This article is intended for suppliers. If you're a buyer, check out our help articles here.
This article focuses on the new layout and user journey. For the previous version, see this article here.
This article will cover:
Ways Suppliers Can Initiate Communication with a Buyer
Clarifications: Messages sent to the buyer for further details on the request.
Comments: Messages aligned to a specific part of the request (i.e., a Line item).
Ways Buyers Can Communicate with a Supplier
Bulletins: Messages shared with all suppliers on a Request.
Clarifications: Messages sent to one supplier for further details on the request.
Chat: Where buyers can communicate directly with suppliers. Suppliers can't create chats; they can only respond.
Comments: Messages aligned to a specific part of the request (i.e., a Line item).
Who Can Use These Forms of Communication?
To communicate with a buyer, you need to be a user on the relevant request. One of the following user permissions will need to be set up to enable communication.
Owner: Has full access to all content and the ability to contact buyers.
Team Member: Needs 'Can edit' access to enable messaging functionality.
✏️ Please Note: All messages are logged in the audit trail and can be downloaded as a .CSV file.
Clarifications
To create a new clarification:
Click on Messages within the request menu
Within the Messages box click on Clarifications
Click + New Clarification, which will bring up a Subject & Message field for you to fill in.
Select the Open Clarification to submit it.
The buyer will receive an email notification and then respond to your clarification in the same message window you created. You will see all comments and activities tracked in the right hand panel. This is a direct conversation between yourself and the buyer; no other entities will have access to this conversation. We recommend opening a new clarification for each query.
✏️ Please Note: You can open a clarification after a request has been closed, awarded, or the deadline has passed.
To respond to a clarification:
Click on Messages within the request menu and into Clarifications.
If a buyer has opened a clarification with you, you will see the red notification where they are awaiting a response
Once you open the clarification, you will have the ability to post a comment back
✏️ Please Note: Buyers have the ability to respond to supplier clarifications with the Refer to bulletin button. This links any previous bulletins they have sent to your clarification.
Comments
You can add a comment against any question, line item, or document buyers have requested you to complete.
Find the question, line item or document you want to comment on and click anywhere on the row to open the popup window. You will see a comment box in the bottom right hand corner that says ‘leave a comment’ - once you have entered in your comment click the paper aeroplane send button.
Once you have successfully left a comment, you will see a number appear in the comments column indicating how many comments have been exchanged between yourself and the buyer.
Bulletins
Bulletins are messages buyers can broadcast to all suppliers on a request.
Suppliers cannot send bulletins and are unable to respond directly to them but will receive an email notification once a buyer has sent it.
Within the request, you will see a red notification next to the Messages tab to inform you the buyer has sent communication.
Once you click on Messages within the request menu, any bulletin messages from the buyer will appear below.
Chat
Chats allow one-to-one communication between buyers and suppliers; however, only buyers can create chats.
Buyers can share and exchange documents with individual suppliers through the chat if they enable this feature.
✏️ Please Note: Chats can also be sent after a request has been closed, awarded, or the deadline has passed.
Notifications
Notifications: You will receive a red notification symbol next to the Messages option in the Request menu to indicate there are updates in:
Bulletins
Clarifications
Chat
Once you have clicked into the messages section, you can see where the update is and how many messages you have.
For further queries, please use our live chat feature or email support@deepstreamtech.com