Without a portal
- Every status question comes in by email or phone
- The invoice PDF is requested one at a time
- Files travel through overflowing mailboxes
- The customer waits for an answer that was settled long ago
A customer portal for service providers that takes the load off the helpdesk.
A customer portal gives your customers their own restricted access: they raise tickets themselves, see their status, their invoices and shared files. What is visible to the outside is something you release per item.
With and without a portal
What changes when customers see for themselves.
With the portal
- The customer sees the status and history of their tickets themselves
- Invoices and PDFs are ready and waiting for them
- Shared files in one place, in both directions
- The team gets on with the work instead of answering routine questions
Visibility
You release what the customer sees.
The decisive point of a customer portal is not that the customer sees everything, but that you decide per item what goes to the outside. The same ticket therefore has two views.
Innensicht · Service-Desk Ticket #4821
Antwort an Kunde
Vorgang
Interne Notiz · Lizenz prüfen
Vorgang
Status: In Arbeit
Vorgang
Lösung dokumentiert
Vorgang
alle Vorgänge, interne Notizen inklusive
sichtbar pro Vorgang Sie geben frei intern · extern · verborgen
Außensicht · Kundenportal Conen GmbH
Antwort an Kunde
beantwortet
Status: In Arbeit
läuft
Lösung dokumentiert
abgeschlossen
nur freigegebene Vorgänge, kein interner Verlauf
Dasselbe Ticket, zwei Sichten: Sie entscheiden je Vorgang, was intern bleibt und was im Portal erscheint.
Raising tickets
Customers raise their own tickets.
Giving your customers a direct line takes the informal email out of the equation. Requests come in structured and land in the right channel, instead of in a shared mailbox.
- A web interface in your own website. Customers open a ticket right there, and it is assigned to the matching channel.
- Restricted login for selected customers. They raise new tickets, ask follow-up questions on existing ones and see the status, without access to the rest of the system.
- Mandatory forms when raising a ticket. Whoever opens a ticket fills in the fields needed to handle it. That saves the usual round of follow-up questions.
When the team replies, the answer goes to the customer by email, and the history stays on the same ticket. If the customer closes a ticket, a later follow-up reopens it automatically.
Permissions
You set who sees what yourself.
Not every contact at a customer should see everything. A project lead needs an overview of their organisation's requests, an individual user only their own.
- Own tickets or the whole organisation. Per contact you decide whether someone sees only their own tickets or all of those from their company.
- Read or edit. You likewise decide who can only view tickets and who can also reply and change the status.
- Several contacts per customer. A company can have any number of logins, each with its own view.
That keeps access tightly matched to what the customer really needs. Internal notes and other customers' data stay out of reach.
“Staff in both support and project planning can see orders and invoices. That was not possible before.”
Invoices
Their own invoices in the portal at any time.
The most common query in service is often not a service question at all: which invoice is outstanding, where is the PDF? In the portal the customer answers that themselves.
- Their own invoices at a glance. The customer sees the number, date, total and payment status, outstanding as well as paid.
- Download the PDF directly. They download the matching invoice as a PDF, without requesting it by email.
- Only their own receipts. Each customer sees only their own invoices, never anyone else's.
That takes the small queries off your accounts team, the ones that add up over the month.
Files
Share folders and files selectively.
Some requests need more than text: a configuration document, a service slip, a photo. Instead of sending it back and forth by email, you share it through the portal.
- Share a folder. You release a folder for the customer; any files can be uploaded and downloaded within it.
- In both directions. The customer also drops files in, such as a screenshot of the fault or a signed document.
- Notification of new items. When something new lands in the folder, you are notified automatically if you wish.
That way everything to do with a request sits in one place, instead of scattered across mailboxes and versions.
Introductory call
Let us look at your service inbox.
In half an hour we will look at which requests your customers could handle themselves and what you want to release to the outside per item. After that you will know whether a portal fits your service.
Scope of functions
What is inside the customer portal.
External access splits into three areas: what the customer does themselves, what they view and how tightly access is scoped.
Do themselves
- Raise tickets through the web interface of their own website
- Open new tickets through the restricted login
- Reply to existing tickets and change the status
- Mandatory forms guide them through the required details
- A closed ticket reopens automatically on a follow-up
View themselves
- Their own tickets with status and history
- Their own invoices with number, date, total and payment status
- Download invoices as PDF
- Shared folders and files, upload and download
- Notification of new items in the folder
Access and view
- Own tickets or the whole organisation per contact
- Read only or also edit per contact
- Several contacts per customer, each with their own view
- Visibility per item: internal, external or hidden
- Internal notes and other customers' data stay out of reach
Use cases
Six building blocks, one service desk.
The portal is the side opened to the outside. These areas go deeper into the remaining parts of the service desk, each on its own page.
Ticket system
Requests as tickets with channels, responsibility at the status and SLA time remaining.
Learn moreTicketing software
Tickets from email, phone and web service, assigned to the right channel.
Learn moreTicket billing
Service time from the ticket booked to a project and invoice, visible per customer.
Learn moreTicket projects
Turn a growing request into a project with its own structure and finances.
Learn moreOutlook add-in
An email in the mailbox becomes a ticket, without leaving Outlook.
Learn moreSLA management
Response times per customer, with time remaining and a warning right in the ticket.
Learn more
At a glance
The portal is the outward-facing side of your service desk.
In the portal the customer sees only what you release. How teamspace runs the whole service behind it, from channels through SLA and escalation to billing from the ticket, is shown in the Service Desk Software overview.
To the Service Desk SoftwareWhere it fits
When a customer portal pays off.
A customer portal is a restricted access through which customers handle their own requests themselves: raise and track tickets, view invoices, exchange shared files. It is the outward-facing side of a service desk, not a second system alongside it.
The benefit grows with the number of recurring requests. If you are regularly asked about the status of a ticket, an invoice or a file, you shift exactly those routine questions into self-service. The team gains time for the requests that really need handling, and the customer does not wait for an answer they could see for themselves.
So that nothing internal leaks out in the process, teamspace decides visibility per item. An internal note stays internal, the reply to the customer becomes visible. That keeps the service open where it should be, and closed where it must be.
The portal belongs to the [Service Desk Software](/service-desk-software/) and hangs off the same [ticket system](/ticket-system/) as internal handling. What the customer does in the portal appears in the ticket with no detour.
Related modules
What the customer portal hangs off.
External access rarely stands alone. It hangs off the contact, the project and the hour that later becomes an invoice.
CRM software
Access hangs off the contact in the CRM; incoming emails are matched to the customer record via the sender address.
- Access on the CRM contact
- Email sender becomes a contact
- The customer record fills itself
Project management
When a request grows into an undertaking, the ticket becomes a project with its own structure and finances.
- Ticket project from the ticket
- its own structure and dates
- ticket and project linked
Time tracking online
Service hours booked from the ticket to the project are the basis of the invoice in the portal.
- Booking from the ticket
- billable or internal, kept apart
- the basis for invoicing
Frequently asked questions about the customer portal
How do customers sign in?
Through a restricted login that you set up per contact. Alongside it there is a web interface that is embedded in your own website; a ticket can also be opened through it without a login.
What do customers see in the portal?
Their own tickets with status and history, their own invoices with payment status and PDF, as well as shared folders and files. They see neither other customers' data nor internal notes. Per item you decide what is visible to the outside.
How do we control who may see what?
Per contact you decide whether someone sees only their own tickets or all of those from their organisation, and whether they may only read or also edit. A customer can have several contacts with different views.
Can customers close tickets themselves?
Yes. Customers change the status of their tickets, so a ticket can also be closed. If the customer later asks a follow-up question, the closed ticket reopens automatically and the history is kept.
Do customers see their invoices and contracts?
Invoices yes, with number, date, total and payment status, plus the PDF to download. Alongside this, any files can be shared through shared folders. Dedicated contract management in the portal is not included.
Where is the portal data stored?
In two geo-redundant, ISO 27001-certified data centres in Frankfurt am Main, with processing exclusively within the EU. teamspace is Made in Germany, set up to be GDPR-compliant, with a data processing agreement as standard. The contracting party is 5 POINT AG, a German public limited company based in Darmstadt.
Introductory call
Let us talk about your customer portal.
Half an hour is enough for an honest look at your customer structure, the permissions per contact and the items that should be visible to the outside. After that you will know whether a customer portal fits your service.