Customer Portal

Customer Portal

Customer Portal is Standout's secure customer portal for sellers, buyers, landlords, tenants and applicants. It is connected to live Standout data so customers and staff are not maintaining separate versions of the same move/search.

For a staff-focused day-to-day guide, see Using the Customer Portal.

Access and sign-in

Staff invite a customer from the Contact record using Send Customer Portal link.

Customers can sign in by:

• email address + Customer Portal password; or
• a time-limited secure email link.

A new customer arriving by secure link is encouraged to create a password. They can change it later from the Password option in Customer Portal.

Passwords are stored securely as one-way hashes in the ContactPassword field and are not readable by staff.

Dashboard

The dashboard adapts to the customer's relationships with the agency. A customer may simultaneously be selling, buying, a landlord, a tenant or an applicant.

The customer sees only records to which their authenticated Contact is genuinely linked.

Sellers

Depending on the property/transaction, a seller can see relevant information such as:

• viewings;
• viewing feedback;
• offers;
• progression;
• customer-visible documents;
• branch/contact information;
• message-my-agent options.

Buyers

A buyer can see relevant property/transaction information and complete Buyer Ready/onboarding items such as:

• cash/mortgage position;
• AIP/mortgage status;
• deposit/source of funds;
• property-to-sell/chain position;
• solicitor details;
• AML consent/information;
• secure document uploads.

Applicants and requirements

Customers can maintain multiple property searches. They can edit buying/renting, price, bedrooms, area/radius, property type/style, new-build preference and must-have features.

Requirements can be paused/reactivated/deleted and Standout immediately re-runs the existing matching engine. Matching properties are shown in Customer Portal.

These are the same requirement records staff use in the Contact screen.

Viewing requests

A customer can request a preferred viewing date/time. Standout creates a tentative linked viewing appointment for staff to review. The customer sees the live appointment state after staff confirm/cancel it.

AML and documents

Customer Portal can collect private supporting files such as:

• proof of funds;
• Agreement in Principle;
• identity evidence;
• proof of address;
• source-of-funds evidence;
• solicitor documents;
• Right-to-Rent evidence;
• other private documents.

These files are stored privately and are reviewed by staff from the customer's Customer Portal submissions screen.

Where Landmark is configured, eligible customers can provide AML information/consent and start or refresh the AML request through the existing Standout Landmark workflow.

DocuSign

Existing Standout DocuSign envelope status can be shown in Customer Portal, for example awaiting signature, opened, signed, declined or cancelled. Signing itself continues through DocuSign.

Landlords

A landlord can see relevant tenancy/compliance/repair information. Where a repair quote has been recorded, Customer Portal can allow the landlord to approve or decline it with an optional comment.

Tenants

A current tenant can see relevant tenancy/compliance information and report maintenance through the existing repairs workflow.

Messaging and Communications Centre

Customers can use Message my agent to send a message to the agency. The message is stored as part of the Contact's Customer Portal conversation and appears in the staff Communications Centre alongside portal and website enquiries.

When a customer sends a message:

1. it is stored in the Customer Portal conversation;
2. it appears as unread in Communications Centre;
3. the communication is recorded against the Contact where available; and
4. Standout sends a notification email to the relevant branch.

The branch notification email deliberately says Do not reply to this email. It contains a Reply in Standout Property Manager button that opens the correct customer conversation in Communications Centre. Staff should always reply from Standout so the response is stored in the conversation and shown to the customer.

Staff replies can optionally be linked to one of the customer's properties. The customer sees the reply in Customer Portal and, where the Contact has an email address, receives an email notification that a new Customer Portal message is waiting.

Unread customer messages are marked as read when staff open the conversation.

The Contact's Customer Portal submissions screen still shows the conversation, but day-to-day messaging is designed to be handled in Communications Centre. See Communications Centre.

Staff review

Use Contact → More actions → Customer Portal submissions to review customer onboarding, buyer position, secure uploads, AML information and portal viewing requests. The same page also shows the portal conversation and includes Open in Communications Centre.

Keeping Customer Portal useful

Customer Portal is only as current as the underlying CRM. Staff should promptly record viewing feedback, offers, progression, repair status and compliance information so the customer portal reflects reality.