Let a customer choose their own design

Sometimes you take the order long before anyone decides what goes on it. You run a preorder in your Facebook group, or pass a sign-up sheet around at work, and you end up with a list of names and their money already paid — but no wording, no thread colors, and no sizes. Then the blanks arrive and you have to go ask thirty people, one message at a time.

Every order in Broidry has a link that does that asking for you. The customer opens it, picks what they want, and their answers save onto the order you already made. Nothing new is created, so you never end up with two orders for the same person.

1. 1Add the order the way you normally would. For a preorder that came in through a group, the fastest path is the Quick add page and "Nothing to paste? Fill the order in yourself" — put in their name, the item, and whatever else you already know.
2. 2Open the order and find the card that says "Let them choose their design."
3. 3Click "Copy design link" to paste it into Messenger or a text, or click "Email it to them" if their email address is on the order. The email says their item is here and carries the link.
4. 4When they save their picks, the card changes to say they chose their design, and a line appears on the order's message thread. Their color, size, wording, thread and shipping choice are on the order itself.

An order with a price keeps what the price covers

Once an order has a price, either a quote you sent or any payment, the link still takes their wording, fonts, thread colors, garment color, and which size each piece is. It does not take a change that would change the price: more pieces than the price covers, a spot added, removed, or moved to another place, a size that costs extra, or pickup instead of shipping.

Their page leaves those controls off, so they see where each spot goes and how they get the order without being able to switch it. A change like that is never saved. The page tells them to send you a message about it, so you can change the order and its price together.

An order for several pieces asks for its own sizes

On an order for more than one piece, you do not have to remember to send that link at all. The moment the customer accepts the quote, their own quote page adds a box headed "One more thing: your sizes". It says how many pieces the order is for, and the button under it, "Give my sizes", opens the same picking page. What they fill in saves onto the order you already have.

Beside that button is "I don't have the sizes yet". Someone who accepts a nine-top order at nine at night, with nobody's sizes in front of them, can press it instead of closing the page or typing something to get past it. Their page then tells them you know the sizes are coming and stays open for them to come back to. On your side, a line goes on the order's message thread saying how many pieces still need a size, and you get a notification. The order still counts as waiting on its sizes, so pressing it never makes the order look finished when it is not.

What your customer sees and cannot change

They see your shop's name and colors, the item they ordered, and only the questions that actually have an answer. A tote, which comes in one size, never asks them for a size. An order for a logo never asks them to type lettering.

Under "What goes on it?", each spot asks what it should say. When your design library has designs buyers can choose from, each spot also shows two buttons, "Words" and "A design". Pressing "A design" shows your designs as pictures, the same ones your shop page offers on that item, and they press one. A spot with a design has nothing to type and no thread to pick, because the design stitches in its own colors. On the order, that spot names the design, the work sheet prints it, and the "Design used" card and the quote's stitch count follow it when the order had no design yet.

The fonts they pick from are the same fonts your order form offers, each one drawn in the words they type. If the order came from a product with its own font list, they see that list. When some of those fonts would not suit this piece, find the card that says "Fonts they can choose from" right under the design link on the order, click "Pick a few", and click the fonts to keep. They see only the ones you picked.

The page cannot change your price, your due date, or the status of the order, and it cannot edit the notes you wrote yourself — anything they add goes in underneath your notes with their name on it. The link works without a login, the same way your tracking and confirmation links do, so there is nothing for them to sign up for.