New Feature
Feature Upgrade: Universal Transfers
For the past several months, we’ve been working on a simple and powerful new way to transfer students between classes and we’re very excited to share how this update can save you and your team loads of time!
If, unlike us, you haven’t been diving deep into all the mechanics of complex student transfers, here’s a quick tutorial!
For years, we’ve provided simple, yet powerful registration tools like class-specific registration forms, payment plans, promo codes, and price adjusting options. With each new tool, however, the ability to transfer a student between different classes became more and more complex. So, until now, we have only supported “simple” transfers between classes of the same type and price.
However, over the last several months, we’ve been building a more and more sophisticated transfer system. One that marries our trademark simplicity with the power of truly universal transfers to handle every situation you can imagine, and more!
How Does It Work?
Overview
We spent a lot of time on this update to make sure to cover as many scenarios as we could imagine. Our aim has been to eliminate every complexity we can and provide you with a super-fast and seamless experience, using sensible defaults for the most common cases, but also providing you with the ultimate flexibility to make other choices when you need to.
The result is a deceptively simple experience that will enable you to make even the most complex transfers in seconds.
Automatic Refunds and Upcharges
The most common scenario you might encounter is transferring to a class with a lower or higher price. Before the transfer, CourseStorm will now automatically detect the change in price, and offer to refund any price difference back to the student’s card or automatically charge the student’s card on file for the difference. Or you can even skip the upcharge altogether if you wish. All you have to do is confirm your choice and you’re good to go!
Change Card on File
By default, we will upcharge the previous card used for the registration, however, we also support your ability to change the card to use if you need to.
Custom Registration Forms With Price-Adjusting Options
Let’s say you’re transferring from one class with a simple registration form to another class with lots of class-specific questions and price adjusting options. As soon as you start the transfer, the system will detect the situation and lead you through the collection of any data it needs for the new class. If you make a choice on the form that changes the price, we’ll automatically take the price change into consideration for the final amount and offer a refund or upcharge depending on the ultimate cost difference between registrations.
Promo Codes
If the original registration contained a promo code that still applies to the new registration, we’ll carry it over for you automatically. If, however, the promo code is class-specific and the new class isn’t eligible, we’ll drop it and include a clear indicator that the promo code will not carry over. Simple and clear!
Payment Plans
In addition, we’ve also created a streamlined experience when transferring registrations with payment plans.
- If the original registration has a payment plan and the destination class doesn’t offer that option, we cancel the old one and set up a one-time payment for the new amount due depending on how much has been paid to date.
- If both classes support payment plans, we will automatically create a new payment plan based on the settings of the destination class and will credit the registrant for the amount already paid.
- And every scenario in between!
Availability
We’re excited to share that we will start rolling out this new transfer system to all customers in the next several weeks!
Coming Next
This update is jam-packed with support for many different scenarios and includes complex situations that cover 91% of all registrations in CourseStorm, but we’re not done yet!
Next up, we will be adding greater support for switching to and from offline payment methods as well. Stay tuned – truly universal coverage is right around the corner!
Matt James
Matt has over 20 years of experience in the software industry. As the founder or co-founder of four software companies, he comprehensively understands technology, design, operations, finance, sales, marketing, and customer service. Matt co-founded CourseStorm to connect learners to classes where they can gain education a la carte to enrich their lives through art classes, prepare for a new job, or level up their existing skills.