Clinked – Client Portal With Your Own APP

If you have worked with clients, you know how time-consuming it can be to constantly have to look for files, communicate and make sure everything is in order. Personally, I have spent too much time on communicating and looking for files which weren’t there. That’s why I’m excited to present today’s product showcase. Clinked is an all in – one customer platform where you can collaborate with your clients on tasks, calendar events, and much more. So without further Ado let’s dive into Clinked and test it out.

We are now inside Clinked, the platform here you can see on the dashboard where we get a small overview. I would like to see a much bigger overview of all of my clients if there are some new elements that I need to take care of. But we get the latest changes here basically just in a long row. Then we get some news from Clinked. We get what events I have coming up, my files and the tasks that I have.

1. Features of Clinked
2. Clinked pricing
3. Alternatives to Clinked
4. Future of Clinked
5. Pros & Cons using Clinked
6. My experience using Clinked

Features of Clinked

Right now I have one task for 17 of April 2022. Over here I have my groups, which we will explore just in a moment. Otherwise I can create a new client, a group or a project. Now what you will probably already see now is that this design is very outdated. It is taken directly from Bootstrap, which is a CSS framework and they have just used the standard design.

Now it will be fine for some. I would personally like to see a much more modern design, but it is okay as long as the functionality is there. Now moving on from the dashboard, we have our groups here where we can view all groups, and right now we have explore Clinked group. If I click on this one, we will see some different menu points in here. Now this group can contain files, notes, discussions, events and tasks.

The home is a small dashboard where we can add some news. We can see the activity. We can see recent files, recent notes, some discussions, and so on down here you can see the more I scroll, the more it shows. Now up here we can control what members have access to this group. We can, of course, control the settings, what we want to show in the menu, and then we can work with our files.

Now in here we have a file manager where we can create folders, and we can upload files, and you can basically upload any type of file. You can also email upload, and you can upload from Google Drive. Now the different files here is basically just like a file manager where we can drag and drop the different files within the folders. I can also open the file where it will open directly in Google Sheets.

Now this is view only, so I can’t edit it within Google Sheets and then save it back to Clinked. It would be a nice feature, but that’s not possible right now. There are some file types that we can preview within Clinked, for instance, PDF files here we can see them within Clinked. We can also upload new versions of the PDF to basically replace the old version. Now we can also change the grid view here if you like more to have it a visual appeal.

This is very much like Google Drive, but that’s how simple it is to work with the files, and you can easily upload files here, as I just shown you now in the notes section here this is notes shared between you and whoever are in the group, whether it’s your clients or your employees or your colleagues. Here you can see that we can add notes, we can edit them, and then we can comment on the notes. This is a great way to add notes maybe agreed with a client.

It can be that you have to share something within the group, but not necessarily with the client or whatever it is. As long it has something to do with the group, you should definitely add a note to it.

You can also go a step further and work with discussions. Here you can create a new discussion, and then you can start to discuss that subject. For instance, here we have project planning discussion. Here we have Does anybody have any idea for our upcoming project, and it’s linking to the project. Here you can see that there asks for roles, tasks, brainstorm, and to set deadlines.

And then there is a comment here, and I can also add comments to this discussion, and this is a great way to not having to disturb anyone with a meeting. Here we can just add in whenever we have time to fill in our needs for this specific discussion. We do also have an event menu out here where we can add events. You can see that there are some events already where we have a meeting where we need to Skype with the client. We need to create a brief, and we need to release the brief.

This is a great way to get a fast overview of what’s going on with the client. It would be great to have this overview for all of the groups and the clients, but it is as simple as just adding a new event up here. You’re entering the title and the different dates that we want to add. I will say 10th of November and then I will just create it, and then it is added now here for the 10th of November. I can then click on the event to see more information.

And then of course, I can comment and discuss this event. Now the last menu point is tasks. Basically in here we can manage small projects and tasks, and we can see the progress for the different tasks over here in the status bar. We can also see do, which is basically the deadline, and then we can click on the task to see more information.

Right now it’s 84% done. We can see there’s no text, but it has priority medium. And again I can comment on it, which is like a main thing for all of the different modules. We can always comment and discuss the different subjects. If I want to change something off the task, I can just press edit and then I can say the progress is maybe only 69% and then press save and it is saving in real time.

So you can see that the progress bar went a little bit down now, but that’s the functionality within the groups. Now we do also have a more global view where we have all of our different tasks here. Here you can see the different tasks. We can see what client is it who is the owner of the task?

Basically the same as we just saw before. But this is just an overview for all of our different clients. Would be great to also have the calendar view. We can see the tasks here and of course again click on them, and then we’ll be sent in to the specific task in the group. Now we do also have a summary here.

And the summary is basically an overview of the project where they take all of the tasks and then they give you an estimate. Right now the estimate is that we are off track. It is saying that progress is 0%. That is not correct, but at the moment it is off track. So we should get on this project to get it back on track.

That’s a great overview because you will have all of your different groups with the tasks in there. Now they do also have reach out. Here you can create new reach outs and this is basically to share news and updates to your members in the different groups. You can also tag them and of course choose the groups. For now I’ll just choose some members, and then I will choose an email subject.

I will just call this subject and then I’ll write YouTube video within. Now what I can do is I can send the test email or I can just send it. So this is basically just emails we’re sending out to specific segments. Either I can choose members. I can choose by tag or I can choose whole groups to send out.

When I just press send, it will send out the email and we can then see that right now status is pending. We can then click on the email that we have sent out here and then we can see small information like who is it sent to? And did we add any attachments? Now the last menu point up here in the top bar is members. And this is just the members that we have within our organisation.

Right now it’s only me with my information down here, and we can always invite members and of course choose what group they should be added to down here. And I will just choose the Explore Clinked group here, and then we can choose what role they should have, whether it’s basic, standard or administrator. It would be a little bit better for the UX here if they just said client or colleague or administrator. But I’ll choose Basic, and then we can add multiple emails up here. If the client has multiple people that they want in on the project, and then we just send the invitations out.

We can also up here create members from a CSV file. If you have to send out a lot of invitations, that is also possible. And then of course we can export the members. You can also globally search within Clinked and then it will search within files, discussions and notes. And this is globally all over your organisation.

Then they do also have chat functionality where we can add new groups and start active conversations. So I’ll just choose Explore link here and now we can chat all the members who are in this group together. It is as simple as this. It is a very simplified chat, but it does what it needs to do, and that’s perfect. We do also have a notification centre.

And then one last thing we have if I go back to Explore Clinked is we have the chat menu down here. So you saw the chat that I just started.

They are inspired by Facebook a little bit here with the chat window. So if I start multiple chats, of course I will have multiple windows, but for now I just have this chat window here where we can add new chat messages, and then all of the members within the group will receive these messages. Now Clinked do also have integrations. So if I go to my account and I click integrations, you can see that they have integrations to Adobe Sign, and they have integrations to DocuSign, and this is to sign contracts or documents between you and your clients.

So that’s just a great small add on.

You can also, of course, completely transform Clinked into your design and your logos and et cetera. You can actually also get your own app for Clinked where you get your own branding on the app. You just have to contact them. But overall, that is the platform Clinked.

Clinked pricing

When we take a look at the pricing structure of Clinked, it consists of four plans. They do not have a free plan, but you can start with a free trial and test out Clinked, whether it’s for you or not. Now, the cheapest plan doesn’t come with three of the main modules, so if you need tasks module and two others, you have to upgrade to at least standard. Now, if you’re a huge company, they do also have an enterprise solution for you. But when we do compare the two premium plans to each other, they do only differ on the amount of members and the storage you get.

In the enterprise plan you do also get a dedicated support manager.

Alternatives to Clinked

Now the alternative to Clinked is Microsoft SharePoint and Huddle. Microsoft SharePoint is an integrated part of the entire 360 Office package, so if you do use that package, you should definitely go with SharePoint. However, the real competition to Clinked is Huddle. Huddle is also working in the cloud where you do only have a login in the same way as we see within Clinked.

But Huddle are ahead of Clinked, especially on the design. Huddle has a much more modern design than Clinked, but other than that, they do have more or less the same features. So if it’s important to you that the design is updated, you should definitely take a look at Huddle, but if that doesn’t matter, and you just need a bunch of functionality, then Clinked is a great choice for you.

Future of Clinked

When we take a look at the future of Clinked, they do have a packed roadmap, but there are three main things I want you to notice. First off is that they’re working on shortcuts. This will make it easier for us to use Clinked and all of its functionality. It will be easier for us to go from A to B to C. Furthermore, then they are working on sub tasks.

This will make it possible for us to elaborate all of our tasks even more. Or if you have a task that is just too small to be a main task, and maybe it fits under one of the other main tasks, then you can easily add it under there. Now the last exciting thing that I noticed is that they are working on an offline mode. This means that even though you don’t have Internet, you can still upload files to Clinked. However, they do not upload until you get access to Internet again.

So as soon as you’re online on WiFi, they will automatically upload all of your files to Clinked without you having to lift a finger.

Pros & Cons using Clinked

Now moving on to the pros and cons of Clinked. Starting with the pros, it saves you time on communication. You can collaborate on tasks with your clients, and they have integrations to sign documents, whereas for the cons, they do have an outdated design. I’m missing better UX and help text to help me through the platform, and I’m missing a dashboard with th full overview of my account.

My experience using Clinked

Using Clinked, you really get a software which can be the middleware between you and your client. Your client can always find what the client needs without having to go through you. Overall, I will give Clinked three stars. It’s a tool with a great potential, but the design is really a setback for me. I don’t feel I can take full advantage of Clinked, but yeah, that is my review of Clinked.

I hope that you liked the video and if you did, please give it a thumbs up. If you have any questions to Clinked or other products you would like me to review. Please leave a comment down below. Thank you so much for watching. Let’s catch up on the next one.