Hi there! Welcome to our guide for using your dashboard. Firstly, think of this as the place for you to see and manage everything you do on BT Tradespace. Whether you’re a consumer just here to shop and connect, or a business who’s selling on our site, it’s your stop gap to all your activity.
I’ve divided this guide to reflect the tabs within your dashboard so simply click on the link that you want to find out about.
Your dashboard homepage
Your dashboard homepage is a reflection of your activity on the site. As soon as you arrive you will see
- The messages you have received from other BT Tradespace members
- Your recent activity – for example, if you’ve become a fan of a business or left a testimonial on someone’s Tradespace it will display here.
- If you’re a business you will see a bird’s eye view of your shop Transactions and/or bookings
- Businesses will also have the ability to enable your free customer service community from here to offer a top notch customer service.
Inbox
One of the main things we’re about is conversation – so your inbox is your channel to connect and communicate with as many Tradespacers you like. You will see your messages from other Tradespacers, plus get alerts on activity that has taken place in your account. As well as see testimonials you receive (if you’re a business).
Remember, it’s best to update your contacts list before sending a message to people on the site.
- To create a message in your inbox, simply click on the ‘Create a message’ button you see at the top of the left hand navigation bar. Once you’re in the message screen, click on the ‘To’ button to see your list of BT Tradespace contacts.
- To delete a message go to your inbox, select the message you want and click the ‘Delete’ button at the bottom of the screen.
- You can also move messages from your inbox into an archive by selecting the messages and clicking on the ‘Archive’ button at the bottom of the screen.
- Finally, if you want to flag certain messages that might need following up, select them and click the ‘Flag’ button. You will see a ‘flag’ icon next to these when you go back to your inbox.
Contacts
This area is where you manage your mailing list effectively. While you can send internal messages only to people on BT Tradespace, you can import your contacts list into an address book from here and ‘announce’ any updates you make to your Tradespace.
To get an in-depth, step by step look at adding and managing your contacts, read the full guide.
Transactions
This tab will help you manage your purchases and your sales on BT Tradespace. If you’re a consumer or you have a basic/simple Tradespace, you will see two tabs:
- Your shop transactions – this tab will be empty, because you don’t have a shop but if you’re ever interested in setting one up with an enhanced Tradespace, you’ll be able to do so from here.
- Your purchases – this shows all your purchases on BT Tradespace so you know what you’re buying and from whom! (note – all this info is private)
Alternatively, if you’re a business who has set up a free enhanced Tradespace then you will see the same two tabs but:
- Your shop transactions – Will show you all the sales coming in via your Tradespace. If you have set up a shop on your Tradespace that is. If you haven’t, don’t miss the opportunity to do so and add it your Tradespace by clicking on the ‘Manage your Tradespace’ tab in your dashboard and going to ‘Add new categories of products to your shop’.
You can also read our full guide on how to set up a shop on BT Tradespace.
Network
We love bringing people together so BT Tradespace has been built to help consumers link up with their favourite businesses and businesses to network with each other. The way we’ve done this is through three features:
- Fans: Anybody can become a fan of a business by clicking on the ‘Become a fan’ button at the top of that business’ Tradespace. The fans tab within the dashboard is mainly relevant for businesses and if you’re one, you will be able to see your list of consumer fans here.
- Business fans: Simply a list of fans that are also businesses on BT Tradespace.
- Businesses we like: This is essentially a list of businesses you have become a fan of and that are now part of your network.
Remember, everyone in your network can get a view of your latest activity on Tradespace. This way, it not only acts as a channel of communication but linking to other businesses with relevant content all helps your search engine ranking!
Communities
Communities are a great way to meet people, get advice and help, spread the word about your business and grow your network of contacts. There are a few ways to start engaging in the communities -
- The BT Tradespace Homepage: Shows a list of all the most popular/viewed communities, you can browse through those to get a view of what’s happening there.
- When you sign up, you will be shown a few communities relevant to your keywords that you can join immediately.
- If there were no relevant communities, the communities area in your dashboard is the next best place to create one that you can invite people to join. It only a takes a few steps to do and once you’ve created a community, you can get a view of the activity from it here as well as manage members within the community.
News
Your news and posts tab in your dashboard will only appear if you’ve enhanced your Tradespace. It’s the place for you to publish new posts, or edit/delete existing ones. Remember the more you post, the more people will come back to view your Tradespace, so make it good.
Favourites
At the moment your favourite tab shows you the people you’re linked to on BT Tradespace. Once you’re in you should see three sub tabs (depending on whether you’re a business or consumer)
Fans: These are people who have become a fan of your business (if you are one)
Business fans: These are people who are fans but also businesses
Businesses we/I like: These are the list of people who you are a fan of.
Once you’re a fan of a business, you should see all their activity updates so you can keep tabs on what they’re up to and know if they’re launching new stuff etc.
Managing your Tradespace
Probably the most important area of your dashboard if you’re a business – here’s where you can update your Tradespace!
- Updating your strapline and business name can be done from the profile settings button above the tabs in your dashboard.
- You can update the homepage title and description by clicking the Manage your Tradespace tab.
- Edit your ‘About us’intro, description and image by clicking on the About us link in the left hand navigation.
- Click on the ‘Our testimonials’ link in the left hand navigation to enable or disable the testimonials capability on your Tradespace. You can also see new testimonials you’ve received and choose to publish them or take them offline.
- ‘Our services’ is the way to list your services, edit your services and/or begin taking bookings in a few simple steps. Click on add services in this area to begin listing!
- ‘Our shop’ is where you add or edit your shop. To set up a shop, you will need to have a PayPal account and also download your security certificate to make buying from you extra safe. Have a look at our guide to setting up a shop to get started.
Customer service
You won’t see a tab for customer service because it acts like a widget (a plug in) but you can activate your free customer service community (which is then displayed on your Tradespace) from your dashboard. Simply click on the ‘My customer service’ module in the right hand column of your dashbaord homepage or from the ‘Manage your Tradespace’ tab. Your customers will then be able to ask you questions in your own customer service community which you will be alerted to. Once enabled you should receive a ‘Welcome message’ with more details on how to manage your community.
That’s it… a whistlestop tour of your BT Tradespace dashboard, if you still can’t find your way around and need our help, we’re all ears. Simply click the ‘Support’ link at the top and we’ll be on hand to answer any queries you have.
