Supplier Matching Service

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Hints & Tips on Registration

Matching

• The matching process works on a points basis. 10 matching criteria are used and your total points scored depends how well you match with the customer’s requirements.
• The information you include in your registration will not exclude you from a match, but it will affect the score you receive.
• Finding a “best-fit” supplier for a customer is not entirely dependent on the score. Other details of your record are also considered.

Keywords

• We search on skills and/or keywords, so it is important to include any relevant keywords in the free text areas, e.g. company description and work undertaken for your referees.

Profile

• We aim to provide at least three suppliers for each request. A profile of your record is sent to the customer. Click on the View details button to see what information is sent.

Follow-up

• All referrals are followed up. If the customer has used a nominated supplier, we collect feedback and a rating on performance and customer service.

User Guide

• There is a complete User Guide on the website – www.suppliermatching.co.uk. It is recommended that you peruse this guide before starting the registration process.

Registration Process

• There are nine steps in the registration process. You must complete all nine steps, in sequence. Once you have completed the nine steps, your record will be checked for accuracy and completion. You will be notified when your details have been validated and your record is active.
• You can update your details at any time. Any changes you make require further validation.
• You do not have to complete the registration in one go. Each step you complete is saved automatically, so you can logout and return to finish the registration later.
• Each time you log-in you will be asked for your username and password which you created in Step 1a.
• There are some useful notes at the left side of each screen as you work through the registration process.
• 
  Step 1a - Register company name and set up username and password
  Step 1a - Site details
  Step 1c - Contact details
  Step 2a - Company profile
  Step 2b - Sector experience
  Step 2c - Languages
  Step 3a - Company description
  Step 3b - Skills
  Step 3c - Referees
  

Referees

• You must provide two referees for each skill. These referees must be customers from within the last 12 months. Previous employers cannot be used as a referee.
• You must provide the customer’s name, address and contact details, plus a short description of the work you did for them.
• The referee details are passed to the customer in your profile.
• If you prefer, you can make your referees confidential. Their details will not be passed to the customer in your profile. To make your referees confidential, click on the No option by “Include referees in details sent to customer”. Then click on Update. This can be found at the bottom of the referee section on the Supplier Summary screen.
• Please ensure you link your referees to the appropriate skills.

Skills

• You can choose up to three skills. These should be the skills in which you have the most expertise and/or that you particularly want to offer to potential Business Link customers.
• Skills must be selected from the picklist.
• Using these three skills, we can match the customer’s needs as closely as possible to your strongest services.
• If you want to let the customer know about other services that you provide, you should include this in the company description.
• We also use keyword searches to find matches, so include as many relevant keywords as possible in the free text areas, i.e. company description and work undertaken for your referee

Company Description

• This is your opportunity to describe what you do and how you do it.
• This is your marketing statement.
• Must be clear, concise and convincing so that we (and the customer) can easily understand what services you provide.
• You can use up to 1800 characters to describe your business.
• Include as many keywords as possible.
• TIP: You can type the description in Word first. Use the Word Count feature in the Tools menu. Then simply copy (Ctrl+C) the text and paste (Ctrl+V) it into the company description box.

Business Profile

• You are asked for details about the nature and style of your business. Potential customers are asked similar questions about the type of service provider they are looking for. We can use these parameters to match you to a potential customer.
• If you have difficulty choosing from the options in the dropdown boxes, either because they may not be relevant to your business, or you find that they all apply equally, then pick whichever you feel is more appropriate to the SME market.
• The options you choose will not exclude you from a search, but will help us to match you with a potential customer.
• You can tell us if you have done work for Business Link or its clients, and whether someone within Business Link could act as an additional reference point.

Customer Sectors

• Your sector experience should be determined by the industry sectors that most of your customers come from.
• The sectors you choose will not exclude you from a search, but will help us to match you with a potential customer who may be looking for experience in a particular sector.
• You must select one and can select up to a maximum of three sectors from the list.
• If you have experience in many sectors, pick the largest or most specialised you deal with, depending on how likely customers looking from these sectors are to approach Business Link.
• If you cannot find a relevant sector in the list, use the Other free text box to input your own description.

Site Details

• If your company has more than one office location, you can list them all under one entry. Alternatively, you may wish to register each site separately, especially if they have different skill sets.
• If you input a PO Box address, this will discriminate against you if we apply a distance filter to the search. PO Box addresses do not relate to a specific grid reference and always show as approx 300 miles from anywhere. This is a quirk of the postcode search software and not a fault of the Supplier Matching Service.
• Only the main site address details are sent to the customer. A list of the towns where the other sites are situated is also sent.

Contact Details

• The main contact is the first point of contact for any potential customers, and for communication with Business Link.
• Only the main contact details are sent to the customer.

Supplier Status

The status of your record is displayed at the top of the Supplier Summary screen.

Status categories are:-

Active – your record is complete, validated and active in the system.

Update Needed – Your record is active, but has not been updated for at least 6 months.

It is important that the information we send to potential customers is correct and up-to-date. You will be sent a reminder to update your record if it has not been updated within the last 6 months.

Your record will still be found in our searches, but will be flagged as Update Needed. You will be asked to verify your details before we can send them to a potential customer.

Incomplete – a part of your record is incomplete. If you change the details of your record – especially the skills, referees or sector experience – make sure that your status is not showing as Incomplete afterwards.

Invalid – your details must be validated before the record is active. The validation process takes place after you have registered for the first time and after you make any changes to your record.

Validation is carried out by Business Link staff and involves checking your details for sense, completion, consistency and accuracy. The validation process normally takes a few days and you will be notified when your record has been validated.

Inactive – your record will not be found in searches. If you do not know why your record has been flagged as Inactive, contact Business Link.