The Front Desk tool is used to look up member information, which you can then provide to people who call your Chamber or Association for referrals to businesses in the community. When used, the Front desk tool completes two important tasks:
- Finding and promoting your members to visitors and other inquirers
- Tracking and Communicating those Referrals out to your Members
- In the main menu, go to Profiles > Front Desk Referrals.
- Enter a search word for the type of businesses/members you want to pull up. The keyword you enter will be searched for based on the check boxes below the search function. ('Groups' searches for the keyword in any Affiliation Codes in MC Trade that are set as 'Available for Web Searches.')
- Click Search. All of the member Names, and Categories, that match the keyword you entered are displayed.
- Check the checkbox(es) next to the results that you would like to view in more detail, and click Next to continue.
- This screen displays each result in detail, including address and phone, contact email, website, map link, and Business Description. Check the checkbox(es) next to each of the companies that you would like to refer. You can also click Select All at the top.
- By default, one referral, of the type 'Front Desk,' will be recorded for each member checked below. You can change either of these fields if necessary, though normally they will be left as the default settings. Click Next to continue.
- At this point, you can click Save Referrals if you have provided the referral information via phone and do not need to collect any information about the inquirer.
- If you would like to send the inquirer the referral information via email, you can enter the email address now. In addition, you will have the opportunity on the next screen to send an email to the members receiving referrals. If the inquirer gives permission for his/her contact information to be forwarded to the member, you can check the checkbox indicating what information the inquirer is allowing to be forwarded. Make sure to then also fill in the corresponding contact fields. Click Save Referrals to continue.
- If you do not need to send any emails or print referrals, you can click Finish to return to the home screen.
- You have three options before finishing this referral: print a list of the referral information, or send an email to the inquirer and/or the members receiving the referrals.
The emails will automatically populate with the default text filled in by your System Administrator. You can edit this text if necessary. - Click Finish.
If you send an email to the inquirer, it will contain a link at the bottom. The link will direct the inquirer to your website, showing only the companies that you had selected in Front Desk.