Approve New Members

Article author
Duncan from Memberstack

A. Create an Account While Applying

Step 1 → Allow members to create an account, but don't put them on a plan or grant access to any content doesn't grant access to anything. We recommend redirecting new members to a "Pending approval" page where you explain the process.

Also, you can use our Make or Zapier integrations to send yourself and/or the member an alert when they sign up.

Step 2 → Once you decide a member is approved, you can manually change their plan or ask them to purchase a paid plan via a members-only pricing page.

Note: Memberstack does not send emails on-plan-change at this time. You'll need to alert members by email if they're approved or denied.

B.  Create an Account After Applying

Step 1 → Have members submit a standard contact form (this is nice because you'll receive an alert when new members "sign up").

Step 2 → Once you decide to approve a member, you can send them a link to a secret sign-up form or manually add them to a free plan on your site.

Keywords: approve, approval, apply, application, 

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Comments

4 comments

  • Comment author
    Philip Pages
    • Edited
    We're in the process of migrating our membership site from wordpress/memberpress to webflow/memberstack.
     
    We need to capture payment when the user applies. Having the user apply > get approved > then add billing is too much friction. We need payment captured up front and then approve or deny/refund the application.

    So our ideal workflow is as follows: 

    User fills out application > Adds billing information > Goes to pending > We approve the application > Paid plan added (or paid plan access activated) > User billed or begins 30 day trial 

    Is this possible to set up? I'm not seeing a way to add paid accounts through the API
     
     
    1
  • Comment author
    Duncan Hamra

    Thanks for posting Philip 👋

    How long does it take you to review applications? I wonder if Memberstack's free trial feature could be useful here? We don't have the exact feature you're requesting, so I am worried anything I recommend will feel like a workaround 🤔

    Also, what percentage of applicants are approved? I like your idea of charging users to apply and then issuing a refund if they are denied. But that could get expensive. 

    0
  • Comment author
    Philip Pages
    • Edited

    I definitely think we can make the free trial feature work. The biggest issue I'm seeing is the approval process and preventing access to login credentials/premium content until the user has been approved or declined. I'm diving deeper into this but are there any workarounds you can think of in the mean time?  

    1
  • Comment author
    Duncan from Memberstack

    Sweeeeet! I'm happy to hear it. 

    Idea: what if you created a paid plan with a trial called "Application" which doesn't grant access to premium content? This would be your pre-approval plan. 

    Then, once approved you can swap our their plans on Stripe 🎉

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