A customer portal can be the "single entry point for customers to contact your company." Track tickets, browse the knowledge base, and create new inquiries all on one screen.Dramatically improve the customer experience while reducing calls to your support teamI can. This chapter systematically explains the portal's basic settings, UX design, branding, ticket label customization after March 2025, and feedback collection mechanism.
A customer portal is a web page with a login exclusively for customers. Here, customers can ``check the progress of tickets they sent,'' ``receive replies,'' ``search the knowledge base,'' and ``create new tickets,'' all in one place.Without a portal, customers worry that they sent an email but aren't sure if it was received, and send another email to confirm - this is the main cause of duplicate tickets.. Available for Service Hub Professional and above.
| Settings category | Setting location | Main setting items |
|---|---|---|
| Basic settings | Service → Customer Portal → Settings | Portal activation, subdomain settings (e.g. help.yourcompany.com), language settings, time zone |
| branding | Services → Customer Portal → Branding | Logo, favicon, brand color (primary/secondary), font selection |
| navigation | Services → Customer Portal → Page | Select the page to display (home, ticket, KB) and change the label of navigation items |
| Ticket settings | Service → Customer Portal → Tickets | Ticket form field settings and ticket label customization that customers can create (from March 2025) |
| KB display settings | Service → Customer Portal → Knowledge Base | Select the KB category to display, sort the articles, and edit the "Support guidance if article not found" message |
| access control | Service → Customer Portal → Access | Public to everyone / HubSpot account required / Invited contacts only—Choose from 3 levels |
You can change the portal URL (subdomain) later, but doing so will invalidate the URLs that your customers have bookmarked.Decide on a subdomain for "help.yourdomain.com" in the first stage of setup, complete the DNS settings, and then guide the customer.. It may take several hours to complete the DNS settings, so be sure to allow plenty of time.
The ticket that is automatically created at the time of handover includes the entire conversation history, the resolution steps attempted by the AI, the customer's contact information, and the CRM health score.By unifying the color scheme, logo, and wording of your brand on the portal, customers naturally accept the portal as ``part of your company's services.''It becomes like this. By adhering to UX design principles, you can minimize the number of steps it takes for your customers to reach their desired information.
With the March 2025 update, the label "Tickets" on the customer portal will be changed toYou can change the words to suit your business.It became like that. Customers often have difficulty familiarizing themselves with the IT service-specific term ``ticket.'' By using words tailored to the industry and customer base,Increases portal usage rate and lowers psychological hurdles for inquiries。
| Label to be changed | Setting location | Example of change |
|---|---|---|
| Portal “Tickets” tab name | Services → Customer Portal → Tickets → Edit Label | “Tickets” → “My Request” “Incident” “Consultation” |
| "Create new ticket" button | Same as above → button label | "Create a new ticket" → "Create a new request" "Send inquiry" |
| Ticket details page heading | Same as above → Detailed page label | “Ticket details” → “Request details” “Incident details” |
| Notification email text | Settings → Notifications → Email template → Edit body | “Ticket #4821 has been updated” → “Request #4821 status has been updated” |
It's confusing when you change the portal label to "request" but the notification email to the customer says "ticket".After changing the label, make sure to use the same wording for the text in the notification email, where the word 'ticket' is written in the KB article, and in the information materials for new customers.It is important to do the work in sets.
Because the customer portal is a place where you have continuous contact with customers,The perfect time and place to collect feedbackThere is also. Immediately after a ticket is closed, after reading a KB article, after logging into the portal—by displaying short surveys at these times, you can accumulate customer feedback in real time.
| Feedback type | Sending timing | Automatic action (when low score) |
|---|---|---|
| CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) | Email sent within 1 hour after ticket close (set with portal banner) | Score 2 or less → Create a task for the agent in charge “Conduct follow-up call within 1 business day” |
| KB Feedback | "Was it helpful?" button after viewing the article/at the end of the article (always displayed) | “No” rate exceeds 30% and continues for 7 days → Email notification to KB staff “Article needs improvement” |
| NPS (recommended level) | Automatically sent 30 days after initial ticket close and every 90 days thereafter | Score 6 or less (critic) → Slack notification to CS manager + create follow-up task |
| CES (Effort Index) | After completing a complex onboarding process or closing a specific ticket category | Trend of score decline → Send monthly review proposal report to CS leader |
Even if you send out a CSAT survey, if you only look at the results and take no action, customer satisfaction will not increase.The biggest effect of setting up a survey is to set up a workflow that says “low CSAT score → follow-up within 24 hours.”is. The most reliable way to turn a customer from a critic to a promoter is to have the experience of ``I was criticized in a survey, but a representative called me the next day and responded politely.''
If it becomes possible to check the progress of a ticket on the portal, the number of "emails confirming receipt" will be greatly reduced. By searching the KB and then creating an inquiry, you can reduce the number of inquiries sent to agents.
If you change the URL (help.yoursha.com) later, you will need instructions to disable the bookmark. Unify the logo, color, portal name, and notification email brand to the company brand by default, and then guide customers.
Positioning the search bar so that it is visible to customers the moment they open the portal increases self-resolution rates. The ``Create Inquiry'' button increases the utilization rate of the KB by designing a navigation line that is displayed after searching and viewing the KB.
"Tickets" → Change the words to match the industry, such as "request," "incident," or "consultation." After making changes, don't forget to use the same words in notification emails, KB articles, and guidance materials all at once.
Sending a survey alone will not increase satisfaction. CSAT 2 or below / NPS Automatically create tasks for detractors / Set up a Slack notification workflow and create a mechanism to take action within 24 hours of receiving feedback.
The "useless" rate in KB articles, ticket categories with low CSAT, and comments from NPS critics are the best data to show you where to invest in improvements. Establish a cycle of monthly analysis and conversion into improvement actions.