How do I send a message to my suppliers?
What is the problem you're facing?
I want to send a message during an event to my suppliers, how do I do this?
For Hosts
Host to Participant Messaging
When first arriving to the messages tab, you will be presented with a splash screen notifying you there are no current messages, and the option to 'Compose Message'.
On click, a pop-up will appear where you can compose the body of the message and select the individuals you would like it to be sent to.
To ensure you find the right individuals, default filtering options are available based on submission progression, as well as free-text searching.
With one or many contacts added as recipients, clicking 'Send Message' will send the email to those individuals, and close the pop-up, and prompt an update in the UI.
A new channel will be created per supplier the message was sent to, rather than the previous group message display.Participant collaborators will appear under the same company heading for easy visibility. If multiple individuals from the same participant are selected, emails will be sent to all, but a single channel created.
The channels show on the left-hand panel with the company name, lead contact and an icon indicating any additional contacts added to the discussion.Clicking into one of those channels, the sent message will appear, alongside who sent it, their role and the time.
Future messages can then be sent using the text box at the bottom of the feed, these will similarly trigger emails to the participants included.
Responses from participants will show on the left of the feed, and are clearly labelled as originating from a participant user, alongside messages from other host users.
At any time, you may choose the 'Compose Message' option at the top to create a new channel for a supplier not yet messaged, or to send a bulk update.
Bulk updates sent in this way will be added to existing feeds for suppliers who have previously been contacted, and create new channels for those whom have not.
Users can click Download to get a transcript of the feed being viewed or all messages on the event.
Additionally it is possible to favourite messages and filter to show favourites, mark channels as read or unread, filter for unread channels, and view System only messages from the top filtering system.
Finally, users can also search for any string they would like to find within their sent or received messages.
The individual messages containing that string will be shown within the left panel, and on click of a message, it will be loaded on the right. The matching string will be highlighted, and the feed will auto-scroll to the relevant location in the chat.
Participant Collaborator Inclusion
For suppliers with more than one individual invited to collaborate on their submission (see here for usage guidance) all of them can be included in messaging.
From the Compose Message window, individuals will appear listed under their company name.
You can select the individuals who you want to be notified of the new message and send.
When interacting with a participant via their dedicated channel, all collaborators will receive notification of new messages.
Note that all users listed against the participant as a lead or collaborator will be able to see all messages sent between everyone else and the host.
Hosts can clearly see conversations where more than one individual is included as an icon will be shown with the additional user count.
On hover, the name and email of the additional users will be shown.
Host to Host Messaging
We would also recommend keeping all internal communication around the event within the platform so that it can be handed over easily if required, or audited quickly.
From the 'Compose Message' pop-up the tabbing system allows you to switch to 'Host' messaging mode.
Within this screen you can compose your message and find the correct individuals to notify, either by filtering based on role, or searching for them personally.
On 'Send Message' they will receive an email and the content of the message will show in the feed.
You can easily see host-to-host messages as highlighted within the tabbing system.There is no left-hand panel present for host-to-host messaging as all messages are visible to all users within a single feed.
Your messages will show on the right, with other host's contributions on the left.
You can also choose to send a new message by using the text-box below the feed.
Please note that currently this will not trigger an email, to prevent mass emails to everyone with view access, however tagging functionality is coming soon to allow targeted email notifications.
Events Open During During the Transition
New events will go straight into the new user interface structure, but old events will need to be converted from their old format into the new.
Due to some limitations based upon when the event was made, old events will show as follows:
- One-to-one messages will be added to a channel specific to that supplier
- Messages sent in bulk that previously showed in the UI as sent to 'many', will get their own dedicated channel
- The channel will show as 'Group Message' with a hover-over icon to view the contacts included
- Future bulk messages sent to the same subset of suppliers will appear within that same channel
- New messages sent to a non-existing bulk group, or individuals, will have new channels created as per the new UI functionality
From the Compose Message window, individuals will appear listed under their company name.
You can select the individuals who you want to be notified of the new message and send.
When interacting with a participant via their dedicated channel, all collaborators will receive notification of new messages.
Note that all users listed against the participant as a lead or collaborator will be able to see all messages sent between everyone else and the host.
Hosts can clearly see conversations where more than one individual is included as an icon will be shown with the additional user count.
On hover, the name and email of the additional users will be shown.
- The channel will show as 'Group Message' with a hover-over icon to view the contacts included
- Future bulk messages sent to the same subset of suppliers will appear within that same channel
For Participants
As per the host-to-host messaging, participants will see all messages within a single feed, with the indicators for host, participant and self sent messages.
They are also able to quickly view any automated messages e.g. for auction pauses, from the dedicated System tab.
Edge Case Considerations
Participant Company SwitchingIn the event that an individual participant user is added to an event under one participant company, is removed from that company, only to be re-added under a new company:
- For the hosts and participant collaborators from the original company:
- All previous messages will show as before, no information will be lost
- Any new messages sent by the moved participant user will appear within their new company channel for the host, and not be seen by their previous collaborators
- For the moved participant user:
- The messages they previously received from the host or could view from fellow collaborators will no longer appear
- Any messages they previously sent when included on the event under the different company will be visible
- This ensures they no longer have access to any potential confidential information, but can still see their own messages
- All previous messages will show as before, no information will be lost
- Any new messages sent by the moved participant user will appear within their new company channel for the host, and not be seen by their previous collaborators
- The messages they previously received from the host or could view from fellow collaborators will no longer appear
- Any messages they previously sent when included on the event under the different company will be visible
- This ensures they no longer have access to any potential confidential information, but can still see their own messages
More to Come
We still have one more enhancement we are looking to implement for messaging before the project is over:
- Tagging of individuals within messages to trigger emails
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