Project Chat & The Communication Hub
- Matt Judd (Deactivated)
- Scott Ward
Contents:
Introduction
Why do we provide a chat?
Our goal is to maximise our client communication through the project chat. This will drive more client traffic to the Client Hub, where they will find all the information they need to help you get their project delivered.
From the Client Hub, our clients can also:
receive, provide feedback for, and approve their videos;
receive and pay their invoices;
manage their production credit, and;
Manage their own team’s access to their projects.
The Client Hub will be established as a key part of the Visual Domain experience, building client relationships, profiles, and account histories that can be better targeted with personal recommendations.
The project chat is a key strategic part of this journey.
Getting started
As soon as your VMSX project has been created, its three primary contacts will be automatically added to the project’s chat. Those primary contacts are:
the Project Manager,
relationship manager, and
your chosen main client contact
If you are not part of the Project, you will be provided a Read Only mode view of the chat. Where you can observe, but not send messages.
There are three ways to add/remove members from a project chat:
When additional client contacts are added to the Project (see Starting New Projects), these will be automatically added to the chat.
From the Client Hub side, a client contact with Admin permissions can add or remove registered colleagues from the project’s chat.
Visual Domain staff will be added to the chat when assigned as the Production Coordinator or Director on the Project Summary tab.
The chat is accessible from all tabs within a VMSX project, and you can start sending messages to the client as soon as the project has been saved as a draft.
Project chat features
Your project chat has many features that you will be able to play with.
Adjustable width
The chat window has a completely adjustable width. Just click and drag the border to suit the needs of your screen management. You can even tuck it completely out of the way by clicking the chat icon or dragging it all of the way to the right — it’s easy enough to re-open when you need it.
Notifications
In addition to providing basic chat functionality, you and your clients will receive key event project notifications, like:
“Your script has been approved”
“A video has been completed!”
“Changes have been submitted for your video”
Some of these notifications will provide direct links to the video or document being announced. However, you will notice that These chat notifications are mostly directed towards your clients and they are not always relevant for you. Often they are triggered by your direct actions. eg, “Video has been delivered”.
Text formatting
On a basic level, we offer text formatting for your chat messages of text:, bold, italic, strikethrough, and code. There is no shortcut for this, but you can modify your text using the following simple syntax:
Text | Result |
_italic_ | italic |
*bold* | bold |
~strikethrough~ | strikethrough |
```code``` |
|
Emojis can also be used — a recent upgrade to the chat service has embedded an emoji menu within the chat field.
File sharing
Sharing files with your client has never been easier!
Whether images, documents, or small media assets, just drag-and-drop the files directly into the chat window. Alternatively, you can click on the small paperclip icon in the chat input to choose a file.
Share your location
Clicking on the pinpoint icon provides a quick tool for sharing your location. If you are using a smartphone, the “share location” tool accesses your GPS location and drops a pinned map image into the chat.
This can be really helpful when you are meeting someone for a shoot.
Searching the chat content
For larger projects, the project chat can get quite extensive. If you need to find something from earlier in the conversation, you can use the search tool found by clicking on the magnifying glass icon up the top-right of the chat window.
The client’s chat experience
The Client Hub side of the project chat is very similar to your VMSX chat experience.
They receive all of the same notifications and messages, and the features available to client’s chat portal only has a few subtle differences:
If they have Admin permissions, the client can manage their own team’s access to the chat and the project.
They can see all of the VisDom team members assigned to the chat, but they cannot edit this list.
They have access to a compiled folder of all of the Project’s Uploaded Files. On the VMSX side, we manage these from the Uploaded Files tab (see Uploaded Files).
There are three possible user roles that a client contact may have: User, Admin, and Account. For a quick deep-dive on these roles and how the client can manage their own account access, watch this video.
Your VMS Communication Hub
The VMS Communication Hub is your one-stop-shop for monitoring and communicating with all of your project chats without having to jump into the projects themselves. All of the standard chat features are available here.
In the new VMSX projects pages, to find your Communication Hub you click on the blue button on the top-right of your page.
In the old VMS, it’s the big orange button at the top.
In the Communication Hub, all of your projects with an active chat are collected in the left column. You can switch between your chats by selecting the project.
This list of projects will be sorted to present the most recently updated chats up the top. Any chats with unread updates will show a blue dot.
If you need to quickly consult some project details, use the linked project title at the top of your chat.
Desktop notifications
There is a feature toggle on this page for Desktop notifications. If you turn it on, your computer will deliver pop-up notifications whenever you receive a new chat message.
Project chat FAQs
Where’s my project’s chat?
Can’t find your project chat on the Communications Hub? There are a few reasons why a project chat won’t have appeared:
You haven’t been assigned to it
The project is new and hasn’t had any activity
The project is old and considered inactive
Any activity in the Project should “wake it up” and change it to an active order. eg, updating the RM, adding a video deliverable.
How will my client know that I am chatting to them?
If your client is not logged into the Client Hub, they will be notified by an email five minutes after you have posted your message. This email will direct them to login to the Client Hub.
This message will not be sent if the client has already engaged with your chat.
What if my client is new and does not have a Client Hub account?
There are two ways for Visual Domain staff to create new projects using the VMSX.
Manually, using an established VMS contact.
Automatically, via the Sales team closing a deal on HubSpot.
When the Sales team close a deal with a new client, the VMSX will automatically deliver a Client Hub activation email to this contact. It is part of the project team’s early responsibilities to ensure that this new contact has succeeded in activating their Client Hub account.
How can I tell if my client has activated their account?
If a contact is already in the VMS, then you can check their activation status by searching them up on the Contacts list.
If their Actions options still include the envelope and link icons (see picture), this tells you that they have not activated their account yet. You will need to assist them in activating their account to ensure they can access the Client Hub.
To activate an account:
Click on the envelope icon to resend their activation email; or
Click on the link icon to copy the activation link for sharing with the client
Once a client interacts with the activation link, they simply need to confirm their details and provide a secure password.