Handle tickets and service requests in the portal

With Support and Service shared, the portal becomes a two-way channel: a customer's people open tickets and service requests themselves, follow your answers, reply, and approve your estimates without a phone call.

Before you start

• Desk must be switched on for tickets, Services & field work for service requests.
• The company's sections must include Support, Service or both (see give a customer or supplier access).
• To open a ticket or a request, or to reply, the person needs the Requester role; to approve an estimate, the Approver role (see roles).

Steps

Open a ticket or a service request (the customer)

1. In the portal, the person opens Support (or Service).
2. They select Open a ticket (or Ask for a service).
3. They type a Subject and a Message.
4. They select Submit request. It arrives in Desk as a ticket, or in Services as a service order, for their company.

Answer so the customer sees it (your team)

1. Open the ticket in Desk.
2. Write your reply and choose the reply method Customer portal (visible to customer).
3. Save the reply. It appears under the ticket in the customer's portal.

Reply to a ticket (the customer)

1. In Support, the person sees each ticket with its state and your portal replies.
2. They type in Write a reply and select Send. The reply lands on the ticket in Desk.

Approve an estimate

1. Your team prepares the service order with its lines and sends the quote, so the order shows Estimate waiting.
2. In Service, the person sees the order and its total. The home page also lists it under Estimate to approve.
3. An approver selects Approve the estimate. The order moves to approved, and you can schedule the work.

Good to know

• Only portal replies are shown. Internal notes, and replies you recorded as a phone call or e-mail, stay private.
• Approving does not charge anyone. It tells you to go ahead; billing follows your usual process.
• Estimates can be approved only while waiting. Once the order has moved on, the button is gone.
• Each action counts once. Sending the same reply, request or approval twice records it once.
• Removed people are refused. After you remove a person or switch the company's access off, an action sent from an old page is refused.
• Messages about invoices, projects and orders use the record's own thread: see answer portal messages and disputes.