Customer portal: access, services and articles

The customer portal is where the person who opened a ticket follows it, answers, attaches files, requests a service and reads the articles published for them. This page explains who gets in, what each person sees, and how to change that.

The customer portal is where the person who opened a ticket follows it, answers, attaches files, requests a service and reads the articles published for them. This page explains who gets in, what each person sees, and how to change that.

Who gets into the portal The portal signs people in by email, with a magic link: no password. Configurations, Service, Portal access decides which emails it answers. - Anyone we already know (the default): an email that appears as a contact, or as the requester of a ticket, receives the link. This is how the portal has always worked. - Only the people on the list: nobody else receives a link, even with a contact in the CRM. Before turning this on, use Add my contacts to the list, otherwise everyone loses access at once.

Blocking and removing Blocking takes effect on the person's next click. There is nothing to expire: the access is checked every time the portal reads anything, so the link they already have simply stops working. Their tickets and history stay exactly as they are. Removing from the list is different in each mode: with Only the people on the list it takes the access away; with Anyone we already know it only drops the specific permission, and the person gets in again through their contact. To take access away, block.

What each person sees Each listed person sees either only their own tickets or their whole company's tickets. This choice wins over the company level switch, so you can give one person a narrow view inside a company that has the wide one.

Requesting a service With the service catalog turned on for the portal, the customer sees the services you publish and answers the form of the one they picked, one step at a time: the later steps only appear because an earlier answer made them relevant. The request becomes a real ticket, with protocol, queue and SLA, and it shows up under My requests and in their ticket list. Sending the same form twice does not open a second ticket.

Files in the ticket With files turned on, the customer attaches a screenshot or a document straight to the ticket, and the agent gets a notification. You set the maximum size and how many files a ticket accepts. The file policy of the service module (blocked extensions, size) also applies to what the customer sends.

Articles only customers see An article can be visible to anyone with the help center link, only to customers who signed in, or only to specific accounts. Customer only articles disappear from the public help center and appear at the portal knowledge base. With no account listed, every signed in customer sees the article; listing accounts narrows it to people from those accounts.

Is the portal working The Report tab counts sign ins, how many people, articles read inside the portal, tickets opened from it and service requests. Deflection (people who solved themselves in the help center) keeps being measured where it always was and is shown here for reference. The Access trail records who asked for a link, who signed in, who was refused and why, who requested a service and who attached a file. It cannot be edited.

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