Communicator

Follow the step-by-step process for adding in all the communications you’ve had for a Product.

This is a handy tool for keeping a log of all your communications with your Suppliers. You can track events on here, such as when you spoke to a Supplier and by what means you spoke to them, for example, by email, telephone, Zoom.

As you start to bring more Products on board, it becomes difficult to keep a track of conversations and documentation. This tool will help you to bring all the information into one place, particularly, for example, if you know what Product you need information about but can’t remember the name of the person who sent it, especially if the information has come from a few different sources.

To enter the Communicator application, select the icon from the left side of the navigation and click on Communication Activity.

This will take you into the main Communicator page and display any communications you have already set up and the number of Events for each Communication. If there are no previous communications, this will just display an empty table.

You can see the status of your current communications. The key to the Status is shown across the top and the actual status for each individual communication is to the left of the line.

There are 3 different statuses - Paused, Archived and Active

If you hover over the line, you will see the description of that status.

To create a new communication, either click on the quick access + button at the top of the page and select Communicator and then Communication Activity or click on the Create button in the top right.

This will open up the Create Communication page where you will input the conversation details you have had with your Supplier.

The information below will help you to fill in the fields shown above.

Field	What to input

Field	What to input
Product Type	Choose from either Live or Researched in the drop down box.
SKU or ASIN	Depending on whether you are adding details for a Live or Researched Product, enter the relevant SKU or ASIN from the drop down box.
Title	Enter a meaningful Title to ensure you remember what it is about e.g. Baking Tray sample - Ningbo supplier.
Product Description	This will display automatically once you have input the SKU.
Supplier	Select the Supplier from the drop down box.
Event Title	Add in what happened for each communication e.g. sample ordered, costing requested or perhaps shipping confirmed.
Event Date	The date the event took place.
Communication Type	Select the type of communication from the drop down box - choose from email, phone, instant message (IM) or other.
Event Platform	What platform did the event take place e.g. if email, this would be gmail or hotmail, or e.g. online chat, Zoom
Contact Name	The name of the person you communicated with.
Link	This could be a link to their website or perhaps a link to images that they sent i.e. a url they send that is specific to that event.
Current Event	Select the type of event from the drop down box - choose from initial contact, negotiation, samples ordered, purchase order, finalising order, reorder, other.
Follow Up Date	Choose the date from the calendar when you need to follow something up with your Supplier.
Follow up Notes	Input any relevant information as you go that you may need to follow up with the Supplier.
Short Information	A brief overview of what the event is.
Document Upload	Any documents that have been sent to you e.g. images, quotes, final purchase order etc.
Notify me via email	This check box can be ticked if you want an email reminder when the follow up date arrives.

Once you have input the information, click on Save to save the information or Return to List to take you back to your list of Communications.

Remember to Save your information. If you click on Return to List without saving first, your information will be lost.

Once saved, you will receive a confirmation.

You can then click on Return to list or Edit.

If you click on Return to list, you will go back to the main summary page. From here you are able to view, edit or delete, just select from the Action box options.

If you click on View, you will see the details of your previous contact with your Supplier. You are also to click on Create to add more Events for that particular communication. You can create as many events as needed for a particular Product.

You are also able to click on Create to add more Events for that particular communication. You can create as many events as needed for a particular Product.

If the follow up date has gone by, this will turn to red to alert you.

If you want to mark an Event as completed, just click on the green tick on the Follow Up Date. This will turn the date to green to show completed and the tick will be removed.

If this was done in error or you want to return the status to still awaiting follow up, just click on Edit and you can change the status by unchecking the Complete box. Remember to Save or your information will be lost.

Once saved, the status will be reverted back with a confirmation message.

You can delete an Event by clicking on the delete button.

To Edit a Communicator Activity, either select the Edit button under Actions or if you are in the View mode for a Communication, you can click on Edit from there and it will take you to the same page.

Just amend the details available and remember to either Save which will return you to the main Communicator list or you can just return to list without saving.

If you have a lot of information input on Communicator, there are 2 ways you can search for information.

You can use the Search option on the top left of the page. Just type in a few letters of what you are looking for and the result will be shown.

Or you can use the filter. Just click on the blue band to open it up.

In this example, the search was for all Communications with an Active status. Just select from the dropdown box and click on Search. When you have finished, click on Reset to clear the search and close the Filter down.