Tracking orders and updating customers

[TeeGee]

version: 1.3.7.1

I have setup a site for a customer to replace his ebay shop. This is my first ecommerce site and I could really do with some advice.
I have the only Admin login and am contemplating giving my client limited access by installling Admin Profiles as he has had complaints from his customers that they are not receiving enough updates.
They become a member of the site, order a product, pay using Paypal only, get their Order Confirmation from the site but then nothing until the parcel arrives. He wants to offer his customers updates such as;

'payment received thank you' as a receipt or
'problem with shipping so there'll be a delay of * days'
At the moment he has to send an email from his home email account which confuses the customer as it does not come from the company website.

Have I missed an email setup from the site that fires when payments received or paypal setting that should enable him to email customer using company details?
Or should I give my (self confessed)PC illiterate client access to the admin area?

I hope this makes some sort of sense to someone.
Thank you
Terri.

[fairestcape]

Is there any logical reason why you are not giving your client access to the admin panel.

Surely they must have access? How do they administer their product data, customer data, orders, and a lot more besides?

Better to have a training session with your client (Set aside a morning) when you can show them all the admin features they need to administer, and those they should rather leave to you...

(Admin Profiles - if I'm not mistaken - does not work...) EDIT: OK, I see Kuroi is now involved with this mod, so it clearly will work!

[TeeGee]

Is there any logical reason why you are not giving your client access to the admin panel.

Surely they must have access? How do they administer their product data, customer data, orders, and a lot more besides?

Better to have a training session with your client (Set aside a morning) when you can show them all the admin features they need to administer, and those they should rather leave to you...

(Admin Profiles - if I'm not mistaken - does not work...)

So far it has been me loading all product data, photos etc. He gets the 'new customer' and 'order' email and it's his paypal account they pay into. He is not interested in updating the site or doing anything he doesn't 'HAVE TO' but the reporting features would be useful to him. I would not be comfortable allowing him access to everything, even though I do backup the data. Do you know if there is a replacement or better option if the Admin Profiles doesn't work?

Thanks
Terri.

[stevesh]

One solution would be for him to set up a website email account on his home computer.

Also, I believe that you can configure Zencart such that emails are sent when the order status is changed in Admin (Admin - Localization - Orders Status).

Seems like, PC illiterate or not, he should be able to keep his hands off stuff he doesn't understand, and, if not, it's his site that suffers.

[fairestcape]

My thoughts too...

People who have scant knowledge of stuff are unlikely to tamper with it - unless he/she is a complete idiot.

How does your client (as stevesh says) update order status, send emails to customers, manage banners, sideboxes, defined pages content, etc, etc.

(unless he's paying you a good fee to do all this, of course... in which case it's probably better business sense for you to keep him in the dark).

[mprough]

People who have scant knowledge of stuff are unlikely to tamper with it - unless he/she is a complete idiot.

Just my 2 cents here...

I totally agree, this is the clients business. Seriously, I am sure you are doing a fine job, but do you realize how many times we get call from panic stricken shop owners, whose webmaster has disappeared, stopped responding, gone on vacation and one that even died.

All of these scenarios left the shop owner, many with a broken site or issue requiring immediate attention and no access.

Many call we get, these shop owners don't have hosting access and a vast many cannot even manage their domain as the webmaster has put it in their own account.

Many shop owners as you say do not wish to be bothered with *web stuff*, but we make every effort to keep them fully in the loop and usually manage to drag them kicking and screening in to running their business... Thus empowering them and protecting them.

Just my opinion.
~Melanie

[TeeGee]

Thanks to all for your input, I really appreciate it.

Part of me would love to hand the whole thing over as I have several other jobs waiting to start. I will try again to get him to log into his site but in the past he's been really reluctant; pointing out that it took him 2 hours to find info on a certain product and paste it into an email for me, something that would have taken me 5 mins. What you say makes perfect sense, looks like I'll have to get some teaching skills honed.

Thanks again,
Terri.