If you've gotten your Akada Online program up and running in the studio and you're ready to start introducing the parent portal to your customers this article should help you get started. Here we'll summarize the steps you need to take to get started and how to roll it out to your customers. The links included in this article will provide you with more in-depth instructions on the specific screens mentioned.
Before we work through the steps let's do a quick overview of the Parent Portal and why it is helpful. The theory of the parent portal is to give your customers access to handle simple tasks on their own to help reduce time spent standing at your reception desk or calling on the phone. Tasks such as remembering their schedule, making a payment, changing an address, or even picking classes for a new year. We are providing you the tools to give your parents just the amount of access to those things you want.
Now, let's get started. There are 3 areas in your Akada Online database that you'll need to focus on to prepare to roll everything out to your customer. It sounds like a lot but you really should be able to get everything done in less than an hour. Those areas are:
Customer Access Settings
Policies
Edit Session (registration dates)
We suggest working through the screens in the order below and then creating a parent account for yourself to play with. This will get you more familiar with the process from your customer's perspective and allow you to make more educated decisions from a studio standpoint. This will also help when your customer inevitably calls you with questions.
Customer Access Settings: These settings, broken down into 3 screens, are where you will determine what parents can and can not do with their account, what information is required when a new prospect is creating an account from scratch, and finally some of the layout and messaging features.
General Settings - Here you'll find the link to the parent login screen that you'll attach to your website, control certain layout settings, and set certain messages such as the confirmation message your customers will receive when submitting a registration.
Create Account Settings -This screen allows you to determine what information will be required of customers who are creating accounts from scratch before they are allowed to request any classes.
Existing Account Settings - On this screen you're able to determine what pieces of information your customers are able to see and update.
School Policies: These are the policies your customer must agree to before accessing their parent account for the first time.
Edit Session: Now that you've gotten your settings the way that you want them and your policies ready to go you're just about set. One last thing to double-check is going to be your registration start and end dates. From the edit session screen, you're able to control what days online registration begins and ends.
Sending Activation Emails - Okay, now that you have everything the way you want it and you're ready to introduce the parent portal to your clients there is just one last easy step to follow. From the General Settings screen under Customer Access Settings you can email all of your customers an email to activate their parent account. Click the Send button (pictured above) and you will be able to type out a message to your customer and send a link that is specific to each customer. All they'll need to do to activate their account is click on the link, create a password, agree to your policies, and then they're in! Feel free to type in both text fields.
Note: The link included in this email is intended to be a one-time use. If your customer tries to log back into their account using this link they'll be prompted to reset their password every time. So you may want to include instructions in the email directing them to log in from your website moving forward.