How do I create a Self-Service Page?

Audiences increasingly expect organizations to offer a Self-Service portal that allows them to update personal information and view their contribution histories. Self-service also provides you with an opportunity to help your supporters feel valued by and connected to your organization, without one-on-one time with your donor services team.

Create as many custom Self-Service pages as you need, using different themes and messaging for specific groups of donors or supporters.

Allow supporters to manage their own records by:

• changing or canceling recurring commitments

• viewing their contribution history

• re-issuing donation receipts

• updating contact information and preferences, including their email and text subscriptions

Understanding the supporter experience

Your supporters access the Self-Service portal with a unique link you provide through Smart Links, or they can use a login request form that you can enable when you setup the page.

After requesting the login, your supporter will receive an email with a secure link to temporarily access the page. The login and Self-Service page link expires after 10 minutes if the link is not clicked.

What supporters see on the page depends how you choose to customize it. The basic template has a mobile-adaptive design and sections that expand to show editable details.

Supporters can choose the information they want to Manage and select the Edit link to make updates.

To securely close their session on a public computer, supporters can use the Logout link. If a supporter chooses to skip this step, they will be logged out but their session only closes four hours after they initially accessed the link.

Creating your page

To create a Self-Service page, open Online Actions from the Sidebar and select Pages.

Open the page builder using Create New Page, Self-Service from the dropdown.

Customizing your page

The Basics step is for adding general details and design elements, including:

• Name, Title, and Description

• Language

• Theme

• Headers and Footers

• Google Analytics

Login lets you set the web page supporters use to request the Self-Service page link. You can also set the message that accompanies their secure link and the message that appears if an email does not match any of your records.

The Build step is for customizing how your Self-Service page appears and choosing the sections you want included in the navigation.

• Welcome - Set the message and instructions supporters see when they arrive. Explain what actions they can take, share updates from your organization, and thank them for being engaged.

• Contributions - Contribution history, which includes contributions from the current calendar year and the two previous calendar years. You can also allow supporters to edit or cancel their Recurring Commitment.

  To give supporters the option to email copies of their contribution receipts to themselves, you need to create and activate a Self-Service Contribution Receipt Triggered Email.
  Read more about Triggered Email

• Contact Info - Select the personal details or email and text subscriptions supporters can view and edit.

You may have multiple contact records in your database for a single supporter, each with partial information. Even if these records share an email address, the Self-Service page associated with that email will only reflect a single contact record. Provide instruuctions on the page for how donors can contact you if their page does not provide a complete picture of their engagement history.

To Finish, set your Logout Confirmation message and a Confirmation Email. You can also decide what supporters will see if you deactivate the page.

Sharing the link on your website

Generate a link for your supporters to use to request access to your Self-Service page and add it to your website.

When a supporter enters their email on your login form, they receive a secure link to the page. The link is valid for 24 hours and expires if they log out of their session once they’ve used it. If the link is not used in time, or the supporter logs out before they finish, they will need to request a new link.

Secure links eliminate the need for supporters to create or use log-in credentials. The email message a supporter receives is coupled with the email address on their contact record. If they have access to the email account, they will have access to the page. 

Sharing the link using Targeted Email

When you create a Targeted Email, you can insert Smart Links to Self-Service pages. Smart Links pre-populate supporter information so they can access self-service pages without entering their email address.

Tracking changes

Changes made to contact and contribution records from a Self-Service page are credited to the username OA Self-Service Page in your Audit Trail and corresponding page sections, such as Email or Recurring Commitments.

Likewise, you may see changes made by the user OA Self-Service Page indicating a change your supporter made to their own data in your reports.
 

To track individual or aggregate usage of Self-Service pages, you can use integrated Google Analytics tracking or your own web tracking tool.