Download MSA and start training for MSA/admin.Become familiar with support and training center and documents made available to you. Click here for the support and training center.
Place MySchoolAccount.com links on your school or district's website. Links need to be relevant and look accessible. We provide custom graphics that are most likely to catch the parent’s eyes. Less digging = more parents, do not embed the link under different pages, main page is best.Here are the links you can provide on your website:
Parent Create Account Link - https://secure.myschoolaccount.com/CreateAccount.aspx
Parent Log In Page - https://secure.myschoolaccount.com/
Parent Support Portal - https://intercom.help/myschoolaccount_help_center/en/
Spread the word and get parents to create their accounts. Communication to parents is key to getting them to create their account. What are the main ways you communicate information to your parents? Use those methods to create awareness. Listed below are different ways we suggest communicating with parents: (It is also important to use more than one of these methods if not all if they are available with your school. When communication channels are saturated, the better the chances of parents taking advantage of the service.)
Send welcome emails/letters with student ID and instructions on how to create an account. You can create these emails/letters through our administrative portal or you may choose to send emails through your own email service. These letters/emails are to inform parents of the service and promote the management feature of MSA. Parents must receive these letters so DO NOT give them to your students to take home to their parents. Also, you can customize letters for additional sending throughout the year. Here is a video on how to use the letter designer. Here is a sample letter - http://www.foodserve.com/myschoolaccount/msa_parent.doc
Make brochures and info available in all newsletters going to the parents. This way info gets to the parents, creates more awareness of your program, thus increasing program participation. You can find our available marketing material for parents here. Feel free to print out and use as you wish. If you are looking for something more specific please send your request to asmith@foodserve.com and we'll try our best to create it for you.
Exposure at Parent/Community Meetings. If you want to also do promotion/awareness outside of what we mentioned, you can show a general overview at parent/community meetings of how to log on and all the features to the parents. This helps to show what the service consists of and why you have decided to take advantage of MSA.
Social Media Posts. If your school or district is active on social media then this is a great way to create awareness. Send posts with instructions on how to create an account and the benefits to them to use the service. (for example, low balance notifications, monitor what their child is eating, managing multiple students at once, transferring funds between students, know that the money they provide is being spent on lunch, and so on...)
Text notifications or school alert systems. If your school or district has the ability to send texts or notifications this would be another way to spread the word.
Exposure on school lunch menu. Adding a section on your school lunch menu with info on MySchoolAccount is a great way to spread awareness to those who are active in your school food program.
Explain to parents that MySchoolAccount is a management tool. Any time you speak to parents about MySchoolAccount, make sure to mention the management tool aspect of this service along with it being a way to make online payments. For example, viewing their kid’s lunch account balances, adding/removing kids, and transferring funds between each kid. The more benefit your parent sees from the service, the more likely they will return, and the more likely they will make deposits into their accounts.
Be sure to follow the Beginning and End of Year Routines in admin. Here are instructions on how to follow these routines.
End of School Year Routine
Startup/New School Year Routine
Monitor Participation Percentage. Continue to be aware of how many parents and students are linked to your service. The more participation you have, the easier your school lunch program becomes to manage. Also, when levels are low, more promotion will help to get more parents linked up.