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Managing Customers

Changes to customer data are always global changes, i.e., it does not matter where you carry out a change, it will always affect all places where this customer is used (customer page and tickets). This is because ConSol CM keeps the customer data in a central customer database.

Accessing Existing Customers

If you want to see all details about a customer, you have to open its customer page. There are several ways to access the customer page of an existing customer:

Updating Customers

Editing Customer Data

You can edit customer data using the context menu in the Header Section or the link in the Details Section provided that you have the required permissions.

Figure 92: Editing customer data

The section's background turns yellow to indicate that it is in edit mode. Edit the customer data as required (see The Different Data Fields for details about the different types of data fields). Click Save changes to save the new data. The section background turns gray again (view mode).

Figure 93: Details Section in edit mode

You can also edit customer data within a ticket where the customer is added as the main customer or as additional customer (see Editing Customer Data).

Associating a Contact with Another Company

If a contact is linked to the wrong company, you can fix this on the contact page. There you can change the company which a contact belongs to. To do so, please proceed as follows:

  1. Open the contact page and click the Change link in the context menu of the associated company.
  2. Provide the desired company:
    1. Start typing the company name and select one of the suggestions from the Autocomplete Search.
    2. Click the Create link to create a new company (see Creating a New Customer).

Figure 94: Changing the company of a contact

Editing the Comments and Attachments

The Comments and Attachments Section of the customer page allows you to add comments and attachments to the customer. The respective permissions are granted independently from the permissions to read and write customer data, so it is possible that you cannot view or edit this section.

You can use the Comments and Attachments Section to collect information about the customer which is not related to a specific ticket, e.g., adding the customer's service contract as an attachment, or writing a comment about the best way to contact the customer.

Adding Attachments

To add an attachment, click the Attachment link in the header of the section. The section background turns yellow to indicate that it is in edit mode. If the section is already in edit mode, you can also add an attachment by clicking the Attachment tab.

Figure 95: Adding an attachment

Please proceed as follows to add an attachment:

  1. Specify the files to be uploaded by either:
    • Dragging and dropping them into the white area.
    • Clicking into the white area to open a file browser dialogue and selecting the files.
  2. The selected files are displayed in a list below the white area. Optionally, you can add a description in the Description field. Click the Delete link to remove a file from the list.
  3. Click the Add button to upload the files to the customer page.

The attachments are then displayed in the list of attachments below (still empty in the above figure).

The list of attachments provides the following information. You can filter the list using the drop-down boxes and text fields in the header:

You can delete an attachment by clicking the red cross on the right. The attachment is now displayed in italics. At this point you can still undo the removal by clicking Undo remove. As soon as you execute any other action, the attachment is removed permanently.

The possible file formats, maximum file size, and whether attachments are searchable depend on the individual configuration of your CM system.

Adding Comments

To add a comment, click the Comment link in the header of the section. The section background turns yellow to indicate that it is in edit mode. If the section is already in edit mode, you can also add a comment by clicking the Comment tab. Enter the comment and click Add. The comment is then displayed in the list of comment below.

The list of comments provides the following information. You can filter the list using the drop-down boxes and text fields in the header:

You can delete a comment by clicking the red cross on the right. The comment is now displayed in italics. At this point you can still undo the removal by clicking Undo remove. As soon as you execute any other action, the comment is removed for good.

Printing a Customer Page

You can print a customer page by clicking the Print link in the upper right corner of the customer page. A pop-up window is displayed where you can select the desired printer.

Performing Customer Activities

Customer activities allow you to perform certain actions for the current customer. You can find them in the Activities box next to the open customer page. Depending on the availability for a company or a contact, the activity is called company activity (company action) or contact activity (contact action). Click the desired activity to perform the corresponding action.

Figure 96: Company activities

Examples for customer activities are:

The available customer activities depend on the type of customer (company or contact), his customer group, and the individual configuration of your CM system. You can only perform customer activities if you have the required permissions to perform activities for this customer group.

Managing the Customer's Tickets

Creating a Ticket for the Customer

The customer page provides a convenient way to create a new ticket for this customer. Please proceed as follows:

  1. Open the customer page.
  2. Click Create ticket in the context menu of the customer.
  3. Fill out the required data on the Create ticket page and click Create.
    1. The current customer is already selected as the main customer of the new ticket.
    2. You can only select queues to which the customer group of the current customer is assigned.

Please see Creating a New Ticket for further information about ticket creation.

The Create ticket option is not available for companies in two-level customer models where tickets can only be created for contacts.

Transferring Data to Another Customer

You can transfer the data of one customer to another customer. This is necessary for example if you want to deactivate or delete the customer. It depends on the type of customer which data is transferred:

Please proceed as follows:

  1. Open the customer page.
  2. Click the Transfer data link in the context menu of the customer.
  3. Select the customer who should receive the data using the Autocomplete Search.

    The checkbox Transfer only open tickets determines if you transfer only open tickets (checkbox selected) or both open and closed tickets (checkbox not selected). Select the checkbox if you want to deactivate the customer afterwards. Leave it unchecked if you want to delete the customer, as you have to move all tickets in this case.

  4. Click Transfer data and continue. The new customer will replace the previous customer in the tickets of the selected state (open / open and closed). This applies both to tickets where the customer is the main customer and to tickets where the customer is an additional customer. In case of a company, the new company also receives the contacts and the resources of the previous company. In case of a contact which should be deleted, resources are transferred as well as tickets.

Figure 97: Transferring tickets to another customer

Making Customers Unavailable

If a customer should not be used in the CM system anymore, you have two options to handle this situation:

The following table provides an overview of the requirements and implications of each option.

  Deactivating a customer Deleting a customer
Type of customer Company or contact Company or contact
Preconditions
  • The customer must not be the main customer of any open ticket.
  • Company in a two-level model: The contacts of the company must not be the main customer of any open ticket.
The customer must not be the main customer or an additional customer of any ticket (both open and closed).
Reversal Can be undone by reactivating the customer Cannot be undone.
Implications The following actions are not possible anymore:
  • Creating tickets for the customer
  • Assigning tickets to the customer
  • Assigning a deactivated contact to another company
  • Assigning contacts to a deactivated company
  • Searching for the customer using the Quick Search, Autocomplete Search, and Detailed Search without the option Deactivated incl.
The following actions are still possible:
  • Finding the customer using the option Deactivated incl. in the Detailed Search
  • Finding the closed tickets of the customer in the Quick Search, Detailed Search, and Autocomplete Search by entering the customer name
  • Editing customer data
  • Reactivating the customer
  • Transferring the closed tickets of the customer
  • Performing activities for the customer
  • Deleting the customer
  • No actions are possible.
  • Neither the customer himself nor his tickets can be found by entering the customer name.

We recommend not to delete customers because this has a huge impact on the data history. You won't be able to find the tickets which belonged to this customer anymore. The ticket history entries relating to the customer will remain in the ticket though.

Deactivate the customers instead!

Deactivating a Customer

You can deactivate a customer on his customer page, within a closed ticket of the customer or within an open ticket where the customer is added as an additional customer. The preconditions for deactivating the customer (see table) have to be met and you need the corresponding permission. Please proceed as follows:

  1. Open the customer page or a ticket of the customer.
  2. Click Deactivate in the customer's context menu.
  3. The customer is deactivated. If you deactivate a company, all the contacts of the company are also deactivated.

Deleting a Customer

You can delete a customer on his customer page, provided that you have the required permissions. Please proceed as follows:

  1. Open the customer page, i.e. the company or the contact page.
  2. Click Delete in the customer's context menu.
  3. If the customer still has (open or closed) tickets or related resources, you need to transfer this data to another customer (see Transferring Data to Another Customer). In case of a company, the contacts belonging to the company have to be transferred as well.
  4. The customer is completely removed from the system. The only remaining reference is the ticket history entry created during the transfer (see following figure).

Figure 98: History entry after data transfer

Making Customers Available Again

You can make a deactivated customer, which is displayed in italics, available again by reactivating him. To do so, please proceed as follows:

  1. Open the customer page or a ticket of the customer.
  2. Click Reactivate in the customer's context menu.
  3. The customer is reactivated but he does not get his tickets back (in case his tickets were transferred to another customer before deactivating him). If the customer is a company, its contacts remain deactivated. You have to reactivate them one by one.
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