door or at the front desk can be an easy way to connect pet parents with your portal when they are onsite at your facility. We've created this simple 1-page template that you can open in Google Docs or Microsoft Word to customize with your unique portal URL and mobile app invite code, and then print or share with your clients any way you'd like!

4. Create a custom QR Code to leave on the door or at the front desk. 

Creating a custom QR code will be a great way to seamlessly connect customers with their new portal if they ask about it while they are onsite at your facility. Instead of having to type in or send the new link to them, they can easily scan the QR code with their smartphone camera and be instantly connected. 

You can create a free custom QR code online, and all you will need is the link for your new Customer Portal 2.0 which you can access from Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Portal Customization. Here is a website that we recommend: https://www.qr-code-generator.com/. 

FAQ: Common Questions:

Q: What happens if my Customers log in and use the 'old' Customer Portal after I enable the new one? 

A: Customers will still be able to use the 'old' Customer Portal after you have enabled the new Customer Portal 2.0. The 'old' Customer Portal will work exactly as it always has even once the new Customer Portal is enabled in case your customers log in there on accident. 

Q: When do I have to switch to the Customer Portal 2.0? 

A: Enabling the Customer Portal 2.0 is an opt-in experience through March 2022 and you can choose when the right time will be for you and your customers. You are not required to enable the Customer Portal 2.0 as soon as it is available. 

• Customer Portal 2.0 Marketing Template Code (3).txt20 KB