Share your experience (testimonials)

A testimonial is a few words about an organization, one of its classes or being a member, written for other families. It goes to the organization first, and nothing is published unless you allow it and the organization chooses to publish it. You need to be signed in to write one.

Write a testimonial

You can start from three places:

• The organization's page on Famlo. In the What families say section, select Share your experience. If nothing has been published there yet, the page shows "Been to" the organization's name with a Share your experience link instead. See Finding organizations and reading their page.
• A Leave a testimonial card. When an organization asks how something went, a card appears under Needs you on your Dashboard (Home on a phone). Select Leave a testimonial. See When you're asked below.
• An organization's own website. If the organization has its own website, the same card shows on the Overview of your Parent portal there. See Your Parent portal.

An organization can also send you its "share your experience" link, and the email asking how something went has a Share your experience button. Each of these opens the same form:

1. Under About (1), choose what you're writing about: a class you booked with the organization, your membership (for example "Being a Sunnyside Learning Co. member", if you're a member), or the organization as a whole. If you came from a card or an email, this is already filled in.
2. Under What would you tell another family? (2), write your testimonial. It can be up to 800 characters.
3. Under How should your name appear? (3), choose your first name and last initial (the default), your full name, or "A" plus the organization's name plus "parent" (for example "A Sunnyside Learning Co. parent"), which leaves your name off.
4. Choose who can see it (4). Tick the first box to let the organization show it on its website and its Famlo page. Tick Only share it with … privately if it's just for the organization.
5. Select the send button (5). It names who reads it, usually the organization's leader by first name, for example Send to Sam.

note

Only organizations that have claimed their Famlo listing show the Share your experience link, because otherwise there's nobody to send it to.

Public or private

The two boxes decide whether the organization may publish your words.

What you tick	What happens
The first box only ("… may show this on its website and its Famlo page.")	The organization reads it and can choose to publish it.
Only share it with … privately	Only the organization reads it. It can't be published, even if you also ticked the first box.
Neither box	Treated as private. Only the organization reads it.

Publishing is always the organization's choice, and it can't reword what you wrote. Only you can change your words.

Your child's name stays off public pages

Famlo never shows your child's name with a testimonial. If you mention one of the children on your Famlo family page, their name is replaced with "my child" before anything is published. The organization still reads your words as you wrote them.

After you send it

You land on your list of testimonials with one of these messages:

• When you allowed publishing: "Sent to Sam. Nothing is published until Sam publishes it."
• When it's private: "Sent to Sam privately."

The name is the same one the send button showed, usually the organization's leader by first name.

The organization decides what to do with it. If it publishes your testimonial, it can show on its Famlo page, on the class page if you wrote about a class, and on its own website if it has one. The organization can also reply to you privately, and the reply arrives in Messages.

When you're asked

Famlo asks for the organization automatically, at these times:

• the day after the last session of a class you booked,
• the day after an appointment you booked,
• about two months after you became a member.

You're asked at most once every 30 days by the same organization, never twice about the same thing, and not about something you've already written about. Ongoing classes with no end date never trigger an ask, but you can still use Share your experience on the organization's page at any time.

Each ask is a Leave a testimonial card, and, if you allow Activity updates emails, an email from the organization with a subject like "How was" and the class name. Cards that need something from you come first, so the testimonial card can sit behind them under Needs you.

Not interested? Select Not now on the card. You'll see "Okay — we won't ask about that again." The organization isn't told.

To stop the emails, turn off email for Activity updates in Notifications. That also stops announcement emails from organizations.

See, change or withdraw your testimonials

Everything you've written is in Account settings. The Testimonials item appears there once you've written your first one.

1. Open your avatar menu, then Account settings.
2. Select Testimonials (1).
3. To edit one, select Change it (2), make your changes, then select Save and send to … .
4. To take one down, select Withdraw (3), then confirm.

Each testimonial shows the organization, what it's about, your words, "Shown as" with the name others would see, and its status:

Status	What it means
Waiting for …	You allowed publishing, and the organization hasn't decided yet.
Published	The organization published it. It shows in the places the organization chose.
Not published	The organization decided not to publish it. Nobody else sees it.
Private · only … reads it	You kept it private, so only the organization reads it.

Changing it sends it back for review. You'll see "Saved." and that the organization "will review it again before it shows." If it was published, it comes down until the organization publishes your new words.

Withdrawing removes it completely. The confirmation reads "Withdraw this testimonial? It comes off" the organization's "pages and out of their inbox." This can't be undone, but you can write a new one.

On an organization's own website, your Parent portal has a Testimonials tab once you've written one for that organization. It lists only that organization's testimonials, with the same Change it and Withdraw, plus Share another.

Troubleshooting

I can't find Share your experience on an organization's page. Look for the What families say section, or the "Been to" line near the end of the page. On a phone, the section may be folded; tap its heading to open it. Organizations that haven't claimed their listing don't have the link.

There's no Testimonials item in Account settings. It appears only after you've written at least one testimonial.

My testimonial was published, and now it's gone. If you changed it, it went back to the organization to review, and it shows again once they publish it.

I finished a class and wasn't asked. Asks skip ongoing classes with no end date, and an organization asks you at most once every 30 days. You can always write one from the organization's page.

It says "You're sending these too quickly." Wait a few minutes, then try again.

What's next

• Finding organizations and reading their page
• Your Home page
• Messages
• Notifications
• Your Parent portal