Managing the Customer Portal and Frontend Experience

Fixly includes a dedicated Customer Portal that allows your clients to manage their own repairs, view invoices, and store their device details for faster future bookings. This self-service area reduces administrative work for your staff by giving customers 24/7 access to their data.

1. How Customers Access the Portal

Customers can interact with your shop in two ways:

  • Guest Access: Customers can use the "Track Repair" feature using only their Ticket ID and Serial Number without needing an account.
  • Registered Accounts: Customers who create an account at /register or are registered by your staff can log in to their dashboard at /dashboard.

2. The Customer Dashboard Overview

Once logged in, the customer sees a personalized overview of their relationship with your shop:

  • Active Repairs: A summary of any ongoing repair jobs, including the current status and technician notes.
  • Account Summary: Quick links to update their profile details, view past invoices, or manage their registered devices.

3. Managing "My Devices" (Self-Service Registration)

Registered customers can save their hardware details to their profile. This is particularly useful for repeat clients or business accounts with multiple devices.

  • Adding Devices: Customers can click "Add New Device" to record the brand, model, and serial number of their hardware.
  • Faster Booking: When a customer starts a new repair booking while logged in, they can select one of their "Saved Devices" to automatically fill in the serial number and model information.
  • Device History: Both the customer and your staff (in the Admin Panel) can see the full repair history for a specific registered device.

4. Viewing and Paying Invoices Online

The portal simplifies the payment process by centralizing all financial documents.

  • Invoice List: Customers can view a list of all current and historical invoices.
  • Secure Payment: For any invoice marked as "Unpaid," the customer can click a "Pay Now" button. This takes them to a secure checkout page where they can pay via Stripe or PayPal (if integrated).
  • Downloadable Receipts: Once paid, customers can download a PDF copy of their invoice for their own records or tax purposes at any time.

5. Configuring Frontend Access (Admin Settings)

You can control how the frontend behaves for your customers from the admin panel.

  1. Navigate to System Settings > System Configuration.
  2. Click the Booking tab.
  3. Allow Guest Booking: Toggle this "Off" if you want to force all customers to register an account before they can book a repair.
  4. Require Device Registration: Toggle this "On" if you want every repair to be linked to a registered device in the customer's profile.

6. Support Ticket Integration

If a customer has a question about a specific repair, they can open a support ticket directly from their dashboard.

  • Threaded Chat: The customer can view your technician's replies and respond in a threaded conversation style.
  • Attachments: Customers can upload images of their device or damage when creating a ticket to help your team provide more accurate remote diagnostics.