Tools and Resources for Facilities

by Cris Merz

Often when a new dive center joins the SDI/TDI/ERDI family there is a bit of a learning curve, not just with the instructional side and working with standards that may be slightly different from what they are used to, but also with the new tools and resources that they now have access to.  Most of the information is out there, and you can usually find it by contacting your regional manager or local regional office, someone from Member Services, or just by digging around, but we figured we’d write up a piece about it in case you didn’t know what is available to you.

We will break up this article into 3 different categories:

  1. Training
  2. Sales & Marketing
  3. Membership Services

Training

Articles and Videos: As far as training goes, SDI/TDI has always allowed instructors to use as many resources as are available to them to teach classes, including books from other authors, graphics, skills, etc.  Over the course of the last 4-5 years, we have added a considerable amount of articles and content to our blogs that you could provide to your students.  Be sure you are subscribed to our newsletters too… there is so much great information in them.

Standards and Procedures:  Go to the website, you will know that you are looking at the latest version every time.  If you are questioning if a standard change has been applied to your manual – check the website. Simply log in, click on Tools, then click on Standards and Procedures.

Online Chats with an Instructor:  If your students are having issues or a problem with their eLearning, or simply have a question, they now have additional support via our “Chat with an Instructor” feature.  Not only do we assist them to get to where they need to be in their course, but we send you the transcript so you can reinforce their issues and be sure that you are happy with their level of knowledge.

Reports:  Find out how many certifications your facility has issued over the last 5 years and how many were Open Water Diver, Advanced Adventure, Rescue, Intro to Tech, etc.  You can also run certification reports on students and find out who their instructor was for divers that were certified with your facility.  All these are available by logging in as “Facility Administrator“, clicking on Tools, and then click on Reports.

Sales & Marketing

Are the doors to your store truly open 24/7?  Get people to sign up for classes ‘round the clock.  We provide all dive centers with a distinctive URL.  This URL is a link that you can put on your site and have people buy their online code right then and there.  When these students click on the URL and go through the sign up process, they are automatically affiliated with your store.  You then receive a credit from the total cost of the purchase.  SDI developed this format back when we introduced eLearning into scuba diving and it has now become the format of choice for most major agencies that offer online academics.  Find the distinctive URL for your store by logging in as a “Facility Administrator“, then under Tools  click on the “eLearning Resources” button.

Shipping:  When it comes to giving our customer a price break we do it every time you break $500.00 on your sales order. Within the 48 contiguous United States and Canada, you get free shipping when your product order comes to $500 or more,  even when ordering from our new Online Store. If you are one of our international members, contact your local regional office.

Webinars are a great way to learn:  Back in the day, you needed to attend trade shows and hope that the seminars you wanted to attend weren’t scheduled at the same time.   Wanting to ensure that our information is available globally and not just to the people that are within our immediate presence at a show, we started launching webinars.  Now, even if you miss a webinar you can have access to the recorded versions. Here are just a few of our webinars that are currently available to you as a professional to help you grow your business.

Member’s Update

Selling Benefits over Features; Are you selling the right way?

How eLearning is Failing the Industry

Are You Ready to Teach Sidemount?

Why You Should Become an Instructor Trainer with SDI TDI ERDI 

Find more Videos and Webinars on our YouTube Channel.

Membership Service

Register your students online:  Yes, you like filling out the paperwork and submitting the actual documents via fax… but it will take longer for the registration to get completed this way.  The best, and fastest, way to currently get a student registered is by having the student complete their profile in the system and upload their own picture, add their email address and ensure that they have spelled their name correctly.  Just make sure that they have affiliated with your dive center while they are creating their profile.  If they haven’t, they can do this at any time.  Now that you are ready to register them, you no longer have to go through the pain of trying to decipher their own handwriting, just open up a course and add them to the queue and it’s done – registration made easy.

Online Chats with Membership Services:  If you, a member of your staff, or your students have questions, you can contact membership services via our Online Chat.  The majority of the membership services team are instructors and can help to navigate through training questions, sales questions, and most of our end user’s questions as well.   Our team is highly skilled and their talent is at your disposal.

Troubleshooting:  Whether you need a name change, card printer assistance, course structuring support, or customizing reports to suit your needs, the membership services team is available to help.  We are a multi-talented group of people that are excited to meet new people and familiarize them with our company.

Making your suggestions become a reality:  The membership services team prides themselves on taking suggestions from the field and getting it to the appropriate department.  It is important that our customer in the field communicates with us about their needs and what they would like to see implemented.  Many of our blog posts, webinars, and products have become reality based on suggestions from the field.

If you want to know more about how our website and staff can make your life easier, email, call, or send us a chat, or contact your local regional office and we will be happy to go over the benefits of doing business with www.tdisdi.com.  In the end, it is about having a smooth experience navigating through our system, regardless of your purpose for being there; training, sales and marketing, or just getting some stuff done.

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