Spoiler: As long as you are over 16 years of age, the minimum age for an Artifcts member, and you have no severe cognitive health issues, age doesn’t matter when it comes to Artifcts. Only the WHY your client is Artifcting and will derive value from Artifcts may differ from a 16-year-old.
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Professionals often ask us for advice on how best to introduce Artifcts to their most senior clients. Many professionals worry the effort-reward balance will be off for them and for their clients and the professionals lament the loss, “All those stories. All that ‘stuff!’”
No doubt, if you are a digitally native ‘kid’ today, you have the advantage over, well, nearly all of the rest of us! But we’ve found that 9 times out of 10 a person’s immediate resistance to new technology is not about the technology or about their numerical age. It’s about one of four things, and we’re telling you right now, even a 35-year-old would sympathize:
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- Time to learn new tech and Artifct
- Interest in learning new tech
- Self-identifying as someone “too old” for or “bad at” tech
- Security concerns and skepticism of all things digital and/or cloud
How We Introduce Artifcts to Our Most Senior Members
We put ourselves in the experience.
Our co-founders have quite literally said nearly these exact words:
“It takes a lot to convince me to download one more app or try out new technology. It’s exhausting! I can tell you, Artifcts feels different. It’s designed to feel familiar to other applications you may use so it’s faster to learn. And Artifcts always builds in tips to help right where you need them.”
“After creating one or two Artifcts, you’ll see how easy it is. You can’t mess it up. There’s no right or wrong way to Artifct. Plus, unlike many tech companies these days, Artifcts offers a downloadable help guide showing you the steps and what all the icons and buttons mean. There are frequently asked questions, too. I can print out all of this for you to have next to you as you create Artifcts. Why don’t more companies do that?!”
We help them discover their ‘why.’
Here are just two examples of “whys” in our conversations with Arti Community members:
“Artifcts is fun & relaxes me, makes me feel good. And it helps me to connect more meaningfully with friends and family. When my dad sends me an Artifct, I almost always text him to chat about it. Sometimes I call, too, if it’s really funny or sweet.”
“Plus, Artifcts helps me get stuff done. I can do so much with every Artifct I make. Because you want to {declutter/organize/work on your will/capture more stories for your family…}, let’s create a couple Artifcts so you can see how it will help you.”
We help them discover their ‘why.’
We position Artifcts within their daily tech experience.
We recommend you explore these four questions with them, questions we suspect may already be a part of your workflow and services:
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- How do you usually communicate with family, friends, and neighbors? Do you prefer text messages, email, phone calls, virtual visits?
- What technology devices do you use daily, maybe a smartphone, iPad or similar, or a laptop or desktop computer?
- What do you use that device for (social media, shopping, community events, paying bills…)? And are you using a web browser like Safari or Chrome, or did you download an app for those activities?
- What are your hobbies, e.g. travel, art, quilting, genealogy, photography, birding?
Now put all of that together
Here are two real-life examples of how we introduced Artifcts into the daily lives of now ardent fans of Artifcts. Names & some details changed for privacy.
Meet Edward
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- Age: 75
- Occupation: Retired. Career as a travel writer.
- Hobbies: Woodworking, volunteering
- Tech usage: iPad and iPhone, “But only for my newspaper, photos, phone calls, and some YouTube videos.”
- Tell us one thing about you: “Proud bachelor for life and devoted uncle and great uncle.”
Edward loves his bachelor's lifestyle.
“I have globetrotted for decades. I had to be one of the first professionals in the travel testimonials business. Back in the day, so many of the mementos I collected could only be bought if you went to those countries. International trade and shopping weren’t what they are today.”
As life went on, Edward was pulled home more often and decided to semi-retire at a young 55.
“Retired, yes, but not done living. I’ve been a Big Brother for decades, but I’m also a proud uncle and great uncle. I’ve taught my nephew woodworking using the same tools my father taught me with.”
Artifcting is Edward’s newest hobby. His goal is to capture the family history behind the pieces of the multi-generational woodwork collection his father and his grandfather created. While they sold much of it through the years—“They were big artists in their days, at least in their corner of the world.”—some pieces have never been and will never be for sale, if Edward has his way.
“I need Artifcts to tell the stories and to document the value. A lot of these pieces have financial value."
You know, my nephews don’t want to listen to what I have to say much these days. They are busy with their own lives. But someday, they’ll want to know. And I have treasures from all over the world that I want to leave to them, but what’s a treasure without its story? JUNK. Ha!”
Edward installed Artifcts on his iPad and phone ahead of our concierge Artifcts session. But he was ultimately more inclined to use the Artifcts app for the ease of showing and sharing his Artifcts with friends and family while on the go.
“I have a lot, not that I’m a hoarder, but it’s cool stuff, stuff they’ll want to know about. I’m grateful to you all [at Artifcts] for helping me get started recording the stories, adding the photos. It’s everything.”
Meet Betty
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- Age: 97
- Occupation: Retired. Career spanned family grocery store, library services, and homemaker
- Hobbies: Swimming
- Tech usage: iPad, Alexa
- Tell us one thing about you: “I hate a mess.”
Betty is a 97-year-old widower with 3 sons and 14 grandchildren. She loves to swim, play backgammon, and visit her local botanical garden. Throughout her adult life she moved often as a military spouse. Now she says, “I’m feeling a bit tired, and I can’t move around as well anymore,” a change she attributes not to age but to her heart condition.
She has a “command station” set up in her living room with everything she needs within reach, including her iPad. On the iPad, she gets notifications from text messages sent to her phone, she follows her independent senior living community on Facebook, and she checks her two favorite local grocery stores’ apps every day for new deals and coupons. She has downsized extensively and now has a small mix of sentimental and valuable items remaining, all deeply important to her.
Enter Artifcts!
Betty's grandson purchased in-person Artifcts concierge services to help her Artifct her collections, family jewelry, photos, and other mementos over the course of a few days. As we showed Betty examples of Artifcts, we discussed that just as her email is stored privately in the cloud, so too will her Artifcts be stored privately. That was the top concern she raised with her grandson before we walked through the door.
Our concierge time was spent wisely:
1. We installed the web-version of Artifcts on her iPad (not the Artifcts app).
She already had a digital password keeper—which she unlocks with bio authentication—and we added the Artifcts password to the keeper. (See, we told you, age is not the limiting factor. Even the oldest among us use password keepers. NEVER ever encourage people to keep a physical list of passwords, never mind buy a book labeled “passwords.” Shame on any company that would sell such a product!)
2. We placed the Artifcts icon next to the grocery store icons. She knows how to find them and will now see Artifcts there, too, for a gentle reminder every day.
We installed the web-version because we kept it bookmarked to her family’s invite-only circle (more on that below) to reduce the need for navigation. She can simply refresh her screen to see the latest, which she is used to doing with her grocery store deals and Facebook group.
3. We enabled in-browser and email notifications so that when family and friends share Artifcts with her, she’ll know.
We shared an Artifct with her so she could experience the notification and what it will look like. And we shared an Artifct we created together with her family so THEY also knew what to expect.
4. Within Artifcts, we created an Artifcts Invite-Only circle so that her family can all share Artifcts with each other.
5. Betty does not plan to create Artifcts on her own. She has a caregiver who visits every afternoon, and she wants her to create the Artifcts for all of her photos and mementos, but she’s also excited to show her caregiver the new Artifcts she receives from her family.
“She and I talk for hours. She’s going to love these stories. And my family? Well, I don’t want them to sit around wondering what to do with it all. I started trying to write it down, but it’s not the same as telling them about it. And telling them, well, I don’t know if they’d remember it all. And they don’t live nearby anyway.”
Options for Professionals to Get Clients Started with Artifcts
If you know how valuable Artifcts could be for your client and want to get your client started, you have options. We’ll list them in order from least to most involved, which also if in order from free to paid:
Option 1: Invite them to Artifcts. Anyone can create a free account on Artifcts.com and then go to the + menu in the top banner, and “Invite Friends.”
You will simply enter their name, email address, and a personal note. They will receive an email with your personalized greeting, and they can click to sign up free.
This is a great option if you plan to then follow up. They will probably have questions and might enjoy if you also share an Artifct of yours with them, too!
Option 2. Gift them a branded gift membership. If you visit Artifcts for Professionals, and scroll down, we give you an option to gift a membership to a client and include your brand logo. You can also pick from several themed occasions.
Your logo will not be obtrusive. It will appear for the one-year duration of the gifted membership. It makes for a great on ramp for the “why” behind your gift – what is happening in their life that makes Artifcts the perfect gift? Watch our video about branded Artifcts gift memberships >
Option 3. Purchase an Artifcts for Professionals (ARTIPro) membership. As an ARTIPro, you can invite your client to Artifcts, either for free—and then create up to 5 free Artifcts together—or with a gifted and branded membership.
An ARTIPro invite is different than a regular invite (per option 1 above) because when they accept your invite, you’ll see them appear on your ARTIPro homepage as a new client. When you click on their client tile, you’ll now have the option to create an Artifct for and with them. Artifcting is a great way to expand your business and your revenue!
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The first four days of our 12 Days of Artifcts challenge. Objects with stories, your stories!
