Your Locally authorized dealer list controls which stores show up on your site. Our "Relationship Manager" tool allows retailers to request missing authorization statuses from brands to ensure their stores are appearing on the correct sites.
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How does the Relationship Manager work?
When a retailer logs in to their Locally dashboard, they can see all of their current brand authorizations. If they are missing any authorizations for brands they carry, they can request authorization using our Relationship Manager.
As a brand, your designated dealer list contact(s) will receive an email for each store authorization request. This email contains a link to view the request in your Locally dashboard and approve or deny the request:
Clicking "View New Request" loads the Pending Requests panel of your Locally dashboard, where you can approve or deny the request:
- Approving the request instantly adds the retailer to your authorized dealer list. You can then head to your Dealer List Manager (Retailers > Manage your Dealer List) and add any extra attributes to that store like special category tags or your vendor ID.
- Denying the request means the retailer will not be added to your list, and they will be "blocked" from re-requesting. When denying a request, you must include a message to the retailer explaining why. If you ever need to reverse your decision, contact Locally.
That's it in a nutshell.
Managing your "Dealer List Contacts"
Are you wondering how to set this up so the right people at your brand receive the right authorization requests? It's easy to setup a dealer list contact system that works for you. Here's how.
By default, the "Company Owner" or "Company Administrator" will receive all dealer list authorization request emails. If you want dealer list authorization emails going to specific people only, the company owner or administrator can login and assign that role by user(s), and by country.
For a refresher on how to manage your brand's Locally account users, special roles, and more, head here.
To set up specific dealer list contacts, log in to your Locally dashboard and navigate to Administrative > Company Users to load your brand's User Directory.
- By default, the "Company Account Owner" or "Company Administrator" will receive all dealer list authorization emails
- To have dealer list authorization request emails sent to specific users, select that user, and under "Special Roles," assign them the "Dealer List Contact" special role
- As soon as you assign a "Dealer List Contact," emails will only be sent to that user. If you are the "Company Owner" or "Company Administrator" and also want to receive those emails, give yourself the "Dealer List Contact" role, too.
Multiple people can be a Dealer List Contact. They'll be notified of incoming requests and when your brand has approved a given request.
Setting up Dealer List Contacts by country
You can also define Dealer List Contacts by country, so that requests from retailers in specific countries go to specific country-level contacts only.
For example, let's say you want all requests from dealers in Canada to be sent to a specific contact on your Canadian team. To do this, you would:
- Load your brand's User Directory
- Select the contact for a given country. Give them the "Dealer List Contact" special role, and in the "Countries" field, select "Canada."
This will direct all dealer list authorization request emails from retailers in Canada to this one contact. Once a contact is assigned to a country, they will not receive requests from any other country.
You can apply this to any country or any set of countries. For example, if you want to direct dealer list authorization requests from all of Europe to one or a a set of contacts on your European team, you would simply assign all of the European countries where you are active to those contact(s).
Need help creating the right setup for your brand? Contact us. We'd love to help.
Approving Dealer List Authorization Requests
To approve a dealer list authorization request, simply follow the link in the email and approve the request.
Special Note!
If your dealer list uses special categories, you must then head to your Dealer List Manager and add the categories to the store you just approved. You can also add your vendor ID for the store here.
Denying Dealer List Authorization Requests
If a retailer requests authorization who does not meet the criteria for your brand, simply follow the link in the email and deny the request. Please include a message back to the retailer explaining why you are unable to authorize them as their dealer, and any other information they should be aware of.
If for any reason you believe a retailer is abusing the Relationship Manager by sending arbitrary requests, please notify Locally at [email protected].
What if my brand uses Auto-Sync for my dealer list?
If you have an Auto-Sync dealer list, approving a retailer's request through your Relationship Manager will do nothing, because it will be overwritten as soon as your next file syncs. So for you, the Relationship Manager requests are still helpful (they help retailers indicate that they are missing on your site), but for that retailer to actually be added to your site, you must add them to the auto-sync file you send to Locally.
Here's what to do:
- When you receive a request, add the store(s) to your auto-sync file. The store(s) will appear on Locally when your sync runs next.
- Then, approve the request through Locally so that the store is notified that they were approved. Approving the store through Locally won't interfere with your auto-sync list.