New ExchangeHomes Home Exchange Web Site Goes Live
Well, it’s finally happened! After what seemed like an eternity—well, months and months—our brand new web site is finally live. Several times I began to think that it was never going to happen, but it has, and all we’ve received so far is praise. Everyone seems to love it.
As it’s been used, a few minor glitches have surfaced, but nothing our programmers haven’t been able to swiftly fix. Members were emailed 24 hours in advance, warning them that the change-over was imminent and visitor logs show that throughout yesterday they were visiting in droves, curious to see what’s new.
The major new feature is with memberships. We are now offering two levels:
- Full Memberships—paying the normal fee to display their own home exchange listing
- Associate Memberships—where they provide their personal contact information to join, then initiate contact with Full Members.
Introducing this second level of membership is something we’ve resisted for several years. We honestly were very reluctant to make the transition, but eventually pressure of opinion left us with little choice. A great many rival clubs have made this option available for some considerable time and members and visitors were often very blunt and forthright in their perception of our caution.
However, as we’ve structured it, it’s not now a situation where any unmanaged visitor to the website has been given free rein to contact our paid members indiscriminately. First, they must provide their personal information and join as Associate Members, plus, every time they log on we record their IP address.
Full Members will ultimately have a choice whether or not they wish to pursue discussions with an Associate Member. Should they choose not to, I hope they will explain their decision to the Associate Member and encourage them to list their own home.
Briefly, other upgrades / new features are:
- Unlimited photographs, now displayed in a much larger format
- Member Feedback rating previous exchange partners
- Saved favorite searches
- Saved favorite listings
- Members can now save unlimited email templates in their Admin Area for later use
- Fields have been completely revised. Many new ones added and a few old ones removed
- Members now log in with their email address and password. Gone are the old VH plus 5 digits log in.
- A much more intuitive listing presentation, that lays out the information in an easy to read format
- Plus many more minor features
All the old tried and tested features, of course remain:
- Quality listings in the most popular areas of the world and over 60 countries
- Complete Member Privacy — none of their personal contact information is ever shared with anyone
- Toll free customer support at 877-256-3323
- Email support available 24/7. Most emails are replied to within an hour or two
- All Listings can be updated by their owners 24/7
- Members can send and receive email contacts from within their listings 24/7
- Our “Detailed Search” provides very targeted searching with multiple search criteria
- All Members can receive email notifications of new Listings from their selected destinations
- Reverse search—Who wants to come to me?
- Sample forms and agreements are available for all Members to use
- All Members and any visitors who elect to sign up, receive our bi-monthly newsletter
Since I began writing this post, we have unfortunately, received our first negative feedback on the new website. A gentleman complained that he isn’t happy having to scroll through the screen of photographs now they are displaying in a much larger format. He was used to the old way and he says it preferred it. Which just goes to show, you can’t please all of the people all of the time!
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