The Customer Portal is your customers' unique and personalized support site where they can open tickets, track the status of tickets, access knowledge base articles, and view all company tickets ('main contacts' only).

You can customize the experience for your customers by configuring your own Customer Portal URL, automatically sending out a personalized welcome email, selecting the types of tickets they can view, activating the AI assistant for the Customer Portal, enabling self-service actions, and more! 

Domain and SSL

Atera automatically generates a Customer Portal URL for your company. You can provide it to your customers as is, or create your subdomain for brand consistency.

To access your Customer Portal URL:

From Admin (on the sidebar), click Customer Portal

The Customer Portal screen appears.

Note:

• You can define your sub-domain by creating a CNAME record in your DNS settings and redirecting it to 'servicedesk.atera.com' (the URL can look like this http://helpdesk.yourcompanyname.com). 
• To have SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) enabled automatically on the Customer Portal URL, the following URL pattern should be used: https://yourcompanyname.servicedesk.atera.com

When done, enter the new Portal Domain Name on the Customer Portal page, and click Update 

For your customers to access the Customer Portal, they must receive a username and password from you. A unique username/password can be found on each contact's page (they are automatically generated upon contact creation).

Additionally, you can automatically generate an email welcoming new contacts and providing them with the Customer Portal URL, as well as their username and password. Learn more about portal credentials in this article.

• Provide portal credentials

Note: A contact will be added automatically to the system and assigned to their company based on the domain name, the first time that contact opens a ticket (provided the company exists in the system).

Ticketing

In the ticketing section, you can prevent your contacts from viewing their tickets. Additionally, you can customize this feature by enabling or disabling it on a per-customer basis.

To restrict your contacts from accessing the ticketing section, click on the toggle button. This action will remove the ticketing section from the Customer portal.

To enable the ticketing section for specific customers, follow these steps: First, enable Ticketing. Next, choose the customers you want to grant access to from the provided drop-down menu.

Knowledge Base

In the Knowledge Base section, you have the option to eliminate the Knowledge Base access for all or specific customers within the Customer portal.

To disable the Knowledge base for all customers, simply click on the toggle.

To grant access to the Knowledge Base for specific customers, follow these steps: First, enable the Knowledge Base section within the Customer portal. Next, choose the customers you want to provide access to from the provided dropdown menu.

AI assistant

The AI Assistant feature empowers your customers to interact with an AI designed to assist them with daily issues and requests. This includes executing specific actions on their devices, finding solutions for common problems, and even installing software applications on their devices. For more information, see AI assistant in the Customer Portal

Self-service actions

The Self-Service feature empowers your customers to initiate specific actions remotely, including the installation of approved software applications authorized by Admin technicians.

You can disable the self-service option within the Customer portal by simply clicking the toggle button.

Or you can enable the option for certain customers, to do so, enable the toggle, and select which customers have access to the feature from the dropdown.

Self-Service options

Enabling the Self-Service actions provides your customers with the capability to perform certain operations remotely and install approved software applications on their devices.

The following operations are available for your customers.

• Restart computer - Initiates a system restart, which will close all running programs, log out the current user, and then power off and on the computer to refresh the system.
• Lock computer - Securely locks your computer, preventing unauthorized access when you step away. By initiating the lock operation, you can ensure the privacy and security of your data and applications, allowing you to resume your work right where you left off when you return.
• Shutdown computer - Performs a computer shutdown, safely closing all applications and services before powering off the machine completely. It ensures a controlled and secure shutdown of the system.
• Reset password - Reset your local user account password. If you've forgotten your password, set a temporary password sent via SMS. Use the temporary password to log in and choose a new password for your account.
• Logout - Log out of the current user account, end the active session, and return to the login screen. This action protects your personal information and allows another user to log in to the system.
• Software installation - This feature empowers your customers to independently install software applications on their devices. For additional details, please refer to the dedicated section titled "Self-Service Software Installation."

Note: To enable this feature on your customers' devices, it is mandatory to assign the devices to your contacts. Refer to this article for guidance on how to assign agents to contacts: "Assign an agent to a user."

Self-Service Software Installation

In the Software section of the Customer Portal Configuration, you can choose which software applications your customers can install on their Windows or Mac devices. Please note that this feature is not currently available for Linux agents.

Note: The software application installation leverages Chocolatey and Homebrew repositories. Clients with access to the private repository can utilize the listed software applications for self-service actions.

Your customers can install software applications either by asking the AI Assistant.

Or by selecting the software application within the Self-Service actions.

Operations security

Before executing any of the mentioned actions, customers need to set up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) by entering the phone number they wish to use for verification.

After clicking "Save & Send Code," customers will be prompted to enter the code received via SMS in the subsequent window.

Upon successful verification, customers will encounter the following message displayed within the Customer Portal, and the selected action will be executed.

Reset 2FA for self-service actions

When customers set their phone numbers for the verification of operations, the provided phone number will be automatically updated within their contract details in Atera.

To reset the Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), simply remove the current phone number displayed in the settings. Upon completion, your customers will be prompted again to add their phone numbers for the verification process.

Specify tickets for viewing on the Customer Portal

You can specify which tickets (by 'Ticket Status') your customers can view on the Customer Portal.

To specify:

1. From Admin, click on Settings. The Settings page appears.

2. On the Settings page, click the Tickets tab.

3. Under the Customer Portal heading, check the boxes next to the tickets you'd like your customers to view.

4. Click Save. Your customers can now view the tickets you've specified.

Notes:

• Selecting "The ticket cannot be reopened" from Admin > Settings > Tickets will block customers from reopening tickets in the Customer Portal.
• Billed tickets cannot be updated by the customer within the Customer Portal; in this case, the customer will not be able to edit the ticket details. 

Edit ticket field visibility in the Customer Portal

You can control which ticket fields your customers can edit or view in the Customer Portal. This can be done for both default ticket fields and custom ticket fields.
Important Note: If your customers are already logged in to the Customer Portal when you change the ticket visibility settings, they may need to log in again for the changes to take effect.

To edit default ticket field visibility in the Customer Portal:

1. From Admin (on the sidebar), click Custom Fields. 

The Custom Fields page appears. The Ticket tab is selected by default. 

2. Click the edit icon () next to the default field whose visibility you want to change in the Customer Portal. The Field window appears. 

4. Choose whether you want to give customers edit permissions, read-only permissions, or hide the ticket field entirely from the Customer Portal. Then click Apply. 

Nice! The changes have been applied and will be reflected in the Customer Portal.

To edit custom ticket field visibility in the Customer Portal

1. Follow the steps above to navigate to the Custom Fields page. 

2. Click the edit icon () next to the custom field whose visibility you want to change in the Customer Portal. 

The Field window appears. 

3. Choose whether to allow customers to edit the custom field or hide the field entirely from the Customer Portal. Then click Apply. 
Note: There is no read-only option for custom field visibility in the Customer Portal. 

Great! The changes have been applied and will be reflected in the Customer Portal. 

Select Customer Portal language