Introducing…SFI Icebreakers!
Definition: "A thing that serves to relieve inhibitions or tension between people, or start a conversation."
And that's precisely what our new Icebreakers are designed to do—to help you engage new PSAs when they join your SFI team!
Here's how SFI Icebreakers work:
Whenever you sign up a new PSA, you'll have the option of using the new Icebreaker tool.
Note: The easiest way is to just click the link to their Affiliate Snapshot included in the New PSA Notifications you receive by email instantly each time you personally sign up a new affiliate. From the Affiliate Snapshot, click the green handshake icon located behind their name to initiate the Icebreaker.
When you initiate an Icebreaker, your new PSA will see a screen like this appear at the Affiliate Center. You'll notice the message is concise, friendly, and non-intimidating:
Note that, unlike SFIM (SFI Instant Messaging), the Icebreaker window appears on top of their Affiliate Center screen...so it's impossible to miss. It also cannot be dismissed without responding.
Four choices are given to your PSA:
If online now, they can respond with a, "Yes, let's chat now" (in which case SFIM is automatically and immediately engaged for both of you).
They can schedule a chat with you for a later time.
They can request that your conversation be moved from chat to email.
They can defer to a later, unspecified time in the future.
Maximize your results
Your Icebreaker will feature your name, rank, and account photo.
IMPORTANT: For Icebreakers to work for you, it's vital that you are using a good photo of yourself, with a friendly, smiling face. Make sure your photo is in-focus, well-lighted (dark photos are bad), and look at the camera. And no sunglasses, please! Take this seriously! If you don't have a good photo to use right now, have a friend or family member take a new photo of you and get it uploaded now. Transmitting friendliness and professionalism is KEY. Consider dressing up! Remember, this is going to be your first impression with your new PSAs. If your photo is unprofessional or "scary," (or if you don't have an account photo at all), your business will definitely suffer because of it. If you want to maximize your results and income in SFI, get a good photo in place!
Special Notes & Tips:
A. If your PSA chooses option #2, to schedule a chat with you for a later time, you will automatically receive an email with the date and time from SFI. We'll also post this information for you on your Alerts tab. Note: If you are unable to be available at the time they've selected, we recommend that you send the person an email right away to see about rescheduling your chat to a date and time that works for the both of you.
B. If they choose option #3 and have requested a conversation by email instead, we'll inform you of this on your Alerts tab (which will include their email address for quick and easy action).
C. If your affiliate isn't online when you initiate your Icebreaker, it'll automatically appear the next time they log in at the Affiliate Center.
D. So as to avoid messages that might confuse or "scare" new PSAs, Icebreakers may not be customized.
Genealogy Support
We've also added major support for Icebreakers on your Genealogy. That is, if your PSA is within 30 days of joining, you'll now see this new "handshake" icon in front of their name: And we've color-coded them so you can tell, at a glance, the status for each of your new PSAs:
A green handshake icon indicates you need to initiate an Icebreaker (you've not done it yet). You can initiate now by clicking on the icon.
A brown handshake icon indicates that you've initiated an Icebreaker for this affiliate, but they've not yet logged in to receive it (it will be delivered upon them logging in).
A blue handshake icon indicates that you've initiated an Icebreaker for this affiliate and they've replied via chat. Check chat now, they may be awaiting your reply!
A purple handshake icon indicates that your Icebreaker resulted in a scheduled chat session (hover over the icon for the schedule date and time).
An orange handshake icon indicates that your Icebreaker resulted in a request to converse by email instead. Tip: You can click the envelope icon in the right column to send an email to them now if you've not already done so. Click the pencil icon to make a note for yourself about when you emailed them.
A black handshake icon indicates that your Icebreaker resulted in the "maybe later" reply.
By the way, don't worry, you don't have to memorize these color codes! Hovering over the icons will pop up a tooltip to clarify what each color means (also very handy if you are color blind). And we'll also have a permanent article on it in our Knowledge Base, too—available instantly if you ever need a refresher.
TIP: Ready to start some chats using Icebreakers right now? Go to your Genealogy and select the "Online Now" Quickfilter. If any of the affiliates found have the green handshake icon in front of their name, you can start initiating chats this minute (by clicking on the green handshake icons).
Note: You'll also find the new color-coded handshake icons for your PSAs on Affiliate Snapshots and on your Movers tab too!
New Calendar Tool
Icebreaker's new scheduled chats also convinced us to finally get built a tool that's been long on our to-do list. That is, you now have a new resource—a custom SFI Calendar!
We will automatically populate your Calendar with all of your scheduled chats (with date and times), conveniently ordered from "nearest to furthest" (the chat you have coming up next will be at the top).
We'll also be adding the birthdays and SFI anniversaries of your upline and downline members so that you can recognize these special days. Additional items may also be added to Calendar in the coming months. Tip: Make it a habit to check your SFI Calendar daily.
"Break that ice!"
