Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Requesting feedback about accepting payment on websites

[Pare Gerou (paregerou]

Hi Lorain,

We have a Wix site, and I’ve found their customer service incredibly
helpful!

You don’t need anything fancy to collect Explorer dues on your website. Add
a button linking directly to your bank account or PayPal for payments. Once
they click the button, making a payment is straightforward. I also created
buttons next to the payment option for our Explorer application, Explorer
Questionnaire, and our Community Resume, adapted from Cynthia Tina's
excellent community resume.  Creating the buttons and putting live links in
takes less than 2 minutes.

Also, you can set up an automated email triggered by the submission of the
Explorer application to send them the "Next Steps" email, which informs
them about particular explorer orientations, sociocracy training details,
the buddy system, etc.

However, we’ve faced a challenge, so I responded. We require all interested
people to go to a Friday coffee first, and we then screen and have multiple
conversations with each other.  We have these email or Zoom conversations
to "vet" the potential Explorer members who have gone to the information
coffee to ensure it is a good fit, can afford the homes, know the timeline,
etc.  - all before they pay their dues and fill out the application. This
is a variation on a common cohousing theme.  We require an information
session, Our Friday Information Coffees and members get to meet prospective
members during these informational coffees.   Again, not unique.

However, despite clear website instructions telling people they have to go
through the Friday Coffee and then talk with us and request Explorer status
before they pay or fill out the application, we've encountered issues where
individuals pay Explorer membership dues and fill out the application
before attending the information coffee or talking to us,

As a result, once you activate that payment link, there’s a chance that
some people not yet qualified for Explorer status will pay, which could
lead to the need for reimbursements.  I've solved this by using temporary
links in the buttons.  The link only lasts a short while, and then I need
to put it in again for the following qualified person we've talked to.  It
is worth it because we are international, and Wix is tracking all sorts of
important information when we do it all through the site.  Adding the link
occasionally sounds like a pain, but it only takes 30 seconds.

So my advice is to add the button on the website and use it-- for
statistics and for tracking and for national and international member
reasons, but use only temporary payment links that are put in right before
the individuals you've talked to joins as an Explorer.

What do you think?  Do you have an improvement to this method?

Hope this helps,

Pare for Greek Village Cohousing

On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 5:41 PM Lorraine Faris <lor.f50 [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello
> We use WIX to host our website.  We are exploring an eCommerce upgrade to
> collect Explorer payments directly on our website to reduce a barrier to
> becoming an Explorer with us.
>
> We would appreciate feedback, especially from others whose sites are hosted
> by WIX, about this approach to making it easier for people to become
> Explorers.
>
> We are a forming community, with a site identified and in the process of
> getting it under contract.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Lorraine Faris
> Cohousing of Greater Baltimore
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