Have chats with your employees, project crew or a whole department.
Table of contents
Introduction
Our chat module not only helps team members communicate with other team members for upcoming projects, general messages or messages to a whole department, this with a limit of 300 participants. It will also enable one-to-one chats between a manager and an employee. The chat module is available in the Classic and Pro plans.
Activate chat
To activate the chat module, navigate to your configurations page and select YES.
As the message above indicates, billing of the chat feature will be based on active users, meaning users who have actively used the chat. You will be able to consult your usage at any time in the USAGE tab on the LICENSE page.
Billing will be discussed in more detail further in this article.
As soon as chat is activated, employees will be able to chat in the app. Managers need to be given the permission to access the chat via their profile permissions. See the next section for more information.
Once chat has been activated and a manager has the correct permissions, this icon will be visible on top to the left of the profile picture, both in the app as for a manager:
When new replies have been added to a chat, this will be indicated by a red dot containing the number of chats that contain new replies.
Selecting the icon opens the chat page.
Manager permissions
Managers can be given the following 2 permissions:
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Chat: with this permission you allow the manager to use the chat functionality according to their permissions. Managers need permission to view employees, manage projects or departments in order to have access to the chat functionality.
Chat: with this permission you allow the manager to use the chat functionality according to their permissions. Managers need permission to view employees, manage projects or departments in order to have access to the chat functionality.
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Contactable via chat: when activating this permission, employees can also start a one-to-one conversation with this manager.
Contactable via chat: when activating this permission, employees can also start a one-to-one conversation with this manager.
Chat Types
Our new chat functionality will give managers in our Classic and Pro licenses the ability to start a chat on 3 levels:
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One-to-one chats
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Project chats
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Department chats (300 limit)
One-to-one chats
Project chats
Department chats (300 limit)
The chat function supports the use of emojis, you can share pictures and media links and even leave voice notes. Participants of a chat can also like and reply to messages in a chat.
One-to-one chats
One-on-one chats can either be initiated by the manager or by the Employee. A manager with the required permissions, can start a chat by selecting SEND CHAT in the employee pop-up.
Employees will have the ability to initiate a one-to-one chat only with those managers who have the permission to receive one-to-one chats.
Note: Payroll employees can only chat with managers from the payroll provider, not a payroll manager.
Project chats
You can also start a chat in a project. When selecting the chat icon in the project you will activate a chat with all employees scheduled on the project and other managers with the chat permission.
Note: Project chats are not possible on projects for payroll companies.
CrewTip! only a manager can start a project chat to which employees can respond. This only until a project has been finalised, after which employees no longer have the option to respond.
Department chats
Department chats can only be initiated by managers and these can be started from the DEPARTMENTS page. Selecting the chat icon to the right of a department, will start a chat with ALL employees in the department if the total number of participants in the chat is no more than 300. Therefore, if the department consists of more than 300 employees, you will not be able to start a chat with this department.
CrewTip! The number of managers which are part of a chat group, should be taken into account and added to the total number of employees of a department when calculating the total number of participants, to ensure this total does not exceed the limit of 300 participants.
Chat page
As soon as you select the chat icon in CrewPlanner, the chat page opens where you will find all chats and where you can consult your messages or enter new replies:
What do you find on this page:
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With this option you can turn off the chat notifications in your browser
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Here you find and can select the chats you are part of. A blue dot containing a number, indicates the number of new responses
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The subject line displays what the chat is related to, for instance the date and name of the project or the department name
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Here you find all the members of the chat
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Select the 3 dots and a pop-up opens which allows you to mark the response as unread
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Here you find the chat replies with the latest reply at the bottom
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This is where you can enter a response
With this option you can turn off the chat notifications in your browser
Here you find and can select the chats you are part of. A blue dot containing a number, indicates the number of new responses
The subject line displays what the chat is related to, for instance the date and name of the project or the department name
Here you find all the members of the chat
Select the 3 dots and a pop-up opens which allows you to mark the response as unread
Here you find the chat replies with the latest reply at the bottom
This is where you can enter a response
Response options
Which response options do you have in a chat:
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Enter text by typing in the space provided
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Select this icon to share your location
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Select the paperclip to add an attachment
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Select the emoji to open the emoji menu
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The microphone enables you to leave a voice note
Enter text by typing in the space provided
Select this icon to share your location
Select the paperclip to add an attachment
Select the emoji to open the emoji menu
The microphone enables you to leave a voice note
Once you have added a response, select the paper plane to send:
Employee experience
Once the chat is activated in CONFIGURATIONS, ALL employees will have access to the chat icon in the employee app.
Selecting this icon opens this page:
They have the following options:
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One-to-one chat: they can start a chat with a manager for whom the permission Contactable via chat has been activated.
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Project chat: once a manager has started a project chat, employees can respond if they are scheduled on a shift and chat with the other crew members and your managers with the Chat permission.
One-to-one chat: they can start a chat with a manager for whom the permission Contactable via chat has been activated.
Project chat: once a manager has started a project chat, employees can respond if they are scheduled on a shift and chat with the other crew members and your managers with the Chat permission.
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Department chat: An employee cannot start a department chat because an employee does not have access to departments. However, he can respond once a chat has been started by a manager.
Department chat: An employee cannot start a department chat because an employee does not have access to departments. However, he can respond once a chat has been started by a manager.
Chat pricing
The chat module is only available in our Classic and Pro plans, but customers with an Essential plan can upgrade at any time to be able to start using this feature. This article explains how to upgrade your plan.
Similar to our hour pricing structure, the chat module will be charged monthly on a pay-as-you-go basis with the following pricing per active users per month, meaning per profile which has used the chat:
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Active users
Price per active user
0 – 250
Free
251 – 1000
£0.07
1001 – 2500
£0.06
2501 - ...
£0.05
You are able to consult your usage at any time on the LICENSE page in the tab USAGE. Your usage of the past month will be charged on the following invoice.
We hope this article has helped you!
If you still have questions, take a look at our Crew Academy first. You might find the answer in one of our articles.