As of 2024, the number of communication apps available to consumers is staggering. A user based breakdown of the most popular options we see for tours out there right now gives us a glimpse into how much of the market just these few platforms take up.
Percentages are approximations based on total active users in the general market across various sources
Due to this fragmentation, each camp will have their own preference. This forces tour managers, crew members, and anyone who works with multiple artists to juggle multiple different applications on their devices. Each with their own feature sets bringing in potential restrictions based on your workflow.
This just being one of the many tools you need while on tour, a frustrating, and common workflow can look like this:
- Check schedule via calendar, Master Tour, or other platform
- Switch to chat app to relay info
- Switch to email
- Switch back to chat app to relay info
- Switch to a PDF
- Back to a chat app to relay again
For those managing multiple artists at once, this may involve juggling multiple apps and platforms that each artist prefers.
Moreover, many platforms offer only a single chat channel. The artist, crew, drivers, management, and others all receive messages that may only concern a few people. This can lead to notification fatigue, with people muting alerts and breaking the communication chain.
When a more feature filled solution is needed, free tiers often fall short, incurring new costs. All of these options can be exhausting.
These are just some of the reasons why building a robust chat solution into Faro was a key feature from day one. Offering a cross platform solution for everyone baked right into the same place you’re already accessing the rest of your information. We wanted a chat experience which offers file uploads, multiple channels, and all the fun stuff like GIFs and emotes. And that’s exactly what we did.
Lets go over how it works →
Organization chat
When you first create your Organization you will see a chat channel available to you with a little crown beside it. This is a chat channel for your whole Organization and it's only available to members of your Organization. This is a great place to keep all your communications on, or off tour.
If you are someone who has multiple Organizations with multiple trips to manage, switching between the Chats is simple. When navigating to the Chat on mobile, you will see your Organizations listed on the left hand sidebar. On web, it will show you the list based on the Organization you’re currently on. Simply click or tap on an Organization to see the list of Channels for all Trips the Organization contains.
Trip chats
Similarly, when you create a new Trip you will immediately see that a #general channel is made for you. This channel is available to all members of your Trip. Here, you can address everyone who is in the channel and they will receive in app and push notifications when a new message comes in.
As mentioned, you may often want to address only certain groups of people based on their designation on that tour (crew, artist, drivers, etc.). This is where Groups becomes very powerful.
For every Group you create in Faro, a new Chat channel will be available for only the members of that group, giving you finite control over the communication pipeline.
Creating a Group + Chat channel
Heading to the Members section of your Trip on mobile or web, simply create a new Group and add any members that should be a part of it. A new channel will be available for each group you create and only availble to the members of that group.
Common Groups we often see are
- A group for the Artist or band
- A general Crew channel or you can get as granular as you need by making one for Stage, Audio, Merch, etc
- Management present on the tour or at home
- Drivers
- Admins of the tour itself
You can also use Groups and Channels exclusively for the chat. An example of this that I personally liked was a Channel made solely for receipt tracking. Everyone simply posted photos of their receipts into the Channel, then the tour Admins could add the receipts to Faros File manager so they could always know where to find the expenses for that tour. Clever!
Past Trips Chats
Faro keeps your past Trips available to you for easy reference and posterity. In turn, your past Chat Channels will also be available to you. This makes referencing communications from previous tours super easy. Did someone post a delicious restaurant when you were in Vienna? Maybe someone sent a hilarious photo from a show last time you were in New York. Simply pop into the Chat Channel from that trip and everything is there for you.
Summary
Ease of communication is critical on tour. Since all your information lives in Faro, a first in class way to communicate in the same platform is paramount. Our built in Chat is just one of the many ways to achieve this.
Join now to see all the other things we have to offer 📢