BoldDesk Customer Portal Customization: Step-By-Step Guide
The BoldDesk Customer Portal is a powerful tool that allows businesses to provide seamless self-service support to their customers. Customizing the portal ensures it aligns with your brand identity, improves user experience, and delivers relevant resources like knowledge base articles and ticket submission options. This article provides a clear, step-by-step guide to customizing your customer portal. It explains how to adjust branding, manage access permissions, and enable key features, helping you create a tailored and user-friendly experience for your customers.
Accessing Customer Portal Settings
To configure the settings for your customer portal, go to the Admin Module > Customer Portal.
Customer Portal Settings
From the customer portal, you can interact with a company, access support resources, submit requests, and manage your accounts. Here are the configurations required:
General
All the general settings have a brand-specific aspect. Select the corresponding brand and apply the settings accordingly. These settings include:
Brand
This refers to the brand name of the customer portal. It can be changed using the Edit option provided beside the name.
Portal Name
You can change the title of the website by changing the portal name. You can choose to display the portal name in the top navigation bar by checking the box. If your logo image has a brand name, you can uncheck this option so that the same name does not appear twice in the navigation bar.
Portal URL
You can change the customer portal URL by either changing your BoldDesk subdomain or mapping your custom domain URL to your customer site.
- Learn more about How to Change or Rename BoldDesk Subdomain.
- Learn more about How to map a custom domain.
Logo and Favicon
Using the logo and favicon change option, you can change the logo and favicon of your customer portal to reflect your brand. The supported formats are mentioned inside it. Supported file formats for logo and favicon: .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .svg, .gif, and .ico. The maximum size of the logo is 2MB, and the favicon is 64KB.
Logo Linkback URL
This refers to the web address (URL) that your company logo in the customer portal or help center will link to when clicked. You can fill in your site URL if you want to link the logo to your site.
Footer Links
The footer link supports URLs such as copyright, terms of use, privacy policy, and cookie policy. Many different footer links are available to display in the footer section of the customer portal. The footer links have the following options;
| Setting | Definition |
|---|---|
| Copyright URL | The link that points to your organization’s copyright or legal notice page. |
| Terms of Use URL | Web address that points to your organization’s Terms of Service or Terms of Use page. |
| Privacy Policy URL | The link to your organization’s Privacy Policy page, which explains how you handle user data and comply with privacy regulations. |
| Cookie Policy URL | The link to your organization’s Cookie Policy page, which explains how cookies are used on your site or portal. |
Announcement Banner Message
This message is used for any new announcements for the customers and users. The announcement can be sent in two different ways, namely:
- Plain text: Contains only raw characters (letters, numbers, symbols).
- Rich text: Supports text styling and formatting features.
In the Rich Text, you can change the font size, font color, and highlight it. It also enables you to set links in the announcement banner.
After updating the announcement banner, it appears in the customer portal as shown in the screenshot below.
Live Chat Widget Settings
The Live Chat Widget Settings in BoldDesk control how the live chat feature appears and behaves in your customer portal.
Purpose:
- To enable or disable the live chat widget for customers.
- To configure which chat widget is displayed and whether it auto-authenticates logged-in users.
You can use this feature to automatically embed live chat in the customer portal. Explore how to Automatically Embed Chat Widget.
Google Tag Manager ID
By adding the Google Tag Manager ID here, you can include it on all the pages of the customer portal.
Login
All the general settings listed below are brand-specific. Choose the corresponding brand and apply the settings.
Brand
You choose the brand to apply the login settings.
BoldDesk (Form Login)
BoldDesk Form Login refers to the standard username/password login method for accessing the customer portal or agent portal.
BoldDesk Login (Form Login)
Enabling this option will allow users to sign into the customer portal using a username and password. Turning off this option will hide the form login option in the customer portal.
Google reCAPTCHA (Recommended)
Google reCAPTCHA is a security service provided by Google to prevent non-human access to the sites. Enable this login option if you want to allow users to use the username and password-based login. It asks the user to interpret an image or any other method to determine whether the user is a human.
Social Logins
This option allows customers to log in using their social accounts. Social logins such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are supported. This enables users to access the site with any of the above-mentioned accounts. Users prefer logging in through platforms to avoid the need to remember a new password for each new account. Existing platform accounts are sufficient for logging in.
Single Sign-on
Configure your single sign-on (SSO) method using information from your identity provider. Single sign-on is a secure authenticating method. If your company already has a single sign-on, it can be configured here. There are three different methods available in BoldDesk:
- OAuth 2.0: The protocol allows users to access their resources or grant third-party sites access without exposing the credentials.
- Open ID Connect: It is similar to OAuth 2.0; however, it allows users to access several websites with a common identity. Learn more about How to Set Up BoldDesk with Azure AD Single Sign-On.
- JWT: JWT is a compact, URL-safe token format used to transmit claims between parties. Explore How to Configure JWT Base Single Sign-On (SSO) in BoldDesk.
Security
Under security, there are three categories available: General settings, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), and Password policy.
General Settings
From the general settings, you can customize the following;
| Setting | Definition |
|---|---|
| Allow users to sign up from customer portal | Enabling this option will allow an end-user to register an account and submit a ticket. |
| Restrict sign-up via social and custom SSO on customer portal | When enabled, users cannot create new accounts or submit tickets using social media or custom SSO logins. Only users with existing accounts can log in via SSO. |
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
If you enforce/enable 2FA authentication, all users will be required to set up two-factor authentication (2FA) for their BoldDesk accounts. Please note that these settings only apply to BoldDesk form logins, not to custom SSO or social logins. Explore Enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for Agents in BoldDesk.
Password Policy
The password policy is only applicable if you have allowed BoldDesk (Form Login). Two options are available in the password policy: Default and Custom. The default policies are predefined, while custom policies can be altered.
The custom policies have rules that can be selected or unselected depending on your needs. These rules include a maximum number of password characters or password expiry.
Ticket
This helps you customize the appearance of the ticket page in the customer portal.
Brand
Choose the brand where you want the settings to apply.
Auto Suggest Articles
To use the auto-suggest articles feature, enable it under the knowledge base articles settings page. Once enabled, the system will automatically suggest the top 5 relevant articles to the customer/user when they type a subject in their customer portal ticket creation page. Explore Managing Auto Suggestions for Articles in Customer Portal.
When you type a word in the subject field, the top 5 relevant articles are suggested to the user.
Ticket Update Settings
You can choose to restrict ticket editing or restrict CC users as shown below under the ticket update settings.
Restrict Ticket Editing
Enabling this configuration prevents users from editing, updating, deleting, or removing attachments from tickets in the customer portal. This ensures data integrity and keeps ticket information unchanged.
Restrict CC users
Enabling this configuration prevents CC users from adding replies to tickets in the customer portal. This ensures that only primary recipients can respond, maintaining controlled and streamlined communication.
Ticket Creation Settings
This configuration allows anonymous users to submit tickets through the customer portal. When enabled, it requires users to provide their name and email as mandatory fields to establish their identity when creating a ticket.
Ticket Closure Settings
Once this option is enabled, administrators can control whether end users can close tickets from the customer portal.
Attachments
This setting helps you configure attachment settings in the customer portal as discussed below.
Brand
All the general settings listed below are brand-specific. Choose the corresponding brand and apply the settings
File Download Settings
You can set the permission to download files based on your requirements in the file download settings.
You can enable end users to download attachments without requiring them to log in. Learn more about How to allow an end user to download an attachment without having to login.
Inline Image Settings
Refers to the configuration that controls whether images inserted in ticket descriptions, replies, or knowledge base articles are displayed inline (embedded within the text) or as attachments.
File Attachment Settings (Email)
If you prefer to send file attachments directly in emails rather than as links, you can customize this by enabling the settings. Please note that this setting is specific to each brand.
Knowledge Base
To configure the settings of the customer portal’s knowledge base section, learn more about How to Configure the Knowledge Base Self-Service Portal.
Customization
All the general settings listed below are brand-specific. Choose the corresponding brand and apply the settings. You can customize your customer portal appearance from this page and add CSS and JS to enhance your customer portal experience.
Login Page
Here you can customize the background image for your customer portal.
Theme Customization
The theme color improves various style factors in your customer portal, including the hyperlink color, button color, app backdrop, and animated colors.
To customize the theme color:
-
Go to the Customization tab
-
Select an existing color or type the hex code to match your brand
Avoid transparent colors while configuring a custom theme color. The theme color will only be considered for the light theme. A specific theme color will be used to improve visibility in the dark theme.
Learn more about How to Apply Dark Mode theme in the Customer Portal.
Advanced Customization
Under advanced customization, users can configure brand-specific custom JavaScript and CSS to personalize their customer app.
Please watch this video tutorial for further information.
To include custom JavaScript and CSS, select Add Custom CSS and Add Custom JS as appropriate, enter the customization codes, and click Add.
To update or delete the existing custom JavaScript and CSS, select Edit or Delete.
Accessing Customer Portal Settings
You should enable the ‘Manage settings’ permission in the roles and permissions section to access the customer portal settings.
FAQs
Q1. What is the logo linkback URL?
It’s the URL your logo redirects to when clicked. You can set it to your company’s homepage or any relevant page.
Q2. Can anonymous users create tickets?
Yes, anonymous users are permitted to create tickets in BoldDesk.
To achieve this as an administrator, you can activate this feature by:
Navigating to Admin > Customer Portal > General Tab.
Enabling the option ‘Allow unauthenticated users to create tickets.’
Once this setting is activated, users who aren’t logged in can access the ticket creation form to submit their queries. Please note: Anonymous users won’t be able to view or track the tickets they’ve created unless they log into the portal, but they can track the process through their email.
Q3: How do I restrict CC users from replying to tickets in BoldDesk?
Go to Admin → General Settings → CC Field Settings and disable the “Enable CC Fields” option. When this is turned off:
- CC recipients will no longer receive email notifications for ticket updates.
- If they try to reply via email, their message will be marked as suspicious and will not be added as a valid ticket response.
Q4: What happens when I disable CC fields?
- CC users will stop receiving notifications for both existing and new tickets.
- They cannot interact with tickets via email or the customer portal.
- Any replies from CC users will be ignored or flagged as suspicious.
