Difficulty: Intermediate
Difficulty: Beginner
Step-by-step

Creating a Client-Centric Welcome Page in Coordinate: A Comprehensive Guide

Imagine the impression it would make on your clients if, instead of the standard project or task page, they land on a customized welcome page, complete with your branding, recent announcements, and other vital information. This guide will take you through the process of creating a Welcome Page on Coordinate, a collaborative project management tool.

Understanding the Default Setup

When you initiate a client project in Coordinate, a fairly straightforward, albeit functional, system is set up by default. After you've added your tasks, or even just a single task, and invited collaborators, you're pretty much ready to go.

A particularly professional touch is that when you invite a client into a Coordinate project, they receive a personalized, branded email. This email features your logo and your chosen colors, ensuring that from the outset, your brand's identity is front and center.

When clients click on the 'view portal' link within this email, they land on the project page in Coordinate. If they have tasks assigned to them, they land on the 'My Tasks' page. Alternatively, if they haven't been assigned any tasks yet, but you've shared the 'Plan' page with them, they will land there.

This default setup is highly practical, but you might want to add a more personal touch or have a dedicated space to relay specific information or instructions. This is where a customized Welcome Page comes into play.

Crafting a Welcome Page

To begin creating your custom Welcome Page, close the current client view and return to your personal dashboard. Here, you'll initiate the process of adding a new page.

Coordinate allows you to create a custom page that applies only to a specific project. However, the focus of this guide is to create a Welcome Page that can be used across all client projects. This ensures consistency, saves time, and provides a standardized onboarding process for all clients.

To do this, you need to access the 'Settings' section and create a 'Global' page, applicable across all your projects. For instance, you can create a 'Welcome Page' which can be reused in all your projects. You can put your name or title, along with any necessary details or instructions, in this section.

It's worth noting that your Welcome Page is not limited to text. Feel free to add images, embedded videos, or other forms of media that can help engage your clients or explain certain processes better. A section for 'Announcements' can be particularly helpful to keep clients updated on the latest project changes or developments.

After you've added all the necessary content and media, don't forget to save your changes.

Integrating the Welcome Page into Your Projects

With your customized Welcome Page ready, the next step is to add it to a project. Navigate to the relevant project from the 'Projects' section. Within the project, you'll find an option to add a new page.

Here's where the magic of the 'Global' page comes into play. Rather than creating a bespoke page for each individual project, you can simply select the 'Welcome Page' that you created in the previous step. Upon doing so, the Welcome Page will show up as a tab within the project interface.

Making the Welcome Page the Default Landing Page

At this point, your Welcome Page exists within your project, but it isn't the first thing your clients see. They'll still be directed to either the 'Plan' page or the 'My Tasks' page by default.

To change this, you need to reorder the project tabs. Move the 'Welcome' tab to the top of the list. With this change, the Welcome Page becomes the first page that clients see when they land on the project. Coordinate's system is designed to direct clients to the

first selected tab by default, so this change ensures that your clients are welcomed exactly the way you intended.

Updating and Maintaining the Welcome Page

Now, any time a client clicks on the link in their invitation email, they will land on the customized Welcome Page. You can edit the content of this page in your settings at any time, and all clients who have the Welcome Page added to their project view will see these updates.

This approach offers a dynamic and visually appealing landing page experience for your clients when they enter your projects. Beyond a Welcome Page, Coordinate allows you to add multiple pages, meaning you could include an FAQ page, a process overview, or any other custom page to enhance your client's experience.

To summarize, crafting a Welcome Page in Coordinate is an effective way to create a personalized, informative landing page for your clients. This not only reinforces your brand but also enhances the client's experience and streamlines your project onboarding process.