HAA Portal Readiness Checklist
Its important to put your best foot forward and a great way to start is to update your HAA Portal Profile. We’ve created this checklist to make sure you are ready to be viewed by others. Please update your “My Account” page with your mailing address. This information is not made public but is important for proper registration with the HAA. Please keep your address and contact information up to date so we can stay in touch. It is here where you can review purchases, update credit card information, and, if necessary, cancel your membership. Keep in mind that nothing on the My Account page is made public. The only address/location viewers can see is what you place in your Profile page.
1) To view your Profile, return to the previous pages tab and click on the My Profile link on the right sidebar. This page was launched as a new page so you can review the checklist while you make changes.
2) You’ll see a small “Edit Profile” link; click it to make changes to your profile. This link is only visible to you.
3) On the top of the page you’ll see a box labeled “Your Location”. Click on the “Edit Location” button to make sure the location is correct. If you don’t want to reveal your actual address simply enter your town, state (if applicable), postal code, and country. This way you’ll appear in our Dealer Locator but your actual address will be hidden. If you do not want to appear on the Dealer Locator, you can clear out the address details completely.
4) Add your “Avatar”! While cartoon characters and other images might convey your fun side, a professional head shot is the best choice… but its your choice. Just keep it clean.
5) It’s highly recommended that you add pictures to your “Gallery”. The Gallery is a great way to advertise your business and gain notoriety in the HAA Community. The best choice is final and under-construction pics of your projects. The more the merrier! They will be seen and they link back to your Profile page where potential customers can contact you.
6) Please update your display name with your full name; this is your professional public moniker. Enter your full name. Leaving it as your first name and last initial does not convey a sense of trust to potential clients. It is the header for your virtual HAA business card which is your profile page. It is the name seen on your “Dealer Locator” link (for Certified Pro’s only) and on any posts including Forum posts, your Gallery, and Friends links. Your display name links back to your profile where ever it is displayed by the site. We also have a number of identical first names so it’s easier for customers to differentiate between dealers when you add your last name. If a client uses the search function to confirm your HAA certification, they may not find you without your last name. Your name was loaded with only the initial to protect your privacy in case you had chosen to remain hidden.
7) You can change your password here (and also on the My Account page). If your browser automatically fills in the password box, clear it before clicking update or the page will require you to retype your password in the “Re-type your Password” box. i.e. if you don’t wish to change your password leave both of these boxes blank.
8) Set the visibility of your profile information. For Pro’s it is highly recommended to leave your Profile Information and Member Search set to “Public”. If you participate on the site, its a good idea to show that, by setting your “Who can see your activity?” to Public as well. Regarding the “Who can see your friendships?” option, please set it to “Friends”. If you don’t set it to “Friends” your friends will not see you on their friend list. The “Just Me” option literally means only you can see if your friends with another member; that’s not friendly.
9) Take a little time and complete a short Bio on yourself. Its not recommended that this be a life story but details like how many years in the business and a short promo for your services are good to show. This is a required entry. A good idea is to compose the Bio in a word processor (like Word) to catch spelling and grammar errors, then copy/paste the completed Bio in the box. Please keep it brief. The site does not allow “right-clicks”, so use the keyboard shortcut “ctrl-v” to paste information into the site copied from another source.
10) You can create and add a signature block for your Forum posts here. Please keep any reference to credentials factual. Also, please report any Enthusiast members who claim to be Pro’s or who include a reference to a HAA certification but are not HAA Pro members. Your HAA Certification is only valid if you are listed in the HAA Dealer Locator. Expired HAA Membership constitutes an expired HAA Certification and restricts the right to use any HAA logos or show HAA certifications. HAA Pro’s who wish to participate as Enthusiasts are not permitted to identify themselves as Pro’s. Help us keep impersonators from spoiling the integrity of our community.
11) You can access your private messages using the envelope icon at the bottom of the page. You can also add a message that will be automatically added to any of your messages via the link below it.
Other Features
12) Check out the Discussion Groups page and consider joining a group or creating one for a specific topic. These can be made private which means any member requests must be approved by the Group creator. To make a new Discussion Group private, as the creator, simply edit the group. No one else will be able to edit the group besides you.
13) Once you’ve updated your information, take some time to look at your public Profile including confirming your proper location.
14) Start your HAA Community participation by posting some information or a question in the Pro Forum or answering a question in the Enthusiasts forums. Any Forum marked as “(Pro Only)” is only visible to other Pro members and is hidden from Enthusiasts.
15) You can always get back to your Professional Home Page by clicking the HAA logo on the top of all pages. Your home page has several useful links specific to your current certification or membership level. Here, you can add your review of the HAA training you received, you can also see the latest versions of the training slides. HAA logo’s are also available for download here. You will have access only to the logo’s your are authorized to use. These logo’s may be used on your website, business cards, or business related ads. You may not use the logo’s for any activity or in conjunction with any activity where the reputation of the HAA is placed in a negative light. You may not act as an agent for the HAA or express any opinion that you attribute to being the HAA. You may only use the logo’s specific to your certification level and that are found in the logo pak on your HAA home page.
16) You can always see the credentials of anyone you communicate with. Just click on their display name and you’ll see their profile. Be aware that an Enthusiast member may be a potential customer for you. If they request assistance and you can’t help, forward them to another member in your area. How we treat Enthusiasts, even those who are not our customers, reflects on our entire HAA Pro Community. In addition, you don’t want an Enthusiast to make a bad post about their interaction with you on the site or in private.