Migrate Anonymous User to Registered User?

[bugman]

Had one customer that placed initial order as a GUEST, subsequently (week later) wanted to register and create an account but said he got error "this email address is already associated with an existing account".

I searched for the email address he was using and found it was associated with an anonymous account with his one in its history.

While he was on the phone with me, I DELETED the anonymous account, then he immediately was able to create a new account with the same email address.

Is this normal behavior? Surprises me that once the system recognizes an email address is associated with an anonymous account (which it obviously did) that it wouldn't allow user to create a registered account & just migrate all order history over to the new account.

The Guest order that was associated with the anonymous account is now an orphan it seems.... when viewing it's details there is no Customer Profile tab. Any way to link that order to the newly created account?

Further, is there a setting somewhere that enables anonymous accounts to migrate to registered accounts?

[Katie]

When a customer places an order without creating an account, it isn't really an anonymous account. It is actually referred to as a Guest account. Anonymous users are those who visit the site and don't checkout so we know very little information about them.

Since the customer had a Guest account created for the order, it might have been best if they use the Lost Password link from the login page. This should give them the ability to create a password.

When they tried to register for a new account, this is the message on the screen:

This email address is already associated with an existing user account. Use the 'Forgot User Name or Password' feature if you need to retrieve your login information, or use a different email address to register.

I just confirmed that using the Lost Password feature will send them a link in an email and they can set a new password for the guest account, which effectively makes this a registered account.

I agree that we can probably improve the wording on the login page, or within the lost password email itself, to make it more clear about how a Guest user can register after placing an order.

[bugman]

Gotcha.

So if they use the password link to create a pw and "transform" the guest account into a registered account, all the order history will still be there, and the account will now be listed under their real email address rather than the "zz_anonymous_etc" email address, correct?

Any way to link my one old order back to the new registered account for this guy? (if not, no big deal, but if there is I'll do it just to know I don't have an orphaned order out there somewhere!)

THANKS KATIE!!!

[Katie]

Yes, that's how it will work.

We added a Move Order feature in Gold R8, which would work perfectly for what you want to do. The only other way to fix the order is to manually update the database and point the order to the original user ID.

Thanks,
Katie

[bugman]

Not worth me trying to manually move one order, will let it lie.

Thanks again!

[jmestep]

That's great about the lost password email. I hadn't realized that. Bugman, in the past on a site we were always having customers calling us wanting to hook their orders under one account. Back then, Able didn't have the move order feature so we put more wording on the checkout page saying something like "If you don't create an account, you won't be able to view your previous orders...... etc. That did make them think twice.

[bugman]

Thanks jmestep.

We're considering just disabling guest-checkout altogether until Able can get this resolved.

It seems to be a bigger issue than just anonymous users... on OUR site NO ONE gets an email when they use the Forgot Username or PW link. I've tried it myself with a couple of valid usernames that are registered accounts, and no email is received. (I'm going to start a new thread with that topic to see how many others are experiencing this.)

In case anyone might find it useful, as a workaround for now here's what we're going to do to to migrate a guest account to a registered account. Nnot really fun, but it seems to work & the newly registered account will keep the orders that the user placed as a guest:

Anonymous User Account Migration - Change a Guest User to a Registered User
In the Admin panel:

• In USERS, locate the Guest Account by searching on the user's real email address
• Click the “person icon” to login as this user
• Once logged in as the Guest User, click ACCOUNT
• Click the PROFILE tab
• you should now see the user's real email address in both the Username and Email Address fields
• Set the password to <something>, click Update Profile
• Logout, then log back in to Admin panel
• Locate the User account by searching for REAL email address
• Click on Change Password, set password to <something-else>, be sure "User must change password at next login" IS CHECKED
• Inform user of new password and that they will be asked to change it upon their next login

Any further thoughts are greatly appreciated!!

[meer2005]

This is not working how it was described above. It does technically work, but it's not converting the anonymous username to the user email after using the forgot password link. Instead, it creates an account using the anonymous username which isn't user friendly at all.
The email below is what I'm receiving after placing as a guest and then going back to the forgot your password link.

Hello,
We received a request to reset the password associated with this email address. If you made this request, please follow the instructions below.
If you did not request to have your password reset, you can safely ignore this email. We assure you that your customer account is safe.
The user name associated with your email address is zz_anonymous_5094290@domain.xyz

It does let me create a password, but I have to login with zz_anonymous_5094290@domain.xyz, which is very confusing for our customers.

[Katie]

The ability for a guest user to migrate themselves to a registered account is not a built-in feature of AbleCommerce. However, it is very easy to do this if the customer calls in or emails you with the request.

1. From the User Search page, use the email address to find the user record. Just make sure the Anonymous Users box is checked.

2. Edit the record and copy the email address into the username field. Save.

3. Use the link to 'Change Password' and enter something temporary and easy to remember. Just make sure to leave the box checked so the user must change it on first login.

Provide the temp. password to your customer and now they can login. Super easy.

If you want the ability for the user to do this on their own, then you'll need to make a feature request by clicking the green feedback tab within your merchant admin.

I have to say something about this idea though. The process may not be straight-forward as you think because an email address is not unique in the system. There would need to be some way to authenticate the guest account before making it a registered user account (especially now that we can store payment profiles). I'm not sure how this could be accomplished, so please provide some of your own ideas if you submit the feature request.

[vsammons]

Has any progress been made on this feature of the Guest User being able to retrieve password and login to create a registered account? I would propose that there is code on the password reset link sent to the email of the guest account to include a link back to a secure page that passes the encrypted link back and populates the account name to the email address it is verifying. Capturing repeat consumers is very important and should be a very easy/secure process for them to make on their own. Customers do not want to take the time to email or call for support on something like this.

I would be happy to discuss if necessary.

[Katie]

We've already made the necessary improvement to make it easier for the Guest User to create a registered account. This was added in our last release of Gold R11. You can probably download the full build and compare the Lost Password email template with the one you are using now.

Thanks
Katie