ASHI Develops New Way to Verify Membership Online
A logo verification icon on your Web site, with a link back to ashi.org, will allow consumers to quickly and easily check your membership in ASHI
ASHI created this new benefit to provide another opportunity for ASHI Inspectors to promote their affiliation with North America’s oldest, largest and most respected home inspector society. Further, the icon and its link back to a verification page on the ASHI Web site encourages consumers to use the Contact an Inspector feature on the ASHI site. This ensures that every consumer who tries to contact an inspector will be doing so through the ASHI Web site, capturing that data permanently in the “Contact Management Area” available for every ASHI Inspector.
The new icon verification program also helps eliminate a pervasive problem in the home inspection community: fraud and deception by non-ASHI Inspectors who illegally use the ASHI name and/or logo.
There are hundreds of inspectors out there who illegally and incorrectly include the ASHI name or logo on their Web sites to steal clients from those who have earned the right to call themselves ASHI Certified. Since this icon and its corresponding code can be used ONLY by those who have the right to use it, this new verification system will be the first step to helping eliminate fraud against consumers.
As part of this program, the ASHI Member or Candidate with Logo Use can go to the ASHI Web site, log in using Member Number and Password, go to Downloads, then to ASHI Logos. At the ASHI Logos area, there is a logo icon to be copied to the Web site of the Member or Candidate with Logo Use privileges, and the HTML code to activate this new benefit.
Once activated on an inspector’s site, someone clicking the icon will be able to view a statement from ASHI that verifies that an inspector is part of ASHI and then be allowed to either “page back” to the inspector’s Web site or to move on to complete the Contact and Inspector form on the ASHI Web site. This will allow the consumer’s message to be delivered right to the e-mail or pager of the inspector.
If we can get a majority of our inspectors to use this icon, we can start telling real estate agents and consumers, “don’t just look for the ASHI logo, but be sure you VERIFY an inspector’s membership in ASHI.” Unfortunately, we receive calls nearly every day from a consumer who booked an inspection with someone he thought was an ASHI Inspector, only to find out he had been misled after a problem with their home was discovered.
The ASHI name and logo carry great power. Unfortunately, there are unethical individuals out there who want to take advantage of ASHI’s nearly 30-year commitment to excellence to the profession without following the steps necessary to do so.
Besides the verification and contact benefits, the inbound links from ASHI’s membership to www.ashi.org also will help keep the ASHI site at No. 1 on Internet searches.
Right now, we are No. 1 for “home inspector” and “home inspection” and inbound links from our membership will help ensure the ASHI site maintains its presence on the Web. This high placement benefits all of our inspectors as it ensures continued traffic from consumers to the site, especially the Find an Inspector search area.
Along with Members and Candidates with Logo Use privileges, ASHI’s Affiliate Members will also have the opportunity to include a logo verification icon on their site. At any time, should an ASHI Inspector or Affiliate end their membership in the Society, the code will be deactivated by ASHI HQ ensuring that the logo in question and the accompanying verification work ONLY as long as membership is maintained.
If you have any questions about the process of downloading this logo verification icon on your site, please contact ASHI at HQ@ashi.org.
Step by Step Guide to Downloading the ASHI Membership Verification Icon
Step 1
Click here to go to the ASHI logo download page
Step 2
Page down to the bottom of the ASHI Logo Downloads page
Step 3
From this area on the ASHI Site, download the logo and paste to your Web site
Step 4
Return to the ASHI Logo Downloads page, copy the source code for your logo and membership data, and paste code into your site (be sure to place it within your own site’s code in the correct location).
For more information or to troubleshoot this process, contact your Web site designer/developer or contact ASHI’s IT director, Joe Kusiak, at joek@ashi.org.
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