Frequently Asked Questions

Isn't this spam?

Nope. Not even close. For all the reasons we list below:

Your customers have to sign up for the opportunity to win your prize, so You're a Winner! is a real opt-in list.
Every time the You're a Winner! client program gets a new email address added to its database, it automatically sends an email to that new address requesting a confirmation reply. That reply updates the subscriber status in Mailchimp and is forwarded to the You're a Winner! client program running at your facility prior to the subscriber actually being included in a draw. If the customer doesn't reply to the confirmation email, they're not entered in any draw, and they don't get any further emails from the system. The next time they visit, the client software will pop up a message telling the customer they aren't yet activated, but beyond that, they don't hear from your facility until they confirm - with one exception.

If a confirmation email were to get lost in transit or accidentally deleted the customer could be locked out of any draws for your facility, so there is an administrative function located in the subscriber's list on the You're a Winner! client program that allows you to re-send a confirmation email.
Every email that goes out has an unsubscribe link in the body of the email. If the customer clicks that link, a reply email is created on the customer's computer and is sent to our server which in turn forwards a command to the client software running at your facility that removes that customer from the active contestant list.

Can't I just use my email software to do the same thing You're a Winner! does?

Not really. There are a number of problems.

E-mail and list management software doesn't do random draws. You're a Winner! does.
The best way to get your customers to sign up and then read the emails you send is to give them something of value. Of course, the actual value per email has to be small to keep your costs down, but the perceived value has to be significant. A random draw succeeds on both counts.
Ideally, you want to create a little excitement every time your customer sees your company name. Once again, a random draw succeeds here. The natural inclination of a participant when that person receives the email is to wonder "Did I win?" and even if they didn't, that bit of excitement lingers and is associated with your company.
You can't have customers self-register with e-mail and list management software. With You're a Winner!, you can. E-mail clients and list managers are designed for a different purpose and are much more difficult to use than You're a Winner!. Both also allow the person entering the information much more control over the program than You're a Winner! does, and there's always someone who will trash your database to get a better chance of winning - if they can get at it.
So, with an email or list manager package, you would have to have a staff person enter the names and addresses, and that person costs money, raising the cost of the campaign. Also, with the pressure of events in any business the data entry work required to support a marketing campaign down the road tends to get downgraded until it just doesn't get done. With You're a Winner!, your customers can do the work for you.
E-mail and list management software can't tell you how often the average customer visits because the customer signs up to the list only once. You're a Winner! can because customers sign up each time they visit your facility to increase their chances of winning.
E-mail and list management software can't automatically drop inactive customers from the draw. You're a Winner! can and does. Customers who haven't visited your facility in the time period you specify are dropped from the contest. They will still be on the mailing list so you can send them emails through MailChimp, but they won't be included in the draw.
E-mail and list management software requires you to maintain the mailing list. With You're a Winner!, the list is managed for you, by a combination of MailChimp and our servers, remotely and automatically.

Can I send emails to my customers without running a contest?

Sure. The You're a Winner! client works hand in hand with MailChimp. Your mailing list is maintained on MailChimp's servers and you can send emails to all the active subscribers through the MailChimp interface.

Where are the email addresses stored? Who "owns" them? Do you share or sell email addresses that I collect?

The email addresses you collect are stored on your computer, our server and on MailChimp's servers. The email addresses stored on your computer are yours to use as you wish. We store the email addresses you collect on our server to provide the QR code registration facility to all clients. We will not publish, share or otherwise utilize these email addresses. The email addresses stored on MailChimp's servers are subject to the terms of use pertaining to MailChimp's service.

How can I edit the emails You're a Winner! sends?

You edit the content of the templates you've created on MailChimp and identified in the You're a Winner! configuration pages. Any changes you make in the templates will appear the next time the template is used to generate emails.

What's with the QR code on the registration window. How does this work?

The QR code on the registration window actually is a URL that directs your customer to our (christiesoftware.ca) server along with an identification code that identifies your facility as the client. If your customer has never used the device they're using to scan the code to scan another You're a Winner! QR code then they'll see a registration window similar to the one on display at your site, and they'll need to fill in the form (first name, last name, email address, optional birthday and anniversary dates) and submit it. Once they've done that the server places a cookie for christiesoftware.ca on the device. The cookie contains a UUID that is meaningless to anyone except our server. When your customer encounters another facility running the You're a Winner! client all the customer has to do to register is to scan the QR code at that facility and the code is sent along with the cookie content to uniquely identify that customer to the new facility.

How secure is your system?

You're a Winner! uses TLS for all communications to MailChimp's servers and to our server.