Current State

😤 The Email Chaos

Every artist, educator, and partner request arrives as an email. The AR team manually looks up information in SAM, replies, and tries to shepherd an order through an undefined process — with no tracking, no queue, no consistency.

How it works today

🎸

Artist

sends email asking about product, pricing, availability

→

📥

AR Inbox

email lands with no structure, no priority, no tracking

→

🔍

Manual Lookup

AR team searches SAM for pricing, stock, variants

→

📧

Reply Email

sends info back — artist may ask follow-ups

→

🤷

Order Entry?

somehow gets to order team — process unclear

→

💳

Payment?

collection method undefined and inconsistent

The problems this creates

🚫

No audit trailRequests live only in personal email inboxes. If the AR person is out, it disappears.

⏳

5+ email touchpoints per orderRequest → clarification → lookup → reply → order → payment → confirmation.

🔍

Manual SAM lookup every single timeAR team digs into SAM for every inquiry — no catalog, no self-service.

❓

Undefined payment pathNo standard way to collect payment — every order is a one-off.

📊

Zero visibility or reportingCan't track volume, response time, conversion, or team workload.

🎯

Inconsistent experienceEach artist gets a different experience depending on who they email and when.

Stage 1 — Fastest Win

⚡ Structured Intake

Replace the email chain with a Typeform in the portal. One submission simultaneously creates a Monday.com board item and an ActiveCampaign request record — giving the AR team a real queue and giving artists an immediate automated response.

Systems involved

Thinkific Portal

Typeform

Monday.com

ActiveCampaign

The new flow

🎸

Artist

logs into portal

→

📋Typeform
structured intake form in portal

⇒

📌Monday.com
board item created instantly

🗂️ActiveCampaign
custom object created

→

✅

Auto-Response

artist gets immediate confirmation

What changes for the AR team

📌

Real queue in Monday.comEvery request is a board item with status, owner, priority, and deadline.

🔔

Automated notificationsMonday.com automations notify the right team member the moment a request lands.

📧

Artist gets an instant replyAuto-response sets expectations — no more "did they get my email?" anxiety.

🗂️

CRM record created automaticallyActiveCampaign logs every request as a touchpoint — no manual entry.

📊

Full visibility & reportingSee volume, response time, who owns what, and what's been pending too long.

⚠️

AR team still does SAM lookupThe form captures the request, but pricing/availability still requires manual lookup — solved in Stage 2.

What the Monday.com board looks like

📋 AR Requests Board New item auto-created when Typeform is submitted

Item / Artist	Product Request	Segment	Status	Owner	Submitted
🎸 Jordan M.	Roland TD-50X Kit	Artist Premier	🔄 In Progress	Slade	Today, 9:14am
🎹 Priya K.	JUPITER-X + accessories	Educator	🆕 New	Unassigned	Today, 11:02am
🥁 Marcus T.	VAD706 Electronic Kit	Full-Time Performer	✅ Sent to Order	Lis	Yesterday

Stage 2 — Next

📦 Self-Service Catalog

A digital product catalog — synced from SAM — lives inside the portal. Artists browse pricing, availability, and variants themselves, then submit a Typeform order request pre-filled with their selection. The AR team shifts from lookup technicians to approvers.

Systems involved

SAM (source of truth)

Thinkific Portal

Typeform

Monday.com

ActiveCampaign

The new flow

🗄️SAM
syncs catalog data to portal

→

🛍️

Portal Catalog

artist browses, prices, variants

→

📋

Typeform

pre-filled order request

→

📌

Monday.com

order initiated on board

→

⌨️

Order Entry

AR team enters into SAM

↑ AR team handles approvals and exceptions only — routine lookups eliminated ↑

What data syncs from SAM → portal

🏷️

Pricing by tierRetail, Dealer, Artist Premier, General — displayed based on the logged-in user's segment.

📦

Availability & stockReal-time qty from SAM warehouse — "In Stock," "Low Stock," or "On Order."

🎨

Variants & configurationsColors, bundles, accessories — synced so artists see what's actually orderable.

📝

Product descriptions & specsPulled from SAM's catalog — no manual content entry or duplication.

Stage 3 — Nicest

🚀 Full Commerce Integration

Shopify acts as the full storefront embedded in the Thinkific portal. SSO login automatically identifies the user and applies the correct price tier at checkout. Orders flow directly to SAM via API — fully automated, zero manual steps.

Systems involved

SAM (backend)

Thinkific (portal)

Shopify (storefront)

ActiveCampaign

Roland SSO

The fully automated flow

🔐

SSO Login

identity confirmed, segment known

→

🛍️

Thinkific Portal

catalog + Shopify storefront

→

💳

Shopify Checkout

correct price applied auto

→

📡

SAM API

order entered automatically

→

🚚

Fulfillment

tracking returned to portal

How the 4 price tiers work automatically

🔐 SSO Login → Roland Account identity → AC segment tag → Shopify customer tag → Correct price at checkout ✓

🌐

Retail

General public — no login required. Full MSRP price.

🏪

Dealer

Verified Roland dealers. Wholesale pricing tier.

⭐

Artist Premier

Endorsed and verified artists. Best pricing available.

🤝

General

Partners, educators, Creator Collective. Partner pricing.

💡 How it resolves: When the artist logs in via SSO, their Roland Account identity is passed to ActiveCampaign. Their segment tag (e.g. artist_premier) maps to a Shopify customer tag, which triggers Shopify's price list for that segment. The artist sees only their price — no confusion, no manual override needed.

What the AR team's role becomes

🤖

Zero manual order entryOrders flow from Shopify directly into SAM via API — no human in the loop.

🎯

AR team focuses on relationshipsNot logistics. They support artists creatively, not administratively.

📦

Tracking returned to the portalArtist sees order status and tracking inside the portal without emailing anyone.

🔧

Key dependency: Thinkific embedShopify's buy button or iframe embed must be tested for compatibility with Thinkific's JS restrictions.