Working the welcome desk? You are the first face every neighbor sees — and most of the people who walk up have been here before. This guide shows you how to find a returning client in the guest directory, step by step. If you can look up a contact in your phone, you can do this.
Here is the whole job in one sentence: search their name, click the match, confirm it is them, and start the visit. That’s 5 little steps. Let’s go.
Step 1: Open the Welcome Desk
Log in and open the Service Day page, then head to the Welcome Desk station. The check-in wizard walks you through four stops — Identify, Services, Items, Confirm — and finding your returning client is the very first one. The page asks the only question that matters: Who’s at the desk?
Step 2: Search the guest directory
Right under that question is the search box. It says “Search by name, preferred name, or date of birth…” — and it means it. Any of the three works:
- Name — type
marand Maria, Marcus, and Martin all show up. - Preferred name — the name they actually go by counts too.
- Date of birth — handy when a name is common or hard to spell.
Start typing and a list of matches drops down right under the box, with a count at the top so you know how many you are looking at.
Tip: You don’t need the whole name. Two or three letters is plenty — the list narrows as you type. You can also press the down arrow to walk the list with the keyboard and Enter to pick.
Step 3: Pick their name
See your neighbor in the list? Click their row. The list closes, their name fills the search box, and their card appears right below — labeled Returning neighbor. That label is your green light: they are already in the system, and no new profile is needed.
Step 4: Make sure it is really them
The card shows their History — everything you need for a quick double-check:
- Date of birth — the fastest way to tell two people with the same name apart
- Veteran status — so you can point them to everything they qualify for
- Prior visits, last seen, and additional needs — these fill in as visit history gets recorded, so a dash just means nothing is on file yet, not that the answer is no
A friendly “Can I confirm your date of birth?” takes two seconds and saves a mix-up. If something on the card is out of date — a name change, a missing birthday — click Edit, fix it, and hit Save changes.
Step 5: Start their visit
One button: click Next: Services and pick what they need today. The wizard takes it from there — services first, clothing items if they picked clothing, then a final review before you send the visit off to the stations.
Nobody in the list? If the search says No matches, they are probably new — or in the system under a different name. Try their date of birth or a preferred name first. Still nothing? Use the Create a profile row at the bottom of the list to add them as a new neighbor.
That’s it!
Search the name, click the match, confirm the date of birth, and start the visit. That is the whole job — the wizard walks you through the rest.
The whole thing, one more time
- Log in and open the Welcome Desk page
- Type a few letters of their name in the search box
- Pick their name from the match list
- Check the history card to make sure it is really them
- Click Next: Services and start the visit
Stuck on any step? Grab a team lead at the desk, or use the Contact link at the top of any page and a real human will help you out. Thanks for being the first hello of the day!