Manage Customers
- Click 'Staff Panel' > 'Users' > 'Customers'
- A customer is an organization, usually a company or business from whom you will accept tickets. 'Users' are the people who actually submit the tickets.
- The customers interface allows staff to:
- Add and manage customers
- Assign end-users to customers
- Manage the tickets of users assigned to the customer
- Configure account managers and primary contacts.
- View contracts agreed with the customer.
Notes
- We advise you create customers in the Comodo Dragon interface rather than in Service Desk. Such 'Managed' customers will be universally available in all integrated modules (Endpoint Manager, Quote Manager etc).
- Login to CD > Click 'Management' > 'Customers' > 'New Customer'
- Alternatively, you can create 'standalone' (aka 'unmanaged') customers in Service Desk. Customers added via Service Desk will not be available in Comodo Dragon or other modules. You can add such standalone customers to CD later to convert them to fully managed.
- See 'Manage Companies' in Comodo Dragon admin guide for help to add customers in CD
- See 'Add an Customer' for help to add standalone customers in Service Desk.
The customers
interface shows both managed customers (created in CD), and unmanaged
customers (created in the Service Desk):
Staff can perform the following tasks from the 'Customers' interface:
- The number of organizations displayed in the list can be configured in the My Profile interface.
Customers interface - Table of Column Descriptions |
|
---|---|
Column Header |
Description |
Customer ID |
The identity number assigned to the organization by Service Desk. |
Name |
The organization or company added as the Service Desk customer.
|
Users |
Number of users added to the customer company. |
Created |
The date on which the customer was added to Service Desk. |
Updated |
Date and time at which the customer details were most recently updated. |
Sorting items
- Click a column header to sort items in ascending/descending order
The 'Show records' drop-down on the right allows you to select the number of entries to be displayed per page. The options range from 10 records per page up to 100. The default value can be set in the 'My Profile' interface. You can navigate to different pages by clicking 'Next' and 'Prev'.
Search Options
- The 'Search' field lets you filter customers by name, address, phone number and website. Simply start typing your search term to see matching customers.
- To remove all filters, clear the search field or click the 'Customers' link.
The following tutorial describes how to add customers from the 'Customers' interface:
Add a customer
- Click > 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the 'Add New Customer' link at the top
- Name: Enter a label for the customer company.
- Web Domain: Enter the name of the email domain used for the employees of the company.
- Service Desk creates two new users 'Monitor Agent' and 'Patch Management Agent' with email addresses in this domain. These user accounts are used to receive automatically generated tickets from Endpoint Manager.
- They are also used to assign to your customer any guests who submit a ticket from an email address at this domain.
- Address and Phone: The contact details of the company.
- Website: The URL of the customer's site.
- Internal Notes: Enter any notes regarding the customer.
Note: You can change the field labels of this form in 'Admin Panel' > 'Manage' > 'Forms' > 'Customer Information'. See Forms in Service Desk admin guide for more information. |
After completing the form, click the 'Add Customer' button to add the company to Service Desk. You can now configure its settings and users.
Two new users and email ids are
automatically created - the Monitor Agent and the Patch Agent. The
email IDs of these two agents are used to collect tickets which have
been auto-submitted to service desk by other CD modules.
- Background. Comodo Dragon contains several modules that help IT managers to keep their organization's computers running smoothly. Two of these modules, Endpoint Manager and Patch Management, are capable of automatically sending tickets to Service Desk via API.
-
The 'Customers' interface lets staff view and update both managed and non-managed customers.
- 'Managed' customers - Those added through the Comodo Dragon console. Managed customers are available for selection in all Comodo Dragon modules, including EM and CRM.
- 'Non-Managed' customers - Those added via the Service Desk interface. These customers are only available in Service Desk.
-
You can also configure:
View and manage details of a customer
- The default email account for outgoing mails sent on behalf of the customer.
- The account manager responsible for the customer
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of the customer company to open its details interface.
- Click the name of the company in the details interface to open its configuration interface
It contains two tabs:
- Fields - View and edit general details of thecustomer.
- Settings - View and edit advanced details like outgoing email addresses, account administrator, auto-assignment rules and so on.
The fields tab shows general details of the customer and allows you to edit them as required.
- Note. If required, you can create a custom form for the customer with additional fields. Click 'Admin Panel' > 'Manage tab' > 'Forms' > 'Add Custom Form' to create a new form.
The 'Fields' tab - Form Parameters |
|
---|---|
Parameter |
Description |
Name |
The organization or the company added as customer to service desk. You cannot edit the name from here. |
Web Domain |
The email domain name of the customer.
You can change the domain name if required. |
Address and Phone |
The contact details of the customer. You can change these details as required. |
Website |
The URL of the company's website. You can change the website details if required. |
Internal Notes |
Enter any notes regarding the customer. |
Type |
Indicates whether the customer is 'managed' (added through CD) or 'non-managed' (stand-alone customer added through Service Desk). |
-
Edit the details as required.
The 'Settings' tab - Form Parameters |
|
---|---|
Parameter |
Description |
Available Outgoing Email Address |
This field shows all available email addresses added for receiving ticket requests and sending outgoing mails. Choose the address you want to use from the 'Default Outgoing Email Address' drop-down. Background Note: You can configure these email addresses in 'Admin Panel' > 'Emails' > 'Emails'. See Email Addresses in Service Desk admin guide if you want more help with this. |
Default Outgoing Email Address |
Select an email address to be used for emails and ticket responses for this customer. The 'Default Outgoing Email Address' drop-down shows addresses from the 'Available Outgoing Email Address' field. |
Account Manager |
The drop-down shows all admins and staff added to service desk. Choose the account manager responsible for the customer. |
Auto Assignment |
Choose whether or not tickets created by users of the customer are automatically assigned to the account manager. |
Primary Contacts |
Select the person with whom your staff can liaise on issues. |
Automated Collaborations |
Collaborators receive copies of all communications between staff and users during the progress of a ticket. Collaborators can respond to communications.
|
Main Domain: Auto Add Members From: |
Specify the domains from which guest users can be imported for the customer. Guest users who create ticket from your support portal will be automatically imported as users into service desk and assigned to the customer, if the domain name in their email address matches with any of the domains entered in this field. |
- Click 'Update Organization' for your settings to take effect.
Manage users of a customer company
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers' > click on a customer name > Open the 'Users' tab
- The users tab lets you add or remove users which are assigned to your customers
Add users to a customer
There are two places you can add users to a customer:
-
The 'User Directory'
- Click 'Staff Panel' > 'Users' > 'User Directory'
- Click on a customer name to open their details
- Click 'Add Customer'
- See 'Add a user to a customer company' in 'Manage Users' if you need more help with this
-
The 'Customers' area
The rest of this section explains option 2 above in more detail.
- Click 'Staff Panel' > 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click on a customer name
- Open the 'Users' tab and click 'Add User'
- Alternatively, click 'Import' to import users from a .csv file
Manually add a user to a customer
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer company to open its details interface
- Click the 'Users' tab to view a list of users belonging to the customer
- Click the 'Add User' link:
- Tip. You can configure the fields in the form above in 'Admin Panel' > 'Manage' > 'Forms' > 'Contact Information'. See 'Forms' in Service Desk admin guide if you want more help with this.
Complete the details of the new user.
- Email Address: Contact mail address. This doubles-up as their username to login to your support portal.
- Full Name: First name and last name of the user.
- Phone Number: The contact number of the user.
- Internal Notes: Enter any comments about the user.
- Register with Default Settings: Select whether the registration should use the settings in 'Admin Panel' > 'Settings' > 'Users'
- Admins can configure how new user accounts are to be registered from the Admin Panel > Settings > Users interface. See User Registration Settings in Service Desk admin guide for more details.
- Leave selected if you want to use the default settings.
- Deselect to choose a different registration method.
- Register users manually - The user is initially added a guest and needs to be manually registered afterwards. You can register a guest as follows:
- Click ‘Users’ > ‘User Directory’ > click on the name of the guest > Click the ‘Register’ button
- See Register a user for more details.
- Register with activation email - The user is initially added as a guest and sent a mail which contains a link to register their account.
The link leads to your support web portal where the user will create a password and so register their account. After registration, the user can login and manage/view their tickets.
- Register with a temporary password - Create a temporary account password which registers the user immediately.
You need to send the password and URL of your support portal to the user. This allows them to login and manage their tickets.
- 'Require password change on first login' - Enable to force the user to create a new password after first login (recommended).
- Click 'Add User'. The user will be added to service desk and assigned to the customer company.
- Repeat the process to add more users
Import users of a customer company
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer company to open its details interface
- Click the 'Users' tab to view a list of users belonging to the customer
- Click the 'Import' link at the top
There are two ways to import users:
1. Copy Paste - Import users with name and email address only.
- Enter the user's full name, followed by a comma, then their email address.
- Add more users in subsequent lines.
- Click 'Import Users' to add the users as guests.
2.Upload - Import users from a .csv file. More details can be added about a user with this method.
- Create a .csv file of users that you want to import. The file should have the following column headers:
Email,Name,Phone,Notes,Customer ID
Note: Customer ID is mandatory for importing the user to the respective customer company. You can view the ID for the customer from the 'Staff Panel' > 'Users' > 'Customers' interface.
- Each line should contain the contact information of a single user
- Save the .csv, then click 'Choose file' to upload the file to Service Desk:
Tip : Click 'Example CSV File' to download a sample file. |
- Click 'Import Users'. The users will be added to Service Desk and assigned to the customer company.
- Depending on your settings, imported users will be added as guests, or their account activation started.
- You can configure default registration settings in 'Admin Panel' > 'Settings' > 'Users'. See User Registration Settings in Service Desk admin guide if you need further help with this.
- You can add more fields to the upload tab in 'Admin Panel' > 'Manage' > 'Forms' > 'Contact Information'. See 'Forms' in Service Desk admin guide for more help with this.
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer company to open its details interface
- Click the 'Users' tab to view a list of users belonging to the customer
- Select the users you want to delete and click the 'Remove' button
- Click 'Yes, Do it' in the confirmation dialog to remove the user.
The user will not be able to login to the web portal and generate tickets.
Add additional details about a customer
- You can add extra fields to a customer's detail page so you can include more information about them.
- Prerequisite – Admins must first create a custom form in 'Admin Panel' > 'Manage' > 'Forms' > 'Add New Custom Form'. See 'Forms' in Service Desk admin guide for more help with this.
- A 'form' can be as little as a single field, or can have multiple fields.
- For example, you might create a form for a customer's Tax ID number, or a larger form for each of the company's 'C' level executives.
- Once created, you can add these additional forms to any customer detail page.
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer to open its details interface
-
Click the 'More' button at top-right and choose 'Manage Forms':
- The drop-down contains all forms created in 'Admin Panel' > 'Manage' > 'Forms'
- Select the form you want to add from the drop-down.
- Repeat the process to add more forms
- Drag-and-drop the forms to choose the order in which they appear on the details page.
- Click the 'Save Changes' button
Admins and staff can complete the additional fields at any time:
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of the customer to open its details page
- The new forms appear as configured:
- Complete the form and click the 'Update Customer' button at the bottom.
Manage tickets raised by users of a customer company
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer company to open its details interface
- Click the 'Tickets' tab to view a list of tickets generated by users belonging to the customer
Column Headers
- Ticket: The number assigned to the ticket.
- Click the ticket number to open the 'Ticket Details' screen. See 'Ticket Details' for more details.
- Place your mouse over a ticket number to view a preview of the ticket
- Last Update Date: The date and time of the most recent activity on the ticket.
- Status: Whether the ticket is open, closed, overdue or paused.
- Subject: An outline of the issue. This is entered in the 'Issue Summary' field in the web portal by the user.
- Assigned To: The name of the staff member to whom the ticket is allotted.
The 'Notes' feature lets you add general comments about a customer. Notes are internal, so they are only visible to staff members.
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer company to open its details interface
- Click the 'Notes' tab
- Click the 'Click to create a new note' link, enter the required content and then click the 'Create' button at the bottom to add a new note.
- To view / edit a note, click the 'Edit' button at the far end of the note.
- Click the 'Save' button to save an edited note. Click 'Undo' to revert your changes.
- To delete a note, click 'Delete' at the far end of the note.
View service contracts associated with a customer
The 'Customer Details' interface lets you view contracts associated with a customer.
- Admins can create and manage contracts in 'Admin Panel' > 'Finance' > 'Contracts'
Service Contract A service contract between you and a customer can include:
|
View a customer's contracts
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the name of a customer company to open its details interface
- Click the 'Contracts' tab
- Contract Name: The label of the contract created for the customer.
- Ticket Count: Number of tickets associated with the customer.
- Pre-paid Hours: The number of hours covered by the weekly / bi-weekly / monthly / yearly fixed fee mentioned in the contract.
- Related Billable Hours (Sum): Total chargeable hours spent by staff working on tickets for the customer on all three service types (Onsite, Remote and Telephone).
- Remaining Billable Hours (Sum): Amount of hours left of the customer's total pre-paid hours.
- To remove a contract from a customer, select the contract and click 'Remove' at the top
- Customers added via CD are known as 'Managed' customers. They are automatically imported into Service Desk and cannot be removed. This is because they also appear in other products like Endpoint Manager.
- Customers added via the Service Desk interface are known as 'Unmanaged' customers. You can remove unmanaged customers because they only exist in Service Desk and not in other products.
- You can only remove unmanaged customers that have no enrolled users. You need to delete all users from the customer before you can remove the customer itself.
Remove customers
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Select the customer you want to remove
Reminder: You must remove all users from a customer before you can remove the customer itself. |
- Click 'Delete' at the top.
- Click 'Yes, Do it!' in the confirmation dialog
Export
a customer list to a CSV
You can save a list of all customers (managed and unmanaged) as a comma separated values (CSV) file.
- Click 'Users' > 'Customers'
- Click the 'Export' link at the top