Latest revision as of 08:45, 6 September 2026

Using the Customer Portal

This guide is for staff. It explains when to invite a customer and how Customer Portal work now fits into the Communications Centre.

When to invite

The Customer Portal is useful for applicants maintaining requirements, buyers completing onboarding, sellers following a transaction, landlords following tenancies/repairs and tenants reporting maintenance.

The contact needs a usable email address and must be correctly linked to the relevant Standout records.

Send the invitation

Open the Contact record and use the Customer Portal invitation/link action. The customer receives a time-limited secure sign-in link and can establish a password for future logins.

Review customer submissions

Use the Contact's Customer Portal/submissions view for onboarding, buyer position, AML information, secure uploads and viewing requests. Review important transaction/compliance information before relying on it simply because the customer entered it.

Work with portal messages from Communications Centre

Customer Portal messaging is now part of the Communications Centre workflow.

When a portal conversation is related to an enquiry, staff can see it in the same timeline as the original portal/website lead, emails and other activity. Where available, staff can reply through the Customer Portal directly from that enquiry.

The Customer Portal staff conversation view also shows related Communications Centre enquiries so staff can move between the customer conversation and the underlying lead/property context.

Requirements

Customer Portal property requirements are live CRM requirements. If a customer changes their search, staff see the same updated requirement set in Standout.

When processing a new portal/website enquiry, the Communications Centre can also create a new requirements set prefilled from the property being enquired about. Existing requirements are not overwritten.

Viewing requests

A portal viewing request creates a tentative diary item. Staff should confirm the appointment. For a normal portal/website enquiry, the Communications Centre can also hand directly into the viewing diary workflow.

Security

Customers can only access records linked to their authenticated contact. Never work around this by sharing another customer's link or by deliberately linking the wrong CRM contact.

Sharing sales progression

For an agreed sale, open the property's Progress tab and use the Sales Progression settings to decide whether the progression summary should appear in the Customer Portal. When enabled, customers can see the current health, next action and target exchange/completion dates.

Do not put customer-facing wording into the blocker field: blockers are deliberately internal and are not displayed in the portal. Keep the next action and target dates suitable for the customer to read whenever portal visibility is on.

See Sales Progression.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+__NOTOC__
 = Using the Customer Portal =
-This guide is for staff. It explains when to invite a customer, what to expect them to do, and what staff still need to manage in Standout.
+This guide is for staff. It explains when to invite a customer and how Customer Portal work now fits into the Communications Centre.
-For the full feature reference, see [[Customer Portal]].
 == When to invite ==
-Customer Portal is useful for:
-* applicants who want to maintain requirements and matching;
+The Customer Portal is useful for applicants maintaining requirements, buyers completing onboarding, sellers following a transaction, landlords following tenancies/repairs and tenants reporting maintenance.
-* buyers completing Buyer Ready/onboarding;
-* sellers following viewings/offers/progression;
-* landlords following tenancies/compliance/repairs;
-* tenants reporting repairs and viewing tenancy information.
-The contact needs a usable email address.
+The contact needs a usable email address and must be correctly linked to the relevant Standout records.
 == Send the invitation ==
-Open the Contact and click the prominent '''Send Customer Portal link''' button to the left of '''More actions'''.
-The customer receives a time-limited secure sign-in link.
+Open the Contact record and use the Customer Portal invitation/link action. The customer receives a time-limited secure sign-in link and can establish a password for future logins.
-== First login ==
+== Review customer submissions ==
-On first secure-link access, the customer is encouraged to create a password. Returning customers can then sign in using email + password.
-If they forget the password, the secure email link remains available as a recovery/passwordless route.
+Use the Contact's Customer Portal/submissions view for onboarding, buyer position, AML information, secure uploads and viewing requests. Review important transaction/compliance information before relying on it simply because the customer entered it.
-== What customers can update ==
+== Work with portal messages from Communications Centre ==
-Depending on their role/transaction, customers can maintain or submit information such as:
-* property requirements;
+Customer Portal messaging is now part of the [[Communications Centre]] workflow.
-* Buyer Ready information;
-* solicitor information;
-* onboarding/identity details;
-* secure documents;
-* viewing requests;
-* repair reports;
-* repair quote decisions for landlords.
-Some of this updates existing Standout records directly; other submissions are presented to staff for review.
+When a portal conversation is related to an enquiry, staff can see it in the same timeline as the original portal/website lead, emails and other activity. Where available, staff can reply through the Customer Portal directly from that enquiry.
-== Review customer submissions ==
+The Customer Portal staff conversation view also shows related Communications Centre enquiries so staff can move between the customer conversation and the underlying lead/property context.
-Use:
-'''Contact → More actions → Customer Portal submissions'''
+== Requirements ==
-This view can contain onboarding, buyer position, AML information, secure uploads and viewing requests.
+Customer Portal property requirements are live CRM requirements. If a customer changes their search, staff see the same updated requirement set in Standout.
-Do not assume information is correct simply because the customer entered it. Review important transaction/compliance data.
+When processing a new portal/website enquiry, the Communications Centre can also create a new requirements set prefilled from the property being enquired about. Existing requirements are not overwritten.
-== Property requirements ==
+== Viewing requests ==
-Customer Portal requirements use the same underlying Standout requirements records as the staff CRM. If a customer changes their search, staff will see the same change.
-== Viewing requests ==
+A portal viewing request creates a tentative diary item. Staff should confirm the appointment. For a normal portal/website enquiry, the Communications Centre can also hand directly into the viewing diary workflow.
-A Customer Portal viewing request creates a tentative diary viewing. Staff should confirm the slot/parties before treating it as booked.
-== Repairs ==
+== Security ==
-Current tenants can report repairs. Landlords can respond to recorded quotes where the repair has a quote awaiting a decision.
-== Handle Customer Portal messages ==
+Customers can only access records linked to their authenticated contact. Never work around this by sharing another customer's link or by deliberately linking the wrong CRM contact.
-Customer messages are now part of the [[Communications Centre]] rather than a separate staff inbox.
-Recommended staff workflow:
+[[Category:Customer Portal]]
-# Open '''Communications Centre'''.
+== Sharing sales progression ==
-# Use Source = '''Customer Portal''' when you want to see only portal conversations.
-# Open the customer's conversation. This marks unread customer messages as read.
-# Read the conversation history and property context.
-# Type the reply in Standout, optionally select a related property, and click '''Send reply'''.
-# Standout saves the reply into the Customer Portal and sends the customer an email notification where possible.
-When a customer sends a new message the branch may also receive a notification email. '''Do not reply to that email.''' Use the '''Reply in Standout Property Manager''' button in the email to open the Communications Centre conversation.
+For an agreed sale, open the property's '''Progress''' tab and use the Sales Progression settings to decide whether the progression summary should appear in the Customer Portal. When enabled, customers can see the current health, next action and target exchange/completion dates.
-The Contact's '''Customer Portal submissions''' page also shows the conversation and provides an '''Open in Communications Centre''' button.
+Do not put customer-facing wording into the blocker field: blockers are deliberately internal and are not displayed in the portal. Keep the next action and target dates suitable for the customer to read whenever portal visibility is on.
-== Customer communication ==
+See [[Sales Progression]].
-Customer Portal reduces routine chasing only if the underlying CRM is kept current. Messages should be answered from [[Communications Centre]] so both staff and customer see the same conversation.
-Update progression, viewing feedback, offers, tenancy/compliance and repair states promptly so the portal tells the truth.
+[[Category:Staff workflow]]
-== Security principle ==
-Customers can only access records to which their authenticated contact is genuinely linked. Never try to work around portal permissions by sharing another customer's link.

Using the Customer Portal: Difference between revisions

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