Using Comments to Collaborate

Easy and transparent communication and collaboration is one of the biggest expectations clients have today. That's why our pros love using the comment feature in Aisle Planner to collaborate with clients, team members, and other vendor partners. It's the best feature to keep everyone in the loop, organized, and on track. Today, we're sharing how to effectively use comments for collaboration. So say goodbye to looking through old emails and text streams and say hello to all that extra time you’ll have on your hands!

Why Use Comments

• Using Aisle Planner’s comments feature allows you to easily track your conversations and client responses—helping to avoid any miscommunications down the road. It’s all documented for you, in one easy-to-access place. 

• Comments are attached to their relevant topic, so you know right where a conversation is documented. If you want to access a conversation you had with a client about catering, for example, you’ll simply head to that vendor record in your AP account (rather than having to search through old emails or text streams).

• Using comments helps you cutdown on email-overload. Rather than being stored in multiple emails, your conversations are all housed under their relevant topic in your Aisle Planner account.

How Comments Work

• When you make a comment anywhere in the system, your client receives an email notification that includes that comment. Our favorite part? They don’t have to login to Aisle Planner to respond. Clients can respond directly to the email, and their response will be posted to the comment thread in your Aisle Planner account.

• There are currently three areas in Aisle Planner that allow for comments: checklist items, images in the design studio, and within each vendor/contact record. Below is a breakdown of how to properly use each.

Comments on Checklist items

I primarily use the checklist comment streams to help guide and drive planning, for overall client communications, and to direct clients to other areas of Aisle Planner if needed. I've essentially stopped using email to communicate with clients regarding day-to-day tasks, as comments in the checklist are so much easier to reference. I also really love that checklist comments help keep conversations documented and organized by topic.

Comments on Images in the Design Studio

To discuss certain images or to bring attention to an image that you've uploaded into a style guide, simply add a comment to that image. Your clients will then receive a comment notification via email, along with the image you commented on (so all of the information they need is in the email--ensuring they don’t have to login to their Aisle Planner account unless they’d like to).

Comments on Contacts/Vendor Records

Once you've created a vendor record in the contacts tool of an event, you'll be able to start a discussion with your clients about that vendor.

Overall Tips for Using Comments

• Teach your clients to respond directly via email. Let them know they don’t have to bother logging into their Aisle Planner account to respond to a comment if they don’t want to. 

• Be sure to include a Call To Action (CTA) with each comment. (I.e. Let them know what it is they need to do.) I like to end each comment with a CTA.

• It's super important to document client approvals/change requests for future reference to avoid any issues down the road. Even if your clients have provided verbal approvals, add a comment in the relevant area that recaps their approval/change request. You want everything documented--and the comments feature is the perfect tool for doing so.

• Comments on "Planner Only" checklists will only be visible to your organization members, and only those members will receive notifications regarding comments on those checklists--making those areas a perfect place to utilize comments for internal communications. (The same goes for planner-only style guides and any tools that are still in planner prep mode)  

• Comment notifications are also based on individual user settings, so if the mother of the bride doesn't have permission to access vendors, she won't receive notifications regarding comments left on vendor records.

• Every now and then, I'll have clients who are too tech averse (or simply too busy) to log into Aisle Planner on a regular basis. That's totally fine--I'll schedule regular check-ins and manage the details on my end, marking tasks off once the client has completed them. In other words, even if I can't get clients to log into Aisle Planner regularly, I can at least make the most of comments section for myself and my team. Comments can act as internal reminders and status updates.

• Browse the Help Center for more information on client communication within Aisle Planner.

We're working on implementing even more ways to collaborate and communicate on our platform in the future, but the comments feature is a great place to start documenting conversations, approvals and change requests. By keeping all communication within Aisle Planner (and not in stray emails or text streams), you’ll find that you'll save more time when it comes time to referencing old conversations or looking up a past change requests. Cheers, Aisle Planners, to your best year yet in collaboration!