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The Kickstarter backer data is personally identifiable information. Treat it like medical radioactives. It's necessary, but don't leave it lying around. Under no circumstances is it to be uploaded to OneDrive, Google Drive, or other LLM feeders. Private, paid Dropbox accounts are acceptable.
I'm now setting a 30-day drop dead timeline for users to fill out their survey. I post KS updates saying “please fill out your survey” immediately, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week and last day.
Look at the backer survey
Find out which backers didn’t fill out the survey. (They will be grouped at the bottom.)
Ignore backers who don’t have to fill out a survey because they chose to back with no reward.
You’re left with a list of people who backed the kickstarter for a reward but didn’t fill out the survey. Email those people using kickstarter’s system. Search for them one by one by name, and then send them the following email.
It’s Alex here, Michael’s DAD (Director of Analog Distribution). We noticed that you haven’t filled out your kickstarter survey yet. We need you to fill it out so we can send you your book. Kickstarter itself doesn’t share your information with us, so the only way we can get it is for you to fill out the survey you received. Please fill it out today. Thanks!
Repeat this once a week. Stop when all surveys are answered or you’ve tried three times (whichever comes first).
If a backer can’t update their survey, but they message their address to you, you can add it manually. Go the backer’s name on the survey, click the hamburger menu, and click “manually update address.”
Once all surveys are in, (with the exception of those who ignored all three messages asking them to fill out the survey) then you can download the report. It will be a CSV file. Change it to an excel spreadsheet so it will be easier to work with.
Verify all the addresses as complete, especially international ones, and make sure they include phone numbers.
To mail books we must verify:
- Backer Name (full first name, and last name: Customs won't let initials like “AB Backer” out of the country)
- Backer Phone Number (including country code) – As stated in the KS description, we need a phone number to ship books. US shippers will not accept overseas packages without destination phone numbers. Shippers check for fakes like 555-555-1212 or 1-234-567-8900, so those will not work. Many European and Asian customs agencies expect to text notifications to recipients. Even USPS is requiring phone numbers for about half of Priority Mail packages within the US.
- Backer Shipping Address – Kickstarter might have backer addresses, but they do not pass that information to us. Yes, that's daft. If backers want a book, we need the backer to give us a shipping address. Also, people move. Shipping within the US is expensive, non-US shipping is outrageous. We need backers' current address, even if they provided it in the last campaign. (Also, now and then people forget and put a fake address to receive books. If the address looks bogus, check it.)
Go to the KS campaign→ Backer Report. Click “Download Full Backer Report.”
First download becomes our control spreadsheet. Updates get added to it.
Sort by rewards. Verify info for physical rewards.
If information is missing, contact backer via KS messages. Include the explanation for why we need it.
[Insert form letter here]
Update the control spreadsheet with backer responses. (Idea: color manual responses red so I have an idea how many backers can follow instructions?)
Get a new backer report twice a week. Copy entries that have been added since the last download to the control spreadsheet. Check those entries.
After the thirty days survey period expires, give a couple days for stragglers to respond. Because people.