Manage customer portal settings

The customer portal gives customers a centralized place to manage and respond to their support tickets. After you've set up your customer portal, you can configure settings like the portal domain, access permissions, and support form. These settings can be updated at any time.

Permissions required customer portal settings permissions are required to manage the customer portal.

Please note: this article applies to the updated customer portal experience. If you're still using the previous customer portal experience, we recommend migrating to the updated experience.

Migrate your customer portal to the new portal

If you've already set up your customer portal, you can upgrade to the new customer portal experience. During migration, your portal will be temporarily unavailable. All tickets, conversations, and customer data will be carried over automatically.

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar.

2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Content > Customer portal.

3. At the top of the page, in the banner, click Update.
   
   

   

4. Click Start Migration.

5. On the Theme page, preview your new theme.

   • The updated customer portal uses a simplified theme. Existing theme variables will not be migrated.

   • You can customize the theme after migration.

   • To preview your theme, click Open theme previewer.

6. After reviewing your theme, select the I've reviewed the new theme checkbox in the bottom right. Then, click Next: Property updates.

7. On the Ticket properties page, confirm the ticket properties that appear on the ticket details page.

   • To add a property to the ticket details page:
     • Click add Add property.
     • In the pop-up box, click the Select property dropdown menu and select a property.
     • Enter the display name.
     • Click Save.
8. Click Next: Menu updates.
9. On the Menu page, review your portal menu. Automatically, the new portal includes links to Tickets and Sign out. To view and edit the links used in the navigation menu, click Open menu settings.
10. Select the I've reviewed my new portal menu checkbox and click Next: Conversation updates.
11. Review updates to conversation visibility and click Next: Confirmation.
12. Click the I'm ready to migrate my portal checkbox, then click Migrate Portal.

Once migration is complete, customers will be automatically redirected to the updated portal.

Edit the portal name

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Enter a Portal name. This is the title that will appear in the browser tab when customers are logged in to the customer portal.

Manage the domain

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Navigate to the URL. In the Slug field, you can edit the URL slug.
3. To update the domain, click the Portal domain dropdown menu and select a domain. You can only select domains with the primary content type customer portal.
4. To manage the domain used for your customer portal, click Manage your domains.
5. The customer portal will appear in the primary language set for your domain. If you change your domain's language in your Domains & URLs settings, the customer portal language will also update. Learn more about HubSpot's language offerings.

Please note: multiple language customer portals are not supported at this time.

Edit access control

You can either allow customers to create their own login or assign access to specific access groups.

1. To give access to a specific group of contacts:

• • In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
  • Click the Access tab.

• • Select the Access group membership required option, then click the dropdown menu, and select the access groups to give access to.
    
    
    

  • A registration email will be sent to the selected contacts. In the banner, select the checkbox to allow HubSpot to send registration emails to contacts who have not yet registered. Learn how to customize the registration email.

     

2. To allow users to create their own login:
   • In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
   • Click the Access tab.

• • Select the Self-registration required option. This will allow anyone to register and create their own login for the customer portal. To select this option, you must have self-registration enabled in your private content settings.

3. To configure how customers sign in, click Authentication Method to open your private content settings. Select the domain hosting your customer portal, then configure the available sign-in option before returning to the customer portal settings.
4. To manage your consent notice in your private content settings, click Consent Notice.

Edit the default inbox or help desk

You can select a default inbox or help desk for tickets created by contacts in your customer portal. When the customer logs in to their customer portal, they can reply to the ticket, and their response will appear in the selected inbox or help desk.

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Click the Tickets tab.
3. In the Choose where portal tickets are sent section, click the dropdown menu and select an inbox or help desk. If alternate options aren’t displayed, tickets created from the customer portal are managed in help desk by default.

Configure customer ticket permissions

To control which tickets your customers can view in the customer portal, configure customer ticket permissions:

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Click the Tickets tab.
3. In the Customer Ticket Permissions section, select an option:

• • Only tickets they're associated with : when a contact logs in to the customer portal, only tickets associated with their contact record will appear.
  • All tickets from their company: when a contact logs in to the customer portal, any tickets associated to their primary company record, in addition to the tickets associated to their contact record, will appear.

• • Selected customers can see company tickets: only contacts who meet the defined criteria will be able to view tickets associated with their company.
    • Click Manage contact properties.
      
      
      
      • In the right panel, click + Add filter to set the criteria.
      • To add a new filter, click + Add filter in the AND or OR groups. When you set a filter with AND, records must meet all of the criteria in the filter group to be included in the view. When you select OR, the records must meet the criteria in at least one filter group to be included in the view. Select the property you want to filter by, set criteria for the property, then click Apply filter.
      • Click Save.
      • Once you’re done, click the X in the top right corner. Your filters will be applied, but you must save the view for the filters to persist.

4. Click Save.

If you allowed contacts to view All tickets from their company, your customers can switch between their tickets and their company's tickets. When your customers access their customer portal, they can navigate between My view and Organization view tabs, and select the following views:

• Organization tickets: all tickets associated with the customer's primary company will appear.
• My view: only tickets associated with the customer's contact will appear.

Understand conversation threading

The conversations that customers can view in the customer portal depend on the customer ticket permission you've configured:

• Personal access: if Only ticket’s their associated with is selected, customers can view conversation threads only for tickets associated with their contact record. They will only see messages from conversations they have access to.
• Company access: if All tickets from their company is selected, or if customers meet the criteria for Selected customers can see company tickets, customers can also view conversation threads for tickets associated with their primary company.

You can verify which conversations will appear in the customer portal by using the Conversations card in the ticket record's right sidebar. If multiple conversation threads are associated with a ticket, only the original thread will appear in the customer portal.

To keep internal discussions private, use notes and comments for internal communication. You can also create filtering rules to prevent internal emails from appearing in conversation threads. Any communication included in a conversation thread is visible in the customer portal to customers who have permission to view that ticket.

Configure ticket actions for customers

Manage customer interactions with tickets in the portal by allowing them to reply to closed tickets or close tickets themselves.

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.

2. Click the Tickets tab.

3. In the Ticket actions section, select an option:

   • Allow customers to reply to closed conversations: customers can respond to an existing thread on a closed ticket.

   • Allow customer to close tickets from the portal: customers can close tickets directly from the portal.

4. Click the Ticket stage dropdown menu to assign a closed stage for each pipeline. If your pipeline only has one closed stage, it'll be selected by default.

    

5. Click Save.
   

Customize ticket display

Customers only see the ticket properties you choose to display in the portal. For example, you can display Ticket name while removing Priority from the displayed columns.

To control how tickets appear to customers, edit ticket labels, filter which tickets are visible, and select which columns display on the ticket page.

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Click the Tickets tab.
3. To change the display name for tickets on the ticket home page:
   • In the Display name for Tickets field, enter a new Display name.
   • For example, you can change the label to Orders, Cases, or Requests. Learn how to update your form header text to reflect your new label.
4. To customize which tickets appear in the customer portal:
   • In the Ticket visibility section, click Select ticket properties.
   • In the right panel, click Add filter and select a ticket property, then set up your filter criteria.
5. To customize which columns appear on the ticket display page:

• • To add a property, click + Add property. You can add up to 10 properties.
  • To reorder columns, click and drag properties to the order you want.
  • To edit a column, hover over it and click Edit.
  • To remove a property from the table, hover over it and click Delete.
  • To reset the columns to the default, click Reset to recommended defaults.

6. In the section Customize your Ticket Owner display name, select a display option. By default, the owner's first name is used; however, you can choose to display the owner's full name, last name, or a custom alias.
7. Click Save.

Add a support form to the customer portal

You can add a support form to your customer portal so that when a visitor is logged in, they can submit a new support request from their customer portal.

Please note: when you add a support form to the customer portal, it automatically creates a ticket associated with the logged-in user. As such, including an Email field is not necessary. Learn more about adding form fields.

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. In the Support Form section, select the Connect support form checkbox.
3. Navigate to the Tickets tab.
4. In the Support form section, select the Connect support form checkbox.
5. Enter the Form Menu Text. This will appear as the text for the link in the customer portal navigation menu. For example, Open ticket.
6. Enter the Form Header Text. This will appear at the top of the form. For example, File a support ticket.
7. Click the Forms dropdown menu to select a form.
8. In the bottom left, click Save.

You must select a form that includes ticket properties and is connected to the conversations inbox or help desk. To add ticket properties to your form, you can either create a form using the Support form template, or turn on ticket properties in the form builder.

To turn on ticket properties for a form:

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Marketing > Forms. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Marketing > Forms directly.
2. Hover over the form and click Edit.
3. In the left panel of the form editor, click the settings icon.
4. In the left sidebar menu, click Tickets.
5. Toggle the Connect this form to an inbox or help desk switch on.
6. In the dialog box, click the dropdown menu and select an inbox or help desk, then click Connect.
7. In the top right, click Review and update. Click Update to publish the form and complete the inbox or help desk connection.

A ticket will be created for each form submission, which will appear in the customer's own customer portal in addition to your conversations inbox.

If you're having difficulty with your form behavior or submissions, review the different common issues and the steps to resolve them.

Customize the theme

To edit the appearance of your customer portal:

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Click the Theming tab.
3. In the Customize your portal appearance section, click Edit theme.
4. In the theme previewer, use the styling options to make sure your customer portal's appearance stays consistent with the rest of your website. Learn more about editing theme style settings.

Please note: if you make changes to the theme styles, these changes will apply to all pages in the customer portal.

Add custom links to your portal's homepage

To add a set of custom links to the customer portal:

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Click the Theming tab.
3. Click the External Links card.
4. Click the Menu dropdown menu and select a menu. Learn more about creating and editing menus.

Set up private content system pages

You can select and edit the system pages that your customers will use when accessing their portal, including the pages where they can register, sign in, and sign out. You can also configure an access denied page and password reset pages.

To set up your customer portal system pages:

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Content > Private content.
3. Click the Pages tab.
4. Under each type of system page, click the dropdown menu and select a template.
5. After you select a template, you can edit or preview it by clicking Actions then selecting the corresponding option.

Customize consent to process language (optional)

If you're allowing customers to self-register to access their customer portal, you should configure your consent notice to let them know how you will be using their data.

Please note: while these features live in HubSpot, your legal team is the best resource to give you compliance advice for your specific situation.

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. Click the Access tab.
3. Click Consent Notice.
4. You'll be brought to your private content settings. Click the Choose a domain to edit dropdown menu and select the domain where your customer portal is hosted.
5. In the Consent to process data section, click Edit explicit consent content.
6. In the Notice and consent panel, update the consent to process text or consent to process checkbox label, then click Save. You can also link out to your legal team's external resources from the Notice and consent text, if applicable.

This will only update the consent to process text for your customer portal. Learn how to set default notice and consent text for other HubSpot tools.

Turn on a customer portal

Once you have completed the set up steps, you can turn on your customer portal.

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. At the top of the page, toggle the customer portal switch on.

Any messages sent from the customer portal to your team will appear in the conversations inbox and be logged as an email engagement on the record's timeline.

Give contacts access to the customer portal

To access the customer portal, you can either share the link to the portal with your customers or they can access the portal via the knowledge base. To view your customer portal:

1. In your HubSpot account, click More, then navigate to Service > Customer Portal. If More doesn't appear in your account, navigate to Service > Customer Portal directly.
2. In the top right, click View Portal.
3. Depending on the login and authentication method you selected, before a customer can access their customer portal, they may need to set up their login credentials:
   • If customers are able to self-register, a Register here link will appear below the login credential fields.
     
     
     
4. If only a specific group of contacts have access, an email will be sent to them so they can set up their login.

Please note: if you are logged into your HubSpot account when you visit the customer portal, you will not have to log in to view the ticket listing page.

Use the customer portal

When customers log in to their customer portal, they can view all of their open and closed tickets on the ticket listing page, and filter and search for existing tickets. The tickets that customers can view depend set ticket permissions and contact record associations.

The following ticket properties are visible in the customer portal by default:

• Subject
• Requested by
• Create date
• Ticket owner
• Last activity date
• Status

To view ticket details and associated conversations, customers can click a ticket to open the ticket details page.

To reply to tickets, they can enter a message in the text box and use the icons across the bottom of the email editor to modify the text style and include file attachments. If a ticket does not yet contain any messages, file attachments can't be included in the initial message. Instead, attach files in a subsequent reply.

If a ticket contains multiple conversation threads and the customer has permission to view more than one thread, tabs appear at the top of the ticket details page. Use these tabs to switch between conversation threads.

Export ticket data from the customer portal

To export ticket data, customers can click Export to CSV in the top right of the table. This will export all data visible in the current view, including any filters applied at the time of export.

If the customer needs to file a new ticket, they can click File a Support Ticket. This will take them to the ticket form that you created so they can submit a new issue.

To log out of their portal, the customer can click the Avatar in the top right, then select Sign out. To automatically log customers out after a period of inactivity, you can set up idle session timeouts.