When you have selected one or more service providers to link to the service request they're added to the form under Service Providers. You can also manage their availability and vacation schedules from this screen.
You can choose a new status from the dropdown menu to track your communications as you communicate with the volunteer. Some statuses are set automatically based on the Contact button you select.
Contacting Selected Service Providers
There are several steps you can take to contact selected service providers. The emails sent using these buttons can be edited in System Emails. See Customizing System Emails
- Send New Request(s) - send a system email to each provider with a status of Contact by Email. Once they've been emailed, their status is changed to "Emailed"
- Resend Request(s) - Resent emails to any previously emailed providers on the list
- Send Confirmation(s) - Send a confirmation email to any provider with the status of "Selected" to confirm their selection as the service provider for that request. You can send the confirmation email any number of times. In Service Options, you can also configure the number of days between confirmation email reminders.
- Send Not Needed(s) - Send an email to providers with any status except "Selected" notifying them that their services are not needed.
- Summary - View a condensed version of the details entered into the service request form. You can also copy these details to send in a separate message.
- Send Cancellation(s) - If you cancel the request for any reason, all other buttons will be grayed out and you'll see a new button allowing you to send the selected service provider(s) (and the requesting member) a cancellation email.
Service Provider Statuses
- Contact by Phone - Selected when you first add a provider to the list, based on his or her preferred contact method.
- Contact by Email - Selected when you first add a provider to the list, based on his or her preferred contact method. When you click the Send Request(s) button, emails are sent to every provider with this status.
- Called - Select this option after you have called a provider but if you didn’t leave a message.
- Emailed - Select this option after you have emailed a provider. This option is also selected automatically by the system when you click the Send Request(s) button, for all providers to whom an email was sent.
- Left Message 1, 2 - Select an option if you called and left a message for a provider.
- Will Call Back—Select this option if you called and spoke to a provider who said he or she would call you back.
- Not Available - Select this option if the provider told you or emailed you that he or she was not available this time.
- Available - Select this option if the provider told you or emailed you that he or she was available for this request.
- Selected - Select this option when you have chosen one or more service providers to fulfill this request. When you click the Send Confirmation(s) button, confirmation emails will be sent to every provider with this status (regardless of their preferred contact method.) Selected Providers appear at the top of the list.
- Not Needed - Once you have chosen one or more providers to fulfill this request, change the others to Not Needed if you want to notify them. (If you don’t need to notify them, you can simply delete them.)
- Not Needed/Notified—When you click the Send Not Needed(s) button, an email telling providers that their services are not needed for this request will be sent automatically to everyone with the “Not Needed” status, and then this status will be set.
- Cancel - Select this status for a “Selected” provider if the request was canceled or modified and their services are no longer required. (For example, you might have originally needed two volunteers, but now you only need one.)