Charlotte, NC

We LOVE our businesses.  We really, really do.  The ParentsRoom's goal is connect local families with relevant businesses by offering a great, informative community for parents and affordable advertising for businesses.

We even offer a discount program for businesses active on our site!  Earn points to get discount or even free monthly advertising on our site just by being a part of our community.

However we do have some rules and tips that are specific to businesses:

Rules

1) Do not create shill accounts.  We know when you create an account to talk about how wonderful your service is, as if you were just a happy consumer. It is not cool, and we do not appreciate it.  Shill posts to the forum, comments on your directory listing and any other comments suspected to be insincere will be deleted.

2) Do not post about your business in the forum.  We allow you a free directory listing and free event/activity/program entries and you can buy an ad for more exposure.  Our members do not want to read ads in the forum; we consider them to be spam and they will be deleted without notice.

Tips

3) Put your business information in your profile. Go to My Account-> Edit and put in your basics on the main Edit page and more details on the Edit Profile page. See details on creating a signature in #8 below.

4) Create a directory listing for your business in the appropriate category.  Your business must be local to be listed in one of the local ParentsRoom sites or a national business to be listed on the main ParentsRoom site.   Local businesses may be listed on up to 3 local sites, if available.

5) List your information with your directory listing:

• Add Events:  Events are date-specific happenings that anyone can show up to.   If you list something as an event, a parent should be able to attend without registering in advance.
• Add Activities: Activities are date-specific happenings that require registration or other notification to the hosting organization.  Classes, camps and other activities that are reserved in advance go here.
• Add Programs:   Programs are non-date-specific services or ongoing programs that are offered.  If the program is ongoing and can be joined at any time, or the consumer can schedule the service or activity at their convenience, it goes here.  Programs are a good place to list the detailed services that you offer.

6) Be Helpful!!  We cannot stress this enough.  Build trust with the community by posting helpful information, being positive and contributing your thoughts and comments to the general discussion and people will check out your business.  They'll remember you when they need what you offer, because they have gotten to know you.

7) Post reviews and comments for other businesses you frequent and support.  Pay it forward- it really makes a difference.  And it earns you more points toward site advertising.

8) Put your business information in your signature, which will appear in each of your forum posts.  Go to My Account ->Edit to add a signature.  Signatures are limited to 250 characters and one link.  No images.  Signatures that do not meet these requirements will be deleted without notice.

Issues

Negative comments: 

• Fix. We highly recommend that you contact the consumer and attempt to remedy the issue.  The member has the ability to unpublish their own comments and if you change their mind, they can voluntarily retract their negative post.
• Respond. Post your response to the negative comment.  We highly recommend that you do not whine, accuse the poster of being the problem, or in any way escalate the drama.  Be positive, apologetic of the poor experience, and present any facts you might have about the incident as well as any steps you are taking to correct it.  People will assume that how you respond to one customer is how you will treat all customers.   A calming, helpful, not-snarky  response will serve your business well and can easily turn a negative to a positive- a reason to use your service!
• Notify us.  If you honestly believe the post is from a competitor or other shill simply trying to mudsling, contact us.  We do not tolerate shill postings, but we do allow our members to post their opinions and experiences.   We will take a look at the member account and determine if the posting should be allowed to stand or not.  Our decision is final.

Your Directory Listing

If the existing directory listing was not created by you but you need to edit it, login and click the "Claim this Listing" link under the listing.   If you registered with an email address that matches your business, you will be granted automatic ownership.   We may ask you to verify your claim by email before allowing access to edit the listing.

Link to Us!

Want more exposure to local parents?  Link to us! Businesses that link  to us will be featured in our "Random Favorites" block that will display 5 businesses on the side of each page and on our Favorite Businesses page.  Businesses on our Favorites page will have more exposure to parents and to search engines, leading to higher search results for your business.

Show your customers that you support the ParentsRoom- we support you!