Managing Help Center Users

Help Center users are users who prefer to find solutions by reading through your knowledge base articles or the community posts. When they are unable to find answers they can get it resolved from your agents by submitting a ticket. Users can also exchange conversations and track the status of their tickets without leaving the Help Center.

You can add users to your Help Center in three different ways:

1. Add Users Manually
   
2. User Self-signup
   
• Self-signup with Moderation 
  
3. Auto-invite Users
   

Adding Users Manually

One way for your customers to access your Help Center is to invite them manually. When you invite users, the system will send an email with a link to register. They must access the link to create their password to log into the Help Center.

To add help center users:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. In the Users page, click Invite Users in the upper right area.
   
5. Enter the Email Address of the user you want to invite.
   
6. Click Invite.
   
   
   
   

Here are some of the other ways to invite users manually:

• In the Contact Detail page, click the More Actions icon (  ) in the upper-right corner and then click Add as End User.
  
• In the Contacts List page, select one or more contacts and then click Add as End User(s) from the mass actions menu.
  

User Self-signup

Self-signup allows your users to register themselves for an account on your Help Center. By allowing users to register on their own, you can reduce the amount of time spent tracking and inviting new users. All you need to do is direct your customers to your Help Center so that they could register and start using the same immediately.

To enable self-signup for your help center:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, enable Customers can sign up for the Help Center option under Permissions.
   The changes will be saved instantly.

If you choose to have open sign-ups, there are chances that spammers will try to create multiple accounts in your Help Center. You can enable moderation for signups to slow them down or stop them altogether.

To enable moderation for signups:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, enable Moderate customer sign-ups in the Help Center option under Permissions.
   The changes will be saved instantly.

Note:

• The moderation option is available only if you have enabled customer self-signup for the Help Center.
  
• Moderation for sign-ups is not available for accounts that have enabled remote authentication.
  

How does Moderation Work?

Here are the steps involved in moderating a signup for your Help Center:

1. Once a user signs-up for your Help Center, they will see a notice that their registration will be sent to the administrator for approval.
   
2. You will receive an email notification informing you of the new user registration. This notification is sent to all administrators and agents with the Approve End User Signups permission in profile. You can follow the link in the email to view and approve the sign-up. See Also Manage Profile Permissions.
   
3. You can also visit the Users page, under Help Center settings to Approve or Reject sign up requests.
   
4. When you approve a new user, they will receive an email containing the link to create their password and log in to the Help Center. If you reject a request, then they will be not be notified that their sign up has been denied.
   

Auto-invite Users

You can prompt your customers to sign up for the Help Center when they submit their first ticket. For example, when John sends an email to Zoho Desk he will immediately receive an invitation to sign up for your Help Center. When he signs up, he can follow up and track the status of his ticket in real-time.

To enable auto-invite for your users:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, navigate to Auto-invite Permission section.
   
4. Specify the Departments from the drop-down, for which invitations will be sent automatically.
   The changes will be saved instantly.

Notes:

• You can also select All Active Departments to turn on auto-invites in them.
  
• Invitations are sent only when new or existing contacts submit their first ticket through a support channel.
  

Updating Users's Email Address

After registering with your Help Center, your end users will use their email address as their user ID for signing in. If someone needs to update their email address they can do so by clicking their profile photo at the top of the Help Center page. Admins can also change an end user's email address under Help Center settings. Whoever updates the email address, the end-user must go to their email account and click on the link in the verification email to activate their profile. Now let's look at how you can update an end user's email address as an administrator.

To update email address:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. Switch to Active View at the top of the page.
   
5. Hover your mouse pointer and click the Edit icon (  ) corresponding to the user.
   You can use the search box to locate the user quickly.
6. In the Customer Information page, enter the new email address in the Email field.
   
7. Click Save.
   

You must request the end user to confirm the email change by clicking on a link sent to the new email address.

Deactivating Help Center Users

You can revoke access to the Help Center by deactivating users in Zoho Desk. Once deactivated, the user will not be able to log in to your Help Center.

To deactivate user:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. Switch to Active View at the top of the page.
   
5. Hover your mouse pointer and click the Edit icon (  ) corresponding to the user.
   You can use the search box to locate the user quickly.
6. In the Customer Information page, uncheck the Active option.
   
7. Click Save.
   

The user will be deactivated, and a notification email about the deactivation is sent. You can re-activate users when required.

      

Here are some of the other ways to deactivate users:

• In the Active End Users view, select one or more users and then click Deactivate End User from the mass actions menu.
  
• In the Contact Detail page, click the More Actions icon (  ) in the upper-right corner and then click Deactivate End User.
  

Activating Help Center Users

You can activate users who had accepted the invite, previously but were deactivated from accessing your Help Center. 

To activate user:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. Switch to Deactivated View at the top of the page.
   
5. Hover your mouse pointer and click Activate icon (  ) corresponding to the user.
   
   You can use the search box to locate the user quickly.
   
6. Click Activate.
   
   
   

The user will be activated and a notification e-mail about the activation is sent.

Here are some of the other ways to activate users:

• In the Deactivated End Users view, select one or more users and then click Activate End Users from the mass actions menu.
  
• In the Contact Detail page, click the More Actions icon (  ) in the upper-right corner and then click Activate End User.
  

Re-Inviting Help Center Users

You can re-invite users who haven't accepted your invite earlier.

To re-invite user:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. Switch to Invited View at the top of the page.
   
5. Hover your mouse pointer and click the Re-invite icon (  ) corresponding to the user.
   You can use the search box to locate the user quickly.
   
   

Alternatively, you can click the More Actions icon (  ) in the Contact Detail page and then, click Re-invite. The re-invited end users will receive an email with a link to register. Users should access the link to create their password and log in to the Help Center.

Deleting Help Center Invite

You can revoke an invitation email as long as the user hasn't registered with it. When you revoke, the registration link shared during the previous invite will be invalidated, and the user cannot register for your Help Center.

To revoke help center invitation:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. Switch to Invited View at the top of the page.
   
5. Hover your mouse pointer and click the Delete icon (  ) corresponding to the user.
   You can use the search box to locate the user quickly.

The invite is revoked instantaneously.

Deleting End Users

You can delete an end user in Zoho Desk to meet your obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Both administrators and agents (with End Users permission) can delete end users. When the end user is deleted, Zoho Desk purges their profile data. However their tickets, community posts, and knowledgebase feedback are retained. The user's name on these records will be replaced with the placeholder string "Anonymous" or with the nickname you'd entered.

To delete an end user:

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. In the Setup Landing page, click Help Center under Channels.
   
3. In the Rebrand page, click Users from the left panel.
   
4. Hover your mouse pointer and click the Delete icon (  ) corresponding to the user.
   
   
   
   
5. On the Delete End User window, select how the user should appear after deletion.
   You can choose between Anonymous or under a Nickname.
6. Click Delete.
   

The user is deleted instantaneously.

Notes:

• Deleted end users will have their contact details scrubbed from tickets. So make sure you have no open tickets for them.
  
• Invited users cannot be anonymized. You could simply delete their invitation to remove them from the help desk.
  
• Deleting an end user cannot be undone. Make sure you select the correct user when deleting them.
  

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