The media portal lets you collect photos and videos directly from your customer before you write a proposal. For standardised work like a boiler replacement, a few clear photos often tell you everything a site survey would, which means fewer revisions, fewer wasted trips, and a faster turnaround.
Key benefits
No site visit needed: capture job-specific detail without sending anyone out
Fewer proposal revisions: quote from what you can see rather than what you assumed
Lower travel cost: save the trip for jobs that genuinely need one
Easy for the customer: they take a photo on their phone and upload it
Set up the email template
The media portal is sent through an email template, so you need one template holding two tags. One tag generates the link the customer uploads through, the other generates the link that shows what has already been uploaded.
âĄď¸ Click your Profile icon > Settings > Communications
Click View under Email templates.
Find or create a folder for Opportunities.
Create a new template and name it Request for media - portal link.
Write the body of the email, explaining why you need the photos and what to take.
Insert the upload tag where you want the upload link to appear:
[upload_media_portal_url: online media portal]Insert the view tag where you want the view link to appear:
[view_media_portal_url: this link]Click Save.
Tip: The text after the colon is what the customer sees as the link label. Change it to whatever reads best in your email, and make it obvious which link does what.
When to send it
There are two points in the sales process where the media portal earns its place.
After the initial enquiry
The customer is interested but you do not have enough detail to price the work. Send the portal link and ask for photos of the relevant area. What comes back tells you whether you can quote from the images or whether the job needs a survey after all.
After the proposal has been sent
The customer has read the proposal and wants something changed, such as moving the install location. Resend the portal link and ask for photos of the new spot. You amend the proposal from what you can see, rather than from a description over the phone.
What the customer sees
The email arrives with two links.
Upload link: opens the portal so the customer can take a new photo or choose files from their device
View link: shows the customer what has already been uploaded
The portal is optimised for mobile, so most customers will use their phone camera and upload straight from it. It works on a computer too, though that only helps if the files are already saved there.
The view link matters more than it looks. It lets the customer check what you have received before you quote, so nobody is working from a photo of the wrong wall.
What happens next
Uploaded media is attached to the opportunity in Commusoft, so it sits with the record rather than in someone's inbox. Open the opportunity to review the images, then build or amend the proposal from them.
Important: Always review the media before you quote from it. A blurry or partial photo is worse than no photo, because it looks like enough information when it is not. If what came back does not cover the job, resend the link and ask for a specific shot.
Best practices
Say which link does what: label the upload and view links clearly in your email body
Ask for specific shots: "a photo of the boiler and one of the pipework behind it" gets better results than "some photos"
Push customers to mobile: uploading from a phone camera is faster and produces better images
Send it early: using the portal at enquiry stage is what removes the site visit, not using it after the fact
Common questions
Do customers need an account to upload media?
Do customers need an account to upload media?
No, customers do not need an account to upload media. The upload link in the email opens the portal directly, so they take a photo or choose a file and upload it without signing in.
Can I see what the customer has uploaded before I quote?
Can I see what the customer has uploaded before I quote?
Yes, you can see what the customer has uploaded before you quote. The media is attached to the opportunity in Commusoft, and the customer can see the same thing through the view link in their email.
Can I ask the same customer for media more than once?
Can I ask the same customer for media more than once?
Yes, you can ask the same customer for media more than once by resending the template. This is the usual way to handle a proposal change, where the original photos no longer show what you are quoting for.
Can customers upload video as well as photos?
Can customers upload video as well as photos?
Yes, customers can upload video as well as photos. Video is useful where a still image cannot show the problem, such as a noise or a leak that only appears when something is running.
What if the photos aren't good enough to quote from?
What if the photos aren't good enough to quote from?
If the photos are not good enough to quote from, resend the portal link and ask for the specific shot you need. Where the images still do not answer the question, book the site survey rather than quoting on an assumption.
Walkthrough
Watch a short walkthrough of the media portal.