Introduction
It's a good practice to refresh your user base regularly by deactivating the membership of users that are no longer using the platform. The deactivation process is manual and admin-driven unless you have an SFTP data integration set up that transfers your user data onto Chronus regularly and removes users automatically who do not appear in the current SFTP feed. You can manually deactivate a user from the user's profile or in bulk using the User Views tool. Chronus makes it easy for these deactivated users to opt back in - if and when needed.
Why it's important: There are several reasons why keeping your user base up to date is beneficial:
If you run cohorts or cycles, this is the easiest way to ensure everyone is still available and interested. You can deactivate memberships in bulk and instruct people to accept your invitation if they want to participate again.
Sometimes users request a break. Use this feature to make it as easy as possible for them to rejoin whenever they are ready.
In a self-match system, idle users can accrue. Periodically deactivating mentees who have never sent a mentoring request and have not logged in for several months provides cleaner reporting, reflecting the activity of those engaged in the program. Create a User View to track low-activity users on an ongoing basis: User Views: Managing Users and Custom Reports
Idle active users count toward your total program licenses. Periodically deactivating those who have been inactive on the platform for several months will make room for other participants.
Best Practices for Keeping Your User Base Up to Date
Cohort Model Opt-in: On an annual or semi-annual basis all users are deactivated. The next cycle of mentoring is marketed, and the program’s promotion brings in new and returning users all eager to participate for the set duration of the cohort.
Cohort Model Opt-out: Rather than deactivate all users annually or semi-annually, some customers will launch a survey giving users the opportunity to opt out of the next cycle of mentoring. Only those who opt out will be deactivated while others will remain active.
Rolling Deactivations of Inactive, Currently Unconnected Users: Annually or semi-annually administrators review reporting to identify users without recent activity in the platform, and then deactivate these users in bulk. Occasionally, a user may reach out to ask why their access has been revoked or to request their access be reinstated. Responses are managed by the administrator on an as-needed basis. The other consideration is what expectations are you setting for participants? And are expectations different based on the user's role? For example, if the program is configured for the mentee to send the mentoring request and a mentor has not received any requests, they may be inactive on the platform. However, this is not necessarily an indicator that they no longer wish to participate.
Video: Deactivating, Reactivating & Enabling Users to Rejoin
This video walks you through the process of deactivating, reactivating, and enabling users to rejoin a program after being deactivated without administrator approval. It is important to remember that you always want to 'deactivate' users rather than remove them. By deactivating users, you maintain their data while also opening up seats for other interested participants.
Steps to Deactivate a User
The ability for an admin to deactivate users is a function that exists at the program track level. If the user is in multiple programs, you are only deactivating a user from the program selected. On the global level, you can 'Suspend Membership' of a user from all programs. The process below depicts the 'Deactivate Membership' function for a program.
Navigation: Home > Active Users; Click on the number on the Active Users card to open the User Views tool.
Step 1: Select your users on your User Views table; find the user(s) you wish to deactivate and select them using the checkbox to the left of their name.
Step 2: Click on the 'Actions' button and select 'Deactivate Membership' as shown below:
Step 3: When you click on 'Deactivate Membership' a pop-up will appear as shown below. Enter the reason for the user(s) deactivation.
An email notification will be sent to the user(s) with your reason embedded. The email subject line is: "Participant Deactivation Notification."
User Rejoin Methods
Users who are deactivated can rejoin using the following four methods:
Apply to join (if you have a membership form set up)
Administrator Invitation
Manual Reactivation by an Administrator
User Reactivation
1. Rejoining via Apply to Join
This method is only available if you have 'Apply to Join' selected on the Membership Settings page.
Navigation: Manage > Enrollment > Membership Settings
Deactivated users may not rejoin without admin permission, even if your new members can join automatically. You will manually approve requests from deactivated users via the 'Membership Requests' feature, or send them an invite from the platform.
Deactivated users can apply to join if you've selected any of the options within the red boxes shown below (make sure to check both mentor and mentee settings).
User Rejoin Steps
Step 1: Log In
From the platform login page, the user clicks 'Login' (rather than 'Join Now'). Login is for existing users so it enables the request to be mapped to their existing record. If the user clicks 'Join Now', there will be a few unnecessary steps (e.g. verifying email address) and ultimately they'll need to log in anyway before proceeding.
Step 2: Enter email and password or click 'Forgot Password' to reset it
Step 3: Complete Membership Form
Anything previously entered or pre-filled will be still be on the user's form. In the following example, 'Location' and "About Me" were pre-filled. Upon submitting the form, a pop-up message will confirming the request to join has been submitted.
Step 4: Admin Actions
View request in the Membership Requests tool. The user's current state is Deactivated.
Accept the membership request to send the following two emails*:
Participant Reactivation Notification
Membership Request Accepted Notification
*The above two emails can be viewed and edited by navigating to:
Manage > Program Configuration > System Emails > Enrollment and user management
2. Administrator Invitation
You can invite a deactivated user from the Invitations tool.
Navigation: Manage > Enrollment > Send Invites
3. Manual Reactivation by an Administrator
Reactivation can be done in bulk from the User Views tool, or you can go to the user's profile and click 'Reactivate' in the right sidebar. This is a good option if a user has messaged you using the Contact Admin form.
4. User Reactivation
In your program settings, there is an option that you can enable for both mentors and mentees that will allow users to automatically reactivate their program memberships themselves after you have deactivated them.
Navigation: Manage > Program Configuration > Program Settings > Membership tab > Role Settings > Allow deactivated users to join back into the program
From here, you can select which user role for which you would like to allow self-reactivation (mentors, mentees, etc.) and click 'Save' at the lower right of the Membership card to save this setting.
Users that are given permission to automatically rejoin a program after being deactivated will be able to log in to their account and automatically rejoin the program that they were deactivated from without administrator approval.
If the user has dual roles (mentor and mentee) where eligibility rules are applied to membership, and users meet eligibility rules for only one of the roles, a request for approval will be sent to you.
FAQs
What is the difference between suspension and deactivation?
The 'Deactivate Membership' function only exists at the program level and users can rejoin at will. A user can be deactivated in one program track and active in another. Membership suspension takes place at the global level and does not provide an option for the user to rejoin any program unless an admin reactivates their membership.
If a user belongs to several programs and gets suspended at the global level, what happens?
Once a user is suspended at the global level, their membership in all programs is automatically changed to "deactivated" and they are no longer part of your license count.
Is it possible for a user to be active in one program and deactivated in another program?
Yes! They will still be considered "active" at the global level and will count as an active license.
What if I want to completely block a user's access?
At the global level, you will only have the option to 'Suspend Membership'. Suspended users can't opt back in or be invited. Admins must reactivate them manually.
What if I have a data feed?
If you have a data feed set up, users not present in the feed will be suspended. Suspension is a global/ organization-level status. This means the user is suspended across all programs, whereas deactivation removes them from one program. Suspended users are permanently blocked unless manually reactivated by an administrator.