A client "Engagement" refers to a coaching program that you have entered into with a client (business coaching, lifestyle coaching, etc.) .
Once a client is enrolled into your coaching program, the program name will be displayed on the Engagements section of the client page, as shown below:
- An overview of each program that your client has enrolled is displayed, with the following info:
- Coach’s Name - the name of the coach conducting the engagement. This could be yourself or one of your coaching team members (if applicable)
- Program Name - the name of the program that your client has enrolled in
- Start Date and End Date - will be displayed as 'TBD' if no dates have been defined
- Progress - progress bar reflects the current percentage completion of the program sessions
- Status of the engagement - Not Started, In Progress or Completed
- The Engagement can be Deleted or Assigned to another Coach. (Assignment to another coach is possible only with the AHA! Plan or Coaching Team Plan where you can add team members)
- Click to open the details of the Engagement.
Engagement Details
Think of the Engagement details page as your 'control panel' where you have all the tools required to manage the engagement with your client.
the Engagement details page opens by default to the Activity Log as shown in the image below.
Notice the red arrow, showing the name of the coaching program, in this example 'Business Coaching'.
- The header provides an overview of the Engagement: Coach that is managing this engagement, the client’s name, the Start and End Date of the Engagement and the current Progress, which indicates the number of sessions completed out of the total number of sessions for the program (2/16 in the example above, meaning 2 sessions completed out of a total of 16 sessions).
- The Sub-Menu on the left displays quick links to the available functionalities at your disposal to manage the Coaching Engagement. These include Notes, Goals, Assignments, Resources and Sessions, each of which will be covered individually in the sections below.
- Activity Log displays a history of all actions/transactions that were performed by the coach and the client throughout the course of this engagement. It also displays the date and time that each action was taken. Note: the green text in the Activity Log are clickable links and take you directly to that page where the action was performed.
Notes
“The weakest ink is stronger than the strongest memory” – The Exponential Growth Strategist.
Gone are the days where you must open a separate word document or dig through handwritten notes.
CoachVantage enables you to organize your session notes systematically and to have them at your fingertips.
You can take detailed coaching session notes for each specific engagement with a client. These notes will be saved and can be accessed at any time from the unique Engagement where you created them.
NOTE: you can also access ALL client notes for ALL Engagements with this client from the NOTES menu link in the Client page.
- Click on 'Notes' in the sub-menu to view your saved notes. Click on the title of a saved note to display the contents of the note. You can edit your notes using the rich text editor.
- Search for your notes by using a keyword or by date the note was last edited.
- Click the Add New Note button to take notes. It will open the 'Add New Note' pop-up (refer to image below). You can select to either Use A Note Template From My Resource Library or Don’t Use A Template as shown here. For now, we are selecting Don’t Use A Template. (There is a help article on creating Note Templates in the Resource Library)
- A new note window will open in the right pane. You are prompted to Add a note title. Add a note title that is descriptive so that it is easy for you to search for it later (for example: "Session #1 Notes, 23 Jun 2020). Once you've entered the title and hit enter, the note will be added to the list under the Search bar.
- By default, a new note is set to PRIVATE as shown below. This means that only you, as the coach, can see these notes.
- Notes that are created from the engagement details page can be Shared with the Client or Un-shared (after you have shared it) through the 3-dots button men (see red arrow in the image below). The note can also be Deleted.
NOTE: Notes can only be shared with your clients if they have created a client account portal. - When you see a right-directional arrow icon appearing next to a note title (refer to the image below), it indicates that this note has been shared with your client.
- You can rearrange the order that notes are listed by grabbing the drag-and-drop icon (refer to the image below) to move notes up or down.
- Last but not least, you have a full text toolbar in the note taking section. You can add images to your notes, videos and external links, highlight, bold, underline, change the font and hyperlink text in your note just as you would in any common word processing program.
- You can add comments to a note. Please note that if the note is shared with a client, comments are shared as well.
Shared Notes
Notes, once shared with the client, will appear in the Client’s Portal the same way as they are displayed on the coach’s end (refer to image below).
NOTE: Notes can only be shared with clients from the unique Client Engagement page, not from the “Notes” menu on the client’s main profile page. In order to share a note with a client, the client must have first created a client account portal.
Goals
Measuring the achievement of goals is the yard stick for the client. Setting short-term, mid-term and long-term goals in CoachVantage is right at your fingertips.
- Click on Goals in the sub-menu to open the Goals page. By default, the Active Goals section will open.
- Click Create Goal to set up a new Goal for the client.
The New Goal pop-up window opens (as shown below). Enter the Name of the Goal, a Description and Due Date. - The new Goal will be displayed in the Active Goals pane, as shown below.
Some coaches may encourage their clients to create their own goals in the Client Portal. The steps to create a Goal are the same as the instructions listed above. Once the Goal is created, it will display in both the client’s and coach’s Engagement details page.
Once the New Goal is created, simply click anywhere on the Goal line (see below) to open the details of the Goal.
Goal details are displayed as follows:
- Due Date of the Goal, the Name and Description where you can modify by clicking on the pencil icon to
- Edit the Name, Description and Due Date, as well as Delete (trash icon) or Mark as complete (green checkmark). Note that the client has access to the same options as the coach in the Client Portal, having full control over the goal settings.
- Create a new Milestone by clicking the +Milestone link. A pop-up window will open to add the Name and Due Date for the Milestone (refer to the image below).
- The Comment field allows both client and coach to add comments for this Goal.
NOTE: Goals can only be shared with your clients if they have created a client account portal.
For the coach and client alike, the Goal and Milestones are easily displayed, and Milestones can either be modified (Name and Due Date) or deleted using the icons on the right-hand side of the screen (as shown below).
To mark a Milestone as completed, simply check the box on the left-side of the Milestone. The drag-and-drop icon icon can be used to move a milestone up or down the list, as needed.
Client Goals in the Dashboard
Both you and your clients will have a quick view of assigned Goals and their Due Dates displayed in the Dashboard (as shown in the image below).
In your dashboard, this appears in the Client’s To-Do’s section. The dashboard therefore gives you a quick view of all clients' goals and due dates. It helps you to stay on top things and keep your clients accountable.
Assignments
At times you may have coaching assignments for your clients that are specific and measurable.
This is where using the Assignments feature proves useful. Note that your client will need to have created a client account portal in order has access to the assignments that you share through the Client Portal.
To create an Assignment,
- Click on Assignments in the unique Client Engagement. (see image below)
- Click Create Assignment and enter the
- Enter the Name, Description and Due Date of the Assignment in the pop-up window, as shown below.
At this point the Assignment has been created.
- Click on the Assignment to open the Assignment window (see below). At this point, you will be able to add additional details to the Assignment.
NOTE: Assignments can only be shared with your clients if they have created a client account portal.
Adding Files to an Assignment
You can easily add files such as documents, worksheets, images, video links, etc to an assignment. This is useful if you want your client to complete a worksheet or read a book extract, for example, as part of their assignment homework.
Documents can be added by selecting them from your Resource Library or from your local drive or other outside sources like Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, etc.
- Click on the +Files to open the Add Assignment File pop-up window, as shown below.
- You can add a message for your client when you add an assignment file. The message will display in the Client Portal next to the file. Refer to image below: the message says “Enjoy working with the template”, as an example.
- Click on Select File to get a drop-down showing the available files from the Resource Library. Select the file you want and click Save. The file will now be available for the client in the Client Portal.
- You can also choose to Add Assignment File from a different location. In this case, select NO and click on Choose a file, as shown below.
The drag & drop any files window will open and you are able to source your file from any location, as indicated in the image below.
At this point, the files will be available in the Client Portal (see below) for them to view or download.
- The message you entered when adding the assignment file is now displayed under Assignment Files in the Client Portal.
- The client can download the file by simply clicking on the file name.
- A Comment can also be added here, this is available from the client or coach side of view.
Like Goals, client Assignments are also displayed in the Coach’s Dashboard under the Client’s To-Do’s, giving coaches the heads up to check in with the client if they wish to do so (see image below).
Resources
You also have the ability to share Resources with your clients, such as documents or files.
NOTE: Resources can only be shared with your clients if they have created a client account portal.
- Click Resource on the sub-menu.
- Click on Add Files on the right-hand side and select either Add File From Resource Library or Add Local File.
- Selecting Add File From Resource Library opens the Program Resources window, as shown below. Here you can select any file or folder from the Resource Library.
- By checking the boxes in the highlighted areas in the image below, you are selecting a Folder (for example, a Welcome Packet folder that contains several individual files, or an individual file (for example, a pdf document).
- Click the Add button to share the selected files with your client.
The client will now be able to access assigned resources through the Client Portal. The client will have to click on Coaching Engagement in the Main Menu, select the unique Engagement they are enrolled in and then click Resources on the sub-menu to access the resources you have shared with them for this unique coaching engagement (see image below).
- Click the file name to start the download, or
- Click the button-down menu on the right and select Download.
- Clients can also add their own files to Resources by clicking the Add Files button. They also have the ability to share these files with you, which you will receive in your account.
Note the red arrow in the image above: this indicates a folder, which, when clicked, opens to the folder contents. This is a great way to share an entire package for a program with your clients, or a general welcome packet.
Note: Resources that are added for a unique client engagement will be saved to the Client Portal in Coaching Engagements > Engagements > Resources. These Resources will not appear in the Resource Library (on the Main Menu) of the Client Portal.
Sessions
Sessions provides all the information about upcoming and past sessions related to this unique coaching engagement only.
Refer to the image below to understand what the numbers refer to:
- Click on Sessions in the sub-menu to open the session details as shown in the image below.
- This area displays the session Date and Start Time, End Time and session location for a coaching session.
- The location flag (blue) displays the location of the meeting, for example, Phone, Physical Location, Skype, Zoom, etc. For Zoom and Skype as locations, the flag is clickable. When you click the flag, it will prompt you to open the Zoom application so you can start your video call.
- Clicking the 3-dot button menu on the right will provide the option to either View Details of the appointment, Reschedule the appointment, or Cancel the appointment.
- You can create a new appointment with your client for this unique coaching engagement. Clicking the Add New Appointment button opens the Add New Appointment pop-up. (Covered in detail in the Add New Appointment article)
- The Progress bar displays the total amount of session planned and current progress.
- This is the status of the engagement and is reflected as Not Started, In Progress (in the example below), or Completed. You can manually change the status of an engagement from In Progress to Completed by clicking on the 3-dot menu button and selecting Mark as Completed.
TIP: This is useful if you wish to end the engagement even before all the sessions have completed, for example if the client has defaulted on payments or if you have terminated the agreement.
NOTE: in the highlighted area in the image above, you have all the tools needed to manage a coaching session, take Notes, set Goals, create Assignments, manage Resources and book and manage Sessions. This means you can stay on the Engagement page and easily manage all tasks required from one screen while in a coaching call.