Neil McQuillan: Hi Neil, that would be an improvement for sure, not a fix but a definite pressure off improvement.

Simon: I think what needs to happen here in the long term is for Citrus-Lime to work out what all the various workflows are and create a system where the shop can trigger automated messages as they see fit for each part of the process and it could be tweaked for each order if the item is a faff (e.g. a bike or a fish tank).

Here is an idea...

Popup in POS 2.0 'You have a new C&C order what do you wish to send the customer'

'Template 1 - SMS Your item is ready for immediate Collection...'

'Template 2 - SMS We'll contact you when your order is ready to collect...'

'Template 3 - SMS There is a problem with your order...'

I'm off to organise the fix I've described above now.... and we can pickup a more advanced solution when we're code complete on POS 2.0 (including the backoffice).

I can confirm the simple change below is in progress and will be in the November release.

Simon: We can all see what the answer is, its really down to resources at CL. With out areas of customisation this sort of issue will always persist.

Nick Johnston: I think you've nailed it there, we're not shy about investment, we've spent 1/4 a million pounds on hosting equipment in 2023, and have a very high level of RnD (pure developer & testing) spend at about 20% of our turnover but like all businesses our resources are finite and I cannot see how to action this at a sensible level of investment.

I know on the stock features, I list below, you cannot get them from any of our competition but that makes change expensive in this area.

I'm sure we will address this in time, but for now can we as a group can we improve the wording which makes it better if not perfect?

Kirstie: I agree but it's not technically possible in a reasonable amount of development work and if we add more stock options or wording then it would break all the customisation.

Just to show I'm not being obstinate.

Things which are considered in the generation of this text:

What I'm looking for is wording which does not break processes for retailers who deal with C&C orders as they arrive vs those which deal with them on a scheduled basis (e.g. they check them several times a day and prepare the item), and those stores who manage shrinkage enough to support the kind of C&C walkin customer with a decent success rate.

Neil McQuillan: Hi Neil, I think we probably all have a decent success rate - but when it goes "South", it goes badly wrong because of the mis-information inherent in the order confirmation email saying it is ready for immediate collection ... that really must be changed. Thanks for your immediate attention to come up with a better solution that fits everyone, not just some of your retailers

Is the answer to have a text box each of your users can change? We are happy to make the changes but un able to. Then each business can have unique ways of operating?

Neil McQuillan: Hi Neil, thank goodness there is a quick response.

My suggestion if customisability is out of the question, to fit in with the current system, would be to say "Thank You - your order will be processed ASAP. Please wait for an email with the invoice attached to confirm your order is ready".

As bricks n'mortar we suffer shrinkage through damage, shop lifting (increased recently) and staff mistakes that we can not keep 100% on top of via stock takes. It is an ongoing issue a couple of times per week with a customer ordering in their car outside the shop and then popping in, or ordering the night before and arriving first thing in the morning, and then pointing at the email "Ready for Immediate Collection". We may have the item or group of items, but when they arrive, it puts extra pressure on us if we are busy and they have to wait for us to pick the items and process.

Simon: Not all of our customers take payment during the order, and many will want to support walkin customers using C&C to browse and place orders which may get added to or altered at the point of payment so I cannot reference the invoice sadly.

Nick Johnston: I agree but please see my comment to Kirstie.

Neil McQuillan: Hi Neil, the only way for this to work for everyone from what you have said is for all retailers contact the customer. It seems that the best solution to me would be for an auto email to be sent by way of a button being pressed "somewhere" to confirm to the customer that their order is ready to collect - this avoids the order being processed necessarily. Perhaps this could also be rolled in automatically when an order is processed, but also left as a manual intervention for the shops that do not process before customer arrives.

The Click n'Collect text would then say "Thanks so much ... we will email you when your order is ready to collect. The current ETA is x days". The latter line includes your useful information on where the product currently is. We did have all of this functionality with Visualsoft previously (except for the separate button for click n'collect, all of their retailers had to process a click n'collect order for this email to be sent, or if they wished they could of course manually send an email.

This does cause so much frustration, it is always a waiting issue. Great when it works most of the time, but always causes a lot of friction when it doesn't - even if the customer is good humoured, you know there is ultimately bad feeling there that is caused by this "Ready for Immediate Collection" line. Appreciate Mark Rose and everyone else's contribution confirming that it really is affecting a lot of Citrus Lime customers.

Thanks

Simon

Simon: Neil McQuillan For us this doesn't seem to be a huge problem, however we have a despatch delay set (e.g. "Ready in 1 day(s)). Once an order is received they are checked the morning for all the previous days orders which are picked and prepared for all collections that day. We currently have a template communication set up that once the order has been picked (this still needs doing regardless of whether you offer immediate or not) the store assistant simply has to push the message.

The only improvement for us would be that the order confirmation says "Your order will be ready for collection in 1 day(s). We will contact you when your order is ready" however appreciate that this sentence wont perhaps make sense for those offering immediate collection.

A future improvement that would suit us would be perhaps expanding the units of time to allow flexibility to input "X hours" dispatch delay for us to be able to offer same day collections especially for off the small off the shelf items as you would if using c&c at B&Q for example (ready in as little as 1 hour). I don't think I've seen many retailers that offer immediate, because surely it never would be?

Richard Twinn: It's on the order confirmation email.

Scott: a long running issue, cl simply do not care sorry!

Will (RA): I hear you, I think they do care but I also think it’s time Neil McQuillan did create an end user forum to help direct the development priorities as leaving it in the hands of developers (and I have headed a team of them) is never satisfactory for the end users, retailers priorities vary widely but differ greatly from the priorities of development. It’s easy to strike a balance through transparent communication and as suggested an end user forum/task group.

Otherwise all the expansion on international markets and that driving decision making will be to the detriment of the loyal current user base. the priorities need aligning.

But this DOES need fixing :)

Scott: We've spent very little time on internationalisation (the difference is largely language tagging) of the product, we did all the tax stuff some years ago, we've implemented a load of features in the workshop and POS (mainly two way SMS) based on international feedback, however over 95% of resourcing goes into the core product.

POS 2.0 is very much the focus and this is now code complete and moving towards private BETA in October.

There has been a lot of investment in new infrastruture as well to improve reliability and speed.

Neil McQuillan: great, look forward to hearing back on the other points 👍