Customer Portal: Frequently Asked Questions
What is Customer Portal?
The PaySimple Customer Portal is a secure, online portal that your customers can access from any web device, at their convenience. The Customer Portal allows your customers to act on critical account and payment functions, allowing your business to provide a more streamlined, automated customer service experience without additional administrative work.
What does Customer Portal do?
Customer Portal automates customer service by empowering your customers to self-serve common payment issues in a secure, online portal. By logging into Customer Portal, your customers can easily perform the following actions without hands-on assistance from your business:
- Update payment methods and contact details
- View past, upcoming, or outstanding payments and receipts
- Settle failed payments or outstanding account balances
Where do my customers log in?
Customers can access the portal via your unique Customer Portal URL (located on your Home Page and in Business Settings) or by selecting the ‘Manage My Account’ link at the bottom of your payment notification emails.
Customers can also access the Customer Portal from any active Online Stores or Payment Forms that allow the user to log in. After they have successfully logged in on either of these pages, they can access a user menu by clicking their name at the top of the page.
How do my customers create an account?
Any customer who has created an account for PaySimple when making a purchase via an online store or payment form does not need to go through another account creation process. Their existing account credentials will work to access your Customer Portal.
Customers who do not have an existing account can follow the ‘Create Account’ link on the Customer Portal log-in screen. The customer will enter their name and email, and they will receive an encrypted confirmation link via email. Once they click the link, they will create a password and be redirected to their account home page.
What happens if a customer already has a log-in but doesn’t realize it?
You may notice that repeat customers have multiple profiles in PaySimple. If a customer attempts to create a new account with an email attached to an existing account, PaySimple will send them a ‘Reset Password’ email instead of an encrypted confirmation link. From there, the customer will be able to log in directly.
Pro-tip: In order to provide a seamless user experience for your customers, merge duplicate customer records.
What do customers see when they log in?
Customers will see their basic contact information, securely-stored payment methods, and default payment method. They can view purchase history, upcoming billing schedule details, and outstanding orders, which they will have the ability to pay directly through the portal.
Which changes can my customers make to their account after logging in?
Customers can update payment methods after logging into their account. Customers can keep multiple payment methods on file, but will have to choose one as a default. Customers cannot replace stored credit card information with ACH routing information and vice versa. Customers cannot edit or update contact information, but they are permitted to update their billing and shipping address information. In the future, customers will be able to edit contact information as well. In the interim, if a customer wishes to make changes to their phone number or email address, they will need to contact your business directly.
How do I make sure the login portal looks and feels like my business?
Updating your customer-facing contact details and branding is easy with PaySimple. After logging into your account, navigate to the ‘Settings’ drop-down menu at the top-right of your screen to edit your ‘Business Settings’ and ‘Design Settings’. All saved changes will reflect in your Customer Portal.
If a payment fails, can my customer retry that payment after logging in?
Yes, customers can pay balances on outstanding orders and failed payments through the Customer Portal.
Can customers add more than one payment method to their account?
Yes, customers can add multiple payment methods to their account and set one as default.
How do I encourage my customers to log in and self-serve?
Empowering your customers to access their PaySimple accounts online will reduce the amount of time you spend manually making updates on their behalf. We recommend sharing your Customer Portal URL in customer communications. You can send an email campaign using PaySimple’s Mailchimp or Constant Contact integrations, direct customers to the Customer Portal when they call in with payment questions, and ensure your staff are familiar with Customer Portal FAQs.
Need assistance with email communication to your customers about the Customer Portal? Download these email templates to use with your customers.
Will updating a payment method disrupt active recurring billing schedules?
No. When setting a saved payment method as the new default, customers will be given the option to update any active billing schedules to use the new payment method, so long as it is the same account type (card vs bank account) that was used previously.
What if my customers forget their username or password?
Customers can reset their own passwords by using the ‘Forgot Password’ function on the login screen for Customer Portal, Payment Forms, and Online Store. These options all use the same login credentials.
To initiate a password reset for your customer, send them the standard password reset email by going to their customer record in PaySimple, clicking the ‘Actions’ menu, and selecting the ‘Reset Password’ option from the drop-down menu.
Most often, customer usernames are the same as the email that they used when they created a profile. Customers who have forgotten their username will need to contact you directly in order to obtain this information. Read more... Understanding Customer Portal.