Release notes: August-September 2023

We’ve been busy making lots of small changes to our subscriptions, based on your feedback in our subscriber survey earlier this year.

Here’s what’s new over the last two months.

Laptop showing Sample Coffee website, sitting on a table next to a speckled ceramic mug with coffee


Late winter and early spring is when we’re starting to see new growth and budding flowers in our plants, and it feels a good time to tend to some small details all over our subscriber experience.

We’ve been busy across the whole experience, but let’s call out some key ones:

Scan bag QR codes for brew recommendations

This was already in the works before August… but we’ve improved it and officially ‘launched’ it in August.

You can scan the QR code on any of our bags to find out more info about the coffee, and most importantly, see our recommended brew window dates for that specific bag’s roast date and type of coffee – plus the story of the coffee, producers, and other brewing advice. It’s even smart enough to know if we pre-ground the bag (which changes the recommended brewing dates) so you’ll always see the right info.


Better emails

Aside from getting your coffee delivered in a box, emails are the main way you hear from us. Our old emails were getting a bit dusty, so we’ve given them a bit of a polish and (hopefully) made them a bit more useful to you, based on your feedback.

Image of order shipped email, showing full details for each coffee sent

Our order shipped emails pack in more info on the coffee you’re receiving and now show the recommended brewing window for that coffee. (We still don’t name the exact coffee you’re receiving in the email, in case you’d like to keep that a surprise for unboxing 🤫).

Plus you’ll see when your next delivery is scheduled, and a link to jump straight into changing the next delivery date, or how often or how much coffee you receive.

If you’re receiving multiple subscription deliveries the same day, you’ll know that we bundle all your coffee into one box. Now we’ll also bundle them all into a single order shipped email. Your inbox will thank us.


Meanwhile, if you make a change to your deliveries and receive a payment refund email … they now include details of which order was refunded and when your next delivery is due.

And speaking of payment, if you happen to receive emails about problems with a payment (it happens to all of us) that email now lets you know any extra details our system receives about why we weren’t able to process a payment, to help you remedy things in time for your regular coffee delivery.

Phew!

Grind size visual guides

To help dial in your grind settings at home, we’ve added Grind size visual guides as an option to bundle with your subscription. Pick the brew methods you use, and we’ll send you a small clear bag of pre-ground coffee so you can visually check how your grind setting matches our recommendation.


More flexible bundle pricing

You might have noticed those grind size visual guides are free for subscribers, but $1 for everyone else in our online store. We couldn’t split our pricing between “online store” and “bundled with subscriptions” before, so that’s something new we’ve built this month, too!


Better bundle billing

We used to charge for bundled items with your next regular subscription payment, which could mean bundled items waited weeks before being charged. A few of you told us that was confusing, so we’ve updated our system to charge your card for bundled items at the time they’re added.


Updated bag labels

To go with our new compostable coffee bags, we’ve got slightly adjusted printed label sizes. So we took the opportunity to make some minor tweaks to the labels, and call attention to the QR code on each bag which shows our brewing recommendation dates.


Moving beyond monthly

We heard some of you would like your deliveries just a little less often, so there’s now an option to have your coffee delivered every five weeks, in addition to our usual choice of every 1-4 weeks. You do you!


Plus, some things for folks who aren’t subscribers:

We ship to more countries

If you don’t live in Austalia or have coffee-loving friends overseas, we’ve added more countries to our international shipping roster. We’re now sending online orders out to Thailand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the United Arab Emirates.

That’s on top of our previous options (UK, USA, Canada, Vietnam, Germany, and our friends in New Zealand).

Now you can share Sample with the world!


Tags: release-notes, subscriptions


 

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