Customer Management

Maintain profiles for each customer

Customers in ClearFeed represent the external organizations you support. This guide explains how to create, organize, and maintain customer records so your team always has the right business context when handling support requests.

Note: Customer objects are available only on the External Helpdesk Product Edition.

What is a Customer?

A Customer represents an external company or organization you support. Each customer record can include:

• Customer name

• One or more email domains (e.g., acme.com)

• Associated Slack Connect channels

• Custom fields (e.g., Account Tier, Region, Owner)

• Portal access and verification status

• Auto-enriched company data (industry, size, location)

ClearFeed uses customer records to:

• Link incoming requests to the correct account

• Group conversation history by customer

• Apply customer-specific rules and workflows

• Control portal access

• Provide business context to your support team

Key Concepts

Term	Definition
Customer	An external organization you support
Collection	A grouping of customers or request sources (channels, email addresses)
Customer Collection	A collection that groups customers (used in Customer Centric Inbox)
Source Collection	A collection that groups request sources like email addresses or Slack channels (used in Standard Management)
Request Channel	Where requests originate (email, Slack, web chat, portal, API)
Domain	The email domain used to identify which customer a request belongs to (e.g., @acme.com)
Internal Domain	Your company's email domains that should not create customer records
Routing	Automatically directing requests to the appropriate collection based on rules

How Customers Work in Different Inbox Types

ClearFeed offers two approaches to organizing support requests:

Customer Centric Inbox

Customers are the primary organizing unit.

• Each customer belongs to exactly one Customer Collection

• Requests are grouped and routed by customer

• SLAs, assignments, automations, and AI behavior are applied at the customer or collection level

• Ideal for B2B support teams managing multiple accounts

Example: All requests from acme.com appear together under the Acme Corp customer, regardless of whether they came via email, Slack, or portal.

Standard Management

Request sources (channels) are the primary organizing unit.

• Requests are organized by where they came from (email address, Slack channel, etc.)

• Customers are optional metadata used for:

  • Storing business context

  • Linking domains and channels

  • Portal access control

  • Reporting and filtering

Example: Email requests appear in one collection, Slack requests in another, even if they're from the same customer.

Creating Customers

Customers can be created manually or automatically.

Manual Creation

In Customer Centric Inbox Accounts

You can create customers in three ways:

1. From a Customer Collection: Navigate to the collection and click the 3-dot menu → + New Customer

   
2. From the Inbox page: Click the New button at the bottom of the side navigation

   
3. From the Customers section: Navigate to Customers and Click + New Customer

   

Fill in the information:

• Customer Name

• Collection (which Customer Collection this customer belongs to)

• Owner (can be inherited by customers in that collection)

• Request Channels (Slack channels, email addresses)

• Email Domains

• Custom field values

In Standard Management Accounts

1. Navigate to Customers and Click + Add New Customer

   
2. Fill in the information:

   1. Customer Name

   2. Owner

   3. Request Channels

   4. Email Domains

   5. Custom field values

Automatic Creation

ClearFeed automatically creates customers in the following scenarios:

From Slack Connect Channels

When you add a Slack Connect channel to ClearFeed (manually or automatically):

• ClearFeed identifies the external workspace's email domain

• Removes any free email domains (gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.) or internal domains

• Checks if a customer already exists with the remaining domain(s)

  • If yes: The Slack channel is linked to the existing customer

  • If no: A new customer is created and the channel is linked to it

• All future requests from that channel are automatically linked to the customer

Example: You add a Slack Connect channel with external workspace acme.slack.com. The domain acme.com is identified, a customer "Acme Corp" is created, and the channel is linked.

From Email, Web Chat, Portal, or API

When a request arrives from an email address:

• ClearFeed extracts the domain (e.g., [email protected] → acme.com)

• Checks if the domain matches an existing customer

  • If yes: The request is linked to that customer

  • If no: ClearFeed checks the domain type:

    • Business domain: A new customer is automatically created

    • Free email domain: No customer is created (see Free Email Domains)

    • Internal domain: No customer is created

Customer Identification with Domains

Domains are the primary method ClearFeed uses to identify which customer a request belongs to.

How Domains Work

• Each customer can have one or more email domains (e.g., acme.com, acmecorp.com)

• When a request arrives, ClearFeed extracts the domain from the sender's email address

• If the domain matches any domain assigned to a customer, the request is automatically linked to that customer

• This enables:

  • Automatic customer linking

  • Forwarding to the correct Customer Collection (for Customer Centric Inbox only)

  • Portal access for users with matching domains

Example: Customer "Acme Corp" has domains acme.com and acmecorp.com. Requests from [email protected] and [email protected] both link to Acme Corp automatically.

Multiple Customers, Same Domain

Important: A domain can only be assigned to one customer at a time. If you try to add a domain that's already used by another customer, you'll receive an error.

Customers Without Domains

If a customer has no domains assigned:

• New requests cannot be linked automatically

• Routing will not work for that customer (in Customer Centric Inbox)

• You can still manually link requests to the customer

• Portal access is unavailable

• Slack Connect channels can still be linked

When to skip domains: For customers who only contact you via Slack Connect or whose requests are always manually created.

Free Email Domains

Requests from free email providers are handled differently:

Free email domains include: gmail.com, yahoo.com, outlook.com, hotmail.com, and similar consumer email services.

Behavior:

• Do not automatically create customers

• Are not linked to any customer

• Are never routed to Customer Collections (in Customer Centric Inbox)

• Always remain in the Source Collection

Why? This prevents cluttering your workspace with one-off consumer requests that don't represent ongoing customer relationships.

Workaround: If you need to track a consumer as a customer, manually create the customer record and manually link their requests.

Internal Domains

Your company's own email domains are treated as internal domains.

To configure internal domains:

1. Navigate to Settings → Organization

2. Add your company domains to Internal Domains

Requests from internal domains will not create customer records automatically.

Managing Customers

Viewing Customers

Navigate to Customers to see all customer records.

Searching Customers

You can search by:

• Customer name

• Email domains

• Slack channel name

Filtering Customers

You can filter the customer list by any custom field you've created (e.g., Account Tier, Region).

Editing Customers

To edit a customer:

1. Navigate to the customer's page

2. Click Edit or modify fields directly

You can update:

• Customer name

• Email domains

• Associated Slack channels

• Custom field values

• Portal access settings

• Collection assignment (Customer Centric Inbox only)

Changes take effect immediately for future requests. Past requests remain unchanged.

Adding/Removing Domains

When you add a domain to a customer:

• Future requests from that domain will link to this customer

• Past requests from that domain are not retroactively linked

When you remove a domain from a customer:

• Future requests from that domain will not link to this customer (they may create a new customer or remain unlinked)

• Past requests remain linked to this customer

Moving Customers Between Collections

Available in: Customer Centric Inbox only

When you move a customer to a different Customer Collection:

• All past requests move with the customer

• All future requests route to the new collection

• The customer inherits the new collection's rules:

  • SLAs

  • Assignment rules

  • Workflows and automations

  • AI behavior settings

• If the Customer Owner is set to Inherit from Collection, changing the Collection will automatically update the Customer Owner to the new Collection’s Owner. No manual update is needed.

Common use cases:

• Customer upgrades from Trial to Paid tier

• Account ownership transfers to another team

• Reorganizing collections by region or customer segment

To move a customer:

1. Open the customer's page

2. Click Edit

3. Change the Collection field

4. Click Save

Deleting Customers

To delete a customer:

1. Open the customer's page

2. Click the 3-dot menu → Delete Customer

3. Confirm the deletion

What happens to requests:

• Past requests are not deleted

• Past requests become unlinked (no customer associated)

• You can manually link them to a different customer if needed

Customer Data Enrichment

Available in: Customer Centric Inbox only

When a customer is created using a recognized business domain, ClearFeed automatically enriches the customer profile with company information.

Auto-Enriched Fields

Field	Description
Country	Country where the company is primarily based
Founded	Year the company was founded
Industry	Primary industry or business category
LinkedIn URL	LinkedIn company page URL
Locality	City or neighborhood location
Region	State or region where the company operates
Size	Approximate employee count range

Editing Enriched Data

All auto-enriched fields are editable. You can update or correct any value at any time.

If no data is available for a domain, fields remain blank and can be filled in manually.

Custom Fields

Custom fields let you store additional business-specific data on customer records.

Common Use Cases

• Account Tier (Free, Trial, Pro, Enterprise)

• Geographic Region

• Sales Owner

• Renewal Date

• Annual Contract Value (ACV)

• Customer Success Manager

• Health Score

• Industry Segment

Creating Custom Fields

1. Navigate to Customers → Custom Fields

2. Click Create New Field

3. Configure the field:

   • Field Name: What the field is called (e.g., "Account Tier")

   • Field Type: Choose from:

     • Single Select - Choose one option from a list

     • Multi Select - Choose multiple options from a list

     • Text - Free-form text (max 255 characters by default)

     • Date - A calendar date

     • Number - Numeric value

   • Options: For Select fields, define the available choices

   • Default Value: Optional default for new customers

4. Click Save

Field Naming Restrictions

You cannot use these reserved names:

• Customer ID

• Customer Name

• Slack Channels

• Email Domains

Using Custom Fields

Set values:

• During customer creation

• By editing an existing customer

• Via CRM Sync (if configured)

Use for:

• Filtering the customer list

• Reporting and analytics

• Automation rules

• Assignment rules

Modifying Custom Fields

• You can edit the field name

• You can add new options to Select fields

• You cannot change the field type (e.g., from Single Select to Text)

• Removing options from Select fields may affect existing data

Customer Verification

Customers must be verified before their users can access the Support Portal. This is only applicable for Standard Collections

Verification Status

A customer is verified when:

• Created with a single, unambiguous business domain, or

• Created from a portal user registration

A customer is not verified when:

• Multiple domains are detected during creation without clear ownership

• Created manually without any domains

• Domain conflicts exist (domain is already used by another customer)

Portal Access Requirements

For a customer's users to access the Support Portal:

1. The customer must be verified

2. Portal access must be enabled for the customer

3. The user's email domain must match one of the customer's domains

Enabling Portal Access

1. Open the customer's page

2. Navigate to Portal Access settings

3. Toggle Enable Portal Access to On

4. Configure additional portal settings as needed

5. Click Save

Note: Users can only access the portal if the customer is verified and portal access is enabled.

CRM Sync

Available only in Customer-Centric Inbox

CRM Sync automatically populates and keeps customer custom fields in sync with Company and Deal properties. Learn more about CRM Sync

FAQs

1. How does ClearFeed determine the customer name? Answer: ClearFeed uses this priority order:

   1. If domains exist: The first domain (e.g., acme.com → "Acme Corp")

   2. If created from Slack Connect: The external workspace name

   3. Otherwise: The Slack channel name

   You can always edit the customer name after creation.

2. Why do some customers show logos? Answer: Logos appear when customers are created from Slack Connect channels. The logo is fetched from the external Slack workspace's profile. Manual logo upload is not currently supported.

3. Can a customer have multiple domains? Answer: Yes. A customer can have multiple email domains assigned. Requests from any of those domains will link to the same customer and appear in one unified conversation history. Example: Acme Corp has acme.com and acmecorp.com. Requests from both domains appear under the same customer record.

4. Can the same domain be assigned to multiple customers? Answer: No. Each domain can only be assigned to one customer at a time. If you need to reassign a domain:

   1. Remove it from the current customer

   2. Add it to the new customer

   Be aware this affects how future requests are linked.

5. What's the difference between "Owner" and custom fields like "CSM"? Answer:

   1. Owner: A built-in field intended for the primary account owner or point of contact

   2. Custom fields (like CSM): Additional fields you define for your specific workflow

   Both can be used for assignment rules and filtering. Use what makes sense for your team's structure.

6. Can I bulk import customers? Answer: Currently, customers must be created individually or automatically through integrations. For bulk import needs, contact ClearFeed support.

7. What happens to requests when I move a customer to a different collection? Answer: All requests (past and future) move with the customer to the new collection. The customer immediately inherits the new collection's SLAs, assignment rules, and automations.