Are you looking for a way to reach your Suppliers directly during an Auction? Reaching your Suppliers during live Auctions is easier than ever with Auction Chat. 

In this article we will cover:

• How to communicate with your supply base during an Auction
• How to leverage Supplier one-on-one messaging
• How your Suppliers receive your messages

How to Send Individual Messages to your Suppliers

The ability to message your suppliers is available to you and your Sourcing Team for all of your upcoming Auctions. Once your Auction is scheduled, you can start sending and receiving messages from your invited Suppliers.

Ready to send a Supplier a Message? To start, look to the top-right side of your Auction screen.

You will notice there is an icon that reads Supplier Chat:

From here, a side panel will appear, showing which participating suppliers are currently online & viewing the bidding screen:

To send a Supplier message, simply select the Supplier that you would like to communicate with. From here, you will then be able to send the supplier a message:

Online Suppliers will immediately receive the message on their Auction screen:

Suppliers may also initiate conversation with the Sourcing Team, by sending messages from their end to you:

You can then respond to the Supplier in the text box and click, Send Message.

Don't worry--all messages in Chat are private and are not shown to any other participating Suppliers. 

New Chats from Suppliers will display two places:

• At the top of the screen next to Supplier Chat
• Next to individual Supplier name within the ‘Overall Bids’ section of the Auction Screen

Making the Most of 1-to-1 Auction Messaging

Individual Auction messaging is a great way to engage with your supply base in real-time. 

Benefits of Auction Chat for you and your Suppliers include:

• Increased Supplier engagement before and during the live Auction
• All Auction communication occurs in Scout on a single screen
• Increase in resolution time for any issues before or during the Auction

How Suppliers receive Auction Messages

Due to the time-sensitive nature of Auctions, it is important that your Suppliers are always in the loop when you are trying to reach them.

In the event that your Supplier is offline when you send them a message, Scout will notify the Supplier via email:

The email notification will then prompt Suppliers to log into Scout to view the new message from the Sourcing Team on their bidding screen.

Conclusion

Scout cares about your Supplier engagement and participation--communicating with your Suppliers is key to making sure the Auction runs as smoothly as possible. With Auction Chat, you no longer need to leave Scout to converse with your supply base on email.

For more on Auctions, click here.